Warwickshire Avon - Yorkshire Tykes and Yarmouth Capons

Aunt Bessie's cannot get a look-in in the Newey household, I mean come on it's not exactly hard to make Yorkshire Puddings now is it, but then if you're buying ready made frozen puddings for your Sunday Roast, you're probably filling Aunt Bessie's budging pockets by buying their roast potatoes and other convenient products as well. 

Now we are probably unusual that Sundays will generally always be a roast dinner shared by the whole family at the dining table. It's one of those meals despite the busy work life, it's a time to chill, a time to talk over the week and I love doing it, to be fair, I do most of the cooking anyway, it's a great way of winding down.

Life's simple pleasures and all that, they need to be embraced in these uncertain times.

There isn't really a secret to good Yorkshire Puddings because many have their own recipes, but for me after experimenting with many a different tins size and shapes, shallow and wide is the way to go. 100ml of milk, 75 grams of flour and a couple of large eggs will provide just enough batter to fill these tins without wastage. 

Oven hot, the oil in the tin pipping too, but the batter mix can be made the day before and refrigerated if need be, they rise whatever the batters predicament.  Sage, salt and pepper as seasoning, 4 of these bad boys 25 minutes later, jobs a good'un. Oh and yes, that's water in-front of me, not wine, as I'm in to the second week of abstinence. 😯

 

Get it the mix right, you can even make boats from it, yes really, the Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race was dreamed up by Simon Thackray as he stared out of a window at his local pub one sunny Sunday afternoon back in the early 90s. 

As waitresses floated past with plates of roast beef and Yorkshire puddings, he mused on the idea of sailing down the river in a giant Yorkshire pudding boat. Soon, like Jack And The Beanstalk, this small seed of an idea grew into something much bigger. 

Now part of English folklore, Yorkshire Pudding Boats were originally baked to use as rescue boats in times of severe flooding. Several coats of Yacht varnish prevent them from going soggy. 

Anyway back to the fishing, talking about shallow and wide, this in to dusk session down at a rather convenient section of the Warwickshire Avon I was repaying a visit to a swim that was kind to me in the past. Not only were the bites on cheesepaste thick and fast but it culminated in another 5lber which had eluded me in the past over the years.

A 6lber is now my target after catching quite a few 5lbers now and this was a good 'a place of any of the areas I fish to bag myself one. 

Simple tactics as per the norm, a balanced chub set-up to enjoy the fight, a simple free-running light ledger set-up and a Depth Bomb tied to a short hair to be able to mould the cheesepaste on to. And for this session a smattering of pungent pellets for added attraction. 

The river was up more than I thought it would be so the chosen swim wasn't available really, to much debris coming down and after trying to get the lead to settle, the tip on the rod had other another story.

Still the swim I caught a good double figure Barbel from was fishable and I settled in for this two hour session to enjoy the evening. There is a nice slack here and usually despite the rivers pace usually it's an option when the others aren't. 

Anyway to cut a long story short, the thumb says it all A torch light illuminated rod tip was motionless for the entire session. The river rose an inch or so in the short time I was there but there was nothing doing at all.

One fish caused a big splash upstream and that was the highlight of this blank session. Still with a 10 degree air temperature it was rather mild and makes a change being stuck in the office.