Warwickshire Avon - Sociocracy and Sock Puppets

The pandemic has been a lesson in solitude.....

....our social circles have become parties of one, with technology the only real option for social interaction, and for many like me having to work from home (and don't like it) often thoughts lead on to the depths of the disordered mind.

Angling for me has always been a place to forget about the daily drudgery and noisy family life, where Microsoft Teams doesn't have its foot in and the background noise largely under my control.

A pursuit which not only has enabled me to seek an ever increasing need for 'me' time but more recently 'beyond the real life people', I also learned to appreciate nature even more than what I did. 

The very individual sounds of bird song in the morning when bankside for a dawn assault for the Dace, the way that the character of each Robin couldn't be more different, the differing sun rises and the sun settings, that distinctive sound of a fox breaking wind, those ambient sounds are amplified when waiting for a bite, and believe you me I do lots of waiting.... 

Simple things like that have made me enjoy fishing even more, which at the moment is every couple of days since the releasing of the shackles of the third lockdown. 

Eat, Sleep, Teams, Repeat !!!! 

Thankfully the no fishing didn't last long with the lobbying of the Angling Trust so there was a way out for me though to keep me firmly on the railroad, anglers are lucky we can still partake in our pastime, albeit locally. 

Anyway back to the task in hand, a break in the stormy weather, a small window of opportunity on a stretch where my membership will not be renewed, where ones blog will the only contact I'd have with it going forward. 

I lost a fish in the weir here you see, and it felt a decent fish too and I'm confident it was a Zander. I hate it when you lose decent fish but clearly you have to admire this fish as it knew what it was doing. 

Within seconds it had picked up the roach deadbait having probably realising it's fate and it motored off with it and snagged me up before I could say "For Gods Sake !!!!" or words to that effect. 

Now my reactions probably weren't the best if I'm honest, the flotsam deposited on the bed of the weir that ultimately became my downfall and that led to the fish escaping, now fresh in my mind.

With a little more water on, to be honest the weir was out of bounds really and probably not a bad thing as if I hooked it again I wouldn't want a repeat of the event now would I, I'd never forgive myself. 

So I decided to fish a swim a few swims downstream where close in has some deeper areas. Roach deadbait again but both would be suspended under floats. 

I prefer fishing floats for predator bite registration as you know exactly what's going on under the water by the visual movement of the sensitive float. 

This time though I'd try out the night floats I'm trying down the canal for the Zander in my double quest. Now these all the way from the Far East illuminate green normal but when a bite develops they flash red to register the fish interest. 

I like to travel as light as possible so no bite alarms or focusing torches and the automatic bite activation if it worked properly would mean less effort trying to focus on what the heck is going on in front of me. 

So will I miss this water ? well if nothing is picked up for this session, probably not. 

It's a nice swim this only a stones throw from the weir and off the main current there is a nice large slack where I've had a Zander before, this one below a 4lber caught on a bleak live bait. 

Now the walk down to the river was interesting as the weather was very wild indeed. Strong winds and a 10 minute shower where it threatened to hail. 

The rainbow was incredible though, the vibrancy nothing like I'd seen before. I was at the right time and the right place though as it only lasted like it for 10 minutes or so.

You unscrew the top of the float and connect the battery easy enough and the float has a nice glow to it. White isn't the ideal colour when it's light though, red being the better option, still these were intended for in to dark sessions only.

I had a bite within half an hour on the left hand rod whilst it was still light, the float bobbing like a good'un the float flashing red to indicate a fish had picked up the bait.

It carted off to the right straight in to the flow and the float submerged, when I lifted in to the fish though it didn't feel much weight at all, as I was bringing the fish towards me after a few seconds it let go of the bait and the fish was off.

An inspection of the bait clearly a tiny jack pike with eyes bigger than its belly. The baits went back out with the floats glowing nicely, the floats moving round the swim doesn't set the floats off, a jolt against the grippa stop would, on the canal would be perfect.

Dusk arrived, dusk gone, no more bites sadly, this stretch now confined to the archives.