Warwickshire Avon - Vulcans and Villeggiatura

Now the seasons are a result of the 23.5 degrees of tilt of Earth's rotational axis in relation to its orbit around the Sun. 

This tilt means that throughout Earth's orbit around the Sun which is our calendar year, certain areas of the globe are tilted towards the Sun, while other areas are tilted away from it.

This creates a difference in the amount of solar radiation or sunlight that reaches different parts of the Earth, therefore creating the global cycle of fluctuations that we know as the seasons. 

The problem is finding the time to fish in the winter because work gets in the way doesn't it, the summer couldn't be more different as it stays light to late, in the winter it's dark at 4.00pm. 

However it's not often I find myself in the predicament of where to fish for an extended session, but after an enjoyable few hours targeting roach for a few hours last weekend they were one of the targets again. 

My working day came to an end at midday you see so I hotfooted it bankside where unusually for me I'd be contained to the same swim. Some nice plump roach were caught, some bigger ones around ?

However this would be a bit of double dipping, I'd have a Pike sleeper rod out just in front of me and then as the light went I'd fish a lump of cheesepaste to try and catch a chub. 

I've not caught huge Pike here, but I've had them over double figures and also the Chub are decent too, a 5lb not uncommon and I'm sure there are bigger fish here to be had.

It's a nice uniform depth you see 4 to 7 foot the norm and with it being deeper in places when the weather turns cold it's always a reliable place to get a bite or two. 

I fished the feeder last time, but with the river at a lower level for this session where the water reached 0.9m at the monitoring station at Stratford the chosen swim would be less turbulent so I decided to fish the waggler instead.

Liquidised bread, a smattering of hemp and red maggots as feed, and this time rather than worms a small piece of bread or a couple of red maggots on the hook. I had a few lobs as back-up but smaller baits would feature mostly. 

Also a smattering of roach flavouring would add some flavour to the dry the bread but it would also wet it down a little so it was easier to deposit in to the swim. 

The ever reliable smelt as bait for Pike and the plan was to fish for the roach till I couldn't see my float, then I'd fish an hour and a bit in to dark with a lump of ones pungent cheese paste on, a reliable bait for big winter Chub is there ever was one.

Now it was predicated to be cloudy for the whole day and it's amazing how fishing can change in these sort of conditions. I've been struggling for bites in certain sessions I can remember however when clear skies are taken over by a blanket of cloud and you can actually feel the air temperature rise, out of the blue the float dips or the quiver starts quivering on the sight of stratus, stratocumulus and nimbostratus.  

Guarantee a Barbel bite, nimbostratus is your man 👌

So best laid plans and all that....how did I get on ?

Well what a cracking little session it was, there was a cormorant feeding when I got to the river so it took a while to get things kicked up but eventually the fish started to bite. The small roach as always seem to turn up first but keep on feeding the better stamp arrive on mass and it's a bite a chuck.

I thought this session will be like the last but then out of the blue a decent fish was on, this wasn't a roach, at first I thought it might be a chub or even a perch but no, a decent bream. 

It gave a pretty good fight on light float tackle and the bream here seem much different than the humdrum. Very light indeed and actually a bream strain I don't mind catching.

3 more came along in and amongst the roach that were all a similar size. I'd have amassed a decent weight at the end of the session if I had a keepnet. A small pike was landed around 6 or 7 pounds but that was it for the predators sadly. 

The river was nice and coloured and over 6 degrees but they didn't seem to be around today.

I packed most of the tackle up just before dusk and fished well in to dark to try and catch a chub. I've found cheesepaste a brilliant bait for them to home in one, but no, not even a bite let alone a fish. 

Still it was an enjoyable session and a road closure meant I had to drive past the Vulcan which is always a pleasing sight. The cormorants seem in ridiculous number at the minute. Lots of low flying individual birds but then also in big groups.  

So where to go, what to do next, decisions decisions. The river is in fine fettle at the minute, but I fancy a decent Pike and might try something a little off the wall for them and also as it's milder the weekend I might take out Sam for a gonk session.

Chub are still on the radar though so might wait to go in the week for those because I had a great session well in to dark not long ago and I fancy a 6lber which is my target now a 5lber has been and gone.