I was torn between heading to Swineford or the Jack Whites stretch, mainly due to the amount of temporary traffic lights around Keynsham and Bitton but with the satnav telling me it was a clear run, I decided Swineford was the venue for this evening. Things have been pretty busy on the river recently with a lot of anglers taking advantage of the fine weather which has forced me to try some new swims that I've not considered before. Although I did poke a nose into a couple of likely spots in the 1st field, it turned out that Houseboat Bay (the last swim before the kissing gate to the 2nd field) was free so it was hard to resist setting up before someone else nabbed it!

The swim is one of the best on the river as it's on a corner which narrows down slightly giving a lovely glide to trot a float through. It also has amazing bankside cover, a great area of slack water to the right and a houseboat on the far bank which is a fish magnet. Add the fact that it's one of the few swims you can set up a chair in, fish two rods comfortably and cast a decent distance and you've a real winner! I've had great success fishing for pike in this swim, as well as chub but as it does get a bit of a hammering I was slightly nervous it may have been overfished of late...

I needn't have worried! while setting up there were fish topping and showing all over the swim and I couldn't wait to get a bait in the water. For this session I decided to take a slightly different approach in that instead of baiting with liquidized bread and casting out straight away I was going to feed upstream with mix of cubed spam, sweet corn and pellets for a good 30 minutes before casting in. My feeling was that in previous sessions I've had early success but then the fish have backed off - this time, I wanted to get them feeding confidently and in a shoal before I cast out, the idea being that the fish would stick around for longer and the bites would keep coming throughout the session.

So while feeding upstream, I cast the feeder rod downstream and dumped the float in the margin by my feet, just on the off chance something was swimming around... Amazingly, the float dipped almost immediately! It was only a small chub, but it was followed by several more and then a couple of good fish on the feeder. In between bites I kept the feed going in upstream using the catapult and once the bites in the margin dried up, cast my float into the flow...

First few metres of the trot and bang, the float buried... A sharp strike and 1st fish on! And so it continued! Keeping a trickle of bait going in seemed to be the key, firing it a good 4 metres upstream of the float and I was so busy that I pretty much gave up on the feeder rod as the float rod was producing a fish a cast.

One change that I had made between sessions was to respool my reel with some new 4lb line. The difference this made to my casting was amazing as I was managing to land the float closer to the far bank near a overhanging bush that protrudes right out into the river. One cast in particular fell very close to the bush and it just looked like it would do a bite...

Seconds after the float hit the water it shot under and this time, the strike was met with a solid resistance. This was something far bigger but after a dogged fight where the fish charged for every available snag I finally managed to slip a prime size chub into the landing net!

It was a bit of a shock to be honest! I've had fish of a similar size from this stretch but never so early in the season. Re spooling that reel had clearly given me the extra casting distance I need to get close to the snaggy home of some truly monstrous chub.

After that excitement, things slowed down a little so I kept the float rod out of the water and went back to baiting the swim giving the fish a chance to get their confidence back. As I'd been neglecting the feeder rod I decided to make some casts downstream to see if the fish had backed off and was rewarded with a run of smaller chub. It was about 10 minutes later when I was contemplating another cast with the float rod when the tip on the feeder dragged sharply down... I picked up the rod, stuck and bam, something shot off downstream...

I genuinely thought I'd hooked one of the mythical carp that inhabit this stretch as the fish gave such a good fight! But it was of course it was another greedy chub of around the same size as the previous monster. Two in one evening, this session was really turning into something!

I really thought that would be it but over the next couple of hours, I had fish after fish on both rods. As the light began to fade the float rod continued to produce and I found if I could get a bait close to the bush, it would either disappear very soon after hitting the water or a short trot 4 or so metres later. As I began to toy with the idea of packing down, the river gave up one more epic bite as yet another massive chub hit the cube of spam!

So there you go, what a session?! Three clonkingly massive chub, a net full of smaller fish and a couple of random roach. The whole swim had produced bites consistently and it really felt like the gradual feeding, waiting and alternating methods had been successful in keeping the fish feeding in the swim throughout the whole session. I packed down a happy angler and I can't wait for the next session!

