Warwickshire Avon - Cobalt and Corinthians

To hedge ones bets for this session I decided to venture to sluggish waters to target a couple or three species. Now above this stretch the waters are deep. 22 foot was the deepest I could find, the average >12. Where I was fishing it starts to shallow but it still has a good depth. Now I spotted a carp here last time and thought I'd hooked it at first when something hovered up the bread first chuck. That in-fact it turned out to be a Chub that took the bread off the surface. What I hadn't fished for down here in anger though was predators, tell a lie I did catch a decent Pike on a lure a stones throwaway.

Zander though above and below it for sure, so triple dipping !!!!

On the main I'd fish a boilie bait over a bed of pellets and have a roach deadbait out, but I'd also feed bread to float on the surface to see if any Carp, or Chub for that matter fancied a bit off the top. Again a short session in to dusk, the rods made up the night before, all ready to go. With a busy life like many of us, anything to maximize bait in the water is worthwhile doing.

Now you may have noticed ones posts have become a little shorter over the last couple of months that is because a forced change of work meant it's been manic of late. I picked up short term work in my 2 weeks paid notice period 24 hours after been given the boot. The inevitable writing on the water coming to fruition rather abruptly, my blogging time sadly reduced.

That short term work of initially 3 to 4 weeks turned in to 8 weeks and now having moved on again I'm working on a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) project which I'm really rather enjoying. I cannot say I've enjoyed getting work for a while so this is refreshing for once, proper engineering not some flowery makeyupstuff my last long termer turned in to.

I get to work on a vehicle that is using this new technology that the automotive industry largely has been forced in to developing to help stop the global warming and clean up the air that will eventually effect us all wherever we live. It certainly isn't an evolution of the milk float, a simple architecture it ain't, lots to learn, my brain enjoying the neuron nudging. 

So these Lithium-ion batteries that power these cars have long been used to power smartphones, laptops and other gadgets. Scaled-up versions are now being developed for electric vehicles. These batteries should last for at least 10 years, or 150,000 miles, until they need to be replaced.

However, the road to a promised land of zero-emission vehicles (yes ignore the fact you have to build it and using lots of energy) is littered with speed bumps and red lights that threaten to seriously slow the progress of the electric car. Battery makers are struggling to secure supplies of key ingredients in these large power packs mainly cobalt and lithium. The hopes of both battery and vehicle manufacturers hang on the mining sector finding more deposits of these precious minerals.

So a good tip for investing those precious pennies, take note of those digging the biggest holes, they might have found the next batch of cobalt. So diversify your portfolio I say and try and invest in the first manufacturer to offer a discontinued garlic spam alternative, on to a winner I'd say.

I suppose this BEV world saver is little naive really considering the exponential population growth, maybe a good nuclear bomb or two might put help gets things back to the Utopia those preaching minority with heads in sand and placards to hold seem to think can be achieved. I'm on the opinion the climate change is cyclical, after all they did find olive trees by Hadrian's wall and a few hundred years ago an elephant walked on the Thames when it was thick with ice.

Anyway enough of the rambling !!!

Now talking about proper engineering I wonder why there hasn't been any advances in fishing equipment over the years.

Same old, same old isn't it...

However the Deeper Sonar about the only thing recently I'd bought that seemed innovative, a castable fish finder with built in GPS I ask you. To be fair the novelty wore off within weeks but don't we all love a gadget for our pastime.

Now I could see an improvement though and the inevitable happened as I noticed a YouTube video for TFG's Fishspy Echo Pro which features a built in camera so not only does it act as a sonar device but in addition it offers the option to stream live video to see what lurks beneath, and also allows you to take a snapshot if you want to capture the scene.

What exactly is that feature that is showing up ? what are those shoals of fish ? what type of bed will I be fishing over ? Will I be upgrading probably not, but technology shouldn't be discounted in our pastime, it should be embraced I say.

Talking of embraced, the trophy shots have been missing of late, ones clutches around the belly of a Chub, supporting a big Barbel or holding out anything remotely worthy of note have been sadly lacking. There will always be baron patches especially

Could this change of direction come to anything I wonder or will the mediocrity continue ?

To be honest an hour in without even a sign of a fish I did think about going home especially as I manged to tangle my deadbait set-up to such an extent I had to start from scratch and set-up again. Bread wasn't taken off the top, 2 baited areas ignored, one area I could see the bottom, no fish visited. So I decided to up sticks and visit an area closer to the car that I have caught Zander before. Sure enough ten minutes before dusk the float starts to bob and sails under, I strike in to thin air, hmmm.

Bait back out 5 minutes later, another bite. Again a confident bite and I strike in to something solid. I though it was an eel at first the way it was fighting but then it tore off to my left and I knew it was likely to be a Zander. Sure enough when the fish surface a welcome sight and some blogger challenge points. The hook was barely in the top of its mouth, I was surprised I manage to land it. Not a huge fish at 5lb 8oz, but you know how much I like catching Zander.