It's been a while since Gav, and I tried a new spot. This one was definitely Gavin Lofty Hughes idea. We had visited Melksham earlier in the year with minimal success. Gav was interested in trying a new section from the weir down past the Sainsbury's. The stretch looked at first glance to be reed-choked and very shallow. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.
After a very uncharacteristic late start, mainly due to Darcy the dickhead dobermutt, keeping me awake, I woke late. Anyone who knows me knows this is a cardinal sin in my book, and this kind of set me off in a bad mood from the off. A rushed cup of tea, a quickly loaded car, and an apologetic text to Gav, and I was on the road.
We forewent the quick trip to the top of the flight in Devizes and headed straight down to the Avon in Melksham. Thankfully, I had procured the day tickets from Stu at The Tackle Company the previous day. At 4 quid, they were a bargain. We parked up and headed straight to the weir.
First chuck, first fish; at this point I was hoping the first cast hoodoo would not give me bad Juju. We managed a few small (mid-20s) perch from the weir when it surprisingly died off. We headed downstream toward the town bridge, then along the side of Sainsbury's, stopping to check out a few swims along the way.
To be fair, we were catching pretty consistently, and the long-handled landed net was put to full use. I bagged probably the biggest perch of the day at 33cm and a couple of pike. Now, normally we would not be so keen to see the pike on the mat, but I was after anything today and bagged a couple of 80cm+ fish. They looked in great condition and definitely were very lively.
For me, I tried a few lures and methods, but it was the Gunki Rockstar 59s https://predatortackle.co.uk/Soft-Lure.../Gunki-Rockstar-59/ that did the damage. I only had one fish on the bumpy; everything else was to the Rockstars in one pattern or another. I fished weedless with a 4g cheb while Gav had success on a number of lures, and for him the dropshot and open jig were productive. Gav also managed a couple of small chub on the dropshot.
Bites really dried up around 11am, and the final fish fell to Gav, completing the triple species challenge for the day. I pulled a glide bait past a pike's nose a couple of times, but Gav expertly angled out a pike on the good old Zander Pro.
I think at that point we knew it was going to be a grind and headed back to the car and called it a day.
4 quid for a day ticket was a steal tbh.
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