River Severn at Hampton Loade (Bridgenorth) 3^rd July 2011

This was our first trip to the Severn, my brother and I had fished rivers before, but not with the size of the barbel and chub this river holds, so it was a new fishing experience.

It was trial and error for the three day we were there but with local knowledge and many hours on the river, our very still feeder tips soon started to get good pull rounds and good fish were taken.

All barbel and chub were taken at night and at first light, the barbel were between 3-8lb and chub about 3lb, with very good roach 1-2lb taken on corn during the day. Unfortunately we only had the camera for our last night.

My brother also had two eels about 3lb on meat at night.

We stayed at the Unicorn Inn campsite which is on the river, on the campsite side of the river there is plenty of day tickets pegs from the pub, if you go further along to the left of the campsite section you start on the Barbel Alley section where day tickets night and day are available from the bailiff, who was a valuable asset in catching with his knowledge of that stretch.

Water
River Severn, Barbel Alley and Unicorn Pub section Hampton Loade.


Peg

Double peg 2/3 of the way down the Barbel alley section.

 

Tactics

Heavy feeder/avon rods, 10lb braid/8lb mono on the reels, 23-30oz feeder for slack water, 40-50oz feeder for faster central water. 3-4 foot hook lengths 6lb mono to size 12 barbed korum quick stop hair rig. Bait was 8mm halibut and 10mm meat on the hook, halibut 6mm pelets and halibut river ground bait in the feeder. Fishing up and down stream 5-6 feet from the bank and out in the middle in the faster water.

Photo's