Warwickshire Avon - Cadillacing and Caduceators

I had one of those days today, ones motivation was lacking a little with work and I was generally feeling well a little bit bluuurrrrhhhhhhhhhhhh. I suppose working from home where my backside hardly moves from the office chair ain't going to help especially when the weather is very nice indeed at the moment.

So what to do, well looking forward to another fishing session later certainly helps so yeah bugger it, I'd add another session to add to the growing list. This time though a proper smash and grab session as I'd arrive at 8.30pm or so where I'd bait one swim with some hemp and small pellets and then fish a boilie and a small PVA bag of freebies in to dusk.

I had planned to fish this venue yesterday but with a few others having the same idea bizarrely, because usually I have this place to myself, so even if there were others there when I got there I'd still find a spot to fish. The Avon is very low and clear at the moment but there are some nice feature packed swims here that hold barbel. Not in great numbers but enough to keep me interested.

Its predominately a gravely bed and in most swims when its this low the bottom came be seen but there are plenty of hiding spots here where the fish can tuck themselves away, but also there are swims with depth which also adds to the intrigue because I'm sure the bigger fish only show themselves when they are confident they cannot be seen. 

This stretch had always been on my radar because  a good while ago now me and a fellow member who also fishes another stretch I do spotted a colossus barbel on this stretch. Sam nicknamed it Albuttbarbelbutt for whatever reason and lets be honest a fish a scale above the hoi polloi that reside here deserves a distinctive name given to it. 

Now this barbel of brobdingnagian proportions never succumbed to mine or the aforementioned anglers tactics sadly but the fact that this is the biggest Barbel I'd seen in the parts of the Warwickshire Avon I fish, this stretch has always remained dear to me especially when it also was home to my first 5lb Warwickshire Avon Chevin.

And that's part of the problem here, yeap the chub. You know I love catching chub they are up there with my favourite species but not when I'm targeting Barbel they are not. So again a chub pluck resistant bait is required for this session so I'd fish a discrete dumbell hardened hookbait on a hair rig.

The water is gin clear literally and when I got bankside I went for a nose and those swims that I saw Barbel in last time were devoid of fish, in-fact I didn't see anything bigger than a few ounces. Still  wasn't here long so I bait dropped one swim and left it rest a while before putting the rig out.

Within minutes of the rig settling I was getting chub pulls straight away but I sat on my hands until eventually the chub hooked itself. It fought like a wet lettuce but then I was fishing my barbel rod. Still a 4lber so at least not a blank even though not what I was after.

But that's where the excitement ended because despite fishing in to dusk and until the light had all but gone apart from the odd small pluck it was very quiet indeed. So much so I might give the barbel targetting a rest for a while because it doesn't feel the right conditions at all at the moment. We need some rain to liven things up a bit.