Did I mention that it'd been dry for weeks? Well pretty much immediately after booking the forecast changed from sunshine to showers. And then to rain. I couldn't quite believe it, literally after weeks of sunshine, from nowhere a rain front moved in - unreal.

But what the hell, sometimes you just gotta go! So despite a grey start to the day, I got the bike loaded up and all set to leave around 11ish. I kid you not, it started spitting the moment I walked out the front door... By the time I got through Ferny Hills it was really raining and I drove out of Samford Village in a full downpour...

Luckily the rain eased up as I headed into Dayboro and I stopped for a minute to dry out my gloves. There seemed to be a lot of people in the village for a Friday and it was then I noticed the big yellow signs around the place with 'Cast and Crew' and 'Extras Meeting Point' written on them... What was going on?! I quickly found out as the next thing I knew I was being politely asked to move on from where I'd parked as there were cameras pointing straight at me! Apparently they were filming for a TV show and I was 'in the shot' and for some unbeknown reason they didn't want a DRZ400 in the background... Madness.

So I headed up the hills to Mount Mee in fog and mist but slightly drier than when I started out. Things were going great, I was loving the twisties and this route winding up the hills is defo one of my favourite rides around Brisbane. But just before the Dahmongah Lookout the heavens opened yet again and this time it absolutely binned it down... I didn't mess around and drove the bike right under one of the shelters at the lookout and parked up for twenty minutes. I just couldn't be bothered with riding in the pelting rain and decided it'd be a better bet to stop, dry out a little and completely bake the gloves on the exhaust pipe!

As I rode down the hill into Woodford the sun came out and to be honest, you'd never know that it'd been chucking it down 10 minutes ago... I fueled up and wasted no time heading up the hills towards the Peachester cafe to stop for a much needed sausage roll. Dropping down the hills towards the coast and flying along through the twisties was fantastic fun and then it was a short ride into Landsborough, past the Ewen Maddock Dam (I will be returning there one day to hunt down some more of the elusive bass..) and then a short hop on the highway to my final destination.

I really was racing the rain clouds at this point as even though I was riding into brilliant sunshine over the coast a quick glance in my mirrors showed a boiling black sky behind me! So it was with a sense of relief that I finally pulled off the gravel road into River Road Ranch to be greeted by the friendly owner Greg and his young son. The spot looked amazing! He quickly explained that they'd had a load of cancellations due to the rain and I had the pick of the 3 riverside spots to choose from. A bag of firewood was organised and I headed down the track to check out the spots.

One area in particular had a great 'swim' with perfect access to the river so I wasted no time getting the tent off, getting everything out of the bags and then heading to into Coolum Beach for supplies. Woolworths provided a steak, potatoes and mushrooms for dinner and the bottle shop had a good selection of beers to choose from (I settled on a 4 pack of Balter XPA which I've grown quite partial to...) and no camping trip would be complete without a Bundy and ginger beer. The question of ice was solved by a quick trip to the Coolum Beach Hotel who very kindly filled up my little folding eski for me and after a quick look at the sea (to make sure it was still there) I headed back to the campsite with an hour or so to go before sunset. Perfect.

The river was looking amazing and as luck would have it, the tide appeared to have gone out and the water level had dropped revealing some great looking mud flats - perfect flathead territory! I wasted no time and rigged up a rod and got to fishing. Now I only carry a very limited fishing kit with me: a 6ft telescopic rod and reel combo (a $20 Ghotda 1.8M special from AliExpress!) and a small plastic tub with hooks, leader and weights. After my recent fishing trip with Peter from PTP Fishing I thought it'd be a wise idea to bring some soft plastics and the only ones I had at home were some Fox Rage Shads that I'd brought from me UK so 4 years ago! I used these during the 'Jim's Lure Challenge' to catch pike on the Bristol Avon so the question is, would Queensland flathead like them?!

It didn't take long to find out... 3 casts was all it took! Hopping the lure across the sand in small jumps and bang, a flathead was on it instantly and a decent one at that. I was slightly in a state of shock, I couldn't quite believe that the pike targeted lure had worked but also that it'd attracted such a good fish! I guesstimated it at 45cm and quickly got it back to fight another day although if my fish filleting skills were up to anything it defo would've been a perfect accompaniment to my steak on the grill!

