Warwickshire Avon – Maggots and Magnets

I caught something on the news the other day that got me thinking, hey maybe I should have a dabble in magnet fishing. I frequent so much water with this pastime of mine, maybe there are some hidden treasure to be had.

The other day a father and son who used magnets to trawl the bottom of a lake for sunken treasures were stunned to haul up a huge cache of guns from the depths.

From the murky depths of the Grey Lake at Kingsweston, in Somerset, Neil Hopkins and son Billy pulled up an astonishing total of 12 guns.

Their haul included a Thompson machine gun, a US Civil War pistol and a musket from the 1800s.

There appeared to be between 20 to 30 parts of firearms all of which are badly rusted including a Thompson machine gun, a US civil war pistol and an 1800s musket.

Ok hidden treasure may be a bit much, gold isn’t magnetic after all

But safes certainly are….

Surprising what can be picked up too, heck might even get Sam involved bet he would love partaking in it.

A diamond bracelet from the Thames, an ornate cutlass from a water in Coventry and a Tukaway pistol from the Babingley river in Norfolk.

I wonder what I could find in the Stratford-Upon-Avon canal.

Heck might even be able to retrieve the countless lureS I’ve lost after being snagged up.

So having a butchers on the net a 3.95” and 500lbs of pull Neodymium magnet should sort out all but the biggest safe.

Suppose why would you need a maget that strong, well not rocket science because these neodymium magnets are tested on a totally flat, clean piece of 1/2″ thick steel. When you go magnet fishing you will find items that has been in the water for many years, so there are rust, a lot of it.

Rust significantly decreases the pull power of the magnet. The power of the magnet will decrease up to 70% when pulling it horizontally. So, the higher pull power on the magnet, the bigger are the chances that you won’t drop your item you hooked on to.

The one I’ve found is a round base rare-earth cup neodymium magnet (NdFeB) is made with A3 steel plate and coated with Nickel-Copper-Nickel to be the strongest type of permanent magnet available.

I dread to think what could be discovered in the >13ft depths of the Warwickshire Avon stretch I'm enjoying discovering.

But then having watched a few you tube videos, read a few blogs, not sure I can be bothered.

Looks like a lot of hard work for not much return, unless you out there have had some success.

Now for this short Friday afternoon session where it is still relatively low and clear I wanted to fish one particular swim, you see after a narrow streamer weed and tree covered section the river opens up, gets deeper and it all flows nicely over gravel.

The plan, baitdrop a load of maggots and some hemp, leave for 45 minutes whilst I'd do some tight to snag fishing with lobworms and then, return to the swim, top it up and again leave it for a while before the last bait drop where I would fish some fake maggots on a hair over the top.

Upstream you see is such a great place for a decent Barbel to reside so a large buffet laid out on a dining table I was hoping it was an offering a giant barbel if it was around could not refuse.

I certainly wouldn't if I was house bound and a hog roast was set-up outside the front door.

Ones belly takes over in many circumstances....

Problem is my fishing sessions are generally dictated for me and sure enough when at the swim, it really is properly gin clean.

A Barbel was spotted pretty quickly but even a head raised above the swim, the odd chub that stuck their nose out were quickly back under their canopy.

Spooky as anything....

So with a few big droppers of maggots and hemp down I let it rest and went for a nose to see if I could spot any fish. In all but two swims I could clearly see everything in the swim and larger fish were very illusive indeed.

So some more droppers went out, left for half an hour and the when I returned to the swim after another mooch around this time the fake bait went out as did the last couple of droppers.

Usually if there was a Barbel dining a bite would come pretty quick....

After an hour without a wrap over, it was desperate measures, so a lob worm went out and vibrant Perch was caught. 20 minutes later I packed up and decided to fish under a canopy over a shallow swim.

I removed the float from the trotting set-up that was in my quiver and changed to a lump of plasticine on the line as a weight, line tied direct to a hook.

Bait this time was a couple of lobworms and sure enough the first run though and when the bait settled something took the bait with a positive bite.

This was as expected a Chub that as per usual was snag bound, with some decent side strain I managed to remove it from under the canopy and it was out in to the main river.

Not the biggest of fish, probably less that 3lb but at least the bend in the rod was decent and I do love this sort of fishing, its not all about BIG fish.