Warwickshire Avon - Cacafeogos and Centrifuges

This session could well be utter gluttony for Mr Whiskers , 2 pints of maggots on the turn many of them already casters, a Dyson equipped Barbel could well have a meal like the late Ruddles the Father-in-Laws Labrador had one New Years. 

You see whilst the party goers, me included were outside watching the rather lame fireworks, Ruddels bless him was helping himself to the rather large buffet. 

Ruddles you say, well yes he was named after the English Ale, you know that Ale with a distinctive flavour of dark toffee and caramel combined with a crisp bitterness derived from using rare Bramling Cross hops....

Anyway he did his best to finish the lot too, luckily much of it was salvageable when we finally discovered his misdemeanour, but lets just say I was glad the Sister-in-Law was up the earliest in the morning to discover his pork pie massacre backside aftermath. 

Still not his fault though, it's within his make-up, a study by the University of Cambridge was published in the journal Cell Metabolism about the reasons why Labradors are so gluttonous. 

The researchers revealed that one in four Labs carries a high ‘food motivation’ gene in their DNA, which means that these Labs don't feel full after eating.

So that's why they carry on staring at you for food. The scientists studied 310 Labradors and asked their parents about their eating habits and if they showed signs of greediness. 

The gene they discovered in a quarter of them has been likened to an 'obesity gene'. They found that those who carried it were 1.9kg heavier than those without it, even if their humans gave them regular exercise and a controlled diet.

The team focused on examining the DNA sequences of three genes that had previously been linked to obesity in mice. Two of the genes are also linked to obesity in humans. A single variation within one of the three genes was found to be more common in obese Labradors than lean ones, the absence of a short stretch of DNA in a gene known as POMC.

Apparently this mutation disrupts the formation of two chemicals: β-MSH, which is linked to the ability of an animal to sense the amount of fat it has stored, and β-endorphin, which is thought to be involved in the brain’s reward pathways.

Now talking about reward pathways and gluttony a Barbel in this swim sometime ago gave me a right doing over, it was basically unstoppable on my chub gear leading to an inevitable outcome where ever since I have been plotting my revenge. 

Upstream there is a nice shallow fast section and the swim leads to a deep pool just up from the wide bend. Downstream is 'Sean's Banker Swim' this area has Barbel for sure. Were they in a feeding mood ? were they there in-front of me  ?

Barbel you see lets be honest here are not that hard to catch when they are feeding and in front of you. 

This short WFH session I'd deposit the past their best maggots via a bait dropper and prep the swim heading in to dusk where I'd fish some fake maggots over the top on a hair to resist the attention of any small fish.

Fingers crossed a Barbel was in the vicinity and switched his centrifuge hover on to max, when they are on a feeding mood they are the most gluttonous of all coarse fish, well ok, maybe the carp might take that crown, but lets just say they ain't shy round the buffet these magnificent fish. 

Another well planned session, did it live up to it's hype ?

Well the water temperature had risen dramatically over the last week and now well within Barbel feeding range I would say. But it's a big river this and the bait would only be in the water for an hour and a half at the most. Club rules dictate I'd have to be off half an hour after official dusk.

Still of there was a fish feeding it should show itself within that time especially with so many stinky maggots to home in on the bait.

An hour down without even a nibble the sun was starting to set very fast indeed, it was no or never. Dusk went and I'd given myself a time to start packing up and then out of the blue a proper sharp pull, then another.

All went quiet for 5 minutes but then his time the rod tip jumps in to life again and a fish is on. Within a split second I knew what it was, yeap another greedy fish a Chub. Not a big'un though and swingable to the hand quite easily.

Not a blank, but as good as, still the fresh air did me good, so on to the next one.