At last Summer has arrived! Well south of the Midlands at least. We had the Bristol “Harbour Festival” here this weekend, and with the children broken up from school, Saturday was a family day out to see the boats, bands and various entertainment available all free of charge, one of a couple of great weekends our city sets up for all. The “Balloon fiesta” being another one we are looking forward to. Monday saw us all in Weston Super Mare for an Air Show which was the Best I have seen yet, the Red Arrows were the star attraction and lived upto their billing, but the other displays were wonderful too.
The weather scorchio, and so Tuesday afternoon had come upon us, and a trip out had been arranged for a good look at the Teme with my mate. We actually took polaroids with us incase we could see some fish, No Chance, the river still had a foot or so of water on and was running with colour too. This may not have been a bad thing for the fishing, but certainly was for finding the groups of fish. As we tried several likely swims and had not a bite between us, doubt was creeping in. Then a lucky choice of swim, saw lots of tip action with plucks and line bites, time to stay put for a while in this swim.

A slight change of tactics and minor adjustments and the rod was towed over in my hand, the evening was very warm and set to turn a fish or two more up, the swim did not disappoint. The next bite came whilst the rod was resting on a branch close to the surface and as I was tying a new rig, from laying motionless to the drag kicking in, was split second timing. The line was grating on the branch and I was quick to retrieve it before the weak spot was found by the energised fish. After a few more casts I walked elsewhere and tried a couple more swims for nowt, so returned on dark to try the holding swim.
Only 15 minutes later and another fish of 6lb or so was on, a little rest for the swim and in the darkness – the fourth and last fish of a very nice evening session graced the net at 7lb 4oz it was a good sport!
Lets now hope the rivers can enjoy summer, and we get to have our lines tugged some more. Good Luck.