Sunday 15th November - Roach fishing on the River Kenn

 It was meant to be a Clevedon Club Match on the Kenn today but Lockdown 2 cancelled that.

Looking at the weather forecast it wasn't too clever but looking ahead to the earlier part of the week it did not improve. I was returning from getting bait at Cadbury Angling on the Saturday and coming back into Clevedon I saw a car parked up on the bridge aside the Kenn Rd Car Park section so pulled over to check the angler out.

It turned out to be Paul Randall. Paul was fishing just above the Footbridge trotting an avon float 3/4 the way across using 8mm punched bread on a 10 hook!!! He was also feeding liquidised bread with a little brown crumb in it and the float was going under every run through. Not massive roach but in the 4 oz range, lovely.

The river was up at its normal level and the tide was spot on for the weekend so decided I would fish on the Sunday.

When I woke up on the Sunday morning just before 07:30 I could hear the wind and the rain outside, bugger...so had another hour in bed.

At 08:30 it was much better so was up and out of the house at 09:15.

I decided on the car park section and settled in on peg 51 nice and close to the water. The wind was an upstreamer but the flow was such that it did not present a problem running and avon float through, a 6BB was perfect with a bulk 2 x no.8 as a dropper between the bulk and the hook which was a size 18 to 0.11.

I had a pint of caster still in a sealed bag from 3 weeks ago and they were ok when washed off. I also had a pint of hemp and some reds. I decided given the temperature and the colour to mix up some ground bait, a 50/50 mix of senses river and gros gardons.

Two egg sized balls went in at the start and it was a roach first run through. Bites, bites and more bites followed and then after an hour or so ceased. Small fish were jumping out of the water so big perch or pike had moved in.

They came back after a while and I had a thoroughly enjoyable session. I lost a big fish at the end of the trot when it broke the hook length, big tench or perhaps a pike. 

Feeding regular nuggets of ground bait laced with hemp and caster was key today. Trotting a float through and holding back is a great method on the river when conditions allow, this section is definitely worth another visit soon.

Best net of roach I have had on the Kenn this year.