A pound of silver

An invite to fish the River Avon at stratford town with Keith, Jeff and Pete on tuesday afternoon seemed like a good oportunity to get one last session before the river season finished next week.

I knew from previous experience that the town waters here can on the right day be a prolific bream water. So with that in mind i diligently began preparing a hundred weight of luquidised bread and hemp the night before, in hope that the bream may have responded to the recent increase of day time tempratures.

Once settled in a swim above the weir with both Keith and Jeff down stream i put my plan of attack into action. One rod up stream with a large cage feeder and a second lighter lead rod fished in tandem down stream to pick up any fish that might be shying off the feeder but still being attracted by the luquidised bread.

The plan went perfectly and i was confident in how i was fishing. But sadly the fish were not so confident about it and the only bites i was getting were so shy that they hardly registered on my lightest quiver tips. None of the others were faring that well ether as by late afternoon only Keith had managed to winkle out a couple of small chub.

It wasn't until dusk arrived and the light began to fade that the river seemed to liven up with a few small fish topping here and there. Only a short time before this happened i had decided action must be taken to avoid an impending blank! Swapping my lead for a feeder on my lighter rod, and my feeder on my heavier outfit to a lead with a dead bait, to attract the attentions of any Zander spured into action by the failing light.

My dead bait out in position, i again settled down and cast my stuffed feeder back onto the spot where every other had landed before it. After only seconds in the water the tip began to tremble. My patience paid off as i sat on my hands and eventually the tip hooped sharply down. At first i thought i had hooked a small chub but a flash of silver soon changed that and moments later the biggest roach i have caught from the Avon in a long time lay in my net.

After calling Keith over to see it, news came up stream that Pete had just caught a bream and was into another one right now. This one however turned out not to be a bream but a double figure barbel, which from the pictures keith had taken was a awesome fish.

We fished on until the light totally went and the cold wind combined with a lack of action told us it was time to leave. My keep net was the very last thing packed away. Finally with Jeff behind the camera i pulled the net from the cold water and in the bottom lay a single bar of pure silver.

I was very impressed with Jeff, as before i had even put it in the bag to be weighed he gave an estimate of a pound and a quarter which as it turns out was spot on.

Though the fishing didn't live up to my expectations, the capture of a pound and quarter roach seemed a great way for me end the River season.