Warwickshire Avon - Stormtroopers and Stigmatophilia

This post is all over the shop and I'm not going to apologise for it, this is my blog after all and I'm ultimately the gatekeeper and keymaster. It's one of the reasons why the blog is still going after 12 years and 1318 posts. Quite unbelievable really how I've kept it going so long, but it's a diary of my fishing after all and world events are not enough to stop my keyboard bashing just yet. 

Anyway is China about to abandon its struggle with covid-19 ? You see Judging by recent moves in the markets, you might think so and someone who might have to travel there soon, I'm hoping so. (more of that later)

On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization was informed of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. A novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was subsequently identified from patient sampled, ended up spreading to nearly every country, upending life and derailing the global economy. Rumours that China had assembled a reopening committee inspired a big rally in the country’s shares, the offshore yuan and even the price of copper in the early days of this month.

A social-media message that helped circulate the idea was subsequently dubbed the “trillion-dollar” tweet. If nothing else, the market movements were a reminder of the costs of China’s “zero-covid” strategy, which requires mass testing and frequent lockdowns to stamp out the disease. 

Few policies are so economically damaging that mere rumours of their repeal can create so much wealth so quickly. A reopening could lift the value of China’s shares by 20% or $2.6trn, according to Goldman Sachs, a bank. Because China is the only big economy still prone to lockdowns, it is the last opportunity for investors to profit from a reopening rally. 

Why I am so bothered well a work colleague of mine you see is currently in a Chinese Government quarantine hotel where he is confined to his hotel room for 10 days before heading on to see a supplier. Escape ? well yeah all very good but 3 years in the clink is good deterrent.   

The red tape is staggering and just look at this picture, this is from the hotel check in, don't get to see that on the BBC now do you, like a scene out the movie Outbreak and the hotel well "only fit for squatters" I'm getting daily updates and lets just say if he knew now what would happen before he agreed to the trip, he wouldn't have gone. But who are we to judge in the West, have to just get on with it I say.

Anyway back to the fishing !!!

It was rude not to take advantage of Total Fishing Tackle  birthday 10% discount on anything basically. You see I'd had my eye on a Solar Tackle SP C-Tech Low Recliner Chair to add to my ever expanding tackle collection having sat on one at tackle show I was waiting for one to pop up at a decent price.

The problem was it was out of stock at TFT however they have a 'notify me when this product is in stock' function so I really was surprised when registering 24 hours later I had an email from to say the item was back in stock. 

So after the discount it was £116.99 all in, which was a bargain if you ask me, and I'm looking forward to receiving it. I'm not getting any younger you see and sometimes I want a little more comfort than my lightweight roving chair when sitting it out for a bite, for those sessions when I use a chair that is. 

You see with the nights drawing in, static fishing often is the only option if I want that fishing fix, and with certain sections of river I can drive the length of the banks, a heavier chair isn't really an issue because it's most of the time in the back of the Jimny.

Now as someone who works in automotive and having been involved in seat comfort trials over the years using expensive pressure mapping equipment, there isn't a one size fits all approach to seating. Comfort is very subjective and it is the user that ultimately has the final say not a computer.  

Anyway I fancied a bite from a chub so the cheesepaste was taken out of the fridge and the minimum of gear sorted out. Only a short post work session this where literally I'd be getting the gear out half an hour before dusk and then fishing a little in to dark before curfew calls.

But often that is all you need to get a bite because the witching hour is the best time to get a bite from a decent fish in these quarters. The stretch of convenience was chosen as there are some nice chub here and it's very unlikely a bite isn't received providing the conditions are fair like they were for this sortie.  

The river was well up as expected and here there isn't many slacks really when its this high so I added a little more weight than I usually do and went about dropping in to likely fish holding swims.

I've huge confidence in using cheesepaste for chub and it is a very selective bait because apart from the odd hungry pike all I've caught is chub, chub, chub.

It didn't take long for the first bite but after the first pull a little disappointing what was on the end considering the stamp that usually swims here. Still it was a bite and with dusk now here still enough time to winkle out a bigger fish. Two more swims though nothing so I headed to a swim that post dusk is usually good for a bite. 

The problem was the quivertip was well under tension from the leaves and debris coming down the, so a couple of casts were needed to keep a bait in the water.

A proper sharp twang on the tip I knew it was a fish and then when a proper bite came I lifted in to a better fish. This was giving a good account for itself in these windy autumnal conditions and after a decent battle on my dedicated chub gear it was in the net.

A much better fish this at 4lb 8ounces and made the short trip worthwhile. With that resting in the net I got the bait out again and gave it another 15 minutes but nothing happened so I headed back home with another satisfying session ticked off.