Halcyon Dace

Twiddler · #1 12-22-2007, 06:09 PM

Banana Steve and myself met up for a relaxed days fishing on the River Avon yesterday. Just what we needed to escape the madness of work and get ready for the festive season.

We met at 7.30am close to the venue to make our way to the lovely Avon, where the daylight just started to peek through.

It was bitterly cold and I thought to myself I must be mad, I could have stayed in my warm comfy bed.

Once we got wrapped up warm in our suits, we made our way to find a suitable swim. I was hoping that the roach was feeling obliged to pop in for a free meal.

Soon Steve and I choose a swim, Steve decided to fish about 150 yards downstream from me, whilst I liked the look of this swim.

View downstream

view upstream

Steve started off with trotting but the fish won't have it, so he changed to a maggot feeder approach.
I was feeling lazy and started off with a maggot feeder straight away.

Soon I was in to my first fish of the day, a micro roach, followed by yet another micro roach......then things went quiet for a while.

After about an hour or so Steve still had no luck so decided to move swim a few yards upstream from me.
His first cast presented him with his first fish of the day, a minnow

I never seen anyone getting so excited over a minnow

In fact he was so excited he done a 'HAPPY DANCE'

I think he had a sugar rush myself.....I knew all those bananas can't be good for him

Steve was really bagging up on those minnows

The minnow king at work

The day went slow but another good size roach around the 4-6oz scale felt obliged to take my bait

Bait by the way was only red and white maggots.

Steve was truly the king of the minnows, I lost count of how many he had, nevertheless, we had fun and that's what it's all about.

I started to get a lot of knocks but couldn't connect for a while.........until I hit in to this little fella

A good size dace of about 6-8oz

Steve was continuing landing monsters of minnows, a fish almost every cast

Although the fish weren't huge or in massive amount (not for me anyway), it was great to be out on the river bank again, with great company.

4pm arrived and we decided to pack up before darkness kicked in.
Thanks for your company Steve, you had me in stitches again all day and a huge thank you for the loan of your CP

I let you tell the bit about trying out your new toys

Norfolkboy · #2 12-22-2007, 06:20 PM

Glad to hear you both had a nice day

fishypaul · #3 12-22-2007, 06:43 PM

well done both of you,looks a lovely stretch of river

BaggieRich · #4 12-23-2007, 08:03 PM

Well done guys. Sounds like a nice day.

Catfish Virgin (Still!) · #5 12-23-2007, 10:16 PM

Well done, I'm jealous, I've not been out since the Idle trip.

The stretch looked to be in good condition but I guess the really cold frosts have not helped too much. Those swims below the house do look really inviting.

My ancient experience of that area tells me it usually needs a fairly long period of consistent weather to fish really well. Cold, mild or hot, as long as it's consistent for many days used to do the trick!