Warwickshire Avon - Sacricolists and Snobographers

The morning started brightly, a huge piece of cake unravelled from its foil wrapper made by her indoors, by yes, her own fair hands, which let me tell you is a rare event indeed. She ain't a baker, she never has been, but when she gives it a go, my God, she does a good'un.

It consumed quick smart and washed down with a mug of tea to elevate the energy levels to do battle with a Warwickshire Avon barbel or two.

A change of venue this, a bite required and this area of the Warwickshire Avon has Barbel in numbers.

The problem is when the water temperature is as cold as it was today, at a mere 6.9 degrees the fish won't be feeding for any long periods of time, why waste energy in these conditions, when they can be tucked up out the way. The water was still well up and motoring through and with debris still coming down despite the river dropping considerably even one bite would be welcome.

The river was still chocolate brown but slowly starting to lose its colour. Just I settled down with the rods out the rain started and with the wind gusting up to 40 miles an hour, the surface from still to choppy, it wasn't exactly pleasant.

Hat off Hood up !!!!

But if any fish is to bite in these testing conditions it would be a Barbel.

A Hot Fish and GLM boilie on one rod, a lump of spam on the other, I fished the same swim where I banked 3 barbel last time although the staging was visible this time, last time it was buried under another couple of feet of water.

Both rods again with a cage feeder and full of pungent groundbait.

Now what I didn't expect was a bite when the cake had just reached ones stomach. A violent pull on the boilie rod turned in to a bite only a barbel can give. I knew straight away it was a small fish but hey, in these turbulent times where the river is out of sorts, any Barbel, whatever the size is more than welcome.

To be fair it gave a good fight and despite probably not even making 5lb it still made my arm ache even on a 1.75 TC rod.

When you're battling with flow like they have been for a while, these fish are fit things and when you're packed with muscle like a barbus is, every time I hook one their power still amazes me. Now I thought I was on for a good session but sadly it couldn't be further from the truth.

Over the next 4 hours or so that was the only bite I had. I moved swims three times and in the last swim even put on a smelt to try and catch a Zander in a slack. The reports from others that fish in and around here I was lucky to catch a fish, blanks and more blanks seemed to be the norm.

Another session for Barbel in the morning hopefully, the air temperature in double figures the water still on the drop. But where to go ? the fish I lost still troubling me, I may have already made a decision