My 1st two sessions out on the River Avon (My 1st Session On The River Avon And My 1st River Pike! and A Pre Christmas Pike Session On The Bristol Avon) went incredibly well, with multiple pike being caught (and lost) and my Dad also bagging up on silvers and a monster perch.

But the last three sessions have resulted in a frustrating mix of finicky bites and not a single fish gracing the bank. It's been so slow that I've only recorded one video...

I've been giving a great deal of thought to the recent change in luck. The first thing is that the weather has been very unseasonable recently, with mild days and a lot of rain. So much rain that on the 2nd blank session out, the river had flooded most of the previous swims we'd fished and the flow was so fast that finding any areas of slack was virtually impossible...

In the video above, I managed to hook and loose a small jack pike but went to on to be plagued with nips and pulls on the line. This has also happened on the 2nd and 3rd trips and based on the amount of eels my Dad pulled out during the flood session, I've a feeling that these slimy snakes maybe the cause of all the missed bites rather than pike...

Having given the water a week or so to subside, I decided to take my daughter Lilly-Grace out this Sunday just gone for a 3 hour afternoon session. There was a feeling of pike in the air with a hard frost on the Saturday and no rain forecast (although it did end up drizzling all morning...).

But despite moving swims every 20 minutes, covering a lot of water and investigating every snaggy, pikey looking stretch of water, the best we could muster was a string of bites on one rod which again I'm going to put down to the dreaded eels...

We also bumped into 4 other anglers all of which hadn't had any interest all day!

So something is up! I'm resisting going down the route of changing bait, tactics etc. etc. as I know what I've used in the past has worked and I'm reluctant to over complicate it (a common mistake in carp fishing...).

So we've decided to give the river fishing a break for a week or so and the next session will be up at Lower Kilcott Farm to bag up on energetic carp and silvers on the method and float rod. I need a bend in the rod and if you can't catch at Kilcott, it's time to take up knitting!

But be warned River Avon Pike, I will be back...

As it turned out, I had four in the 1st ten minutes of casting out! The action was slow and steady for the rest of the day and I had a grand time despite the conditions.

If you've not fished it, give it a go!

Just about the worst weather I've fished in for ages... But I was desperate to get on the bank! Loads of small carp kept me busy all day ;)

As it turns out, it was 3rd time lucky and I managed to get a couple of decent fish in a short day session - all came good in the end.

So I decided to head down to Follyfoot Fishery to try a bit of cold water carping. As it turned out, it was an incredibly tough session...