Bristol Avon-Upper Reybridge

Weight - 7lb 10oz
Catch - 24 Roach, 8 Chub, 4 Perch, 3 Bleak, 1 Pike
Weather - Warm & sunny. Cool start
Match - Club - 1st out of 13

Well today was my first river match for nearly 3 years. I actually like the river although prefer fishing the faster, shallower stretches, which is the complete opposite of the Upper Reybridge being slow and deep, before it goes over the weir into Lacock.

I was in the last 8 our clubs knockout, which was the only reason I decided to fish. So I dug out the river hooks and rigs, as well as lightening up my kit, because the walk to this stretch of river is quite arduous. Fortunately Andy Bradley was on hand with his Range Rover to transport people’s kit over the worst of the terrain. Once at the river the ground was actually quite flat.

The river itself was clear with no flow and combined with the bright conditions I thought 5lb would be a good weight. I drew towards the end of the straight and was pleased I brought my platform, which was covered in thick cobwebs when I retrieved it from the shed.  I could either sit 2ft above the water, which wouldn’t be ideal on a clear river or sit the cattle drink & soft mud.

 

Plumbing up revealed 14ft of water, so I set up a Drennan carbo 1.5g > .08 > 18 B520 at 14m, but even fishing the middle of the river, there was hardly any flow and I could have got away with a 1g float, but expected bleak to be a problem. I also set up a rig 0.75g to fish next to the lily pads with chopped worm and finally an insert waggler to fish maggot/caster along the far bank.

 

I had forgotten how expensive fishing a river can be, with 2kg of groundbait, caster, maggot, hemp and worms. Anyway on the all in 9 balls of groundbait (Match Blend 1kg: River 0.5kg: Black Lake 0.5kg) with a small handful of hemp and caster went in at 14m. First put in I had a roach, which dropped off, however over the next 2hrs I had 24 fish, mostly roach, either on maggot or caster. It was hardly hectic and I’m sure I could have caught quicker if I wasn’t so rusty fishing this way, but I did get it sorted and the 2^nd hour was better than the first.

 

The swim was slowing so switched to the waggler where I had been feeding hemp & caster from the start. First cast I picked up the catapult and had the rod pulled round and a chublet took the maggot. A few more chublets & roach followed before the swim slowed. A further switch to the lilies produced a small perch, then a 10ozer, followed by a small jack pike of 3oz.

 

The last 2hrs was a bit of a struggle. I topped up my 14m line, but never had another bite. I even tried cupping 3 balls of groundbait further down river, but again no bites.

 

The waggler only produced the odd fish and I lost a decent fish on worm by the lilies when it wrapped me round some underwater obstruction. I didn’t have another fish in the last 40mins and was glad I suggested a 5.5hr match instead of 6, as was everyone else.

 

I actually quite enjoyed the match and a different challenge, but this stretch of river is a pig to access. No doubt with a little more colour and flow a very decent weight would be possible.

 

1^st 7-10 – Ken Rayner – p10

2^nd 5-10 – Andy Bradley – p3

3^rd 5- 5 – Nick Pople – p5

4^th 3-12 – Joe Thompson – p1

5^th 3- 9 – Don Smith – p13

6^th 3- 4 – Marcus Hacker – p12