Warwickshire Avon - Chastity Belts and Catachthonians

Public access, no such luck...

...but luckily I'd access to the virgin waters via the key to the chastity belt where looking back on my blog I'd not fished this stretch in to dark before and I wanted in on it.

To be honest there is a good reason I was here and that is one, well convenience for starters, you see as I'm in one of the offices on a Monday and on the way home after the daily grind it's a small detour off the main road and after the locked gate is negotiated the bumpy track leads out on to the first field and down to the river. 

and two, !!!

Well George  you see had a bit of a mad session here a couple of days ago when after an initial 3 lber at dusk he subsequently had 3 4lbers in about the same time it's taken me to type this. The best a near 5lber which ain't a bad fish at all...

...were there any bigger here I wonder ? only one way to find out !!!

Now I much prefer fishing in the daylight hours if I'm honest, but to get that fishing fix it's needs must and just a couple of hours here and there is all I need really.

George put me on to the peg he fished which ironically was the one I already at my gear set-up in before he'd replied to my message. There is a lovely peg just downstream as well which I'd prime with bread mash and would return to it if there was nothing doing in the main swim.

 

It's a strange swim this with fast flow on the far side and as the rivers comes towards you the pace slows and it's almost static just out in-front.

I've caught some lovely roach here in the past so I did think about trotting a float for a while with maggots but for this trip it was the chub I was after.

Like much of the Warwickshire Avon when it's clear the river can switch on at dusk and beyond because the fish feel less threatened by predators that share the waterway.

Cormorants, well they seem to be growing in numbers year and year and even the tiny river alne isn't immune to these fish eating machines.

And Otters, yeap plenty of them about too in-fact I saw one a few days ago munching on something without a care in the world.

Anyway dusk was half an hour away and once the sun went down it was very cold indeed. In-fact the bottom of the bread mash bowl was already starting to freeze up.

The mist as well that was coming down nicely which obviously gave the resident barn owl a kick up the jacksie as it graced the skies from that point onwards.

So I got the link ledger set-up out and cast out just off the main flow that was carrying some decent pace. 2SSG's about right for the rig to arc round and settle further downstream. 

Large pieces of flake are so visible that any waiting chub can home in on the bait pretty quickly if they are in the swim of cause. With the sensitive tip it didn't take long to see some indications and as expected minnows were in numbers.

They can strip the nice fluffy bits of bread quite easily within seconds which can be a little frustrating but I stuck to my guns, at least I hadn't blanked.

With a nice sunset I fully expected the tip to pull round at any moment...

But I waited, and waited and waited and waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttedddddddddddddddd !!!!

The river was dead, no topping fish either....

I tried the other swim I primed as well with the same outcome so returned to the first swim and put out a large piece of bread this time sprayed with garlic oil for some extra attraction. But sadly nada, I'd imagine if I stayed there all night I'd have had the same outcome so an hour and ten past dusk with mist now blanketing the fields I was out of there !!!!

I've been spoilt a bit recently with chub captures so back to blanking again !!!

A nice evening though, on to the next one !!!