I've done a fair amount of land based saltwater fishing around Australia, mainly from the beach surfcasting and from piers. Along the way I've picked up most of the usual species but apart from the odd decent size bream, I've yet to hook into something of a good size. So my hope for today was to find some of the fabled 50+ cm flathead that Peter has been picking off in recent months. This was also only my second outing sea fishing on a boat as apart from a bit of handlining for Red Emperor on holiday at Brampton Island, I've never really had the opportunity before - fingers crossed my sea legs would be ok (luckily we weren't leaving the river for open water!) and we'd get amongst some fish.

It was a cold start! We arrived just as the sun was coming up and Peter wasted no time getting the boat in the water - it still impresses me that he can reverse park and get the boat off the trailer so quickly, I guess Aussies just have this skill in the blood?! It was a short scream down the river (that boat can move...) and I was really glad I brought so many layers - two long sleeve t-shirts (one of them thermal), a thick hoodie, a down jacket, snood, beanie, boardies and tracky-dacks. I felt slightly like a Michelin man but, with the exception of my nose, I was actually pretty toasty - who knew it could be so cold in the sunshine state?!

Peter had very kindly rigged me up with 3 rods for the day: a light soft plastic, a heavy soft plastic and a hard body with the idea being different spots would work better with the different set ups. As the sun clipped the top of the trees we pulled into our first spot, the corner of a channel of the main river and got to casting the lighter plastics around the edges. Amazingly, Peter got a hit on the first cast to open water! But sadly other than a couple of knocks, nothing showed itself along this section so it was time to move on.

You sure do get places quickly in a boat and in no time we were in the next spot, the opening of a larger back channel off the main river. The difference this time though was that we were in open water fishing to the bank and with the heavier plastics. Within a couple of casts it was very apparent that there were fish here and within minutes Peter was into the first fish of the day, a 50cm monster flathead who gave a good account of itself and was soon in the boat despite my amataur landing net skills. As is the case with Australian fishing, if it's a legal fish, it goes in the eski and unfortunately for this flathead, it was her unlucky day.

Something I wasn't expecting was the police turning up! We'd been facing the bank and I hadn't noticed their launch until it came along side and they hailed Peter for his name, licence and registration. A quick check of the credentials and life jackets and they were off. It seems the waterways in Australia are policed as well as the roads (which is no bad thing).

Then things got tough, not through lack of fish as there were definitely a lot around but more through lost tackle. I got my first chance at the action only to be bitten off. Then again. Then Peter got bitten off too. The suspicion was it was smaller tailor snapping at the lures and biting through the line! Not ideal. We stuck at it for a little while but we were racing through plastics and jig heads at a rapid rate of knots so it was time to move on.

So we headed down the back channel to fish the boat ramp and structure I'd seen in Peter's latest video.​ Sadly for me, despite casting to the exact spot my guide suggested I somehow managed to get snagged on the first cast! After creeping towards the boat ramp, we somehow got everything back but my biggest fear was my antics would have ruined the spot... But a couple of casts later Peter hooked into yet another decent flathead so all was not lost.

After a few more casts, I finally got in on the action hooking into the one and only bream of the trip. Not a big fish, but it was my first and put a big smile on my face.

We spent a good while creeping along the various jetties and structure before Peter mentioned that it might be worth a cast to open water and true to form, he was instantly into a fish, this time a tailor. I soon switched over, casting the heavier plastic out into the channel and using the 'hop, hop, wind' method​​​ and within a couple of casts I too was into a tailor - they were definitely around!

Then from nowhere I got my 'fish of the day'. I'd cast out and almost got the lure back to the boat when something absolutely smacked it and tore off. On light gear, this thing gave a hell of a good account of itself and it was a bit of a struggle to get it under control but after a bit of excitement a beautiful fish graced the landing net.

I had absolutely no idea what it was but luckily my guide was better informed and let me know it was a mulloway, and a decent on at that coming in at 63cm. Sadly for us (but luckily for the him/her!) this wasn't a legal fish the required size being +75cm so after some pics and a piece to video this one went back. I was stoked though, what a fish!

