Warwickshire Avon - Silver Darts and Scaffmasters

My birthday was a bit of a lame affair. Sadly the meal the Wife and I had planned that we really were looking forward to, was no longer going to happen with the announcement of the 2nd lockdown in England. The charts of the impending doom from the brothers grim with their wet fingers in the air there was only ever going to be outcome of the vote in parliament and Friday we were all back behind the ever changing barriers again.

Still with a bottle of one of my favourite wines Amarone della Valpolicella to get ones mind in a better place, I cannot really complain, as there is a lot of people worse off than me right now, I've got to be thankful for that. 

Now Amarone is a wine made with partially dried grapes in Valpolicella, Veneto, North-east Italy. There are three geographical sub zones; Classico, Valpantena and ‘Est’, the extended zone. 

Amarone from Classico tends to be the most elegant and aromatic, versions from the Valpantena are generally lighter and fruitier, while the so-called ‘extended’ zone (beyond Classico and Valpantena, bordering on the Soave) tends to produce richer, more muscular wines with a higher alcohol level.’

This one from Tesco 15.5% with aromas of dried cherries and blueberries, full bodied and almost opulent on the palate. For £18 quid a cracking bottle of wine that compliments a slow roasted beef brisket.

A bottle of rum, a bottle of Barolo, a Korum Transition unhooking mat, a few bits and pieces the boy done well !!!!

The unhooking mat packs down quite small and fold very easy indeed, like many of Korum's products well thought-out indeed and will accompany me when I'm targeting the bigger fish.

Anyway after fishing everyday over the October half term holiday this was first session for nearly a week so I just fancied a few bites. I love dawns on the river in the autumn and winter months, the river was looking glorious when I got there, a surface like glass so I was surprised not to see any topping fish.

It was a maggot only day and after a couple of swims with only a tiny dace and roach to show for it, I was wondering what the heck was going on. The water is back to clear again which is not ideal on the Avon but find the deeper areas and try and find the fish, your fortunes can change dramatically, and that's exactly what happened here. 

One of the lower swims was literally stuffed full of dace, to be fair it took half an hour of feeding maggots but once they arrived they didn't budge for well over an hour.

It really was a bite a chuck, sometimes the feeder not even reaching the bottom before a fish was on. Not huge dace, the biggest 7 ounces or so but most were over four ounces. The above a result of only half an hour with fish retained in the landing net with more missed bites than fish caught.

They really must have been queuing up. A float set-up would have been the way to go, but still, an enjoyable mad feeding spell.

The first sign a pike was around though was when I thought I'd snagged the feeder up, but no it was a Pike that had grabbed the feeder just as it hit bottle. A couple of fish were lucky to escape too this one just getting away from the skin of its teeth.

Shame I hadn't a Pike rod as it looked a half decent fish too. The fish returned after an hour or so after continuing to feed maggots regularly but after catching a few more fish, my time was up.

I enjoyed it so much I'll bring more maggots next time because 2 pints went rather quick such the frequency of the bites but I love catching dace when they are in big shoals. Such a characteristic fight too, almost grayling like the way the 'silver darts' wriggle back and forth on the fight.  

It was 3 degrees when I started fishing but quickly rose to 9 degrees when the sun came out. An enjoyable session and an enjoyable morning, we are lucky we can still go fishing, 

I drove past the deserted golf club down the road from me on the way back, what the heck is all that about, you can share a walk with someone on the course, but not with a ball or club in hand. a revolt on the way me thinks, some of the rules are just ridiculous.