Warwickshire Avon - Squid Games and Schematomancy

I don't know what all the fuss was over Squid Game having watched it now after the Wife was pestering me to watch it as it was on the social media must watch list. However there is one thing for sure, and that was that the mice in the Newey household loft must have been watching it with us too. 

Because over the last couple of days they have been lining themselves up to be put to the sword and many have succumbed to the plastic guillotine of doom.  Enough rigor mortis riddled psychotic Itchy impersonators for a belly buster breakfast for a pet snake, lets put it that way....

....it all started a couple of weeks ago when the odd rustling up the loft became more and more frequent and got to a stage where I needed to investigate. Sure enough when I opened the loft hatch and looked at the floor, yup the odd mouse droppings here and there was also a background smell of Stuart Little about it.

Now peanut butter is my go-to mousetrap bait but the larder cupboard was bare so a cheese triangle and some maple syrup came to the rescue, and boy what a revelation. I'd gloss over the gory detail but lets just say we almost skipped straight to the ninth episode of the Netflix series. 

Both of the kids schools wrote to each and every parent about Squid Game and he fact some of the kids were acting out some of the scenes, presumingly some of the parents allowed them to watch it, or they found other social media platforms to view some of the content. They highlighted it to being only suitable for fifteens and over 

If you haven't seen the series, it revolves around a contest in which 456 players, drawn from different walks of life but each deeply in debt, play a series of children's games for the chance to win a ₩45.6 billion prize, with a deadly penalty if they lose. 

A violent test of morality and humanity for sure, and something quite unique about the series if you can put up with the bad dubbing or even worse the subtitles.

Would I watch it again, errrrrrrrrrrr no !!!!

What I would watch again though is the float moving on the Zander rod and there was a Zander under it. 

Now with the tackle in the car it would be rude not to have another session especially as the Avon had dropped nicely and the area I had been fishing would have been in much better fettle. 

The last session it really wasn't ideal conditions with the river tanking through and the float being dragged off line. Groundhog day this one too as I'd pack-up half an hour before dusk and sit it out in another swim downstream to try and winkle out a Barbus as the light went. 

There is certainly a nip in the air in each and every morning now and the heating has been on and off during the day to warm ones cockles.

Still the fish are biting and that's the reason why I was here. When I got bankside I got speaking to a guy who had been in one peg since 7.00am so 10 hours or so without a fish. A couple of chub wraps and plucks and that was it. He recounted years gone by where he'd often had 5 to 7 fish all from the peg he was fishing.

Previous to this session he had 7 more that resulted in no Barbel whatsoever, tough going indeed...

Anyway bet get the rods out hadn't I, so I walked 5 pegs upstream and settled in to a swim with a nice slack and guess what, well within 5 minutes of getting the sections of roach out I had the first bite.

A very confident bite too, no messing around as the right-hand float moved from left to right and right in to the main flow of the river. As tightened up to the circle hook and it felt a good hold. Initially I thought it was a schoolie but then it kicked up a gear when it surfaced. Another nice Zed succumbing to the small baits. 

It was soon in the net though and was nicely hooked in the scissors, it can be a fine line with hook holds with zander especially when they start shaking their heads like they do. These circle hooks once they are in don't come out and this was well hooked luckily, it's my default hook now for Zander.

Anyway not a massive fish, not quite 6lb but most welcome all the same when the reports on the ground were that many had been struggling for bites. Two more aborted runs and one more bite I failed to connect I'm sure these are small fish not quite getting the bait in to their mouths. And that was it, two hours, once nice fish.