Warwickshire Stour - 28.12.12

With a gap in the rainfall and the Wife talking the kids to a play barn I went for a couple of hours at Wimpstone, the Stour had dropped quite a bit in the last 48 hours so perfectly fishable , the intention was to use a small feeder full of liquidised bread with cheese paste on the hook.

It was a good 5 or 6 swims I tried before I had the first bite, a proper sharp pull of the tip that would have been hard to miss, a decent fight and a nice Chub was on the bank. No scales with me but was over 3lb. The picture below shows the swim, some slack water and some cover by the nearside bank. I stuck with cheese paste as the water was chocolate brown and with reasonable pace to the river, the bread discs probably wouldn't have stayed on the hook for long.

For December it was incredibly mild, 10 Degrees :( I want it cold, the water clear and the levels down fishes so so much better. Who knows when that's going to happen though, probably February time. Bread and lobworms for me has always been the most productive and unlike cheese paste you don't know what will end up on the end of the hook.

The heavens opened and I decided to call it a day, it was type of rain that gets you wet. That was the only fish and the only bite I had in a couple of hours, the fields were littered with flood water debris and the bridge showed the signs just how high the Stour had been, it's going to take time to get back to normal, and the fishing recover, after the Christmas pig out it was nice to be out though.

I've got a job lot of garlic spam in the fridge in the garage and as I don't go back to work till next Wednesday I might try Snitterfield Reservoir to see if anything is biting, that or as the weather has been mild and the Avon dropping I might get the Barbel gear out and ledger some garlic spam at Hampton Lucy Brook. I'll be checking the EA webpage with the Avon levels with interest, it certainly looked like it dropped quite a bit when I drove through Stratford this morning, Lucy's Mill looked as angry as ever though, maybe it's wishful thinking.

Oh and by the looks of these pictures I need to clean the lens on my camera, then again might be the stench off the maturing cheese paste causing all sorts of issues, the smell certainly has a similar effect on the wife, she hates the stuff.