As that fish had trashed my leader I headed back to camp (literally 5 paces away from the bankside!) and while I was sorting out the rod the owner arrived on his quad bike with a big bag of firewood, some kindling, firelighters and... an axe! Far out, I'm not gonna lie, I really enjoyed using that axe... And to be honest, I think it may have been a real struggle to get the fire blazing without it as everything was really damp.

The firepits at River Ranch Road deserve a special mention here as they are absolutely amazing. I'm not sure if the owner makes them or they're a commision of some kind but they're pretty unique. Mine was in the shape of a 'ute' and the bonnet, cab and tray all doubled as grill areas. I chose to only use the tray area but I'm sure if you got the whole thing ablaze it'd be a family size grill. Very cool.

While the fire was getting going I got casting around again and instantly got another flathead. Not as big, defo the smaller relation of the first one but I was really stoked to be getting amongst some fish so quickly.

By this time it was completely dark and as the fishing slowed down as the tide turned I concentrated on getting the fire really going and turned my thoughts to dinner. It did rain a couple of times meaning I had to retreat to the tent but despite the showers efforts to put the fire out I soon had a good bed of coals to cook over. Steak, mushrooms and a baked potatoes are pretty much my staple dinner for motocamping trips and tonight's meal defo didn't disappoint. There's something about carving a hunk of steak off the grill and wrapping it in turkish bread whist drinking a beer that is just unbelievable good!

In-between dinner and a movie (I watched 'Margin Call' held great promise but was kinda... dull!) I kept chucking the lure around and as luck would have it, the fishing continued to produce bites and I got another load of flathead before I turned in for the night. The secret I found was to give it about half an hour between fish! Generally I'd get another one on the 3rd or so cast after 'resting' the swim which all in all was a real result.

I eventually crashed out around 11ish and instantly fell asleep. It rained heavily overnight a couple of times and I woke up around 6am to find the sun up and the tide out but try as I might I couldn't buy a bite which was weird given the previous evenings success. Ater a quick ride into town to use the 'facilities' (there's no toilet at River Road Ranch) I returned to camp and stoked up the fire to cook breakfast. Luckily I'd had the foresight to save two of the 4 firelighters my host had given me and after using the axe to break down some of the left over logs of hardiusfuckarius left over from the previous nights fire I had a respectable blaze going.

Breakfast was simple: a couple of boiled eggs, sliced avocado and freshly made bread! I don't know if you've watched any of The Outdoor Boys videos on YouTube but they get up to all sorts of camping and wilderness adventures but none of their videos are complete without 'bread in a bag' and honey butter.

The process is simple - get yourself a medium ziplock bag and add the following dry ingredients:

• 1 cup strong bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon yeast
• 1/4 teaspoon of bread improver
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar

Before you go to sleep, add water and give it a thorough mix in the bag, seal it up and put it somewhere warm and dry overnight (I put mine inside one of my pannier bags). In the morning, the yeast will have done it's thing and you'll have bread dough ready to bake on the fire! Just tear off a ball, shape it into a flatbread and place on the grill or coals. It takes around 7 minutes to bake, just keep turning it till you think it's cooked through. Seriously, fresh bread when camping is a bit special.

For the honey butter, I just melt a tablespoon of butter (or Nuttelex - the curse of being lactose intolerant!) and combine it with a tablespoon of honey. Once it's all mixed up, decant it to a container - I use these squeezy bottles that I picked up in a dollar shop, they're ideal for small amounts of liquid (I have one with washing up liquid, a second with olive oil and a third for honey butter, just the right amount for breakfast). For this trip, I added a sprinkling of dried rosemary and far out, it was a game changer. To melt it, I just place the bottle in some hot water (usually while I'm boiling my eggs) or just place it near to the fire. Too good.

Breakfast done, I did do a bit more fishing but as there just didn't seem to be anything around I called it around 11am, packed everything onto the bike and got back on the road. Nothing too fancy, I just decided to retrace my ride from the previous day heading along the highway, up to Peachester, down into Woodford and across the hills to Dayboro and then onto home.

The ride was pretty uneventful, the only blip being that the beautiful sunny day disappeared as I left Woodford. Having seen the rain clouds gathering, I Stopped to put my rain jacket on before heading up Mount Mee but it was all in vein as an absolutely biblical downpour started about a minute into my ascent! it was pretty hairy, the section of road is near vertical and there was defo no way I could stop. I just had to take it really slowly and inch my way up the hill!

