Warwickshire Avon – Muckspouts and Mumblecrusts

All Hail the King !!!! the soft cheese triangle, the kids three-sided parcel of joy that can be spread on a piece of toast, a ryvita or as I did woof it down before bed to abate a noisy belly.

The snack that has been filling kids lunchboxes for ever and a day, such the popularity of this soft cheese.

Skimmed milk (water, skimmed milk powder), cheese, milk fat, skimmed milk powder, stabilisers (citric acid, sodium carbonate), milk protein, whey powder (from milk), inulin, emulsifying salt (triphosphate).

Hmmmm nothing standing out then to give me one of my most vivid dreams ever, this wasn’t the blue cheese variety that the Laughing Cow lot do either, just the bog standard one we all know and love.

I nearly got on the phone to the Vatican to get a practitioner of the dark arts over such as The Sacred Order of Saint Michael the Archangel-Order of Exorcists to up the tally of the 500,000 requests for exorcisms every single year to fight against demonic possession.

Bunch of weirdos....

Now whether my mind was open to such an event who knows but picture this, all of a sudden in a room, a man appears around 40 years old who starts a conversation, then his speech starts to slur, he then turns to his left and there appears to be a puncture wound in his neck, with bloody thick and gloppy slowly running down his neck.

He then collapses to the floor where I put him in the recovery position. Then his neck wound has got bigger but the gloopy blood has changes to a greeny pus colour that starts to leak out of his mouth too.

He turns to me, lifts his head and reveals his two fang like teeth. Then the proper stuff happens, veins starts to bulge and pulsate, his skin starting to go translucent with a shade of vibrant green beneath.

He turns, his eyes squinting, pupils just about visible, then within a split second, his eyes rotate 180 degrees and fully open, glowing white. Then both his palms flat on the floor he’s lifting himself up, his body with ridged body popping articulation, he stands legs rigid, looks directly at me then tilts his head back so far it’s now hidden from view.

Then the swearing and cursing starts in demonic fashion, gradually getting louder and louder then suddenly Whammmm !!!!!, his head is back again, this time….

….I awake bolt upright, “wow, that was a good’un”

I’ve enjoyed lucid dreams for some time now and to be honest, and sometimes I induce it on purpose, cheese especially the blue stuff triggers the reaction. So the dreams are very life-like and hard to distinguish from reality. Vivid dreams in narcolepsy apparently may be related to differences in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

It looks like I’m one of those that can enter REM sleep at sleep onset shortly after falling asleep, making it possible to dream vividly even during a brief nap. Frequent night-time awakenings are also common in people with narcolepsy, and if the person wakes up during or right after REM sleep, they are more likely to remember dreaming, and the fitbit I’ve got with its sleep tracker mirrors that theory.

Lucid dreaming, or being aware that you’re dreaming during the dream itself, apparently is more common in those with narcolepsy and that’s where I like to exploit the state my mind is in and steer it in the direction I’d like. If you know you are dreaming, that’s where the out of body experience really does kick in.

It looks like I’m one of those that can enter REM sleep at sleep onset shortly after falling asleep,

 This recognition might occur in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is one of the few areas deactivated during REM sleep and where working memory occurs. Once this area is activated and the recognition of dreaming occurs, the dreamer must be cautious to let the dream continue but be conscious enough to remember that it is a dream.

Anyway back to the fishing, so this session was up at the deep bit, the theory was with the water still cold with the fish not moving about as readily I’d leapfrog some swims and fish a couple of deadbaits and maybe get lucky and drop a bait in-front of a hungry fish, being up to 15 to 16ft in places too as the river is up, the shoal fish likely to be huddled in this sort of environment. Zander I’ve been finding don’t particularly revel in the cold like the girls of Newcastle, so if there was any possible chance of catching one it would be on a deep stretch such as this where the have room to stretch their fins and look out upon on the moving audience.

To be honest I wanted to try out some drop off bobbins I'd bought recently so this would be a good time to try them out. I hadn't swims in mind, just likely looking holding places to try and intercept any fish lying on the bottom trying to keep themselves warm. The water temperatures rising the river settling so it was a good of time as any to give them another bash before the season ends.

So enough of the pre written preamble Mick, get on with the session.

It was a cold morning with plenty of mist cover, the river 5.5 degrees and around a foot of visibility, travelling light it quite easy to get in to the swing of things, 20 / 25 minutes or so in each swim then move on. Baits roach and smelt one in the near margin the other far.

So the 2nd swim produced a fish, only a 3lber but welcome all the same, a proud fish hence the array of fins he was determined to show off when it was being held. Sadly that was the lot, no more bites, no more fish. But then that's Zander fishing for you, the highlight, well probably the breakfast.

I've two Chub session planned, also one for Zander and a last gasp Barbel to go for before the season end.

Crosses ones fingers.....