Last week I made my first river trip of the year, visiting the Upper Severn. After what seems like months of floods and snow water entering the river it was pleasing to find the river back at normal winter level with just a tinge of colour.

When fishing the Upper Severn I’ve found it pays to keep on the move as the fish seem to move about a lot and often a seemingly perfect swim doesn’t hold fish. A gave the first two swims a couple of casts without success and then had a bite within seconds of the bait settling in the third swim only to bump the fish on the strike. Not surprisingly a further cast produced nothing so I moved downstream and this time missed a bite but didn’t spook them as next cast I hooked one and soon a 3lb plus chub was in the net. The next swim produced two fish, which is rare on this stretch of the river, both chub being between 3 and 4lb, which was surprising as in the past about half the fish I’ve caught off this stretch are over 4lb. The fish fell to simple link leger tactics with breadflake or Sonubaits garlic and hemp paste on the hook.

As dusk fell I moved into my last swim and surprisingly the bites got more finicky and I missed all 3 over the space of an hour which was very frustrating and I left feeling the chub had won. But on a positive the ice had cleared the weed away.

A return to gravel pit roach saw five 2lb+ roach come to the net, the best 2lb 15oz and a bit! All came on bolt rigs with Preston 50g feeders and Size 18 hooks tied to 3-inch hook-lengths of 0.13mm Preston Reflo. I don’t think it’s coincidence that Reflo is the hook-link of choice of most of the anglers fishing the venue because it knots so well for a low diameter hook-length.

In addition to the roach I had a rudd of 2lb 5oz, a fish that clearly didn’t agree with the widely held view that rudd are a summer species. As the session ended early when I awoke to a lake covered in ice on the second morning. Three of us waited until after lunch hoping it would clear but by 2pm the air temperature was dropping again and the ice hadn’t receded beyond the weed that despite the cold weather has persisted to cover 30 yards from the bank.