Warwickshire Avon - Carrotmen and Cacafuegos

Now Aunt Bessie’s factory in Hull produces a staggering 900 million Yorkshire puddings every year. Almost 30 tonnes of flour are used every day, in a business which employs 400 people. 110 million of those are Yorkshire puddings are made for Christmas apparently.

In fact, a bag of Yorkshire puddings is made every 1.2 seconds, yes that is correct, I wonder if the gas crisis hitting businesses at the minute will effect production at all ?. Lets hope not as we will have a nation having to make them from scratch, God help us, the lazy take note !!!!

So the batter rolls into ovens which are more than 50m long, and then out of the other end come perfectly formed Yorkshires. An automated masterpiece no doubt and mass production on a grand scale.  

The odd one which doesn’t quite make the cut is discarded, with all food waste becoming animal feed, all adding to the 'sustainability' credentials I suppose we everyone needs to be crying from the rooftops these days it seems. 

Now what I find staggering is not only that so many are sold, but why would you buy premade ones when they are so easy to make ?

Especially when you can chose the right baking vessel for your plate and effectively  tailor the shape to suit your culinary needs. 

Now a shallow but wide tray produce these beauties above that are fit for a King, especially when they are seasoned with added sage and onion salt for some flavour interest. 

 

I think kids need to get involved at cooking at an early stage even if it's just measuring out the milk, weighing the flour, cracking the eggs and giving the whisking a go, there is no better way to start than a Yorkshire Pudding.  

Now talking of not quite making the cut, this rogue carrot turned up huddled up amongst some rather uniform and much longer humdrum and it stood out from this rest despite its visual predicament. 

Sam named it "carrotman" and at the minute it is proudly taking residence in our fridge as to "make it last as long as possible" I've always loved an outsider and Zander a little like the Zeds in the local canal network those that swim in the Warwickshire Avon are here to stay too. 

They look like no other fish species that swim within our waters and luckily a fantastic fish to catch, because they really have captured me as a species. 

I've probably in to the four figures now on numbers of fish I've caught and despite catching a canal 11lber I'm still going to target them from time to time. Why wouldn't I ? once you get the bug, there is no let up in the interest in catching them. But then one man’s sprat is t’other’s Salmon. 

Take a look at one of the Insulate Britain Activists who is married to a TFL Manager. Imagine the chat around the dining table would be along the lines of, 'how was your day'?, oh horrendous, huge tailback on the motorway, gridlock and mayhem. 'How was yours'?. Oh, hurt my hand gluing it to the road, M'Dear

Now this private section of the Warwickshire Avon Nic from Avon Angling UK has got access too has produced some nice Zander for me and him in the past and we were back for another session. 

They do show in the daylight hours but as soon as the light goes that's when if they are in the area they tend to move about so the plan was to meet up an hour before dusk and then fish to whenever we got bored. 

The Zander that we tend to catch there do seem to travel around in packs and from the same year group almost as they were of similar size, but we'd not fished for them for a bit so were there lonesome lunkers to be caught now ? only one way to find out. 

Simple tactics as usual here for me, running rigs, wire traces, circle hooks and my Zander bobbins on alarms. Bait, well on one, a section of roach and the other half a smelt.

Nic was employing similar tactics apart from running a float around the rather lifeless looking water before he couldn't see it. What I didn't expect was to get some interest on the LH rod within 20 minutes of it being out and a couple of lifts of the bobbin and beeps on the alarm eventually the section of roach was taken confidently. 

To be fair I had suspicions on what the fish when I felt it on the end of the circle hook because it kept low and also didn't give that distinctive fight that pike do.

After a couple of runs it was heading towards the bank, right near my feet and then it turned away at the last minute and I got to see its flanks before the hook pulled somehow or it ejected the bait. A couple more tentative takes for the next couple of hours and that was it. Nic I don't think had any interest whatsoever. 

The Avon can be moody at the best of times so to be honest not unusual. Still it was good to have a catch up and when the heavens opened and hour and a half in to dark it was time to pack up and make a move. No sitting in the dark for 5 days for one bite to be seen here. 

So sadly not enough footage to make a video for Nic, but then that is fishing for you isn't it, and to be honest fishing on the Warwickshire Avon is tough if the Angling Gods are not looking down on you. We'll give it a go another time maybe when conditions are more favourable and to mix it up a bit I might put a livebait on one of the rods.