Warwickshire Avon - Red-eye and the Redfin

Saturday, 6.45am and the 5 Eastern European men with their cobbled together predator tackle are all drinking beer (if you can call it that). Two are occupying the peg I wanted to fish so after a brief word (pleasant I might add) , all but one with a rod licence, 3 with Warwick books I decided to up-sticks and move to an alternative venue.I had intended to try for a reputed Tench the stretch holds but I decided to drive a few miles away where I knew I would likely be the only angler.

Perch wouldn’t usually be my target but there is a nice area of oxygenated foamy water where despite the difficult conditions the odd fish could be found, not only that but here is one particular swim that when it’s coloured there will be half decent Perch in residence. I decided to swing by home and also bring my light lure rod as I’ve had success in the past with a small shad.

The Avon is proper gin clear and low, the clearest I’ve seen it in a long time, we really do need some rain as a bit of colour really does transform the fishing. I could see the bottom of the banker swim and as expected was devoid of fish, I cast in a lobworm for 10 minutes and not even a nibble….

…. so after performing a necessary worm massacre, the chopped chum concoction was deposited in the heart of the swim and left to rest for an hour or so and I moved downstream to the frothy spumescent swim. After half an hour or so with a firetiger shad without even a follow or a take I switched to a different colour and pattern all together, far less vibrant and within a few casts it was hit by something, a proper whack it was too. Initially I thought it was a small jack but then I caught a glimpse of the bright red fins, fantastic a Perch. 

Not a huge one in the scheme of things but a few more points in the bloggers challenge, 1lb 12oz. It was fairly skinny but had nice proud hunches so I suspect in a couple of months it will be well over 2lb. Another half hour or so without a bite I returned to the scene of the internecion to see if there were now Perch in the swim, sure enough as soon as the king wriggler entered the swim the tip was being pulled round. That continued till I ran out of lobworms, nothing of size the biggest a 1lb or so but considering the conditions weren’t the best an enjoyable morning…