Warwickshire Avon - Troubled Waters and Tragomaschalia

The canals can do one !!!

I've said many times they are a means to an end really, because flowing waters is where my heart is and I'm so glad were are back fishing again. Tell that to the fish locally though because there has been reports of an "alarming" amount of dead fish being discovered on more than one stretch too.

Barford AA which I was a member of for many years called the proactive EA out to find the heck what was going on but it took them ages to turn up where after monitoring they deemed that everything was fine. 

They have suspended fishing there at the moment which I'm sure wasn't taken lightly with many anglers wanting to get back on the bank fishing.

The EA said that during the summer months its staff respond to many reports of fish in distress.

"Prolonged warm weather followed by intense summer rainstorms, such as those we experienced across the Midlands in the last week, including the Avon catchment, can wash material into watercourses from roads and in gullies," it said.

"Once in a watercourse, this material will further deplete the water of oxygen, and can lead to serious fish mortalities."

Now the top end of Barford stretch over the M40 is suspiciously close to a huge sewage treatment works where in the past I've fished next to the outflow where treated effluent is released. As you can see from the Rivers Trust website in 2022 444 hours worth went in 😠💀🕱☠. The reports of dead fish stretch much further downstream as well and beyond and another angling club has also suspended fishing where during some bank maintenance for the new season there was also some grim scenes.

An easy finger to point though, with the rivers we fish not exactly healthy and with the lack of rain and the BBQ weather we have being having lowering the oxygen levels, I would imagine it wouldn't take much to reach a tipping point where fish will suffer. Various reports on the ground said the water was very foamy which doesn't bode well now does it, could well be the result of a chemicals, which does make more sense with the huge amount of dead fish showing up.

The rain was biblical during the storm I must admit, that could well have contributed to the 'perfect storm' so to speak. We had similar conditions last year without the huge fish losses so something different must have happened. Our rivers and seas have been treated with utter contempt over the years and it doesn't seem that is going to change any time soon sadly. 

More reports to come I'd imagine with anglers now on the ground that can only be a good thing, however will we ever get to know what caused the pollution incident ? well your guess is as good as mine !!! 

There are also areas above the outflow that had similar issues so the suspicion could be off Severn Trent for the time being anyway. So enough of the bad news, the first session back I fancied heading to one of my favourite places on the Avon for more of a nose really to see if that was effected too. 

At the start of the stretch there is a weir which often shows how the river is doing but it also provides much needed oxygen. Chub off the surface using bread was the chosen tactic because you can tell how they were feeling if they were up for a rise in these sadly troubled waters. 

Thankfully after walking the whole stretch it looked in fine fettle. The water had colour which I was surprised at but the storm that brought plenty of rain was the cause of that I'd imagine. No signs of dead fish and the bread when floated down in most swims was being attacked by lots of small fish.

I love this simple method because all you need is a hook on the end of the line and that's it. After not been fished for a while the first month or so of the new season it's a tactic that does seem to work year on year.

The first swim we tried with some bread on the hook the chub were queuing up for the bread, I'd say there must have been a good number of fish in the swim as well and due to the competition they gradually came further and further up the swim. The key is to get them feeding confidently first before drifting the bread down with a piece of bread on the hook.

We managed 2 from the first swim and another swim one further chub was caught. Not the biggest of chub where one was probably getting on for 4lb but you kind of forget just how well they fight, and one of the reason why they are probably my favourite river species. 

We didn't stop long, probably not even 2 hours and we left at 9.45pm where the temperature was very pleasant indeed. I'm glad we came out late evening rather than brave the midday sun. So so nice to be back on flowing water though 👌 have you have a good season blog readers.