Like most years recently the winter has been spent fluttering around the river, the Hampshire Avon more specifically and then in the spring when the season finishes I would normally start fishing a 50 acre club water, however this year was to pan out slightly differently.
Throughout 2018 I had been quite successful and regularly catching carp from the river out of a swim known as the stones. The swim is located on probably the widest part of the stretch making it fairly slow, with a large bush above the swim creating a lovely slack down stream.
Throughout January and February when the barbel were not playing ball I decided to fish for carp again, and what better place to start than in the swim I was fishing earlier in the year. After a bit of pre baiting I made the odd trip down during the first couple of weeks in January catching a few mirrors and commons around the mid double mark. Then after an accident at work resulting in my wrist being in a splint for two weeks, I decided to have a go knowing it was probably not the best of ideas. I plotted up for the afternoon in the stones and while having a sandwich my downstream rod burst into life. After a slow heavy fight I landed a largish mirror which I recognised to be one I had caught in the summer at 21lb. She was weighed and a few pictures taken with me struggling to hold her properly with my damaged wrist and the metal splint stopping me bending my wrist. She weighed 23lb 4oz and some self takes were taken of a new PB river carp.
Towards the end of February the water temperature was starting to rise after the stretch of mild wet weather and with the upper reaches of the Avon being over 46f, I decided to have a go for barbel again.
Things started off slowly and the only fish to note was a 6lb 7oz Chub, a new PB as well as a small barbel of about 7 to 8lb. The last two days of the season just happened to be my days off that week. So after work on Tuesday I drove down to the river arriving well after 10pm and baited a couple of swims I’d had success in at the back end of the previous season. After heading down to my preferred swim the following morning, things were slow for most of the day, but I was sure there would be barbel there, so I fished the same swim into the evening when at around 7pm my rod pulled right round and there was no mistaking it, there was a barbel on! After a spirited fight in the high water I landed what looked to be a good barbel. I left it to rest in the net while I set up the self take kit and got the scales zeroed, it weighed 13lb 14oz. The following day I was back in the same swim. The daylight hours where quiet again, however as darkness rolled in there were fish rolling about 10 yards downstream of me and I felt confident of a bite. That evening I had two, landing barbel of 12lb 8oz and 13lb 10oz, so it was a great end to the last couple of days of the season.
The middle of March to the end of May was spent fishing the club water where there was not a great deal to report other than me losing an upper 20 common about a rod length from the net. On another trip I was fishing a huge swim where a few fish were showing in front of me all over the place, a pocket of them were well beyond my fishing distance and to the left of the swim. I spotted a mate on the pub bank and later got a call from him! ‘Fancy a social mate?’ Being one of the biggest casters on the pond I knew his game… I allowed Pryor to double up to the left of the swim putting him on the edge of some of the fish we had seen in the abbis. At around 11pm Pryor had a steady take on one of his rods at over 190 yards out. I put on the waders and got the net ready, it would be some time though before the fish was ready but when it was it went in the net for the first time. I flicked the head torch on and there was a huge fish in the net – like massive! Pryor got his kit ready and we weighed the fish at 54lb 8oz, a great bit of angling. I could not have been happier for him even if he wiped out two of my rods in the process.
June was fast approaching and I had been offered my Milton ticket. I was down there the first weekend of the ticket and landed a couple of mid twenty mirrors. The following week I had 3 days off and after work on Sunday 9th I headed down to Milton. That trip I had 8 bites landing 7 to 41lb 7oz, things could not have got off to a better start. I fished one more night during June and that was Saturday 22nd, it was Wiggy’s birthday so I headed to Milton after work and set up. I was not too worried about fishing, it was more of a social event and we were all down the boathouse having a few beers and eating plenty of red meat from the Oz Pig when I had a screaming take. I made the short run back to the weedy swim and if you can call it played, it was more like dragged, a small fish which at first I thought was a tench through the weed. As it got closer to the net the tench turned into a 17lb carp. A group photo was taken and the carp released into its watery home before making our way back to the boat house.
