11/12/09 - Little Avon - Huntingford

Weight – 5lb 15oz
Catch – 7 Brown Trout, 5 Grayling, 1 Chub
Weather – Cloudy, cold & damp

I have 2 days holiday left to book off before the year end, so decided on a couple of long weekends leading up to the Christmas. I wasn’t even sure whether I would go fishing today, but having made the decision to go on Thursday, meant getting my bait first thing Friday.

After all the recent rain the rivers were fining down and I really fancied doing something different. The Little Avon at Huntingford Mill near Charfield was a childhood haunt, where I first learned to fish 25 years ago. The river used to have roach, perch, big gudgeon, grayling, trout, bream and a few chub. Fishing the stick was the most popular method, although I was one of the few who regularly fished the waggler. When I got my first pole I was able to achieve better presentation and as a consequence my weights improved topped by 15lb of mostly roach. The fish in the river were never big, but highlights were a 1lb 9oz Grayling, 1lb 5oz roach, 1lb perch and a 3oz gudgeon.

Since there were only a few juniors in the club I used to fish matches against the seniors and 1 year I won 6 out of 10 trophies available. One of my favourite spots was a weir pool, which we called the waterfalls, because the main river came over a sluice gate into a 5 foot deep pool. Unfortunately around 1989 during some very heavy rain the river flooded and the sluice collapsed. Swims that used to have 5 foot of water now had a foot. The club, Charfield AA struggled on, but since the maintenance of the sluice fell to the owners of Huntingford Mill it has never been repaired.

So armed with 2 rods (an Alloy Stick, remember those and a straight lead), a pint of maggot, some hemp and a few bits of terminal tackle I set about seeing what was in the river. To be honest it was a little sad to some of the swims I used to fish regularly overgrown and in some cases unfishable. The river was still quite pacey, following the rain, although most of the flooded colour had dropped out.

After trying a number of swims, it was apparent the river was a shadow of its former self. The old weir pool was the most productive area, catching a few small brown trout up to a 1lb, plus a couple of grayling. Due to the pace of the river the straight lead was the best, although it was nice to catch a few fish on the stick. As the day due to a close, I decided to try the side stream, were I caught a couple more grayling. In the final swim I managed a 2lb chub and my biggest grayling of the day of 12oz.