Alveston was a fairly easy choice for me. There's a long peg (9), that always has a bit of a back eddy, is fairly deep and it's more than big enough for two. Although the river was tanking through a bit, it was still easy to hold bottom with normal leads / feeders in the slacker water on the inside of the main flow.
Things had definitely changed in the week since my last visit. Previously it was almost 10 degrees cooler and crisp and white all round:
This time things were much greyer and the river about a foot higher and with plenty more colour. Landing stages were partially submerged along the whole stretch and the water was lapping over the top of the bank in places.
It became obvious fairly quickly that it was going to be a grueller. We both set up two feeder rods and just decided to sit it out for a few hours. Debris was constantly fouling our lines and optimism was waining.
I pulled in a line that had become fouled, only to find a Gudgeon attached to the hook - along with a pile of debris. Lucky for me, that was my first Gudgeon of the year in Brian's presence, so it stuck another point on the challenge for me!
I then made a switch on the other rod and went for bread flake to complement the liquidised bread I'd been feeding. It eventually paid off when I had a proper bite and I assumed I was into a Chub. I was wrong though and the culprit turned out to be a welcome Bream of 4lb 3oz.
Within 10 minutes I had a take on my maggot rig and this time I was even more convinced I was into a Chub. It was a very dogged fight, but yet again I was wrong and it was a another Bream - this time a much smaller sample of 2lb 9oz.
Nothing else put in an appearance and we called it a day at lunchtime. I was more than happy with a couple of fish to be honest, as I thought a blank was a more likely outcome. The river was clearly dropping during the few hours we were there, so hopefully it will soon be back to a more settled and appetising state.
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