Up until now, I've relied heavily on supermarkets for my dead bait supplies but last week my freezer was empty meaning the only choice was to hit the tackle shop en route to the river...

The selection was great, as was the quality so I can't fault them there. However the price was a little more than I was expecting... My £5 got me two packs of sardines and with three in a pack, that's £0.83 a bait! Not to bad I hear you say but with a bait as soft as a sardine, you'll only get one or two casts max before it disintegrated so it can get quite expensive.

Luckily for me, Tesco had a good selection of fish in today so I decided to a price comparison. I bought eight sardines and the total cost was £1.68 which works out at a much more affordable £0.21 a bait which makes me a lot less precious about casting them out! I also picked up fifteen sprats which at £0.48 were a bargain.

Performance wise, I've never had any problems with supermarket baits and after my price comparison, I think that's what I'll be sticking with in the future!

After a couple of really productive sessions I was really hopeful of a couple of bites. I'd come armed with the ever reliable sprats, sardines and mackerel and the plan was to hit the same swims as before using the same methods of drifting and ledgering.

But after moving 3 times with nothing to show for it, it was clear today was going today was going to be tough...

As it turned out, the only bite of the day came late afternoon after moving to the 6th swim. The 'dead tree swim' has produced the goods in the past and this session was no different - a good looking micro jack pike that took a stinky sardine that was nearly as long as itself!

And that was it. I didn't get so much as a knock in any of the other swims but it was lovely to be out on the bank in the unseasonal November weather.

Fingers crossed it's not a sign of things to come! I've hit the Crane Stretch a couple of times over the last month so maybe a trip to Swineford for the next session is in order?

Most of my efforts this season have been focused on The Crane stretch of the river but today I decided to check out the conditions down at the Swineford end. The thing I'd forgotten about was the recent rain we've had... The river was very, very high, fast flowing and the banks were extremely muddy and ripped to shreds! Couple that with bright sunlight and you've not got the winning conditions for pike fishing.

The big problem with the Swinford stretch of the river is the swims: there's really only 4 or so in the first two fields that are fishable and conditions dictate if you can even get down to them due to the steep banks. Not surprisingly, the two pike anglers who'd beat me to the bank were occupying the best swims and the other fishable swims had pretty much been washed away!

I did try one swim but after fishing for 10 minutes I decided that if a fish did come along, landing it would be a dangerous task so erring on the side of safety I decided to up sticks and head to the Crane section for another go.

The conditions were pretty much the same but at least I could get down to the waters edge in relative safety! But with no takers or any signs of fish in the four swims I tried, it looked like this session would be a blank. Not surprising considering the conditions! But it was beaut to be out on the bank and I used my time to study the water and seek out some potential spots for future sessions.

Fingers crossed the weather will improve over the Xmas break and into January. Although I've had loads of small pike over the last couple of months, I've yet to hook into a monster... Watch this space!

By the time I'd got to the river the conditions had completely changed. We'd gone from snow to rain to sunshine all in the space of half an hour... Madness. After picking up some sardines from the tackle shop, I set off upstream and was really surprised to see that the water level was normal, there was hardly any flow and the clarity was pretty good - maybe I was spot on for a bite or two?!

The 'cow poo' swim on the corner didn't produce a knock or a tap so after sitting in the freezing cold shadow of a tree I desperately needed to get out into the sun which by 10.30am was shining brightly. After a quick stomp across the 1st field and I decided to try either side of the tree swim on the corner, starting in the super snaggy side to the right. However, as I dropped the 2nd bait in the water I happened to glance over my shoulder and noticed a rapidly approaching huge grey snow laden cloud...

Before I knew it, the heavens opened and I was in the midst of a mini snow blizzard! If this didn't switch the fish on, what would?! But after a soggy 20 minutes with nothing to show for my efforts I hopped round to the left side of the tree for another go. The sun came out again as quickly as it had disappeared and with in five minutes of the bait being in the water the rod tip sprang into life and I'd finally got my 1st bite of the season from the tree swim!

Only a micro jack but what the hell - it was a blank saver!

The rest of the day passed without so much as a knock or a tap. The conditions got steadily worse with the sun shining and the wind getting up - it was bloody freezing! I tried 3 more swims, settling in the 'white house swim' just over the cattle grid on the way back to the car for the last hour, mainly as it was out of the wind...

No fish, but the robin that had been following me up and down the river all day finally plucked up the courage to perch next to me. Luckily I had the camera in hand and managed to snap a nice close up of him before he realised!

So another tough day on the bank. It's snowed more over the weekend but I'm looking out on another sunny day in Bristol... Fingers crossed the conditions will get better over the Xmas break and the monster pike I got into last season will put in an appearance over the next couple of weeks?!

I've had such an amazing run of excellent pike sessions on the Bristol River Avon over the last month or so, with loads of jack's and a couple of nearly double fish falling to ledgered sardines. But now we're into late November the weather is becoming a much bigger factor...

We had really heavy rain overnight on Wednesday and from checking the water levels on Friday morning I could see the river was higher than usual. As I walked into the 1st field to my new 'banker swim' just on the bend my heart sunk... Although there'd been a frost and it was very cold (great for pikeing, not great for fingers!) I could see that the river was very coloured and hacking through a quite a pace. Several of the swims that I'd fished on previous sessions were unfishable due to being the underwater!

But out went the rods and I couldn't quite believe it when the left hand rod ripped off minutes after the bait got the deck! However I struck into nothing... Very odd...

Unfortunately this set the theme for the day. My baits were being attacked and ripped to shreds minutes after being cast out. I'm 99.9% that the coloured water had brought the eels out in force and they were enjoying a free meal. It's happened to me before on the Avon and although eels are on the endangered list, they seem to be prolific in the river.

I persevered though, moving through five swims but as the sun started to sink at around 4pm I packed down with nothing to show for my efforts.

Damn. My 1st blank.