The River Severn - Scooters and Scoptophobia

Trotting for Barbel didn't go that well on the Wye recently, they just didn't seem to be in a feeding mood. They could have well been in their smoking jackets with a big fat cigar post spawning, not ready to engage in some fishing frivolities, which is a shame as despite catching plenty of chub on the float, it was a barbel I was after. Even Nic struggled on that day, where usually he is baggin up as usual. 

 

Blog reader Jon Pinold who makes these cracking floats with glowing tips messaged me after reading the post and said, get yourself down this bit of the Severn, where "the further you walk, the better the fishing gets."

The Wye only takes me an hour and fifteen minutes but this bit of the Severn is even closer and much less miles too, so I could get to the parking spot in not much more than an hour.

A good mile walk to the fishing mind you, which to be honest, isn't a problem. I fancied wading if I could so thankfully the Diawa waders I have are relatively light and they do seem breathable rather than sweating a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest,which to be honest was the issue with the last cheap pair. 

Waders were the right choice because the grass was wet and it was often up to my waist. Google maps told me it was 2 miles to the very end of the stretch and it certainly felt like that. There were shallower areas of the river I passed to get to the first swim but one I earmarked looked a nice comfortable swim to fish. 

The river looked to be carrying a tinge of colour and as expected as I made my way downstream you could see it's rarely fished compared to the first meadow that looked well trodden. I dropped in to swims for a nose on this new stretch of river to me and actually bumped in to an angler who was trotting 'the hot peg'

He had already caught a few chub but "doubt it will be that good today, was probably hammered the weekend" That was decent walk as well to be fair, but a hot peg would always get more attention to be fair. You could see it was a well fished peg as well because it looked like Charlie Dimmock had been looking after it.

To walk to the end of section 4 took an hour thankfully I travelled light, but to be fair you could possibly do it in 45 minutes or so if you didn't drop in to swims like I did.

I actually covered 21k steps during the trip so not for the fainthearted when loaded up with gear and with waders donned, To be fair I could have got away with just wearing wellies and waterproofs in hindsight but my wellies are Muckboot Artic Sports so rather overkill in the mild weather and also rather heavy too.

 

Maybe Nash can bring out an electric scooter geared for the roving angler in mind !!! (Jon you should have taken out a patent on it !!)

Anyway to the fishing, I settled in to the first trotting swim that looked ideal with fast water over at the far side and a nice crease as well. 

It was relatively shallow but the float was going through nicely indeed and it was a decent long trot where you could alter the line to alter the speed of the bait trundling down. 

As I was preparing to cast something big launched out of the water upstream of me and it looked like a barbel from the short glimpse of it I had, it was certainly a decent fish thats for sure. 

What I didn't expect a few runs down of the large 4.8gm stick it shot under and I struck into a solid lump on the 15ft Diawa Connoisseur.  That was quick !!!

It was nodding its head so I knew it was a chub where I teased it up out of the fast water to thankfully water with less pace because it was giving a good account for itself. A decent size chub as well and worth weighing when it was gracing the landing net. 

It went 4lb and 14 ounces and the hook quite far down its cavernous mouth where it must have nailed the piece of meat. Wow what a great start, but then as the session played out I peaked too soon.

The fishing was patchy to say the least and numbers of fish were just not showing for me. I caught maybe 6 or 7 from this swim but there was a good wait between bites and I gave it a good 4 hours with a small rest in-between before trying some more swims.

Again patchy sport where these chub seem to be getting smaller and often snatchy at the bait where at one point I came back with a decent sized scale, which I assume was a decent chub again. 

I dropped in to the 'hot peg' to see it vacated by the angler who I spoke to when I first got there. Maybe he wasn't having a brilliant day either. To be fair it looked a cracking peg and I did manage to catch a few chub and lost one, but the barbel just were not showing for me sadly, so much so I ended up calling it a day with around 8 hours of fishing, with around 16 or so chub. 

On the way back to the car there was swim after swim now occupied and all sat behind their feeder rods, where a couple of swims had two anglers sharing the same peg. Maybe I was missing a trick for the barbel ? I'm not likely to rush back mind you, so despite the scenery, the relative solitude if you're prepared for a long walk, I couldn't quite put my finger on why it could well fall off my radar. 

The journey there only a hour, the journey back where I clearly left at the wrong time, 1 hour and 15, and it's only 36 miles. Nic from Avon Angling had messaged when I just got back to see if I wanted to share the swim with him because he was bagging up on chub on one of the noted pegs, and fancied a rest 😫

I was tired though, all day trotting and all that walking with gear I was done in. So in less time to drive to Quatford and the walking to get fishing Nic had caught more fish than me, 18 if I recall from 3lb to 5lb, and it's just down the road for me 😁, the Avon isn't so bad after all.