As with the ride out, I had to stop again at Dahmongah Lookout to dry my gloves and wait for the rain to pass. One trick I remembered from my motorcycle training in the UK was to put a pair of latex gloves on underneath your riding gloves. Not only does it keep your hands dry, but it stops them getting quite so cold! Luckily for me I carry a couple of sets in my first aid kit so I broke them out before continuing on in the drizzle.

I finally got home around 3pm, exhausted, wet and stinking of woodsmoke - but very happy! I'd had a great trip and finally found a campsite with fishing - I'm already looking forward to heading back to River Road Ranch!

Well for one thing, the weather wasn't going to be nearly as hot as last year. In fact, the BBC weather app was predicting rain from 8am until lunch time... Not my favourite but maybe better for the fishing as chub don't tend to feed in bright conditions! I know a lot of anglers camp and cast out at midnight but as the rules don't allow for night fishing on the Bristol River Avon I decided to get up at stupid o'clock instead - 4.30am to be precise... Madness I know but I had a feeling the banks might be busy and with such limited swims due to undergrowth at the Swinford end of the river I wanted to make sure I was in the running for a decent swim.

Leaving that early meant there was no traffic on the road so I pulled into the busy looking layby outside the Swan Inn at around 5.15am - not bad going! As predicted, all the fishable swims in the first field were occupied - seems Bristol does have some keen anglers after all! Not to worry, due to the banks at Swinford I had it in my head I'd try and fish the 'fallen tree swim' in the second field (otherwise known as 'Chub Alley') and was relieved to find it empty of anglers. The plan for the day was to target chub with one rod fishing a cage feeder and the second rod fishing a float. I've had such success with good old Spam in the past, so hook bait was an easy choice although I did have sweetcorn as a back up. Before setting up the rods I primed the swim with a couple of balls of groundbait mix consisting of tinned tuna, hemp, liquidized bread and method mix groundbait.

So the rods went out, the feeder in the deep margin in front of the streamer weed to my right and the float a couple of rod lengths out into the flow. And believe it or not, the float dipped on the first run through - chub on! And while I was sorting out that chub, the feeder rod rattled off with another chub - amazing!

The have two fish on the first casts of each rod was pretty amazing. I was made up, it was definitely worth getting up so early! The next couple of hours disappeared with chub after chub falling to the float. The feeder rod was silent, although I was getting the odd pluck on the rod tip... But with the float rod producing so many fish, I wasn't worried - I was having too much fun!

There weren't too many other species showing themselves, although I did have a dace on one retrieve. But then from nowhere, I had a completely different bite where the float slid rather than dipping under the surface... the result was a perfect condition bronze bream of around 3lb. This was just getting better and better!

The bites began to dry up a bit as the rain eased off and the sky became brighter. I switched the feeder rod over to sweetcorn to see if a bait change would spark some interest and cast it out further into the flow. However the potential culprit for the sudden slow up of fish activity showed it's head on the next retrieve of the float rod: I'd had a bite higher up in the swim from what turned out to be a small chub and as it came into the bankside, a massive head erupted from the deep and a huge pike attempted to strike the fish!

Now I've never fished for pike in the summer months as they're far more active in the warmer months and tend to gobble down baits which potentially means deep hooking. However on the advice of some other anglers, I'd been told that lures were the way to go. I didn't have any lures but I did have some sprats so the plan was to fish them pure style on a small trace and see what happened...

So both rods came in, I rigged up the feeder rod with a sprat on a short wire trace and I got casting around the swim. Five or so casts later, the line pulled and the rod tip jerked and I struck into a solid resistance - summer pike on! And it absolutely tore off, they go in winter but they really, really go in summer I didn't have any scales on me but I guestimate it was around 16lb to 18lb - what an amazing result?!

Not surprisingly, the swim was wrecked after that and although I did have another couple of small chub, it really felt like the best of the days fishing had passed and I decided to call it a day. But what a start to the season?! A net full of chub, a cracking bream and a monster pike - and it wasn't even 11.30am, just amazing.

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!

As it turned out, pretty well! I had 10 or so chub, no monsters but plenty of fun. I also had a chance to try out my keepnet, the hope being it would increase the catch rate as released fish wouldn't spook the shoal. I *think* it worked ;)