Warwickshire Avon - McMuffins and Mysteriosophy

The River Wye was ridiculously clear last week where bites to hard to come by, and that neigh on 16 hour session did to be honest test some of my resolve. Those long sessions really are few and far between for me and if I'm honest they are not really my cup of tea, still overall I enjoyed it and as I'm a permi now taking a day off work isn't what it once way. 

Now talking of tea....

I'd a gas stove luckily to relieve the boredom (joke) to rustle up some thirst quenching cups of tea and also some bankside grub. 

The 12 miles covered just to catch something wasn't to be sniffed at, and that sort of commitment requires fuel just to function properly in ones fish chasing endeavours.

Well its an excuse to eat food I wouldn't usually do, I mean just look at this, two sausage patties sandwiched between an English muffin and a couple of slices of highly processed mature cheese slices. They really did go down well, and I ate two of these bad boys, yes really !!!!

A week spent bivi'd up lakeside carp fishing, hmmm, I'd be the size of a house I'd imagine. I'd have to spend much of the day trying to stalk fish which to be honest is all well and good but I'd imagine it would be very much venue dependant. 

This little syndicate water down at the Warwickshire Avon doesn't really quite fit my roving style of fishing, mainly because, well its only around 200 metres in length for starters and at the moment until the stingers nettles are hacked back by oneself or other members, there are limited swims available.

 Its not really an issue because short sessions such as this one are perfect here. It helps that I'm only 10 minutes away so and unlike the Wye trip there isn't much planning that goes in to it. A window of opportunity appears, the gear quickly cobbled together and I'm waterside in no time.

With the recent rain and more on the way I fancied trying for a Barbel where again I'd give myself an hour in to dark and try and winkle one of the transient Barbel that frequent this stretch from time to time. Chub are also here and often when they are in a feeding mood they are often determined to get themselves caught and there are some good ones here so I wouldn't mind one of those either. 

I usually use one rod when targeting Barbel but for this session I'd have a chunk of meat on the downstream rod and a Dynamite Baits Shrimp and Krill Big Fish Durable Hooker on the main rod with a pva bag of mixed pellets and hemp. 

These soft'ish baits are initially chub pluck resistance given their texture and they stink to high heaven and with the water being nicely coloured I wanted something for a fish in the area to home in on. 

I've said before the small head of Barbel that frequent here are a good average size and potentially there could a be a PB beater I'm sure, and if there is, I want in on it. 

Bites are at a premium for sure but fish when a bite is most likely those fishless sessions are more palatable and can be ticked off without major issue. 

So anyway, better get fishing hadn't this time I remembered to have my second COVID jab in my left arm this time but the aches and pains started to worsen over the duration of the session. 

Well what an odd session, one poncho was dusted off quite early in to the session when it started rain only forty five minutes in to the session just after the first fish was caught. The water was up but not as turbid as I thought it would be. There was at least a few foot of visibility as I tested a chunk of meat to slowly drop through the water column. 

The krill bait was getting attention straight away but it was the meat rod that received the first proper bite. The tip was bouncing around all over the shop and then a proper bite developed. 

The fish felt decent first off and then I'm thinking, why is is staying so deep and then I discovered why, yeah a bleeding 5lb pike had picked up the processed offering, not exactly what I was after.

The rain by now was constant and I rarely use an umbrella, still the poncho was doing a half decent job but not exactly pleasant. With an hour to go before dusk the krill rod after a few nods receives a proper bite and I struck in to a solid fish.

I knew what it was after it was plodding around, yeap one of the decent bream that reside here. I don't really mind catching these to be honest even though they stink out the landing net. This one was 5lb on the nose but then in proper dark I caught another one even bigger which went 5lb 10oz on the scales.

A pound of my PB so with the rain coming down even heavier now I decided to pack up at just before 11.00pm and decided if a Barbel was going to bite it would have been by now. Can I have a few in-front of me please, bit bored of this now.