Warwickshire Avon – Zanderdatory

The remainder of the French blue cheese Bleu D’auvergne was polished off with a few glasses of Port and some chunks of pork pie. If you have tried this cheese and enjoy Stilton give it a bash, even Tesco sell it.

£2.25 for 150G….

It’s a cow’s milk based and uses a mechanical needling process where pricking the curd increases aeration and subsequently allows the mold to enter the curd to encourage its growth.

Very creamy and piquant it goes well with quince and apple confit, btw….

Sadly it’s a combination that is guaranteed to boost the body’s uric acid in the blood, so the key is bladderisation and cheese consumption, is to do it in moderation.

Nothing wrong with a Christmas blow out mind you, however I like to try for abstinence for most of January so the Gout doesn’t have a chance to get hold.

Problem was I woke with a bladder like the Ulley Dam….

Alcohol is a diuretic after all, it had been a nice and steady consumption over the day and the Port was an enjoyable nightcap. It meant that I woke nice and early though which considering the short session I could only manage, the nature’s alarm clock was of benefit.

I’ve mentioned before but mouldy cheese gives me some proper weird dreams and some memorable trips. Cheese is also high in tryptophan which is one of the amino acids that is the responsibility for melatonin production so especially when tired already I get to sleep pretty quick and as someone who’s autistic son had trouble getting to sleep for a couple of years, melatonin which he doesn’t produce made him go from bouncing off the walls at 10.00pm to someone who doesn’t have an issue getting to sleep. 

Sadly despite watching the darts for most of the night, Daniella Allfree and her assets didn’t feature but a Sasquatch living in the woods at the Stratford Lido did.

All very bizarre, what’s all that about.

Who needs lysergic acid diethylamide when you have blue cheese….

Anyway canal bound to try and catch some Zander, I thought hang on a minute, a bit of rain the night before there should be some colour in the river. So I headed to an area of the Warwickshire Avon that is largely untapped, well for me anyway. I’ve fished it a handful of times and caught some Zander. The area I’ve concentrated on is a few fishable swims where the water is pedestrian. In the winter with everything died back it looks a little baron, but then I suppose much of the river is like that at the moment. 

For sanctuary of any predators its ideal, plenty of cover and you can see why even Perch would find a home here. Upstream I’ve only fished a lure rod and had Pike aplenty, with one small Zander.The water looked a lovely colour but the sky not so, a clear sky overnight meant there was a heavy frost and that remained for this short morning session.

It’s was bluer than one of Ron Jeremy’s…. 

So not ideal for Zander fishing where they can be tricky buggers to catch.

Two float rods fished over depth, with sections of dead roach. My standard canal set-up but with one significant changed the fluro hooklink was changed to wire.

Despite landing every Zander I’ve hooked on fluro without issue, here there is chance of Pike and decent one at that, so not wanting to lose any fish that was hooked and also for conservation of the fish, there really wasn’t any choice.

The first fish came after half an hour and it was a small Chub that took a liking to the predator liquid enhanced deadbait offering . The second not long after, a greedy small Perch.

Eventually however one of the floats started to bob and then dipped and was being dragged towards the small raft. I leant in to the fish and it felt like a Zander. Having caught hundreds of them now, you get to know what they feel like.

Not the biggest of fish, and I didn’t weigh it but looked 3lb or so. As I was putting the fish back, the other float which was tight to the margin also started to move and eventually went under confidently.

This time felt smaller and it was , a scrappy schoolie which despite the size gave a decent account for itself. 

For the last hour, zilch, all very quiet but there are Zander here, that’s a certain. As I’ve found out on the cut though, bigger fish don’t show themselves that easily. I need to explore some of the other swims available. The problem is some of them are deep, very deep so maybe a roving approach is needed and a change of rig.

A running set-up on a buzzer and a lure rod to cover as much water as possible, I’m at the ready….