Warwickshire Stour – Nicknackatories and Nose Bags

2 birds to kill, a belated present to pick up, a young angler to appease !!!!

This session would be on the banks of new stretch of the Stour to me, a stretch made available because of a new club book I've acquired.

To be honest I've so many waters available for me to fish, I'm in danger spreading myself too thin. In-fact I know for a fact I have spread myself too thin, sadly I might have to put up with it this season and take stock come renewal in 2020. 

The reality is I have so much water to go at less than 20 minutes away from my house I'm spoilt really especially when some of the best waters are a mere 10 minutes drive. For short sessions like I tend to do though to keep the diary makers onside it's a Godsend.

The tackle was still in the car from the last session so again simple tactics of a maggot feeder and tip watching. This also had a weir and downstream it looked like there was some nice cover as well, but Google earth cannot tell you the whole story can it, only a smidgeon of it.

Now Sam would man that rod and I'll have a small cage feeder set-up with me, liquidised in the feeder, maggot or bread on the hook.

There is no substitute to being bankside, there really isn't....

....now the Stour has been good to me in the past where bites are concerned, the fish are, let's be honest here not massive but the variety is good and the fish in very good condition in the main, predation probably happening elsewhere on the main river where the stomachs can be filled, the pockets left bulging.

There is a good stamp of roach here as well though, which is always encouraging to see, the Chub are a decent stamp and thriving as well and on some stretches many not even having seen a rod and line, let alone felt a hook.

For Sam especially when the water is cold needs bites to take the mind of his extremities because despite being wrapped up to the nines, can often feel the cold to the extent I've got to cut the session short because he isn't enjoying it.

Pocket warmers work to an extent but when the mercury fails to get above freezing even they don't quite cut it.

It's easier to leave him at home in the comfort of his mother's all encompassing bosom, where lets be honest, if I didn't have a 2019 Bloggers Challenge River leaderboard to try and top, I'd probably be joining him.

Bovril seems to hit the spot better than tea for the little'un but despite the warming effect it doesn't last long.

Luckily for this session it wasn't 'that' cold so I was hoping a few bites would be all that would needed to get through it unscathed.

To be honest the session didn't start well, not long in to the session, the second swim we tried in-fact I lifted Sam's rod and felt a snag, so I pulled a bit more but nothing out of the ordinary and felt and heard the rod break.

Errrrr, what happened there then, whether it was damaged by standing on it, or it got trapped in the car door that might have weakened it, I don't know but I've had it for nearly two years and it's been the ever faithful stream rod. Enabling me to catch trout, chub, dace and roach, it was the gonk and bullhead bite registering ability I liked, the smallest tip was 0.25oz if I recall.

So we were down to one rod and probably a bit heavier than I'd like to fish for just bites where sadly, to keep this young anglers mind busy, bites need to be forthcoming. We struggled on though but it wasn't till the fourth swim we had a bite.

Quite a deep swim like much of the stretch seemed to be but bread brought a proper pull from a Chub that was on for a few seconds before the hook pulled, or the bread came out from its mouth, damn !!!

"Daddy, there's no fish in here !!!"

That swim went dead so on to the next, 4 maggots on a size 12 eventually had some minnows most likely trying to pull them off the hook, but the 2oz tip didn't move more than an inch.

It seems to be a dog walkers social gathering and after an out of control rather large dog decided to gatecrash our peace and quiet, like Sam I wasn't 'feeling' the stretch at all. The dog owners, unapologetic to their mutts misdemeanours, then again I'd expect nothing less. 

Two swims fished in the weir, not even a nudge or a knock.

So we moved upstream to stretch with less pace on it, some nice bends and also some far bank cover. To honest it was a shame we hadn't started here as we had bites from the off. It was deep as well, >5ft I would think judging on the fall of the cage feeder through the water, and its donk felt through the line.

Some sharp pulls eventually led to a fish on, a small roach to save a blank, Sam soon had the next fish but he rushed the retrieve and the fish fell off, he was gutted. Looked like a better roach as well, the 3 maggots sucked till they could be sucked no more.

Just as the bites were forthcoming we had to make tracks. Maybe I'll give it another go, but this inaugural session I'd rather forget.

A sleeper Pike rod ?