We continued down the back channel, hitting all the likely spots but the bream just weren't around which was really surprising. After an hour or so of exploring we upsticks again and headed down to the mouth of the channel to try the sand flats for flathead. The water here was really shallow, ranging from 3 to 5 feet which was ideal but try as we might, we couldn't buy a bite...

It wasn't until I cast right up into really shallow water towards the bank that we got our first hit. The lure had hit the water and I'd done my first 'hop' when a huge spray of water kicked up... Flathead on! This thing absolutely tore off, it was clear I was into something of a decent size and sure enough, a few runs and twists and turns later I had my first flathead in the boat.

This one came in at 56cm and I was blown away - what a monster! After a brief lesson in how to hold them (flathead have savage teeth and spikes that contain a anticoagulant meaning if you get spiked by one, you'll bleed for ages) we did some pics and a piece to camera. And again, it was this fishes lucky day as despite it being of legal size, I decided to slip it back. The catch and release angler lives on in me and I still like to see them swim away to fight another day.

After that commotion we were hopeful of some more fish but the action was still very slow. That is until Peter decided a lure change was in order. Switching to a hardbody and got a fish on the first cast to open water - unreal! This fish was clearly something serious and on light gear he had to take it very easy, but wind by wind he managed to get it back to the boat and a huge flathead slipping into the landing net. This thing went absolutely mental in the net and as they have a tendency to shake the hook once the line goes slack you need to get them into the boat pronto. As if to prove a point, this fish flapped around and managed to get itself down the side of one of the cabinets in the boat and we had a bit of a time getting it out. But we managed it in the end and after a few trophy shots with the lure (complete with straightened out hooks on one of the trebles) another flathead went into the eski with the others.

Time was marching on and we couldn't believe it when we checked our watches and discovered it was 2.30pm (we had it in our heads it was only around 12/1ish). As there were two more spots we wanted to try we upped sticks again and started to make our way back. The main river had gotten a lot more busy with boats in pretty much every likely looking spot but after a quick petrol top up (I'm not going to lie, when the engine spluttered and died I did get slightly concerned...) we hit the last areas to try our luck. But sadly there were no more fish and we decided to call it a day.

All in all it was a pretty stunning day on the water! The weather had been very kind and the crazy westerly winds we've been having recently stayed light which made casting a lot easier. I really enjoyed fishing from the boat and I'm indebted to Peter for taking me out - I felt like a propper Aussie fisherman!

And Peter had more than bagged up, managing to to get 5 decent flathead to take home for the table which was a bit of a result. Now that I've got my BBQ smoker set up at home, it's going to be very hard in future to put any flathead I catch back...

I managed to sneak out for another session, leaving much earlier this time and being slightly better prepared with an array of new stick floats and a freshly spooled reel!

The conditions were pretty much spot on, the only tricky thing being a strong wind that had me casting the feeder/freelining rod into a tree twice... But with action pretty much from the off, I had a great evenings fishing.

As before, the moment the light levels dropped the chub really started to feed and I managed these three beauties in the space of 10 minutes! All in all, there were 10 fish in the keepnet by the end of the night and although it was very tough to pack up in the near darkness at 8.10pm (how I miss those long summer evenings!) it was great to be out on the river bank once last time.

I'm ready looking forward to the river pike season starting in October. Based on the activity in my swim this evening, I think the Bristol Avon will hopefully produce some absolute monsters again this year...

I have to say, I felt completely out of tune with the river... It was obvious the moment that I arrived that much had changed since my previous session!

The weather looked good, a cloudy windless evening after 3 days of bright sunshine and no wind. The water level and flow looked good and as I cast out my freelined spam in my favourite tree swim it looked good for a bite!

But the action was very slow. I couldn't get my float to trot properly, the freelined rod kept getting snagged and after several frustrating tangles in cramped conditions I decided to make things easier for myself and move to houseboat bay.

Luckily for me, I was saved from a blank by this fat chub!

The light was gone by 8pm and I ended up packing down in the near darkness...

I think that maybe it for evening sessions on the river for 2017!

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?!