Warwickshire Avon – Sputcheons and Spatchcocks

There is nothing to a spatchcock chicken for a barbi, and unlike a whole chicken which can take an hour and a half to cook in a Webber kettle, this can be cooked directly over the coals.

So with a whole chicken place chicken breast-side down, with the legs towards you. Using sturdy scissors or poultry shears, cut up along each side of the parson's nose and backbone to remove it, cutting through the rib bones as you go. Open the chicken out and turn over then flatten the breastbone with the heel of your hand so that the meat is all one thickness.

Use two skewers to secure the legs and keep the bird flat by running the skewers diagonally through the breast and thigh meat.

Jobs a good’un….

This one was a simple tandoori marinade and served with salad and a few hasselback potatoes takes no time at all and dare I say it like this floating bread I’ve been using to target Chub recently back to basics. In fishing the modern carp angler and the gear he requires and methods he uses puts a shiver down ones spine, 3 rod set-ups, trollies, bivi’s and tonnes of bait, I just don’t see the appeal.

But then I’ve always been an advocate of do what you like in fishing, if that means being part of the bolt rigging brotherhood fair enough.

I think the problem is I really have the opportunity to fish short sessions, it suits my family life and anything over 4 or 5 hours would take a bit of planning, 24 hours certainly doable but would need to be put in the dairy weeks in advanced. I certainly couldn’t manage it with a drop of a hat. 

Well to be fair I probably could, but it would mean taking a day off work which would be expensive. So with not much more than a rod a few bits and pieces and a couple of loaves of bread this style of fishing suits. 

What didn’t suit though was the water I wanted to fish had a match on, so for this session it was down to a bit of the Avon that I haven’t really fished in anger for a long time. The problem is especially for this season and last, I’ve too much water to go at and when a decent fish has been caught I’ve maybe neglected other waters to concentrate on one. I intend to change that next season and maybe only stick to one club or the syndicate I’m in.

A initial cold start turned in to a warm bright morning and the session was a tough one, the water very low and clear but there are some nice swims here with lots of pace and because of the frequency of matches lots of bait goes in hence the fish hang around. The bigger fish were around as I could see them from time to time when they came out from under their cover or their silhouettes were visible hugging bottom. 

Eventually some fish were caught though but unlike the small head of large fish I’ve been fishing for recently, these were much smaller. Even a small Chub can get a large piece of crust down its overly large mouth so the biggest I could muster up was the one pictured above. With some water on the Alne now I've a quick after work session with Sam and I want to try and have a session myself after the small head of big Chub. I'm sure there are some bigger ones to be had.