Warwickshire Avon - Collar Days and Crusty Beaus

So the 2019/2020 Bloggers' Challenge started to coincide with the rivers opening. For those that don't know the score, essentially fellow bloggers and likeminded participants and that love to catch fish will be scoring points in the disciplines  (river / drain, canal, stillwater).

With 22 species to try and catch and a slightly different scoring system expertly added to the latest worksheet by Sean Dowling for this latest challenge, fingers crossed it will hopefully mix it up a bit and encourage some different tactics.

The link to the 2019/2020 scorecard is in the quick links to the right of this blog and you can also see the results for the 2017/2018 where surprise surprise James Denison was the victor.

My time is limited and I cannot remember the last time I fished a lake or a pool, so my efforts like there were in the 2017/2018 challenge will be limited to the river, streams and tributaries in and around the Warwickshire Avon.

Bullheads to Barbel, Grayling to Gudgeon I cannot wait to get stuck in to it. Littlest son Sam by his own request wanted his own scorecard, and he like me couldn't think anything worse than fishing a ten a penny F1 riddled pool like Tunnel Barn when there is so much fun to be had on our doorstep especially as the venues we fish are vary varied indeed.

Long term readers of my blog know I'm more at home chasing bullheads in the local brook or fishing floating crust for rising Chub on a summers evening, than I am fishing for Barbel. However in complete contrast to last years heatwave, a huge dumping of rain the start of the season the rivers were over their banks in many local waterways, so for this evening session, Barbel were to be my target.

My PB 12lb 14oz caught during winter. 

You know me, there is no messing around when it comes to Barbel, I fish a large boilie or garlic spam bait, an hour or two before dusk, generally the time they often come on the feed. 

I cannot justify much more than that to be honest and as a suffering of restless leg syndrome, I just cannot sit behind rods for any length of time. 

These tactics produced my biggest Barbel to date of 12oz 14oz's back in the winter and and I'm sure there are better one to be had. If I devoted as much time to this fantastic fish as I do to other species, I'm sure I could do better, after all, there are much bigger ones in the Warwickshire Avon to be caught despite the over the shoulder watching they are subjected to.

So anyway back to the session, after a huge Roast Chicken dinner I donned the lucky Fathers-Day docks and went to one of my favourite sections to walk off that extra Yorkshire pudding and to see what the state the river was in after the recent deluge. I travel lighter and lighter these days, only the essentials, tackle to the bare minimum and it enables me to rove if required without the hindrance of a chair and the the kitchen sink.

The banks were deserted bar one angler who was still there when I went by after packing up at dusk. So yeah, straight to the point a blank. It wasn't as high and coloured as I thought however and hopefully by the weekend it will be back to good conditions again. But after finding a swim I could actually fish because the stagings couldn't be seen in any of the swims I walked past. A chunk of garlic spam on one rod and a boilie wrapped paste on the other usually come sun down the bites start.

Sadly they didn't, with even the chub suspicious in their absence. So nice to be back on the river though, the kingfishers as active as ever and the barn own patrolling its patch. So what do fish for next, well I fancy trying for bream and maybe an eel, as they will be active at the moment and maybe try and locate some carp. Lets hope with some better weather on the way I can surface fish for the chub as well.

Decisions Decisions !!!!