Warwickshire Avon - Caenogenesis and Candyflipping

I've never known a sky like it, the colour an acid tab dabbler would be praising the source, looking for his next fix.

It disappeared as quickly as it appeared though, I can only assume the suns setting position relative to the cloud and its density caused this oddity. A quick  Google the colour of the sky is determined by the scattering of the sun's light rays as they pass through our atmosphere.

Shorter wavelengths of blue and indigo are easily scattered, but longer wavelengths of orange and red are not so easily scattered and hence pass through to our eyes, meaning the sky often appears red, pink or orange at sunrise and sunset.

The exact colours of a sunrise rely on factors such as dust, pollution, water droplets and cloud formations, and occasionally they appear more purple and pink rather than the more common orange and reds.

This can be in part, the optical illusion of the pink wavelengths lighting up the base of the cloud (due to the low angle of the sun's rays), and these pink clouds superimposed on a dark blue sky.

The combination of pink and dark blue can make the sky appear a deep purple, amazing that it started out like the above.

Now talking of LSD Hollywood rebel Oliver Stone has told how he finally got his up-tight father to unwind by spiking his whisky with LSD.

Now thats not going to happen with me for a while, little Sam has a few years to go yet to become wise to the world, then again with all this fishing I'm far from uptight.

He is turning in to a great little angler though and the first session on the river having returned from holiday, I asked what he wanted to fish for for this short evening session.

"A Gonk Daddy, I want to fish for a Gonk !!! "

Music to my ears, the minimal of tackle, rod already set up, not even a chair.  Simple tactics a quiver rod, centrepin reel, a landing net if something big comes along and a few maggots.

Now this stretch of the Avon is full of them providing you get past the bleak. That is easy enough with a large split shot pinched on the line to get the red grubs to the bottom as soon as possible past the pests.

Now "James and Brian always catch the big'uns cus they live in London and all the big fish live in London don't they Daddy"

"They do yes but it's a case of plundering through the small ones a bigger one, a proper Gonk might turn up"

To be fair it didn't take that long, in-fact after 6 or 7 fish were caught in as as many casts we had a weigher on our hands. 

On super light tackle they give an amplified bite on a 1oz quiver, almost Barbel like in their power, the bites almost unmissable.

Ignore the plucks and taps and just wait for the tip to go 'off on one'.

We had a >1 ounce Gudgeon on our hands, Sam giving me a 'High Five' he was so pleased. 

To be fair it's taken long enough to catch one that size, something twice that and more in British waters we want some of it. They have so much character this little Gudgeon, it can bring a short lived smile in these very odd times where you wonder how its all going to go next.

We only fished till dusk but Sam managed 30 or 40 fish I'd say, the odd tiny dace and tiny perch mixed within the fish caught but predominately they were Gudgeon.  

Chub, insects, slugs and dock-leaves are just a small list of things that grow rather big here, what next I wonder, we want to find out.

PS what can I keep in my fishing bag to treat nettle stings for kids ?