6th March - River Avon

Recently I was given a furled indicator to test by a member of the FFF and to give it a fair whack I made the trip down to the bit of water I know best, the Wilthsire Avon.

The little stream was in fine condition, a good height with a little tinge of colour, hopefully the fish would be feeding confidentally despite the bright conditions.

I started the day short line nymphing with the indicator on a small side stream and managed a few decent grayling, however I felt that when short roll casts are required the indicator was a bit detrimental and possibly spooky to the fish in shallow clear water. I took it off and just watched the line, the takes became more frequent although the fish were smaller?! It was a beautiful day to be outside and the small stream produced a dozen grayling and 5 brown trout in the two hours I was with her.


The glide that leads up to this section of bushes always holds a good head of grayling, and occasionally a surprise lump of a trout (especially during the mayfly).


A string of 3 good grayling all came to the indicator fished at short range, all were pretty much carbon copies from the same run.




A few brutish browns put in an appearance to bend the rod, not long now before they will become fair targets for my dry flies.



The top of the strecth is a weir that has to be packed with fish, although despite fishing it every time I pass, I have never caught anything from it. Had a follow once!


As I reached the weir at the top of the stream I decided to switch and fish the main river, it is a lot wider and probably better suited to the indicator, probably a better test. It proved to be a good call as after another hours fishing I had landed another 7 grayling and 1 more trout (not exactly a record breaker).


The main river is a lot wider than the stream with a strong but even flow through most of its length, the grayling seemed to be held up off the edges of current created by the winters debris.




It was good to see the future of sport here putting in an appearance, hungry little buggers.


It was a lovely bright day and the fish were feeding, I feel the furled indicators are a useful tool for certain types of fishing but probably a hinderance on smaller streams or spookier fish. On the main river it did allow me to fish at more range than normal and still deteect finicky bites. Useful tool to add to the armoury.