In case you’re wondering this blog is about two differing venues, not Sonu’s latest offering!

It’s been an odd couple of months for me on the fishing front. I never seem to be able to settle in August when the bream and tench fishing has past it’s best and the river species haven’t come into prime condition. Add in hot weather, nettles at their worst and loads of insects that want to feed on you and it’s fair to say it’s not my favourite time of year!

This year I decided to try for a new species to me – catfish. The plan was to have a couple of four day sessions down south. Unfortunately the first trip was curtailed to two days due to a charity fish-in though it didn’t stop my mate landing a 43lb 4oz cat on meat. I lost a big fish and my landing net remained dry. This fish was a reminder that following the crowd isn’t always a good idea as we’d been told bottom baits were a waste of time and “you’ve got to be on livebaits”. As Alan Stagg had showed previously feeding catfish cannot resist a nice easy meal, so long as it’s tasty!

On the second trip I broke my duck with a 14lb 14oz cat and Rob had another of exactly 43lb 4oz. The fish came on meat fished over a bed of Sonubaits shellfish plum boilies. On my last trip in September the catfish seemed to be completely off the feed and over 2 days nobody on the lake banked one.

The dry weather in September has meant that every river in the country is in need of rain to get the fish feeding. In the end I gave up waiting for rain and decided to have a quick go for chub on the Upper Severn and try to christen my new Preston Innovations Excel 12.5ft Feeder. This is one of my favourite venues as unlike many of the places I fish which get very busy, I rarely see another angler and even if I do there are loads of swims to go around. I doubt you could find a more contrasting venue to the Split Lake!

The main difficulty is the fish stocks are low so unlike many rivers you can come across a perfect looking swim but there are no fish there. The answer is to move regularly and fish lots of spots and with a bit of luck you eventually find a fish or two. As expected there was no sign of other anglers and I had to fish 8 swims before I got a bite on luncheon meat flavoured with Sonubaits Monster Crab. The culprit was a cracking fish of 5lb 8oz – not big for some rivers but a fine specimen for the Severn.  As is often the case the bite came within seconds of casting – they obviously like the crab flavour!

The added bonus of there being few anglers is that many of the fish have never been hooked before and as a result they fight like no other chub I’ve ever encountered. You certainly wouldn’t land them on the fine line tactics deployed by some anglers at places like Throop! The new rod handled it perfectly and my overall impression of the rod was excellent. It has three quiver tips of 1,2 & 3oz, which cover every situation, and the extra length makes it easier to hold chub out of nearside snags – of which there are plenty on the Upper Severn! 

Hopefully we’ll get some rain soon and then I’ll be after a few barbel – the only problem being that every barbel angler in the country will be thinking the same thing! I’m confident Sonubaits will ensure I catch my share!