If it all goes to plan.

[barbelblanker]

I've booked a few days off work to get out now my car is working and the weather is less awful.

Plans are .

Friday: Stourport to knock out a few river roach. Wind might spoil it though as it looks like it might be a downstreamer.

Sat and Sun . Quick trips to the stour and maybe a bit of piking on the Staffs Worcester. Just got to try to get teh kids to visit some friends OR take them for "A Walk" down the cut , oh and while we're here I may as well....you get the picture.

Monday: Himley hall after big roach.

Tuesday. We'll see but could be another trip down to the severn on the float.

Only just over a week left till the rivers close.

[Greenheart]

Tight lines mate....

[BaggieRich]

Best of luck BB. Take lots of photo's. I might need to pick your brains about the fishing up there soon....

[barbelblanker]

Well it all didn't go exactly to plan, that's life I guess.

Firstly I forgot about the big uns appointment to have her broken arm looked at and the plaster removed. So Mrs BB needed the car. After going through a thought process of "I'll drop you off, you'll need to come back on the bus", I decided I was being exceptionally selfish, and made them walk. No not really .

So I didn't get the car till 12:00. Went to canalside to get some bait and other bits and bobs .

Back in the car and drove to Stourport . Parking at the back of the leisure centre, the car played silly buggers and wouldn't start once I stopped it to get my parking ticket. So had to push the thing so it was completely in a parking space. Heave Ho!. So that was a great start.

Here's some piccys of the back of the leisure centre. Make sure you do Pay and Display as they are quite hot at giving out fines if you don't (currently £4 all day so not too bad I suppose).

The entrance to the BAA strectch is down by them imposing fences . At first glance it is not obvious where they are so I put some piccys in. Look towards the river and that solid looking fence has a gap.
Here's the back of the centre , look to that fence at the back behind the silver car. If you were to walk to it ,
you'll find the gap.


Walking down the path I stopped at the first likely looking swim and found it occupied. Skipped the next swim to give the guy some trotting distance and stopped her
The wind was gusting downstream and quite strong. That's the stick float plan out of the window then. I suspected this would be the case. Made feeding difficult too.
Bait was white maggot with aniseed and tumeric added.
Also had hemp which has been refreshed with aniseed too.
Now if you look you'll see that there is a left hand side (no bloody tree), and a left hand side with a little mud bit sticking out (bloody tree and awkward to cast from ) so which side does Captain casting champ pick , one day I'll learn.
Swim piccys :



Feeding was difficult and float choice (what with a TREE OVER MY HEAD< LOOK UP NEXT TIME, why I didn't just move I will never know) became an issue. Ended up with a 2 SSG+ bodied waggler , 20 hook , 1.7 bayer line. 2.3 LB main line and a waggler rod.
Fed hemp about 10 feet below the maggots as regularily as I remembered.
Fished for an hour and a half without a sniff. So it was time to start getting creative. First thing I did was lock the shot in place with AA and move a SSG to nail the bait right down. Then I let the float go further down the swim than normal and the float went under. First fish was about 8oz. Although they hardly lined up the fish where right at the tail of the swim and ended up with half a dozen roach in lovely condition. Biggest was knocking about a pound. Would have stayed till dark but Mrs BB needed me to be back for 7 and I wasn't sure the car would start. Blurred fishy pic :
This was a frustrating session as the wind was soo tricky and I had a time limit imposed by the car (which started no problem once cooled down, mixed feelings, thank God for that and OK what's wrong then ?).
Learnt a few things though as it's been ages since I ran a float with maggots down a river other than as an afterthought.
Loved it though and can't wait to have another crack at the river, probably be monday or tuesday.

[jools]

good post looks like you had a good time ..in the end.....

[NICK R]

looks a nice stretch