Autumn At Last

Firstly, a quick catch up from last week. I squeezed a day off work and headed down the Avon in stupidly balmy conditions of around 20C.

There were plenty of roach and dace to stick float tactics. A cheeky switch to a big roach deadbait saw a first cast take and a decent fish was on. Sadly we parted company and a nice double wasn't to be my prize. I sulked for most of the session after that.

The pike were very quiet and I only managed a small consolation by way of a jack that had also seen my unhooking mat the previous week.

On to this week and what a change. Tthe temperature was 10C lower, albeit close to the average for the time of year. The river was carrying about 18 inches of extra water.

The venue was the Leam this time. Having checked the river levels, my usual stretch of the Avon was around a foot up. That isn't a problem but it's about the limit of what I like it to be. I was interested to see how the Leam would handle the extra water.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a slightly coloured river with just a touch more flow than usual and in decent nick. It was only going to be a short afternoon session and after messing around with a float rig I switched to a feeder attack.

I recently acquired another TFG 8-10ft Compact All Rounder rod. I already had the Nan-Tec version but I couldn't resist buying the normal version for a bargain £35.99 (includes an extra 10% discount) at Go Outdoors. Both rods were put into action - one with worm and the other with a bunch of maggots.

The worm was a poor second and the perch seemed much happier with maggots. I had half a dozen up to about half a pound from a hole over 17ft deep.

A couple of roach also chipped in, along with a ruffe.

I dabbled with a deadbait at times but I wasn't confident and drew a blank on that front. I saw some predatory movement mid river on a couple of occasions and it looked like a decent perch. I will need to persist with the worms I think as there are some classic perch swims to be found on this stretch. The good news on the worm front is that my accidental wormery is flourishing and supplies are plentiful.

A pleasant afternoon apart from suffering another Coventry City debacle on the radio. I'll be giving the Leam plenty of attention over the latter part of the season I think.