With a 24hr gap in my hectic diary became free I decided upon a trip on the fly to Bath to fish for Barbel on the Bristol. I have had a trip there a couple years ago but it was only to have a look around with not much time spare after my successful trip to the R.Severn. This time around I opted to head there straight away and with the van loaded I was off. With very little information to go on I opted to just fish free stretches to begin with and if I fancy it later on then I will get an Amalgamated book.
To be fair on the 'brizzy avon" I'm not overly rushed because it's a river that is slowly improving and know that there are some good fish still there but in small numbers. Time should be on my side here.
I spent 9hrs in total moving around the weirs on the middle B.A and unfortunately for me I didn't get a touch and I'm not entirely surprised, the river barring the weir run offs was stagnant, not the conditions you really want for Barbel. My expectation was that the B.A would have had a lot of water going through it owing to the recent rains but was abundantly clear that wasn't the case.
At 0030 I had had enough and packed up and decided to drive back toward home, on my way back is the Blackwater so I decided to fish that and hope the rains had stirred them up to feed but another 9 hours on there too proved totally fruitless and that wasn't the only recent trip there as I went back yesterday too for an 11hr session. The levels up around 6 inches and the flow fractionally quicker, once again and unsurprisingly the tip remained motionless besides the constant bombardment of Crayfish, so much so I have decided against go back there for a few months, its too much and can't keep a bait out for more than 15 mins without being hammered.
Rather tedious start to the season for me. It. Can. Only. Get. Better!
