Although I've fished at Saltford before, it wasn't for pike and I'd stuck to the long section running down to the lock and the Jolly Sailor pub so I was eager to try the shallows. Jim very kindly let me have the 'prime' swim at the end of the car park which has a stream running into it which looked great for some perch and some good margins next to moored barges. I'd decided to dead bait and lure on this session as it was a new location and I wasn't sure what method would win out...

After twenty minutes or so with nothing to show for my efforts I checked my phone, only to find out that Jim had managed to bag a pike a couple of swims to my left on his second cast! He was convinced there was something bigger swimming out there as the jack pike had a nick out of it's flank and although he very kindly allowed me to have a quick cast around, I couldn't hook into anything other than the bottom of the river!

From where we were standing, we could see downstream to the disused railway bridge and decided to up sticks and take a look. To be honest, it was pretty foul under that bridge: the amount of rubbish was shocking, beer cans, discarded tackle, lure packets, dead bait packets, plastic bags... A pretty sorry state. Luckily I'd taken a 50 litre bin bag which we filled with rubbish however we could've filled it two or three times more. The lack of respect people have for the environment just does my head in!

There was also a massive mound of rusting bit of metal consisting of bikes, railings, fences, bars... it looked like someone had been dredging the river and had pulled out every bit of snaggy rubbish they could find! Very kind of them, but it's a shame that it was just left there in a heap to rust away. However what it did mean was that the water was pretty much free of snags which made the fishing a lot easier.

Again Jim very kindly let me fish the prime spot on the left of the swim and I decided to drop a ledgered smelt tightish to the margin and then set about casting the lure in an arc starting left to right...

...which is when I got my first taste of lure action as a pike struck just as I was pulling the lure into the margin! Unfortunately for me, a quick shake of the head and the pike was off - I guess that's the difference between a single hook in a soft plastic and a two sets of treble hooks?!

Over the next 20 minutes both Jim and I had a couple of follows and then suddenly the dead bait rod sounded. Again, luck wasn't on my side as it turned out the rod was snagged on something. The fish was definitely on as if the braid ran when I lowered the rod tip but after applying gentle pressure I managed to get the rig back but minus the bait and fish. Damn.

But there were fish in the swim! So the dead bait rod went back out to a new spot slightly further out from the margin to the left and we got back to casting the lures.

And then finally a bit of luck! The alarm on the dead bait rod sounded again and this time a solid strike resulted in a hook up - pike on at last (albeit with the wrong method but hey, at this stage a fish is a fish right?!). No monster but a welcome pike all the same.

The predicted drizzle really started coming down now and although we did head upstream along Mead Lane towards the lock and weir at the Jolly Sailor pub we didn't have any more action.

So another interesting day on the bank. It was great to have a hook up on the lure, it was a shame it came off but it was really good that we both had a fish - even if mine was on the wrong method!

Better luck next time eh?

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 arrived around 6ish which gave me a couple of hours on the bank. Unfortunately for me, there were no fish to be had but the sunrise was absolutely stunning!

Having stripped my gear down to the bare minimum I think there maybe room for the DSLR in the kit bag now so the next trip out will be a combined fishing and photography session ;)

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!