A usual start ......

I managed to sneak in a couple of hours on the Warwickshire Avon on Tuesday evening to start my river campaign.  I headed for a stretch nearest to my work and found I had the banks to myself which was a surprise. The stretch is quite deep and slow moving with lots of lilies, reeds and rushes interspersed with groups of overhanging trees.

Can yer tell where it is yet ?

 Plenty to go at I thought but couldn't help that feeling of not knowing where the hell to start!  With many of the swims looking quite similar I had to decide, so chose a swim on a slight bend with some streamer weed  and cabbage to my near bank left, and some bull rushes on the far bank leading to overhanging trees downstream.  I figured I would feed pellets and hemp to draw any fish lying under the trees up to my bait.
On the near swim I fed hemp and maggots in the dropper and put in a small feeder with maggot to temp whatever I could.  Despite this ploy I only managed a couple of chub knocks on either rod before the light faded a couple of short hours later. 
I had spent too long looking at potential swims again ! This is usually the way for me when I start off on a new stretch of river.  So no fish to report yet unfortunately but I will be coming back again soon, as It's a nice length of river and I can be here within half an hour from work, rods cast in and fishing.

Up, up and away ....

I'm planning on a return to the mighty Severn next week after a break from it since the summer of 2007.   I want to see if I can get a few splashers under my belt and re-hone my techniques a bit, which will serve to boost the confidence (always important).  I really struggled last season, so need a few fish to start me off in case I suffer another string of blanks like last year on the less prolific rivers I tend to fish (hopefully not).

 Before that however, I will be back on the Tench trail again on Sunday morning for a few hours, before packing up in time to be in the pub for a certain pressing engagement at 3:00pm sharp!