Its my Birthday in the middle of July and I always try to book two or three weeks off of work. This year was no different, I had 20 days off and plenty of fishing was going to be done! On Sunday 14th I had planned to fish for 3 nights over my Birthday. Wiggy and Jonny aka Sonic were due down for a couple of nights as well. I had a 20lb 4oz late on Monday morning, then the rest of the trip was quiet for me. I caught one on Wiggys birthday with him blanking, but he went a little better and caught no less than four to 30lb 8oz on my Birthday whilst I blanked! That’s the way its goes no birthday carp for either of us that year!
I went home for a night to stock up on supplies and then went back down for another 3 nights on Thursday 18th. Friday morning I had a bite and lost the fish due to the weed and lily pads and the hook eventually pulled. I did a second night in the swim then Saturday morning I dropped in behind Sonic who had a fair few fish in front of him. Saturday night was spent down the boathouse drinking Stella and eating meat from the Oz Pig whilst Wayne was showing me some images of some fish that had not been out for some time, one he talked about was the kidney. At 4am I had a bite and landed a big framed fish which I weighed in the water at 39lb 4oz. I was sure it was the Kidney. I took a phone shot of each side and sacked the fish up and then got the rod back out. Phone signal is terrible down Milton so I walked the short distance to the boat house and connected to the WiFi and started going through images of fish on Waynes insta to no avail. I then started trolling through his Facebook and matched the fish I had sacked up. It was indeed the Kidney, a quick text was sent to Sonic and Wayne. Sonic did not believe me because I had been winding him up about one thing or another since we both got tickets that year. In the morning Wayne came down to the lake as he does every morning and we had a couple of cups of tea. Sonic came down on his way to work even though its 20 mins in the wrong direction and we weighed her again, 39lb 2oz (it’s not the easiest thing to do in the water by yourself at night). Sonic took some great shots and later that day I went home a happy man. On Monday 22nd I was back down for a couple of nights landing two mirrors to 28lb 10oz and losing one in the weed. That was the end of my summer break and I was back to work on Thursday 25th, but not for long.
August arrived and I was owed some time back from work that I had done earlier in the year. I decided to take Friday 1st off heading down to Milton on the Thursday night. I fished for three nights and over the course of the weekend I landed two 20lb mirrors to 27lb 10oz. I was due back down the following down the following Thursday for another 3 nights and that trip I had 4 bites losing one and landing, a 24lb 14oz mirror, a 41lb 14oz mirror (a repeat from June) and a 13lb 8oz stockie.
After work on Tuesday 27th I headed back down for two nights, I had two bites on Wednesday morning and lost both of them due to hook pulls. I had lost a few by now due to one thing or another and two loses in the morning made me sick. Thursday morning was better with me landing a 31lb 2oz mirror at 1am and then losing a fish at around 4.45am. The rod was back out when at 7.30am I had another bite resulting in a 33lb 4oz linear. At around 9.30am I was having a bacon sandwich and a tea when I had a bite on my right hand rod. As I made my way to it my left hand rod took off as well! Both fish weeded me good and proper and I had to go out in the boat to land them. Both fish weighed 29lb 8oz and the previous losses were all but forgotten!
Sunday 1st September arrived and I made my way to Milton from work and over the three nights I landed a 17lb stockie, 25lb 4oz ghosie and 32lb mirror. After work on Thursday 19th I made my way back to Milton and had two bites landing a 30lb 12oz mirror and a 23lb 4oz mirror.
