Strange session on the river and pools

Today I had decided to focus my efforts on the river avon, in an very close to some pools that I fish. I had a fair amount of liquidised bread that i had left over from an earlier river season at Lucys Mill, so not to waste it I opted of a simple running cage feeder and bread flake.

After about 30 mins I had a good tap on the tip then my rod slammed round and I was in to a chub that went berserk trying to and succeeding in running me into the reed bed that was on the near side bank. From the picture that I have included you can see how tight and weedy the small swim is.

As a result I had to let the line go very slack and hope for the very best....which was the fish swimming into mid river all of its own accord! result...

After a short battle a pristine chub was banked. At 3lb 9oz it improved my percentage by a couple of ounces...

After this I knew that the swim would take a while to settle so I decided to go up to the pools and try my luck. After changing the hooklink to a light 3lb bottom and a size 18 I was getting regular bangs on the tip, which evidently where small skimmer bream, of which I netted 5 in a short period of time. As quickly as they came they went...odd I thought, until the tip slammed round and I was into either a carp or tench. Unfortunately I gave this fish to much respect with the light link and it managed to find a snag only metres from my feet...bugger! The fish was lost...c'est la vie!

At this stage it started to rain and the wind got up right into my face..not very pleasant and comfortable, so I moved up onto the middle of the three pools. I set up a float rod to aim for some silvers, which immediately started to show with regular bites from roach and rudd of around 6 - 8 oz. This was until I hit into something that did not want to come in...the culprit was a male tench of 3lb 7oz ... Shortly followed by a fish that could have been his twin brother!

Peas in a pod!

Whilst fishing for the silvers and tench I had thrown some bread in on my left hand side...which was being sucked up at regular intervals by feeding carp....interesting for March! I could not sit and watch this without having a bash. So I changed my feeder rig to a size 8 straight through free line style. It did not take long before I watched a dorsal find breakthrough the surface seconds before my line went tight and I was in to a carp.

5lb 3oz off the top in March !

Though I do hope I catch a larger one for the challenge. It made my day include the following ...chub, perch, roach, rudd, bream, tench and carp. Nice for my last session before the end of the season on the river and the pools.....Unless I can get there for a couple of hours tomorrow, but she might kill me!!