Even with the weather closing in, I was so desperate to get back on the river after last weeks successful session that I decided to head over to the River Avon at Swineford for another go. I drove through sunshine but the black clouds were building on the horizon and by the time I arrived, it was raining... Gotta love summer!

Luckily for me though, all but one of the showers were light and I managed to hunker down under a steep bank and stay mostly dry. The fishing was brilliant, catching chub from the off using freelined luncheon meat in the slack water to the right of my swim.

After feeding the main flow of water for half an hour or so the float fishing really picked up and a steady net of fish came in, nothing massive but loads of fun on light tackle.

As the light levels got lower and the clouds heavier, the bigger fish put in an appearance... The chub photographed above came just 20 minutes before packing up! To be honest, I thought it was a pike at first as it put up a lot of resistance - what a stunning fish.

The rain had really brought out the slugs and although I had a good collection in the bait bucket, there were no takers this evening. I'm convinced they make a great bait through and as they appear to be in such abundance, I'll definitely be giving them another go on the next session.

I'm chained to my desk today looking out on a very wet, blustery Bristol but you never know, maybe it'd be worth donning the water proofs and heading out again?!

Hunters Lake is one of the Crosshands Angling Club waters that I've read quite a bit about. The main draw is that it's a mixed fishery i.e. it contains something other than carp! According to the club website there's a good head of tench in the larger of the two lakes which is excellent news as I've been itching to catch a tench since coming back from Australia.

There are two lakes at Hunters, a small stock pond (which apparently has a good head of crucian carp) and a larger lake of around 2 acres. Both lakes were looking pretty bleak today which isn't surprising as we're at the tail end of winter. But I always think it's worth checking venues out in all seasons as you can sometimes get a different view of a water and it's features, especially when the margin cover has died back.

I did a couple of laps of the lake and spotted some likely looking swims. There's a largeish island on the pub side of the lake which is an obvious feature and I've a feeling that the margins and channel will be a good spot to try. Apart from the margins there's a lot of open water to go at and come summer the lily pads will definitely hold fish.

I also bumped into another angler who like me had come down to the lake for a look around. He introduced himself as Peter and as a long-term member of the club who'd fished Hunters for the last 15 years or so he had lots of info about the lake. He'd had tench, double figure carp and good size perch over the years and even told me a tale of a 19lb pike he'd caught on sweet corn! Whether or not the pike is still in the lake is unknown but it would be amazing to catch it if it is.

As it's a bit of a unpredictable drive from Bristol of around 30 minutes I'm not sure it will work for my school day sessions but come spring I'll definitely be heading over at the weekend with a pint of maggots and a feeder rod to try and bank some tench. And maybe a bag of prawns for those perch...

How many weeks is it until spring?!

It's half term week which has meant I'm on kid duty for 99% of the time but when a two hour window presented itself I couldn't resist the opportunity to wet a line. The Holiday Inn Lake was the obvious choice as I was dropping people off at Bristol Parkway station and then picking up from UWE and with a good winter form, I was really hopeful it would produce a fish on two.

The weather was all over the place, sunny one minute followed by heavy rain the next and I was greeted at the lake by two soggy looking match anglers who were in the process of leaving. They were shaking their heads and saying it was fishing hard... But I wasn't to be put off! Prior knowledge is so useful and I put mine to good use, dropping in on peg 25 and quickly getting both rods out using the tactics that have done me so well on previous sessions: a yellow dumbbell wafter on a helicopter rig and a feeder filled with liquidised bread and a double sweetcorn hookbait. Both rods were fished as close as I dared to the died back lily pads and I sat back to see what would happen.

It didn't take long before I started to get liners and after 20 minutes the helicopter rod ripped off with a plump common of around 6lb. The feeder rod took a couple of more casts but finally the tip swung round and another smaller common graced the bank. As an extra bonus, I also snagged up on a cage feeder rig that'd snapped off during a session a couple of weeks back and managed to get it back in! Great to have it back in the tackle bag rather than in the lake.

The swim went dead after that and despite a couple of further moves to other productive swims I couldn't raise another bite. But I was pretty chuffed to have caught so quickly on such a short session!

The weather was pretty terrible, with steady drizzle and mist... But I managed a pike from a new swim which is always great!

I bumped into several other pike anglers out on the bank and it was great to have a chat with them and get some feedback, both on the river and some of the videos I've been uploading recently. If you're watching, thanks for saying hello!

I've also put together my targets for 2017 which is something I've never done before. I'd set myself the mini challenge last year of getting a 20 pounder from the Avon and accomplishing that has made me want to aim higher this year.

Lets see how I do!

It's been a long time since I blogged but one of my new years targets is to write a post for each session with a video so here we go. I've decided to keep them shorter as I think one of the reasons I'd not been writing them is they tend to get a bit war a piece... Short and snappy is the aim from now on.

I've been doing loads of piking on the River Avon between Swineford and Keynsham over the winter months and had some fantastic sessions. It's really helped me learn the water, find the best spots and hone my piking skills.

The 'tree swim' has been very kind to me and this session was no different, with the 1st (and only!) bite coming within 3 minutes of casting out! Unfortunately the rest of the day went without a bite... but hey, that's fishing!