The day started badly in that I managed to miss two runs within the first 10 minutes of fishing!

But it ended with an amazing monster pike... what a fish!

What wasn't good was the sheer amount or discarded fishing tackle and rubbish on the banks...

I filled a plastic bag with cans, drinks bottles, snack wrappers, plastic bags, luncheon meat cans, sweetcorn cans, about 20 metres of line, weights, hooks, jig heads... It was pretty disgusting.

And then i came across a bloody great knife! just chucked in the undergrowth. WTF?!

I know the river is used by people other than anglers but most of what I picked up today could only have been left by so called fishermen.

Please, please, please tidy up behind yourselves! Otherwise, you don't deserve to fish, simple as that. It's spoiling what is otherwise a fantastic stretch of river!

Despite the cold it was incredibly busy so it was a good call arriving early. I wasn't counting but at least 10 pike anglers walked past me while I was fishing...

Despite the cold, it was a great few hours on the bank ;)

And the only one to grace the bank was the smallest pike I've ever caught... Possibly, the smallest pike in the Avon?!

All good fun though ;)

I lost more than I caught! But it was a great day, I learnt some new skills 'twitching' sprats and catching jack pike on a float rod and covered some new water that I've not fished before.

All in all, fantastic fishing!