Welcome to my fishing blog… July 2023
July 9th – River Avon – At Delectably Sumptuous Staverton
There is something very special about the stretch of river at Staverton and it’s not just that you can park behind your peg. It simply oozes serenity, peace and tranquillity. It’s so pleasing to the eye and extremely good for the soul. It’s just a damn pity it doesn’t want to give up any of its fin-perfect residents, especially its chub. Everyone who has ever fished this picturesque stretch of water will tell you that a lot of chub live here but they are just so elusive. And the bream are even more so. However, for me, it’s simply river heaven… regardless.
So, this was the Kingswood RBL’s second river match of the season and the first of the Pairs Challenge matches. Surprisingly, we only had 10 anglers turn out for this one but holidays had a lot to do with that. Well, we had the whole stretch for the day so plenty to choose from and plenty of room between the pegs. I drew permanent peg 9, which I haven’t fished before. There wasn’t much in the way of overhanging trees on the far side, just a single overhanging bush so I was sure that would put paid to any plans of catching chub.
I did, however, have a wider section way down to my left, which was on a bend and so my first thought was to have a go for bream. I set up a feeder rod with an open end cage feeder, a 60cm hooklength and a size 16 Guru microbarb hook. My plan was to fish worm and caster on the hook with caster and dead red maggles in the groundbait. Plan B was to fish a 6-metre pole line straight down the middle, where there was a little more flow. My bait choice for this line was hemp and tares. My only other line of attack was on the inside for perch with chopped worm feed and worm on the hook.
On the all-in, I lobbed out the feeder about 30 metres downstream. A couple of casts later, the tip wrapped round and I immediately had a vision of a big bream. However, it turned out to be a chub of about 12 ounces. I had another similar size fish on the next cast, followed by a small perch. That perch was a signal that nothing else was there or at least they were not interested because I didn’t get another bite on that line. I tried switching to maggle but there were no signs during the next 15 -20 minutes.
I didn’t want to waste too much time on this so I emptied a further 4 feeders full of groundbait and left it. Next, I picked up the pole, baited the swim with a few hemp and tare seeds and lowered in my rig. I didn’t have to wait too long for a response and was soon catching a few small roach. I experimented with varius depths and found that about 12 inches off the bottom or 30cm if you prefer decimal, was just about right. I was getting a bite at every put-in but the roach were averaging only 2 ounces each so it was hard work. I did catch one roach of about 4 ounces, which was followed all the way in by a big perch of about 2 pounds.
That prompted me to drop some chopped worm in on the inside and have a go for a few stripeys. I missed the first bite but hooked into a small perch of about 3 ounces on the next go. After 30 minutes I had only caught 2 perch on this and there was no sign of the big boy that I had seen earlier. I carried on loose feeding the main pole line while I chucked out the feeder again to see if anything had settled on the groundbait and worm. It hadn’t, so I decided to give up on this method and just focus on catching small roach for the rest of the match.
Without chub or bream my target weight was 4 pounds and with an hour to go, I reckoned I had about 3 pounds. The last hour was very slow and I had to keep adjusting the depth to stay in touch with the fish. At the weigh-in, I had 3-09-8 so just short of my target. With that, I was winning my section but we were only paying the top 2 today. The top rod bender on the day was Ian Brice who somehow managed to find a very handy 6lb bream in his peg to finish up with over 8lb for a comfortable win. Jason Pitman finished in second place with 3-15-0… pipped me again so another dry week ahead.
Not to worry, these club matches are about points and there’s a long way to go. I don’t have a club match for next week and I was thinking about going on the river for a pleasure session but with all the rain we have had and with more to come, I’m going to give it a miss. Instead, I’m booked in for Windmill and it’s a full house… gulp! I’ll keep you posted.
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About me
January 2023
February 2023
March 2023
April 2023
May 2023
June 2023
July 2023
9th – River Avon, Staverton Meadows
16th – Windmill Fishery, Westerleigh
23rd – Whitehouse Farm, Earthcott Green
30th – Warks Avon, Stratford-on-Avon
August 2023
September 2023
October 2023
November 2023
December 2023
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June 2022
July 2022
August 2022
September 2022
October 2022
November 2022
December 2022
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