Warwickshire Avon - Snafflers and Slangwhangs

Fishing can often surprise you when you least expect it and this session was one of those. The river had dropped nicely and had that lovely tinge of green that the Warwickshire Stour has most of the year.

It was clearing fast and the bread bait could be seen quite a couple or three feet down so chub which were a target for this early morning session where I'd a trotting set-up and a ledger set-up to try and get a few bites.

I've found moving baits work for even the most cautious chub and bread is a wonderful bait that is always in ones armoury. Half the loaf of bread went to making the bread discs and then the rest was turned in to mash.

The chub seem to respond differently from day to day in their response to feed so you need to judge it on the day.

The wind was pretty chilly but with the sun out for most of the session it was very pleasant indeed. 

Spring is here thankfully and you can tell that with the increase in bird song and its a shame the river close season is nearly upon us as conditions for many fishing the rivers couldn't be better. 

Anyway what a session the first swim produced 3 fish with the biggest going 4lb and they came from the tail end of a pacey swim so on light tackle a fantastic battle ensued for each and every fish.

The size 6 hooks though once they are in rarely come out and the way the float disappeared from view they really were confident in feeding.

Only a ping pong ball size of mash was needed but its surprising just how quickly you get through it when the fish are in a feeding mood.

When the bites dried up it was time to move on and having the stretch to myself for most of the session that was easy enough to do. 

I fished 3 swims and every single swim produced fish. No real chublets either the smallest was around 2lb with the two biggest in to the fours. 

The best was yet to come though and that was from the last swim where the bread hardly had been in the water when it buried under the surface and another hard fighting chevin was on.

I thought it was bigger when I first saw it but it went 5lb 8 ounces on the scales. It just goes to show weights can be deceptive but I suppose the fish wasn't as long as I initially thought.

So 3.5 hours, 11 chub and one of those memorable sessions we all have from time to time. It will be interesting to see how the matches end up on the local rivers this weekend as I'm sure having bang on conditions will certainly help the weights I'd imagine. 

A 6lber has still eluded me thus far but the Avon chub are certainly getting bigger year on year so it certainly is a realistic target.  

I returned home a very happy man indeed and coaxed Sam off Rocket League to come and join me on a bike ride to enjoy the fresh air.

The roads surprisingly quiet to get to the Stratford Greenway but there were a couple of roads closed that actually helped rather than hindered us, my luck was certainly in today, will it continue tomorrow ?