Warwickshire Avon - Dunderheads and Dontopedalogy

Back in 2005 Purity Brewery established itself in Warwickshire and have been growing exponentially ever since. They have produced a great range of beers over the year with Mad Goose being my favourite but it was last year when Purity launched their first new permanent cask beer since Bunny Hop four years ago.

The best bitter, called ‘Jimbo’, marked a celebration of the life of Purity Brewing Company co-founder James Minkin who sadly passed away of pancreatic cancer during the height of the pandemic.

To compliment a stilton topped pork pie I cannot think of anything better than a decent pint of bitter and hats off to the team another winner and every time I have one I raise ones arm to Jimbo. 

 

It was brewed to showcase the very best in British and local ingredients, Jimbo is described as a classic British Best Bitter with a recognisable Purity character and balance of flavour.

Now a qualified accountant by trade, Jim had a huge passion for brewing which led him in the early days to take on the mantle of Head Brewer at Purity. 

Purity has also announced that 5p from every pint sold of Jimbo will be donated to the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF), founded in 2004 by Maggie Blanks, following the death of her husband from the disease.

My Dad his going through his own cancer battles at the minute and I'll be surprised if he sees this year out after his recent scan however unlike Jim my Dad has had a good innings up till now but old age is catching up with him and over the last couple of years his health really has turned for the worse,  especially with having to deal with the onset of dementia too. 

That's why we all need to do things to make us happy, even those small life's little pleasures we all have must be embraced whenever we can, because in that moment however small it may be, it gets us in a much better place. Now this section of the Warwickshire Avon has some nice chub in residence and for this session I wanted to rove its banks to see if there were any willing to take the bread off the top.

 

After catching a few they did wise up and when you can see fish coming up to the bread to inspect it before backing away, you know it is probably time to give the tactics a little rest. I hadn't been here for a while though so were they up for a feed ?

Only one way to find out !!!!

I was a foggy mild morning and as expected when I got to the river it is so low at the minute and with the water being gin clear I knew it would be a tough morning. 

That was confirmed in the first swim when a couple of chub came up to inspect the bread but then spooked off straight away. Even slow sinking bread didn't fool them so I had to do some swim hopping. 

The last swim on the stretch usually has the bigger chub hanging around and after depositing some bread over at the far bank in a slack near some snags, eventually after half an hour the first sign of chub. 

They turned up in a decent size group and after feeding more freebies they lost all their cautiousness and were competing for the bread. When they are in that frame of mind they are pretty easy to catch and I managed 4 hard fighting Chub off the top before they realised what was going on. The smallest around 3lb the biggest getting on for 4lb I'd say. 

And that was that, as soon as the sun came up I went for rove but the river looked devoid of fish. I deposited maggots and some pellets in one swim at the start of the session but despite returning to it a couple of times there were no Barbel to be seen, only the odd small chub.  

Just goes to show right time right place in the these though conditions there are still fish to be caught. We desperately need some rain though because a little like this unfortunate hare or rabbit the river feels lifeless.

A gruesome find and God knows where the rest of it went. After all the bank walking I've done I don't think I've ever seen one before,

An enjoyable session despite only being a couple or three hours but that's all I need these days and catching chub off the top is one of my favourite methods, especially when combined with balanced tackle. They were in a proper fighting mood today and every fight I had to bully them otherwise I'd have lost them. Got to love a Chevin, up there with my favourite fish species.