I was looking forward to fishing the Kenn which can be fantastic at this time of year for roach if you can put up with the mud. The Environment Agency lower the level by up to 6 feet leaving 2 foot to 3 foot of water when the tide is out but it runs all day. I called into Cadbury Angling on the Saturday afternoon and picked up 2 pints of red maggot, this is all I intended to take. The guys in the shop said high tide was around 09:30 for the Sunday and it was not going to be significant. The tide is important on the Kenn, when it pens up the river moves the opposite way then pauses for a while before running off, during this time you rarely catch much. Another angler in the shop was also picking up bait intending to fish the river as well but appeared to be going down near the sea wall. This area is ok and you can stay clean but dog walkers can ruin your peg throwing sticks and balls in, plus the golf course is on the far bank, at times you need a helmet!
I headed out of the house around 08:45 and a short 15 minute drive took me to the Cross Water area where the old River Kenn runs into the Blind Yeo (aka the Kenn). There was a nice bit of pace here and I was tempted but thought it might be a bit early to fish this spot, the fish usually migrate up to this area in March to spawn. I headed off to Kenn Road in Clevedon and decided to fish the Car Park stretch, nice and peaceful.
Gear was placed over the gate and two trips saw me ready to set up below the footbridge. The bank at the waters edge was not too bad and I set up my box on a big metal plate that had been put there a number of years ago to stop you sinking in the mud. I thought the tide was starting to run off but while setting up the one rod with a 3AA waggler with a No.8 and two No. 10's as droppers, hook length 0.10 powerline to an 18 drennan maggot hook it started to back up (penn) and flow the other way. I set up anyway and got nice and comfortable. I had about 3 feet down the middle and across about 2 feet.
Ready to go
I fired in about 10 maggots on both lines before my first cast at this point the water was more or less still meaning it was high tide. I was surprised when the float went under after about 30 secs and a decent roach was on, it gave a good fight and I soon had a good 10 oz specimen in the net. Another 3 smaller samples followed around 4 - 4 oz in as many casts, happy days. The river seemed to pause for quite a while and it took about 30 mins for the flow to go the right was and I did not get any bites during the pause and after the few early roach.
As soon as it did flow with a bit of pace I caught 4 decent perch one after the other, best one was around 1.5 lbs. A cold spell seemed to come in and it was very errie with mist coming in off the sea and another blank spell of about 20 mins started. I kept the feed going in and eventually started to pick up roach again for the rest of the session, I packed up around 3 p.m. as it was freezing.
Pulling my net out I estimate I had around 10 lb and was happy with that. As I got back to the car to load up another Clevedon Angler pulled up, can't remember his name but he fishes natura; venues as well. he had been down the bottom end and only had 2 roach, he also said another angler in the same area was struggling (must have been the guy I saw in the shop on the Saturday) as well. Needless to say he was surprised I had caught so much.
I will try and get back on the Kenn before the end of the season and possibly try the Cross Water area. I also remember there was a good 50lb bag of roach from the Kenn last March in the closing week of the season. I am also drawn to the Tone as well. Its fantastic to have good natural venues on your door step. I urge anyone else to take advantage.
No comments:
Post a Comment