At the beginning of October I fished two trips for two nights and blanked, then on Tuesday 8th I fished for a further two nights and landed a 28lb 8oz mirror on the Tuesday evening. By now there had been quite a bit of rain so I thought it would be worth a go up the river for the barbel. I had arranged to meet Wayne on the 26th so on Wednesday night after drinking tea and collecting some bait at Wiggy’s I decided to go down the river at midnight to bait up. The following morning I arrived at the river at about 10am and around an hour later had a bite from a slow heavy fish and eventually landed a big barbel, like a 15lber I thought. I sorted the scales out and weighed the barbel at 15lb 4oz, it was a new PB and I was buzzing! I rested the fish in the net whilst I made an excited phone call to Wiggy. After I had calmed down I called Wayne to see if he was on his way and told him the good news. He was in the boathouse sorting his gear out and was going to be a few hours so decided to do some self takes. Later that afternoon I had another bite from a powerful fish but it was a lot more erratic. After a spirited fight I landed another one, this time it was 11lb 6oz. I called Wayne who was a couple of swims upstream and got him to take some images.
On Thursday 31st I headed back to the swim on the river I had fished the previous week. I arrived late morning and within 30 mins I had a barbel bite, which felt like a good fish – slow and heavy in the high water. I landed what I thought was another 15lb Barbel so I got the self take kit and scales ready and weighed it at 15lb 6oz, it was another new PB. I was over the moon, so I did the photos and cast back out then made a call to a couple of mates. During the afternoon I had another three barbel all between 5 and 8lb. At about 7pm I had a further bite, this was something else as the sheer power of the fish was unreal – so slow and strong line was being pulled from the clutch as I tried pulling it off the bottom. I landed what looked to be a huge fish, I flicked the head torch on and it was massive! I made a few phone calls and Rusty agreed to come down the muddy wet river and bought his missis in tow. He asked how big it was and I just said huge – purely because I had not weighed it! I sorted some bits out before weighing the barbel and the needle span round to 16lb 4oz. I rested the barbel in the net untill Rusty arrived and he took some shots and we let it go into the flooded river. That night I popped round Wiggys on the way home for a few teas and I soon convinced him that he should go down the river in the morning. Friday Myself and Wiggy went down for the day and I tried to persuade him to go in the swim I was in the day before but he was having none of it! That afternoon I landed another big barbel, this one being 14lb 12oz. Wiggy did the photos and I continued to persuade him to set up in the swim I was in but it was landing on deaf ears. The rest of the day and evening was quiet for both of us.
November was now here and working in retail it was starting to get busy, so I was working one of my days off for the first couple of weeks, banking time to take early next year. On Saturday 16th after work I made my way down to Milton. On arrival I found a lot of fizzing and with not a great else to see I set up and fished a couple of rods in the zone where I had seen the fizzing. A kilo of ‘Wiggy Balls’ were catapulted in the area and the third rod flicked in close. As I was setting the home up the left-hand alarm let out a few beeps and then shrieked as the spool span. After a few tense occurrences a round shaped linear was resting in the net. I had forgotten my camera in the rush to leave it, so I weighed the fish at 29lb 4oz and a few phone shots where done. The evening was spent with Wayne and Dave down at the boat house where they concocted a blistering hot Chilli!
November was now here and working in retail it was starting to get busy, so I was working one of my days off for the first couple of weeks, banking time to take early next year. On Saturday 16th after work I made my way down to Milton. On arrival I found a lot of fizzing and with not a great else to see I set up and fished a couple of rods in the zone where I had seen the fizzing. A kilo of ‘Wiggy Balls’ were catapulted in the area and the third rod flicked in close. As I was setting the home up the left-hand alarm let out a few beeps and then shrieked as the spool span. After a few tense occurrences a round shaped linear was resting in the net. I had forgotten my camera in the rush to leave it, so I weighed the fish at 29lb 4oz and a few phone shots where done. The evening was spent with Wayne and Dave down at the boat house where they concocted a blistering hot Chilli!
It’s now December and I have done a night at Milton in the freezing cold resulting in a 12lb 4oz stockie. Work is picking up and I don’t think I will be out now untill after Christmas. I can’t thank Lewis and everyone at Gardner enough for the continued support and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Leave A Comment