After a nice start to the season on Wednesday 17th, I returned to Knowle again on the following day, intending to fish a peg I'd walked past the previous day. On closer inspection though, I didn't really fancy it much, there wasn't much flow close in. So, it was a toss up between the same peg as the previous day, or the first peg in the second meadow. I chose the same peg again, and settled on it in the same fashion, with pellet and boilie. Things proved to be slow, as it was a brighter day than the previous one, and various changes and tweaks brought no action. Fish were porpoising all over the river, jumping clear, rolling etc, I can only assume they're still spawning, which explains the lack of action in a usually prolific area. A change to a big lump of meat on a size 2 pallatrax hook close in, brought an absolute screamer of a take, and a fish was on. A decent scrap and a fine looking barbel of 7.8 was in the net, another lovely fish from this lovely swim. That proved to be it though, and the next 90 minutes the swim seemed to be dead, so I upped sticks, and moved to the first peg in the meadow. This swim is pacier and shallower, and has a tree that overhangs slightly. I put out a pellet rod mid-river, and meat under the trees.
7lb 8oz
A fish fell to pellet straight away, another nice looking fish of 6.13, but the very bright sunshine was slowing sport. After an hour of so, I began to get taps on the meat rod, and sure enough, it wasn't long before a fish was hooked, another of about 6lb. This was followed by another one of the same size, and then another one which I lost. I had a problem though, I only had one piece of meat left, such are the perils of taking only one tin! Luckily, a barbel took a fancy to the last piece, a smaller fish of 5lb, so I finished the day with five barbel.
6lb 13oz
The following evening I visited a new stretch below Worcester, for just two bream, but fish were moving there too, and good ones at that. I shall be sneaking there again, especially when it rains, keep an eye on this blog for future visits!!
Well, it's been a long wait, and I had intended to wait until Friday before my first new season foray, but I found myself unable to wait beyond the 16th, so was out on day 2, the 17th. With the river at normal level, and quite clear, I imagined it might be a tad tricky, so a visit to one of my banker swims at Knowle Sands on the mid-Severn was my place of choice. With only one car on the car park, I was confident of getting a decent swim, and the swim I wanted was available.
My attack plan was boilies. This is something I'm looking to work on this season, in the hope of
First of the season
picking up some better fish, so two rods, with boilies, and PVA bags with boilie bits in was what I started on. Things proved slow though, and after an hour, I was back on old faithful elips!
This proved a good switch though, as fish number one was hooked, and landed, and it was a decent one for early season, 7lb 1oz, which I was more than happy with. A quiet spell saw me switch back to boilie on the downstream rod, and straightaway, a bite, which I thought was a chub at first, and quite a dogged scrap led to another barbel, this one going 8lb 4oz. Amazing. Last year it was August before I has an '8'!
8lb 4oz
Shortly afterwards, another fish on the pellet rod, led to another decent fish, this one 7lb 5oz. Three good barbel, so early in the season, unusual, and one happy angler.
Sadly, the afternoon proved to be rock hard, not a bite, but I walked back to the car chuffed to bits, fantastic stuff!
I'll be looking to tweak my boilie fishing, I'm making them myself, following recipes from well known bait gurus, I'll be trying lots of different things I think, although I'm sure pellet will still play a part, and meat too.
