Slowly ticking over

A couple of recent trips to the Avon and lower Seven haven't exactly had the fish crawling up the rod. The first session on the Avon saw me bait a bit more heavily than usual. It certainly attracted fish with plenty of rod taps. A small skimmer fell off at the net before a proper bream of around 5lb did make the bank. It had a relatively fresh pike wound across its back. Of course, this had me

wondering what size pike is willing to take on a 5lb bream? One for the autumn perhaps. That was all I could muster as the barbel and chub failed to make an appearance.

Yesterday evening saw me steal a few hours on the Severn. I anticipated fishing could be slow on the barbel front. With that in mind, I packed the predator gear in the hope that some of the many resident zander would provide some sport. A barbel rig was cast out with a boilie hookbait downstream with a dead roach mounted on one treble and cast upstream for the zander.

One thing I have noticed on the two visits to the lower this season is the increase in irresponsible boat owners. The huge vessels come steaming down river well over the speed limit with no comprehension of the danger and damage caused by the wake. It was after one of these idiots had

passed that the dead roach was picked up and a zander was on. A decent fish of about 5lb. It had been hooked deeply but with the correct gear I was able to cut the hooks and the fish went back strongly. I was able to add a smaller zander later on and add an eel which took the spam intended for what turned out to be, yet again, the elusive barbel,