Lady luck is with me.....

Saturday saw me pondering about the planned trip on Sunday afternoon, with lots of rain falling, and rivers everywhere on the rise. The Severn seemed to be rising more so than the others, and by the end of Saturday, I'd already decided to give the Severn a miss, as I was pretty sure that the amount of debris and autumn leaves would make the river a very tricky proposition indeed, and I've made the mistake before.....nothing worse than casting in, only to be wiped by rubbish after a few minutes.

The Avon had seen a much slower rise, and with previous results being very good, I decided to go there, to the same stretch as my last trip.

Upon arrival, the river was probably around 18 inches on, with plenty of colour, a lot more than I thought it would have, and a good flow to boot. My first thought was to fish meat, but I stuck to my guns to begin with, and fished a dubby boilie on the downstream rod, and a 12mm pellet complete with paste wrap on the upstream setup, following a few pints of hemp going in via the dropper.

Once again, a cup of tea was dispensed as I settled back in my chair.

a lovely 12.4

Things proved slow, as I've found they often do in these cirumstances when we've been waiting for good conditions....many a time they've proved to be an anti-climax. Nothing transpired after an hour, with just leaves being the only thing I could attract, so I decided to drop the boilie setup, in favour of a lump of garlic spam, mounted on a size 2 pallatrax hook. Despite this change, still no action, and I began to think the session might prove a blank one.  I reeled in the pellet/paste rod, and recast it, just with a pellet, no paste, just a rod out or so. After a few minutes, I had a small knock, and then another, which seemed to be just chub knocks, but then a big wrap over, obviously a barbel run, and a fish was on. Straightaway, it was evident that this was a big fish, a bottom hugger this one, as some big fish are. It was quite a tussle, certainly more powerful than last weeks double, and I was worried about losing it, but eventually sustained pressure brought the fish to the surface....obviously a double, I carefully slipped the net under her, and left her to rest as I arranged the camera and scales and the like.

On first glance, I thought around 11lb, but she proved to be bigger, coming in at 12.4, my third double this season, and my second 12!!!  

I drove home with a huge smile on my face!!!