Warwickshire Avon - Muggers and Mugwumps

"What we got for tea tonight Dear ?"

"Errrrrr, don't think we have anything to be honest"

"One of us will have to go to the shops then"

"I'll go !!! I'll pop to the river for a couple of hours at the same time"

"Enjoy the peace, We'll see you in a bit !!!

I didn't take long to sort the gear this time though, just the link ledger and some bread, the target chub.

Now I've caught well down this neck of the woods this season, quite a few 5lbers and some 4s, but I knew from experience even if trotting I'd struggle to catch anything till the light went, which was only an hour an a bit thankfully. Lovely winter sunshine, but for fishing when the Warwickshire Avon is tap water clear, well, all a bit pants.

You can see how bright it was illuminating the trees and my face, but thankfully it was on the way down. I didn't even get a welcome from my friends as they were preoccupied with feeding on the grass, so I got on with the task in hand.

I pre-baited my favourite swim where I rarely blank with some mash and a handful of grubbing pellets and went upstream to fish some of the slacks. The river is low here but there are some nice near and far bank swims next to cover the fish can hold up in.

Nothing doing there whatsoever and I rolled some bread under a raft I had some chub feeding off the top the other day. So to the pre-baited swim where dusk was fast approaching. I settled in to the swim and it took a while to get the first pull but it never developed in to a bite.

It was proper dark now and nearly an hour past dusk where I was already late, as I could hear the Wife's belly protesting from here. But then out of the blue a pull that continued round and kept on going, a fish was on !!!!

It felt a decent fish too, staying low and heading upstream with the drag protesting and the carbon bent to the butt. I managed to keep it under control but then the next surge as it was heading towards a tree a hook pull (I thought !!!) Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!

Damn It !!! On closer inspecting the hook hadn't pulled at all, there was no hook there at all. So was it a Pike that had mugged me off ? quite possibly as I've had quite a few pike grab the bread which is suspended off the bottom over recent times. It's a highly visible bait after all. 

If it was a chub though it was good one that's for sure and I have had chub in this exact swim stay hugged to the bottom like this fish did. Don't you hate it when that happens though ? especially when you don't even know what the fish was. So could it have been a chub that hat taken the bait all the way down and its pharyngeal teeth were the culprit ? Or on closer inspection my knot gave way ?

Answers on a postcard ?

Well I better go back and fish it again hadn't it to see what it was !!!