Walked a good stretch of the River Chew today with Red and his dog Sid. Weather bitterly cold with strong NE winds. The water was coming down to a normal level (what is normal in the current climate!) with a touch of colour. Most of the section you couldn't sight fish as the water was slower and deep. We saw just one small dimple rise. The area we walked had very little cover though so any fish would have been spooked long before we had clocked them. We moved on to another section and to our surprise saw a dozen or so stocked Rainbows jostling for position in the flow. These were hauled up in a section shrouded in trees. They were the lucky fish from last season who had not been caught, washed downstream or predated. Couldn't see any wild fish but that was probably because they were well hidden in the deeper holes of the undercut banks. Also saw a pair of Goosander on this stretch.
On my way back to Bristol stopped off at the Chew lower down and lucked upon Rich Denning from Keynsham AA. He was just netting, would you believe it, a Rainbow of about 2.5lb he had just caught ledgering for Chub. This is one of the ones that had been washed down from the stocked stretch. It didn't surprise me that the fish had taken up residence a fair way from where it was put in as the Keynsham stretch offers cover in abundance.
