Warwickshire Avon - Curries and Curiology

The Curry night we host for friends is always between Christmas and New Year when the only requirement is to bring a pot of curry and a bottle or three. We all have busy lives but this is always in the diary because well, it's such a good do.

After getting my first proper winter energy bill (>2.5x the bill the same time last year even with the £67 from the Government), Jesus the 2kg's of shin of beef I bought for ones slow cooked spicy and coconut offering could have been toned down to some chicken or something. To be fair, this is once a year after all, lets hope 2023 is better than 2022, because been a bit rubbish hasn't it. 

Some valuable advice stay off toxic social media, delete those news apps on your phone and don't bother watching anything the BBC has to offer. ( Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing the only exception I can think of).

Oh and go fishing (every couple of days over the year me 🤯), again where the heck is everyone ?

I shouldn't moan the Just Stop Oil Protesters have vanished from the streets and the local single track country roads free from sanctimonious finger pointing cyclists, so the lack of anglers 

Anyway I had to get back to start the preparation for the curry night where the poppadum's had to be awoken with the extra hot vegetable oil and my offering the beef and coconut curry had to be sorted before the rabble turned up. It's a winner every year and despite me hoping there will be some left for me to eat the following day there never is. 

The other anglers may well be put off by the rain but I'm quite lucky because the stretch of convenience I can drive up and down the rather boggy and muddy field and drop in to to some chubby looking swims. I love these smash and grab sessions as you know !!!!

The river had turned to an almost Stour shade of green but more than enough clarity for a chub to see a piece of bread flake wafting around in the flow. The river wasn't as high as I thought it would be because the evening before it really was tanking it down.

And boy the chub were on it !!!

The key was to fish as many swims as possible and those swims where you know a chub is likely to hide. Those are quiet easy to find when the river is on the drop so despite the rain (the type that gets you wet) it really was a pleasant morning.

5 fish caught in a few hours and one missed bite. Not huge fish with the best going 4lb on the nose but they were all minters and the smallest fish was a 3lber. I can only think after having to batten down their hatches, their stomach were rumbling !!!

 Lovely Chubbly !!!