Warwickshire Avon - Mucky Waters

After a recent trip to Ibiza full of excess and overindulgence it was nice to get back to the peace and tranquillity of the Warwickshire Avon. There had been some rain of late so the water was up and it also had decent pace to it. Still the wrong stage of mucky for a static lump of meat for Barbel so for this session I wanted to rove around a few swims and roll some meat.

One particular swim has a nice overhanging willow that just has to be hiding some fish....

There is nothing special about my rolling set-up, a couple of Preston jumbo locking shot pinched on the line with a large Korda longshank hook to hold a big piece of meat. A centrepin completes the set-up which is ideal for the job. Not only can you adjust the pace of the ‘rolling meat’ but you can also feel all the taps and knocks through your thumb on the spool. 

Within 5 minutes of rocking up at the first swim, a half decent bream had surfaced and a smallish Chub. The first swim is a nice run through, around 60 or 70 yards right under the large willow that blankets the swim and covers half the surface area. It narrows and gathers pace towards the end of the stretch where it ‘tunnels’ through some reeds and thickish streamer reed.

The first fish was a Chub of 3lb or so and the next hour produced another 4 Chub with the biggest 4lb 6oz. The swim went quiet so I went to the next swim upstream and the first fish after the 3rd or 4th cast was a greedy jack pike of 4lb 4oz, a few much needed points for the Bloggers Challenge but will be bettered no doubt when I target them specifically in the winter months. I returned to the first swim and the first roll through I felt a few taps and bumps and struck in to what felt like a decent fish. I caught sight of a slab sided shape though; yeap a snotty had hovered up the meat and was making use of its size in the flow. Not the biggest I’ve caught this season, but 4lb 8oz, not a bad fish.

For the last hour when the isotopes were starting to be show themselves I fished a couple of lone angler caviar pellets under the willow. An almighty whacking bite came around 10.15pm but as it was self imposed, don’t want to ‘take the piss’ packing up time it will have to wait for another day, God know why I didn’t connect, maybe it was some debris that was being washed down, who knows. It definitely felt Barbel like.

With the weekend being filled with usher duties at a friend’s wedding, I’m planning to take a visit to the ‘brook’ over the next couple of days with the same method in mind.

With nearly two weeks away from the river, it was good to be back.