Warwickshire Avon – Cinder Garblers and Cushion Thumpers

Thank God for that !!!!! Majestic Wine has said it is stockpiling ahead of Brexit in a bid to prevent supply disruption. The company, which is the UK’s largest specialist wines retailer, becomes the latest big-name brand to announce plans to hoard products. Businesses, including Mr Kipling owner Premier Foods and Cadbury, are worried about the prospect of a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

They fear that leaving the EU without a transition on trade arrangements would result in chaos at ports and airports.

Anyway enough of that, I'm fed up of hearing about it too, anyway Majestic said it is planning to bring between £5,000,000 and £8,000,000 of extra inventory into the UK shortly before its financial year end in April.

Phhhhhhhhewwwwwwwww !!!!!

But then a kidney punch for the burger chain frequenters....

You see UK’s decision to leave the EU may have a surprising casualty according to the media, hipster hamburger joints apparently.yes really, Byron, a burger chain, may close four of its 70 or so locations, and there are signs of weakness among other gourmet burger restaurants, which have proliferated in London and other cities across the country in recent years.

Byron is shuttering some locations because the UK’s national living wage, increased food costs, and price inflation tied to weakness in the British pound, according to the Times , citing unidentified sources. Another chain called Handmade Burger Co. has put its assets up for sale and is closing nine of 29 sites.

No official reason was given by administrator Leonard Curtis, which is handling the sale and negotiations with creditors.

Errr, so nothing to do with charging an arm and a leg for mediocrity then, they are still yet to match my own bulging home creations.

Anyway, enough of the Brexit stuff, I like you are probably fed up of hearing it, so back on track, feet up, a bucket of wine in hand, the fire about to be lit, the previous night’s ashes still to be swept up, I’m perusing through another fishing book purchase and something caught my eye.

A floating worm, a FLOATing worm, love, a bleeding FLOATING WORM, why the heck didn’t I think of that !!!! ?

The late John Wilson did (RIP), and it featured as an illustration in his Angling Times book from 1991 I’d recently purchased.

Now I’d injected lobworms with air before to make them more buoyant when targeting Perch on the bottom and naturally a few departed the hook where they floated on the surface to be picked up by passing birds.

So why didn’t I put two and two together I wonder….!!!!

You see these Chub of late have been a little cagey with the floating bread I’ve been using.

Even a lure they were reluctant to take off the top, despite it being something visually different and me knowing that there were fish holding station in the flow actively ignoring it, and even bigger lunkers waiting in the wings.

The book gave quite a few other tips as well and it was such a good read with excellent illustrations I’ve bought another two from the series, hopefully they will be just as good.

In these still very clear conditions, the tip HAD to work !!!!

Now a month or so ago I fished this area to try for a lunker but there was a little more water on than I thought and the swims where the big fish I’d previously spotted were not around. 

The pace might have been a little too much for them and they were tucked up somewhere else and out of harms away plumping their cushions. 

Luckily fishing a static bait at dusk produced a blank avoider, so all was not lost. I didn’t have the luxury of fishing in to dusk for this short after work session, however I was back to see if they were still milling around, and If they were could I outwit them with something different.

The beauty of a big fat lobworm is that hooked correctly they are also more resistant to pinging off on the cast like a big chunk of bread is. Downstream of the big chub lovers dreamhole swim you see, was another swim I could now reach where I’d caught Chub on a floating insect lure in the past, but I’d also spotted some decent fish in the area as well. 

A plan was forming, in-fact the session dictated itself really since the discovery of the tip, so no real planning to be seen here, just get on with it.

Now the river is lower than I've seen it for a while and what a tough short session it was, the usual Chub haunts were devoid of fish but the worm was going down nicely, not quite floating entirely, not quite sinking, it certainly look enticing.

Mmmmm maybe a canal Zander session I'd planned to do next, wasn't a bad idea after all. Anyway I returned to the first swim for the last fifteen minutes before having to go and pick the eldest up from school and the third trot down a telltale swirl on the retrieve meant that there was a fish there. The next trot down it didn't take long and a fish nailed the worm.

I knew straight away it wasn't a big fish because it more or less launched itself out of the shallow water and I could see its flanks. At least the method works, I bet in summer when the fish are more up for it, it is deadly.

So not a blank, and the method worked eventually, so not all lost despite the river being out of sorts.