Warwickshire Avon – Garlic and Glockenspiels

I’ve had in my possession some 15mm boilies with pungent concentrated natural garlic, sausage flavourings with a fishmeal and betaine base mix. Just the smell test, proved that I had no doubt, they would catch fish, heck they smelled good enough to eat if I was peckish and the fish were not welcoming. Garlic is a proven fish catcher and chose a bait to fish for Barbel for ever and a day, garlic flavoured spam would be the default answer.

Fish where the shoals usually frequent for a probable bite or maybe a little of the trodden path to try and intercept a loner and bigger fish that has watched his mates that he used to knock around with part their water world because of old age,and hence seek the solitude away from the noisy generations Z’ers.

Then Hedwig's Theme played on a Glockenspiel was one of the obscure videos Sam managed to find on YouTube over the weekend and weirdly despite not being a Harry Potter watcher I could relate to it.

It gave me the answer the question I was teetering over ....

'Move on Mick', with a hop a skip and a jump, 'Move on', that’s what the tune was saying to me….

So this session was a quicky after work jobbie, rods made up night before, out an hour before dusk, pva bag of matching crumb and broken un’s and settle down for the witching hour. I like these sessions to be honest because I find being sat behind rods for 5 hours at a time quite tedious, ones restless legs kick in and I find it quite hard to concentrate and my mind wanders.

I’m a roving angler at heart and always will be I think, but with dusk getting harder to reach, it gives me more opportunity to fish. When I got bankside the colour had almost gone from the river, and the tinge of green screamed Chub and Zander but hey ho, got to try. Within minutes I'd spotted a mink patrolling the far bank and then it launched itself in to the water and was heading towards me drifting downstream with not a care in the world. It eventually disappeared in some cover to my left giving me a question I needed to answer.

Should I stay or should I go....

As I was pondering that decision, the left hand rod received a whacking bite that went from stationary to a foot and a half to the right with a split second but sadly I struck in to thin air.

I decided to stay....

It got me thinking about this season though the explosion of predation I'm witnessing with my own eyes, ok the Otters are back big time, but the amount of cormorants I've seen recently in all the waters I fish is boarding on the epidemic. I spoke to a very nice young lady manning a stall trying to sign people up to the wild life trust whilst I was taking the kids swimming in Stratford-Upon-Avon and she agreed something needs to be done about them too, we need more control for these unwanted pests.

So headed in to dusk the moon was bright, the sky clear I had some hope at least a Chub might bite, I'd shortened hairs on both rigs too but despite the plucks and bangs every 5 minutes or so nothing materialised in to a proper full on bite before the clubs rules called time. With the colour how it is and the river unlikely to rise I might try for a Zander and also have a lobworm rig out for a bit of double dipping.

Before that though, I've another trip to the Blythe with a couple of friends and I might try and squeeze another quick session after work for the Chub. This month I've fished more than ever and so long it may continue.

As I've said before, it keeps me 'relatively' sane.

So another blank to add to the collection, it seems I'm not alone in this result though as others have been finding it tough too.

Why post about it, well I always like to show the good with the bad, it ain't that easy all of the time.