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?!

The river level info on the Environment Agency website has recently been moved to the catchily named River and sea levels for England website.

The good news is that the info is easier to read and mobile friendly!

I've been putting it to good use over the last couple of months to get an idea of the stretches of the Rive Avon I've been fishing over at Keynsham. There's two that are handy:

Latest river level information for: the River Avon at Keynsham RL
This is the Jack Whites stretch below the weir running in front of the old Cadbury chocolate factory.

Latest river level information for: the River Avon at Keynsham US
This is for the Crane stretch above the weir heading towards Swinford.

There's also information on the River Levels site:

River Avon at Keynsham RL

River Avon at Keynsham US

Although the data is the same, it's displayed slightly differently and has some nice additions like maps and graphs.

I've had such a good run of luck out on the River Avon, starting in the summer fishing for chub and into winter fishing for pike. But as the seasons move and things get grimmer as we move into February I knew things were going to get tough...

I suffered the 1st blank last Tuesday! The conditions were far from perfect: a really hard frost which gave way to bright sunshine and high temperatures. The pike were just not in a biting mood...

Then a 2nd blank this Sunday. It was only a quick session but I knew from the moment I arrived at 7.30am that there was a high possibility of a blank. The river was up a good 2ft and hacking through at quite a pace. Couple that with chocolaty water and you've a recipe for nill fish! I stuck with it till 11ish and then called it a day, making the walk back to the car with freezing fingers and a slightly dejected air...

To raise my spirits, I took a look back through some of the pics and videos from the lasts 6 months which made me feel a whole load better. If you've not seen them, take a look - what a river!

The fish counter at my local Tesco here in Bristol had done me proud bait wise: I'd picked up mackerel, sardines and a great looking herring.

As it turns out, the herring got me a fish on the bank!

A very quick fight and one angry looking pike was in the net. To say I was overjoyed was an understatement! Not a massive fish but a fish at last. Too good.

After that excitement, I decided to stick to my original plan and head onto the cut for the last hour or so of light. Although I had a couple of knocks after casting out, there were no takers and I decided to call it a day.

So with a bit of luck, that's the end of the river blanks?!

But I was determined to give it another go and with a week of frosts and then a sunny day predicted for Saturday, I decided to throw everything I had at it. The plan was simple, keep the session short (only 4 hours), travel very light (I've managed to get it down to a small rucksack, rods, landing net and unhooking mat) and move through as many swims as I possible could.

The swim I'd had such success in on the 2nd trip out was pretty much unfishable due to the speed of the flow. We'd suffered some heavy rain overnight on the Friday and it'd pushed the water level up a foot or so from normal meaning a test cast to the far bank ended up with the bait either in the middle of the river or the nearside margin. Not ideal. So I used this swim to get set up and then moved on within 10 minutes.

The 2nd swim was one I'd lost a pike in on a previous session and although the water was hacking through, I figured it was worth a go. Unfortunately for me, within minutes of getting the rods positioned one of the boat people decided to go upstream in his dingy... and then within five minutes, he decided to come back again! This pretty much killed the swim... the outboard motor caused waves to come splashing up the bankside and I figured any fish within a mile radius had probably headed for cover?! So after 10 minutes it was time for another move.

My next target swim was on the corner opposite what I've found out is an old soap works. But by the time I'd wandered to it, I'd got it into my head to push on and see what other swims the river had to offer, my thinking being to use this swim as my last spot on the way back.

As it turned out, there wasn't much else that looked 'pikey' in the next two fields! If we ever do get a succession of hard frosts and the water level and flow drops to a fishable level there maybe a spot or two but with the conditions as they were, there wasn't anything that screamed pike. I did try one swim that looked worth a go, with a fallen tree to the left and a line of reads to the right. But the right rod got snagged and I had to pull for a break which was really annoying! So I called it and headed back to the corner soapworks swim.

Having trashed one set of tackle in previous swim I decided to rig up that rod with a float and leave the other rod with a ledger. I like the idea of drifting a bait along in the current and as the corner swim has a back eddy running through it, it seemed an ideal spot to give it a go.

I had a good chat with a couple of anglers who were out walking their dogs while I waited for a bite. They told me about the huge carp that patrol the marina and river.... I'm looking forward to having a go for them over the summer! They were both surprised that I'd not had anything out of the swim as they both commented it was a banker in the past...

But after 20 minutes, there were no takers. With another blank looming I was beginning to get very despondent and as a last gasp, the decision was made to reel in and head back to the cut for an hour before calling it day...

I was just reeling in the float rod when a quick succession of beeps sounded from the ledger rod out towards the snaggy tree to the right of the swim! It was a cracking bite and I took no time in leaping across the swim and hitting the fish with a sharp strike to the left. There was a strong resistance on the end of the braid and it was fish on! At last!