Essential river tricks
Dave finds the BAA’s stretch at Eardington in winning form
FOR my latest midweek session, I decided on another 4am start to go somewhere that I hadn’t been for many years.
It was first trip of the season to the Severn, and the venue I chose was the Birmingham Anglers Association stretch at Eardington.
This is opposite the famous Quatford stretch, and as I made my way from the car park I couldn’t resist looking across the river to a swim known as ‘Harris’s Peg’. It’s the swim where Robin Harris won the 1971 Division One National with a bag of float-caught barbel, and it looks as good now as it probably did on the day that Robin won his title off it.
I used to fish at Eardington with my dad when I was a young teenager, and it was here that I caught my first good bags of barbel on float gear.
My last visit to the stretch before this one was when I was only about 21 years old – that’s how long it’s been!
The top end of the section has a lot of flow coming down the near side, and it’s a great place to fish with top and bottom-attached floats.
Lower down the stretch, the waggler plays more of a part, as the flow is more towards the middle and far bank.
It was one of these swims that I decided to fish. The river here ran over shallow gravel on my side, deepening off across towards some willow trees. These clearly came out a fair distance and were the perfect hiding place for barbel and chub.
MY SET-UP
I set up two float rods, both Daiwa Tournament RS 13PF models, and these were matched to TDR3012 reels loaded with 5lb (0.18mm) and 6lb (0.20mm) Pro Float lines.
The swim was only about 3ft to 4ft at its deepest point, and for that reason I suspected a waggler approach would be best because that way there would be very little shot down the line.
On the heavier set-up I attached a 3SSG No2 Truncheon waggler with most of the load around the float and just three No6 shot down the line.
On to the end of the line I tied a strong size 12, prototype hook I’m testing. This rig was set to drag bottom a few inches overdepth.
The lighter rig comprised a 2SSG No2 Insert Truncheon with a strong size 14 prototype hook tied direct to the mainline.
You might be surprised to learn that I tied the hooks direct instead of using a hooklength, but I only do this if there are no snags in the swim. If there were, I would always use a lighter hooklength.
BAIT LIST
I had three pints of casters and three of hemp with me, and these are always mixed together.
I’d also got two pints of maggots but these were really only as back-up and for hookbait. I’ve found it sometimes works when you introduce the odd pouch of
maggots into the swim that you are mainly feeding with casters and hemp.
I started by loosefeeding around half a pouchful of bait every put-in, but because of the speed of the current I found it was best to feed first then cast, rather than the other way round, which most people seem to do.
STARTING SMALL
It didn’t take long to start catching on the lighter rig with double maggot on the hook. Small chub came first, and after half-an-hour these were joined by a shoal of dace. Within two hours I’d caught about 10lb of these, which was pleasing – but what really wanted to catch were a few barbel.
I felt certain there would be a few lurking under the branches, so I switched to the heavier rig with three, four and even five maggots on the hook and upped the feed to a full pouch every put-in. Within half-an-hour, the small-fish bites stopped and I was now clearly fishing just for big fish.
My wishes were eventually answered, first in the form of a small barbel which put up a gallant scrap, and then with four quality barbel, all of which put a very big bend in the rod!
While the rivers are low and clear, feeder fishing with pellets during the day is definitely not the way to go. Floatfished baits are the answer, so if you are going to any fast, shallow rivers over the next few weeks, remember to take float gear and maggots with you.
I was delighted to open my Severn account for the season, and if my dad was looking down from above, I think he would have enjoyed my return to a place that we both used to love going to.