Warwickshire Avon – Trotting like flies

I love these midweek evening sessions, the sun retracting, the gnats at their most active and the river surface comes alive. I had to be on the move so roving and trotting was the order of the day, sciatica that had laid largely dormant for a few years had been creeping back in over the last couple of weeks, the usual symptoms, lower back pain, numbness and pins and needles. After 6 mths of excruciating pain, physio and the use of private chiropractors, it finally it sorted itself out. I need to keep it at bay, being as active as possible works so sitting on ones posterior looking at a quivertip just won’t cut it, to be honest with the river so clear trotting was probably the best way to tackle it anyway.

Got to love the humble earthworm....

such a primitive hermaphroditic life form that hasn’t evolved since its existence on earth 120million years ago, getting on with its day job of enriching and aerating the soil and generally keeping itself to itself. For us anglers though it’s up there as one of the best baits. A hooked or chopped worm literally oozes amino acids that attract fish from a great distance. It’s a visual bait too, so in clear rivers like it was today, a bit fat wriggling lobworm on the hook is hard for a fish to refuse.

I’ve caught all manner of decent fish from this stretch, one being the King of the river, the Perch. This was my target for this trip, if they were absent in the October banker swim, I had to find them. With the river clear many fish such as Barbel and Chub will be seeking sanctuary so a moving bait is ideal as it can bring them out from their cover. I don’t mess around when trotting, a big buoyant float secure between a couple of Drennan grippa stops, a wide gape hook tied direct to the line and the bulk shot a few inches away. The Centrepin features in much of my fishing these days, and especially when catching a Barbel it just feels right when playing a fish, I find the control infinitely better than a fixed spool just takes a little time to get used to. 

Not ideal conditions low and clear but after roving around to 5 or 6 swims I still managed plenty of fish, perch a plenty albeit nothing big, 8 or 9 chublets and also a nice Chub of around 3.5lb. The float is secured by a silicon sleeve so as the light was fading I removed the float and put a piece of meat on the hook. Within a few minutes a Chub gave it a good pull but the bite didn’t develop. I left it for half an hour and decided to head back home, it was only upon retrieval that I realised it had nabbed the bait and I’d fished half an hour with bugger all on the hook, dooohhhhh.