Fecal Matters

With my mate Simon in tow we went to Hopyards on the Warwickshire Avon for a few hours of evening fishing. He didn’t want to venture too far and it’s less than 10 minutes for me and a minute for Simon. It was the first time I fished it, it’s predominately a match venue, slow and deep. Where I was fishing it was 9 or 10ft. In hindsight I should have brought my float gear because it was slow, snail’s pace in-fact.

Just upstream of where I was fishing, Seven Trent have a canal boat sized outlet direct from their sewage works for final effluent release in to the river, there was a definite smell too it, sweet with a hint of chemicals. No doubt the water quality is strictly monitored but I was surprised just how much was being released, the fish didn’t seem to mind it as the area was alive with topping fish and the river like a bubble bath.

To my right was a nice margin swim with lilies and a nice overhanging tree so there I placed a link ledgered lobworm over the top of a few pellets and chopped worm. My other rod I cast mid river with my Barbel set-up, a feeder with pellets and meaty groundbait with 2 superglued pellets on the hair. I missed a few proper pulls on the margin rod which turned out to be a small perch, and the next 3 fish were also pesky small Perch.

Two kingfishers on the far bank kept me entertained for half an hour or so but without any indications on the cavier pellets I decided to have a bit of a reccy further upstream. With rod, landing net and a few lobworms I found a great little swim, peg 10 I think. An overhead bush that was draped in the water and what looked like a big hole. Within seconds I had a Perch about ½ a pound and then with the hook re-baited after a few minutes I was getting a few weird indications on the tip before it finally pulled round. It was ickle jack Pike over around 1 ft long, it was that small I didn’t bother to get the landing net but as I was lifting it out of the water it broke the line.

When I returned to the swim Simon had swapped to a float and lost a couple of small fish, I tried the margin swim again and had a small Chub. A few more Perch we called it a day, Simon blanked but it’s a nice stretch of water that deserves another look.

It looked ideal for Bream, so maybe lots of bait is required next time. The pace looked ideal for trotting a deadbait for Pike or even a static deadbait for Zander or even an eel. Lots to have a go out that’s for sure.

With some rain on the way and the rivers due a refresh, Barbel are on my mind again.