Suppose I cannot think of many fish I'd caught over the years that is worthy of the Angling Times but I'm in this weeks issue with the 11lb 8oz canal Zander I caught on the Grand Union in Warwickshire at the end of the closed season.
My blog posts in the closed season over those 6 years have very much been groundhog day and I'd admit that, because well they have been quite honesty, hands up I apologise !!! and because of that my resolve had been tested plenty of times.
Now as someone who works in the automotive industry where my resolve has been frequently tested over the years, luckily my latest job I'm enjoying again and I'm looking forward to getting this very interesting current project I'm working on in to production, more of that later.
The change over to electrification over the last few years has been quite dramatic and a visit to the Festival of Speed the weekend only amplified that with the countless new EV cars on display for you to buy now and the cars that were canned silently it up the Goodwood hill.
I'm not in to cars like I once was but even I found some of the noise from some of the combustion engines really quite unforgettable, and probably something I'd miss when these EV's get a foothold with the push for electrification from all and sundry.
Despite their increased carbon footprint in production, over the lifetime of the vehicle their benefits can be quantified and the zero emissions from the tailpipe and their silent operating have benefits in all manner of ways.
An interim step to something else ? quite possibly !!!!
You only have to look at Zoox the on-demand autonomous ride-hailing company, the future right there, well for cities certainly, hydrogen well there are plenty of those running in our roads already.
Now a DC powered EV is the fastest up Goodwood Hill these days not something powered by raging horses, the performance of the EV hypercars and those now in motorsport frankly quite ridiculous and this evolving tech has only really been recently adopted remember.
Anyway I was there to see a concept of a car I've been working on that will realise production and its only when you're involved in the packaging of the motors, batteries and all the charging systems, invertors and its electrical management systems you realise just what a change it has been to an industry that really hasn't changed much since crashworthiness and safety became a thing.
Luckily I work on interiors so I've seen little change if I'm honest well apart from the additional electronics to integrate and package protect for and the drive towards more sustainable materials which is a whole other subject altogether.
Oddly I was involved in Modec an EV van from Coventry that was launched at the wrong time in a recession 13 years ago and sadly 6 mths in to production with sale figures considerably less than predicted and a failed joint venture with a company in America the company folded.
Yet in 2021 Arrival based Banbury with effectively the same product won't be able to make enough of them and have investors lining up because of the spin-off vehicles that can be delivered from its scalable platform(s) and technology. Now I suppose apart from boilie and hair rigs for carp fishing and maybe carbon rods innovation within fishing has been largely uneventful.
I suppose one exception carp fishing the industry plaudits will be singing its praises where camping is a very big part of it now and specific products that didn't exist before have be designed and developed since the increase in bivi dwellers to that went with the growing numbers of carp anglers there seem to be growing in numbers these days.
I'm not knocking it, far from it because I can see the appeal if it wasn't for the fact I find it hard to concentrate with an hour without a bite not hours or days on end which can feature when your fishing pressured waters where the anglers can tell Big Bill from Chunky Bob. Lockdown had made the country as a whole enjoy wanting to enjoy green spaces more and fishing clearly is a pastime that offers than in spades.
Anyway back to my own fishing chunky Boris and his oppos were seen in this section of the Warwickshire Avon I've been fishing and despite dropping a bait on their noses they just were not interested in picking up the bait at all.
The bait was rolling perfectly along the gravel bottom too but nah, you ain't catching us today my angling friend.
The chub were up for a feed though so this short after work session I'd bait an area with 2 pints of hemp and pellets in to a swim I could just drop the bait dropper down in Z and then I'd leave the swim rest for a while whilst I'd try and winkle out one of two of the chub downstream. I'd return to the pre-baited swim where I'd fish a small pellet over the Smörgåsbord in to dusk to see if they would be up for a feed.
There are plenty of hiding places here so the thought was when the light started to go they may well venture out and their guard may well be let down a nadger. I could see them so they could see me and I'm sure much of the reluctance to feed was because of that fact. They didn't seem to be spawning anyway, well nothing that stood out, pardon the pun.
Enough of the planning, how did it go ?
Well best laid plans and all that because a stretch I've usually got to myself had 4 cars already parked up. Ok there would have been a swim or two available so that wouldn't have been an issue but I had a specific swim in mind and if that was already taken ones mind would be out of kilter and that wouldn't have been good at all.
So 5 mins down the road another stretch that has barbel in residence and here they don't really show until the sun sets and the light goes. The middle car-park was deserted so I was surprised to see a guy just packing up in the area I was going to be fishing. He'd blanked for the afternoon in a gin clear Avon using big baits so certainly tough conditions as expected.
But chub can still be caught in the pacey water where they intercept baits. Bread on the surface was actively ignored but slow sinking bread was the order of the day and I managed 3 chub of similar size in 15 minutes the swim up from where the guy had been fishing only a short walk away.
Two more swims were devoid of fish and I didn't have my waders with me so the banker swim was never fished. Some hemp went out in the final swim and I went for a wander before settling down and chilled for the last hour.
To be honest it was fairly quiet until curfew time then a proper bite developed and a chub was on. Only a splasher which called time to the session. Enjoyable nonetheless because I love sight fishing for chub but the barbel remain as elusive as ever.
0 comments:
Post a Comment