Warwickshire Avon - Ontology and Onychotillomania

With the household still tucked up in bed I left at sunrise to try and winkle out a chub or two. It was a very chilly wind but when the sun started to rise it was very pleasant indeed. With a sign of spring in the air I love mornings like this, the world asleep, fishing on my terms.

With the river closed season fast approaching I'm trying to squeeze in as many sessions as possible and luckily this section of the Warwickshire Avon is a mere 10 minutes away door to door.

Such a mild winter, with hardly any frosts this area has been largely out of bounds because of the flooding. You see when the frosts are hard and it's crisp under foot I love it down here.

Usually I've the banks to myself and for a roving angler in the main this is my kind of stretch where, when the conditions are perfect you can catch multiple fish. Snags and cover abound the Chub like it here because of that, as they have a few escape routes when succumbing to an anglers hook.

The river had risen overnight but it was still a nice colour and here it is a matter of roving around and dropping in as many swims as you can during the session.

Bites come quick if there are fish in the swim so after fifteen minutes with a motionless tip it's time to to stop biting the nails and it's time to move on to the next swim.

I usually start at the top of the stretch and work my way down but for this session I started at a banker swim which right at the end where the rivers gets much wider.

Just off the main flow there is a tree that as fallen in to the river causing a nice bit of cover and sanctuary, but just away from the snag there is a lovely bit of slack water as well. Even when the river is motoring through usually this is one of the handful of swims that can still be fished.

The quivertip was being blown all over the shop but when a fish picks up the cheesepaste there is no question it is a bite. A bite came quick, probably less than 2 or 3 minutes after the bait settled and a chub was on.

A first I thought it was a good fish but I think the fact it went straight out in to the flow might have disguised its statue. It gave a decent fight to be fair but when I saw it in the net there was no need for the scales.

Now I thought I was going to be on for a good session but oddly it never materialised. In-fact that was the only bite I had in the four hour session. Swims where I usually get a bite or two were dead and even two that I prebaited never produced.

But that is fishing for you, it's surprising just when you think you're in for a good day you are taken back down to earth with a bang.