Warwickshire Avon - Teratisms and Tephrochronology

A century ago millionaires built libraries, museums and art galleries for the benefit of the population at large. Nowadays they seem only interested in vanity projects for themselves, celebrities and their wealthy friends.  

You see this week Blue Origin's penis shaped New Shepard spacecraft successfully took off from West Texas on Wednesday morning and safely landed 10 minutes and 18 seconds later. The capsule crested at an altitude of 107 km. This was Blue Origin's second human spaceflight and garnered widespread attention because among the crew was Star Trek actor William Shatner, a guest of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. 

“That’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before," 

Shatner said upon landing in the bell-end crew capsule. 

"Everybody in the world needs to do this."

Talk about lazy marketing, but then I suppose it got some air time didn't it, hence this post. I'm sure magic mushrooms and some VR glasses would be just as life changing for a fraction of the cost. 

A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital revolution or reach escape velocity.

So the powerful rocket gets the phallic capsule above the earths atmosphere, the rocket fizzles out and then it falls to earth rather uneventfully. 

It seems rather silly to get excited about a slightly half-arsed flight lasting a 10 minutes with no real payoff when there are giant frickin' spaceships getting ready to fly into actual space and do actual cool sh*t. 

What was supposed to be a 'competition' in private space from the other billionaires Branson and Elon Musk to me they are all a rather large damp squib.

But, But, But, I think this very short step to escaping planet earth or maybe inroads to harnessing energy sources outside of our own atmosphere should be encouraged especially when the now 8 billion population is only headed one way, and that is UP...

If I had that sort of dosh, I'd probably do the same, we cannot get all sanctimonious over it I say. Now I wonder if the space tourists got to see the volcano and its river of lava on the way down ?

Now talking of damp squibs my Warwickshire Avon barbel attempts of late have been very fruitless indeed but then apart from a few days when the river was up and coloured, let's be honest the conditions haven't been brilliant to target them. 

I hate wasting bait so with a a couple of pints of maggots in the fridge that were on the turn, I fancied visiting a swim that has been kind to me in the past where roach are in numbers. At least they can offer bites in these conditions where other species are less likely to be interested.  

They are in good shoals here hence why here is also a good area to target pike, and that is why I'd also have a deadbait out to try and also intercept a pike. 

It's one of those areas on the Warwickshire Avon fish where you can almost guarantee a bite and considering those have been scarce for me of late, at least a blank can be avoided.  

So simple tactics I'd ball in some groundbait mixed with maggots at dawn and then fish a waggler over the top and catapult half a pouch full of maggots from time to time.So simple tactics I'd ball in some groundbait mixed with maggots at dawn and then fish a waggler over the top and catapult half a pouch full of maggots from time to time.

The roach here are always in good nick despite the predators that hand around here.

The bleak shoals can be quite incredible as well so when fishing the float you need to get the bait down through the water column as quickly as possible. 

I've never really targeted the perch in angler but the way they attack the bleak when they are up on the surface layers are fantastic to watch.

There are some really nice looking slabs to catch here as well but the water is still ridiculously clear so I didn't think they would show and I was correct in my assumption despite the half decent depth the swim I fished was.

Now it was raining when I left the house at 6.50am. Ten minutes later I'm unloading the gear heading over to the swim in almost dark.

A very cloudy morning indeed and very damp but with the sun about to rise in half an hour there was no need to rush to start fishing for the roach.

The smelt went out to my right and I mixed the groundbait bankside and fed some balls and left it settle for half an hour.

I couldn't see the float to be fair however the larger pike float close in was much easier to see, 

I even had a chair for this session but I do need to slow down the weekends as ok, I know I'm sat on my backside most of the week but come Friday, Saturday and Sunday I hardly have my feet up at all.

The early start was worth it having dragged myself away from two rather warm plump pillows the pike float had some interest literally within 15 minutes of getting the smelt out. A confident bite with the float disappearing from view I tightened the drag and tightened up to the circle hook. I felt solid resistance and a decent pike was on. 

A couple of powerful runs and at one stage it launched clear of the water and tail walked whilst shaking its head at the same time. It was soon in the net though and I rested it up before taking a snap and weighing it. A rather large head but still relatively lean but still a double going 10lb 6oz in the scales.

No more action when I put the deadbait out again but the roach kept on coming as did the bleak which as one stage must have been 1000's strong with the maggots being hovered up as soon as they hit the water. Even the float was being attacked at one stage. None of the bigger roach showed but that was understandable considering how clear it still is. An enjoyable session nonetheless and another ticked off this month to add to the growing number.