Warwickshire Avon - Big Beat and Borborology

So 319 days in to 2021 and this is my 167th post for this year. Now I didn't think I'd better last year because, because well lets be honest I did cram in quite a few sessions in 2020 but 😮, there you go, I'm as surprised as you are. The closed season canal Zander quest really kicked up a notch this year and we all know the outcome of that. 

Now I didn't think I'd get out the weekend as I was out till the early hours on Saturday where after battling myself through the ridiculously busy crowds in Birmingham that had flocked to the 'German markets' and seemingly to do their early Christmas shopping, Fatboy Slim made it all worthwhile. 

He always puts on a decent gig and this was no exception for the 58 year old who puts much younger DJ's to shame. The DJ on before was pretty good to be fair, but Norman Cook puts on a Big Beat 'show' where the huge display screens match the rather loud repetitive beats. 

Now Big beat features heavy and distorted drum beats at tempos between 100 and 140 beats per minute, Roland TB-303 synthesizer lines resembling those of acid house, and heavy loops from 1960s and 1970s funk, soul, jazz, and rock songs.

Not my usual genre, but it still works rather well, if you ask me, especially when a DJ is there to work the crowd. 

Anyway I got in a 1am and yet at 8.00am the location couldn't be any more different a world away from busy Birmingham and I'm roving the banks of the Warwickshire Avon with bags under ones eyes where to be honest, unusually I didn't have much of a plan. I had some maggots though and a predator float set-up, so I'm sure there were some fish up for a feed. 

The bites were hard to come by initially but then I stumbled on a swim I'd only fished a handful of times and wow, gonk after gonk.

I didn't get much sleep as a low level of tinnitus kept me awake after the sensory overload this sort of gig can give so after feeling very tired indeed, these certainly kept me awake. I don't think I will ever tire of catching gudgeon and they certainly wouldn't end up on a hook as livebait unlike the ten a penny'ers  

I probably caught 20 or so in around an hour or so with minnows, small dace and a few bleak also falling for the disco maggots. The Avon is back to being low and clear again but find swims with cover there are plenty of fish still to be caught if you just want bites like I did for this session.

A change of tactics some perch were eventually caught, the biggest shaking the hook but only looked around a pound and a half anyway, nothing massive luckily. 

The pike well, they were suspiciously quiet, I had a dropped run and that was it. Still a very enjoyable session and it certainly blew the cobwebs away and to be honest that's all I wanted from the session really. 

Only a few hours like most of my fishing trips seem to be, but I like them like that, little and often works for me. Just those few hours without the influence of others works wonders, it really does.