Sunday 30 January 2011

Pastures New - Same Old Story

Saturday rolled around again and it was time to end the drought. Both Brian and I had a few things to sort out, so it was a delayed start which curtailed the session into an afternoon one only.

I was less than impressed by the tempertature again though - a mere -1C while I was doing the rounds in the morning and it was barely above freezing when we set out. We had hoped to fish one of the local ponds, but the ones near me were frozen up, so it had to be a river.

We headed out to the south side of the city and I suggested taking a look at a section of the Avon near to Middlemarch Business Park. We parked up and took a short walk across the scrub land and found a very fishy looking bend with enough depth to entice us into having a go. It was either that, or 15 mile drive to the usual areas we fish and with time against us, we went for it.

Upstream:



Downstream:


Light feeder / bomb set ups were deployed and even the Pike rods came out for a while. You know where this is going don't you? Yes, we blanked again and in royal fashion. I went on the move for the last hour or so and found another cracking looking run not far from the hotel, but it didn't deliver either.

January has come and gone and I'm stuck on a blank. I thought it only fitting that the blog should be renamed for a while, in honour of this non contact (with fish) pastime I am participating in! I'm still upbeat though and given some better conditions, things will improve I'm sure. On a positive note I'm no further behind than I was at this time last year!

I had a bit of a recce on the Sunday and I've eyed up a couple of interesting new spots on both rivers and ponds. I have a couple of others I want to visit during the week if I can sneak out of work early one day. I'm sure I can blank on them all given the chance!

4 comments:

  1. Sean,

    That swim is very familiar, abeit from the other bank? I have had some nice chub from the trees down stream, and upstream off the high bank some nice dace?

    Do you know if you can still fish the other bank?

    Gaza

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  2. I think it's a bird sanctuary on that side allthough I am tempted to try it myself.

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  3. I don't really know the area Gaza, but from the business park side, it seems like it's fair game. There's no attempt to restrict access (no fences/gates) and there are no signs warning you off.

    The other bank (hotel side) does have a right of way running by the river, but I wouldn't know if there are any signs restricting the fishing.

    I could see evidence of angling activity on that bank - at the high bank you've mentioned. That was the second area I tried and it looked quite tempting.

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