A day on the Avon

I decided to go river fishing this weekend after I had seen the weather forecast and I am glad that I did, the van thermometer barely got above freezing on my trip to the river and it was a raw day when I was setting up.  I was on the Hampshire Avon in Salisbury and my first swim was basically the first spot along the boardwalk that took my fancy.

  

As you can see I was very close to the footpath so I constantly had close encounters of the doggy kind, anyway, I started on a feeder across to the slack in the picture, I had a bite a chuck for the first hour but I struggled to convert them into fish and I managed 1 small roach and a minnow in this time, I had also lost what was a decent fish possibly a chub and was not impressed with my rustiness on flowing water. I decided to set up a stick float to see if that would improve my bite to fish ratio and on my second run through I had a small grayling hang itself but alas that was it.  After a fruitless half hour I decided to get on my toes and explore this stretch of river, I had the trolley with me and was pleasantly surprised by how good the path to and along the river actually is.

My second spot was down by the fire station and there was a lovely looking pool just above a foot bridge, whilst I was watching the water a small fish topped concreting my decision to fish there.

I decided to fish the stick as the swim looked to have nice depth and a decent flow, it was a good call as over the next hour or so I managed 5 small roach all on the stick and maggot, as I was deciding whether or not to move I cast a lobworm out into the middle of the pool on the tip, but the only bite was me eating my lunch.

So I decided to move upstream on my way I found this small pond that had not defrosted all day. 

The next spot that I found was a swim called the kissing gate, as it is a known Chub haunt I was soon setting my kit up in it.  Due to the speed of the water and the fact that I had quite a bit of bait at my disposal I decided to attack the swim with the feeder.

Casting across to the small slack I was quickly rewarded with indications but again I was struggling to hit them, I tried changing the length of the hooklength, breaking strain, size of hook, weight of feeder, amount of bow hookbait but it would seem that it was a swim full of half decent dace and they are renowned for getting away with it. I managed 5 Dace to about half a pound and a Grayling of similar size before cold feet and lack of light stopped play.

 Here is the shot of my last bag.

  

What would I have done differently?

Should have gone upstream earlier as there were fewer walkers up there and the fish were a better stamp, well what I had.

I will be trying my Acolyte out on a chub peg next time.

Bread on the tip next time.

Tackle used:

Float:

Rod: Drennan Acolyte Ultra 14ft

Reel: Daiwa TDM 2508

Line: 0.14mm to 0.10-0.12mm hooklength

Hook:18- 20 B560

Float: 6 No4 Dave Harrell Shouldered stick

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 12ft 6inch medium feeder

Reel: Daiwa TDM 4012

Line: 8lb sensor, hooklength various, 0.15mm Wychwood fluorocarbon was very good!

Hook: Carbon Feeders 18-12

Feeders: Vari weight by drennan in slow swims and Kamasan Blackcaps 30-40g in last swim.