Piscatorial Quagswagging

...the diary of a specialist angler in around the Warwickshire Avon and its tributaries.

Saturday 22 December 2018

Warwickshire Avon – Moons and Marrow Bones

The last session down this small section of the Warwickshire Avon produced a blank for me and a blank for Nic from Avon Angling UK. We were after Zander that reside here but they were just not interested, there was a bitterly cold strong wind which wasn’t exactly pleasant with ones ageing knackered knees and despite fishing a couple of hours in to dark the bobbins, and bite alarms were largely unhindered.


There were a couple or three tentative bites but nothing that resulted in a fish….

I was hoping a change in ones fortunes....

The weather was milder for this session and with a little more rain the levels were up a little as well, it was certainly looking more favourable for a blank avoider. 

Another influence could well be the moon, you see it was ‘near’ full and in a few publications now I’ve seen that there may well be an influence in getting the fish moving and on the feed.

Recently my Zander sessions have been pretty poor to say the least so I’m hanging on to any help I can get, the last glimmer of hope was down at the WBAS syndicate stretch the hook didn’t hold, and the fish parted the hook after a couple of carbon bends.

This was a session to try new things as I’d watched a Zander YouTube video the other day and liked the way they were hooking the deadbait, ok this was a fresh killed dead but the procedure was the same. 

Puncture the swim bladder and use a long baiting needle to feed the hooklink through the fish leaving the large hook nicely exposed.

It just look right and not sure why I didn’t think of it before, I like using big baits for Zander even on the canal (3 to 5”) in the main and rather than lip or tail hook it. 

Using this procedure the hook hangs out about three quarters of the way up the flanks and should in theory, for single hook use anyway, be ideal for the stabbing Zander and as the hook is nicely retained, provide a nice reactionary surface as well. 

Now this session I’d also try out the phosphorescent bobbins I designed in service, and hopefully see how they would perform in action so to speak. Magnets secured with hot melt, they were ready to go. Once the ‘charge’ has gone from the bobbin, a quick blacklight torch charge gets it glowing for a good while again.


And what a moon it was, the picture above was taken with my 63X zoom Sony Camera I use from time to time and it was certainly big and bold. It was blowy up there though and some cloud, so it was in and out during the 3 and a bit hour session. The water was under 8 degrees so the Zeds probably wouldn't be that active but it's a bit of a waiting game and hopefully a pack would move through.

Now that's the odd thing about this section, all the fish caught seem to be the same year group, around 4 to 5 lb but still enough to put a bend in the rod but I'm sure there are some big ladies hanging around.


The moonlight was that bright you could have probably stayed all night without much need for a head torch, even when the moon was shaded the backlit clouds were enough to cast a nice bit of light of the water.

It was notably darker mind you and maybe that was enough to get the fish to move to feed because I received the first bite which in-fact Nic noticed was a couple of bangs on my right hand rod tip. Despite the alarm and bobbin I like to fit a chemical light on the tip because Zed's can mess around with the bait without even a bleep from ones roller alarms.


I lifted the rod on the whole roach set-up and a fish decided that it wanted it before another fish got in on the act.

It was taking line now at a decent rate so I struck in the fish, it felt nicely hooked and was giving a good account for itself. Then for some reason it was carting towards me and decided it wanted to mimic a Chub as it headed for the marginal snags. I thought it was off at first because I couldn't feel the fish in the end and it was properly wedged but I teased it out and luckily it was still there.


It popped up on the top and I netted it quickly. Rested and weighed it went 4lb 14 oz's on the scales and a fantastic conditioned fish. Baits back out and bobbins recharged the fish were very quiet indeed, Nic had a couple of tentative takes on the bluey but smelt and roach remained unhindered so after another hour without much happening so we decided to call it a day.

We'll be back for the big Girl that must me here, I'm sure of it !!!!

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