It's been a long time since I blogged but one of my new years targets is to write a post for each session with a video so here we go. I've decided to keep them shorter as I think one of the reasons I'd not been writing them is they tend to get a bit war a piece... Short and snappy is the aim from now on.

I've been doing loads of piking on the River Avon between Swineford and Keynsham over the winter months and had some fantastic sessions. It's really helped me learn the water, find the best spots and hone my piking skills.

The 'tree swim' has been very kind to me and this session was no different, with the 1st (and only!) bite coming within 3 minutes of casting out! Unfortunately the rest of the day went without a bite... but hey, that's fishing!

Ten minutes into the session and the ledger rod baited with 1/2 a herring ripped off and after a tense fight this monster of a pike slipped into the landing net...

Unusually for me, I had some scales on me and gave it a weigh all be it in oz rather than lbs! You'll notice me breathlessly proclaim a 36 pounder in the video! Got a bit carried away...

But a bit of maths later and I've settled on 22lb - which is such a result ;)

One very happy pike angler!

The action was very slow.... but I did manage to put one fantastic pike on the bank which looks amazing in the light.

Also the 1st time I've used my DSLR for video. I think there's a lot to learn, especially with regard to focusing and sound!

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!