Severn Stoke - 12th March 2015

This stretch of river continues to fascinate me. After much deliberating the evening before, I decided on another visit, with a warm night, and 12c forecast. I was fishing by 9.30am, settling on a different peg this time around, thirty or forty yards below the one I fished previously.

Around 3lb

I was reasonably confident of catching, and sure enough, after an hour or so, I had a bite. Not a barbel though, unfortunately, but a chub, this one taking the spicy crab boilie that was on the downstream rod. A nice looking fish though, at least it was a start. This proved to be the only action for a while though, so just after midday, I went for a wander to stretch my legs. The guy in the peg upstream was also having a 'bad day'. He'd only had six fish.....including a 6lb chub, a 7lb bream, a few smaller bream, and a 7lb barbel...all one one rod. His mate had netted a 10lb barbel. Of course, I'm no stranger to BS, but this chap must have thought I was a pork pie short of a picnic or something!

Anyway, a bit bemused, I returned to my peg, and a change to Pellet O's brought another chub around the same size as the first. Interestingly, the elips rod had produced nothing (I do wonder whether they aren't as effective as they are on the middle river), so I decided to switch to meat. A scout through my

The best fish of the session

bag revealed I'd left my meat at home, so I swapped the elips rod to boilie for the remainder of the session. Another chub followed, but this time a half decent one, about 3lb or so, and lots of tugs and twitches ensued.

No barbel though - again.

Just before packing up, another bite on the pellet O's, and chub number four, best one of the day though, 3lb+.

Another session on the lower though, without a barbel. The lower river is a tough gig, very difficult indeed, but she continues to call me back.