A very minor success

Waiting for the screamer

Sunday was the last day of January, and with doubles in Oct, Nov and December, I was sort of hoping I could make it four months with doubles. With the Severn up to the rim, I decided to do a repeat Avon trip, hoping for the same peg as two days previously.

Heavy rain had swelled the river to almost three feet on, loads of colour, and it looked very inviting, but the water temp had dropped to 8.3c, so more than a degree down. I had the pleasure of bumping into Lee Poultney, author of the excellent 'Fishy Business' blog, who lives nearby, and we had an interesting chat about the river. He settled a few swims downstream, with another angler visiting the venue for the first time further up.

The only fish of the day

I opted for my usual boilie and meat approach, this time employing a feeder on the boilie rod, following a few drops of hemp when I arrived at the swim. Things proved very slow though, as I thought they might, and Lee downstream had already moved swims. I had my only bite of the session at around 4.30pm, on the meat rod....a barbel, but not big by any means, probably about the five pound mark. I switched both rods to meat after the fish, with meat seeming to be the only bait that would work, but it was in vain, and I ended the session with just that single barbel. Lee, downstream, suffered a blank, but the young chap upstream managed two, including a lovely 12lb fish, which broke his PB.....at least one of us had a memorable day!