The weather couldn't have been better as we arrived on the Somerley stretch of the Hampshire Avon, albeit late after collecting Lee (our son) from the airport and dropping Sandy off in Southampton shopping. We arrived at 1pm, just after the 10am scheduled start.
We initially legered for chub and barbel without success, but then had some fun switching to a float and trotting, catching dace to 6oz.
Then we got cleaned up to join everyone at the fundrasing dinner. Trevor Harrop and Budgie Price have done a fantastic job founding the Avon Roach project which has now reached the point where three year old fish are being reintroduced into the Avon. A similar project has copied the work on the Dorset Stour, and roach projects are in their infancy on the Wensum and also the Severn. It is no wonder that they have been awarded the Fred J Taylor conservation prize at the CLA game fair, it is richly deserved. You can see and read all about their work on
www.avonroachproject.co.uk
The highlight of the evening was the charity auction selling fishing days, books and items of tackle rnging from old cane rods to the latest hardy rod and an Arnold King Pin reel.
We puchased a weekend fishing on an exclusive stretch of the Avon, together with a DVD made my Hugh Miles of the work of the Avon Roach Project which will be donated to Angling Heritage along with a few books. In all, over £4,000 was raised which will be split 50/50 between the roach project and environmental work on the river for the Barbel Society.
The final event of the evening was the presentation of the trophy for the match which was won with a 6lb+ chub, although most people blanked as the Somerley Estate is not the water it was once, and this clearly shows how badly projects of these types are needed.
On the Sunday, Sandy and I were able to collect a fishing library of some classic carp, pike and eel titles which will be loaded on the system in the next couple of weeks whilst Lee stayed on and fished the Avon higher up near Ibsley Bridge catching a nice bag of perch on worms up to the 12oz mark.
We met up at the end of the day with Chris Yates to sign his special edition titles that Sandy has produced and to talk fishing at length into the later evening over dinner.
What a special way to end a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and we delighted to be able to support such worthwhile work.