Paul Collins
Senior Member
Went down to Southampton to stay with my sister for the weekend, well, sleep at my sisters and continue flogging away for my first Avon Salmon. 16th June is the first day shrimping is allowed down there so armed with a pack of Kenwynns finest reds I set off hoping to get the first fish off the beat this year. (as far as I know).
The journey from my sisters to the Avon takes me past the Itchen and with a Spring tide that day an hour in a pool I know could well be worthwhile if there were any Salmon in. Long story short, about the 20th cast the float buried and I was attached to a very lively fish, great fun on my favoured centerpin and braid mainline. With thoughts of Greenacre's 35lb Avon fish I'd got some 15lb fluro and it was a great confidence boost to see that it wasn't too heavy and put the fish off. After quite a while reviving the fish another angler turned up armed with spinning gear so after a chat I left him to do his best in the pool.
Brimming with confidence I set off to the Avon, arriving at the beat the estate keeper was there and he pointed out a likely lie to me and he assured me there were a few fish in residence, one described as big. This lie is impossible to fish with fly or spinner and involves a long cast. It was very windy and after struggling for a while with the centerpin I Reluctantly put on the fixed spool, 30lb braid. Still difficult but eventually managed to get the shrimp running through the lie. It was fairly shallow with a fair bit of weed and after catching up a few times I reduced the depth to around 4 feet. About the 10th run through the float buried again and I was connected to the second bar of silver that day, only this one was bigger, much bigger, and treated me to some aerial acrobatics. Conveniently it made a couple of long runs to the far bank and upstream and after a long hard fight I had it in the net, aided by a nearby coarse angler, who kindly took this picture. It really was a bright bar of silver but in the picture it looks a bit darker.
A couple of hours later having tried various other lies I returned to the scene of the crime for ''one last cast'' before fishing another pool on the way back to the car. Float buries again, another bar of silver and another lively fight, smaller fish than the first, if anything it fought a bit harder. I bullied it into the net as quickly as possible, it had taken about 3/4 of an hour to fully revive the other one, lying face down on the bank holding the fish at arms length. This one also went back ok and I returned to my sisters for a well deserved drink!
So, 3 Salmon from 2 rivers in 1 day! Doubt very much I'll ever do that again.
The journey from my sisters to the Avon takes me past the Itchen and with a Spring tide that day an hour in a pool I know could well be worthwhile if there were any Salmon in. Long story short, about the 20th cast the float buried and I was attached to a very lively fish, great fun on my favoured centerpin and braid mainline. With thoughts of Greenacre's 35lb Avon fish I'd got some 15lb fluro and it was a great confidence boost to see that it wasn't too heavy and put the fish off. After quite a while reviving the fish another angler turned up armed with spinning gear so after a chat I left him to do his best in the pool.
Brimming with confidence I set off to the Avon, arriving at the beat the estate keeper was there and he pointed out a likely lie to me and he assured me there were a few fish in residence, one described as big. This lie is impossible to fish with fly or spinner and involves a long cast. It was very windy and after struggling for a while with the centerpin I Reluctantly put on the fixed spool, 30lb braid. Still difficult but eventually managed to get the shrimp running through the lie. It was fairly shallow with a fair bit of weed and after catching up a few times I reduced the depth to around 4 feet. About the 10th run through the float buried again and I was connected to the second bar of silver that day, only this one was bigger, much bigger, and treated me to some aerial acrobatics. Conveniently it made a couple of long runs to the far bank and upstream and after a long hard fight I had it in the net, aided by a nearby coarse angler, who kindly took this picture. It really was a bright bar of silver but in the picture it looks a bit darker.
A couple of hours later having tried various other lies I returned to the scene of the crime for ''one last cast'' before fishing another pool on the way back to the car. Float buries again, another bar of silver and another lively fight, smaller fish than the first, if anything it fought a bit harder. I bullied it into the net as quickly as possible, it had taken about 3/4 of an hour to fully revive the other one, lying face down on the bank holding the fish at arms length. This one also went back ok and I returned to my sisters for a well deserved drink!
So, 3 Salmon from 2 rivers in 1 day! Doubt very much I'll ever do that again.
