Warwickshire Avon - Eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious and Eikonology

Eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious ,Yes this monstrosity of a word, all thirty letters of it, warrants a definition that is a grand total of four letters in length.

Good !!!!

Now Japanese A5 Wagyu Picanha just happened to be the best piece of beef I'd ever eaten. The piece was Miyazaki beef which is 100% Fullblood Japanese Wagyu from the Miyazaki Prefecture.

The texture was like nothing else and not only that but the beef flavour is amplified to such a degree it's a shame not all beef takes like it. The taste dial is wound up a notch and then it's turned right round so it off the scale.

A meal to remember, it really was !!!!

The breed of cow that is used is Kuroge Wagyu, also known as "Japanese Black". It is one of four Wagyu breeds that exist today, with Kuroge being the largest of the four main Wagyu breeds.

Miyazaki Wagyu is recognised for its cherry red color, tender texture and great dense meat taste. 

The snowflake-liked fat is evenly distributed and produces a non-greasy flavor. It begins to dissolve at the temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, melting right in the mouth.

The standards of grading beef consist of Yield Grade and Quality Grade. "A" of "A5" means the yield grade, while "5" shows the quality grade. The Japanese beef grading system has 5 quality grades, marbling, meat colour and brightness, firmness and texture of meat, colour, and the lustre and quality of fat.

It really doesn't get any better !!! a dry aged piece maybe, hmmm ?

Now in official sumo, it is custom to present the champion sumo wrestler with one Miyazaki cow. Miyazaki prefecture is the only region in Japan that raises cattle by their breeds and biological types. 

The Miyachiku co-op consists of about 400 farmers spread across the Miyazaki Prefecture. The Japanese farms are much different than farms that we are used to in the fact that the average amount of cattle that one farmer will harvest at a time is only 4. 

This allows the farmers to pay attention to detail, take much better care of their animals, and focus on each individual animal's needs. The animals are fed a diet mostly of wheat and corn for an average of 900 days.

This is about 8 times longer than most cattle that is consumed in our market. Each individual farmer has their own proprietary feed ratio. 

The idea of Wagyu being fed beer and massaged by Japanese women is a myth apparently, however the farmers are allowed to feed their animals whatever they deem appropriate.

Maybe there is a farm or two out there that practices this technique, well lets hope so, just to keep the dream alive.

Anyway to keep the dream alive of catching a 6lb Chub, (a 5lb'er is Soooooooo last year) it was out with the Wagyu, well ok, not quite, some cheap Boswell Farm Tesco cheapo cuts. The Chub of late have been mugging me off so to speak because it's been hit or miss if I'd hook them or not.

They have been really crafty these Chevin even when ditching the hair and fishing a bait banded to the shank of the hook, they still managed to stick their fins up and managed to escape capture. 

For this dusk in to dark session though it was out with something different, something I'd hope a Chub would be less cautious about.

I wasn't quite ready to use the coconut mushrooms and flumps I'd commandeered as that was for another session I'd had planned but still, I was hoping a change might bring some success where previous methods had been left wanting. Another change was I'd fish next to some cover too rather than open water.

The water is gin clear at the minute and even though when the light goes maybe a bigger fish was lying in wait here rather than being out with the crowd.

Before all that started though an hour with the lure rod to try and pick something up in this predator clear water. With the water devoid of all fish beneath the polarised sunglasses usually the lure will get the perch at least coming out of their hiding places.

It didn't take long either, after about 5 casts I was in, only a small perch but at least it wasn't a blank. Its fellow perch army following him in to the bank to give it some moral support.

So with the sun setting it was out with the steak near the swim with thick cover. Usually the fish start to top and move around when the light levels go, but not this evening. The fish were very suspicious in their absence. In-fact an hour and a half in to proper dark not even a tentative pull on the chub rod, all very odd.

No Chub :( still nice to be out, a few hours is great to keep me on the straight and narrow.