The Tiny River Alne - Cognac's and Consequentialisms

As a lover of McEwan's Champion Ale, I'm surprised Fuller's Golden Pride has passed me by as it's right up my street. To be honest it was a chance purchase from the Wife when she went to Waitrose to buy a new kettle to replace the one that went kaput, she decided some wine for herself and a couple of beers for me. 

Anyway somehow with some finger circling in the air she settled on this one. I'm sure God was looking down on me at that point, because I usually end up with mere mediocrity if Champion isn't on the shelves.  

Now from the marketing bumph equivalent in strength to Belgian Abbey beer or barley wine, Fuller's Golden Pride provides one of our richest drinking experiences. Described as the 'cognac of beers' by one leading beer writer, it's a deep-amber drop of distinction that finds favour with even the most discerning palate.

Rich, malty aromas lead to a similarly styled palate, with sweet and bitter flavours expressed in good balance. There's sweet orange oil, toasted grain and spicy fruit cake flavours on the tongue, and an intense, lasting finish. 

Long seen as something extra special, Golden Pride used to be gifted to Fuller's landlords at Christmas. They'd keep a barrel behind the bar, giving customers a chance to indulge over the festive period.

Certainly right up my street anyway, a beer to be savoured not quaffed so give it a go when you're passing the local Waitrose, I rival for Champion, quite possibly so, its got that sort of vibe.

Which poses a question why are the stores always packed with OAP's ? certainly not a cost of living crisis with these shoppers,  trollies full to the brim, anyway !!. not cheap at £2.95 a bottle but I'll be stocking up especially when winter hits and we are enjoying an open fire and a movie. Give it a go if you're in to this sort of beverage.

Now talking of big hitters the latest session down the Alne I wanted to fish for chub in to dusk. 

You see last last time I was here on the failed big gonk hunt there was some decent fish moving about just to the left of me that I'm sure were big chub. 

I've caught some nice fish here in the past but a 4lber would be a specimen on the stretch I fish and a few months back a holiday maker fishing from a bordering campsite said he'd caught a clonker at dusk that he estimated at 5lb. 

Now if it was I want in on that sort of fish especially from a small river that is so dear to my heart. The gonks were not forgotten though so I'd feed some bread mash in to a swim initially and then fish maggot on the bottom to try for a decent one before switching to bread as the light went.

 

I could fish the Warwickshire Avon for it's bigger residents but to be honest it's quite nice fish the closest river to me especially when it's thrown up some nice surprises. 

The latest being the 12 ounce dace, which to be honest has got me champing at the bit for better conditions.

Small rivers really do it for me at the moment and it just goes to show that there is PB potential in rivers that are often overlooked. 

Dace especially where some of the biggest I've caught prior to the capture on the Alne came from small local brooks when they are in flood. The types of waterways not admittedly for everybody, but for me, I love to find out what's actually in them, which over the years has been a bit of an eyeopener to be honest and long may it continue. 

After priming the swim to fish bread flake an hour in to the session I got fishing with maggots. It's not a good sign when the first, second, third and forth fish were minnows as a couple of sessions ago it was gonk, gonk, gonk, minnow, dace, gonk, trout, gonk !!!

The minnows had been filling themselves with the bread as well by the looks of it. On a positive note at least they were decent sized minnows. As dusk approached I had a couple of tiny gudgeon but nothing like the scale I was catching the other day. 

Dusk came and I fully expected a chub to gatecrash the party but nope the tip apart from the odd small knock never went round sadly. So a good half an hour with the tip illuminated by a torch thankfully the battery was on its last legs so I was forced to leave to be able to negotiate the bridge of death.

Such a disappointing trip as I expected a lot more, but that's fishing for you. I've not had anything decent for a while, I need to up the game a little me thinks, because I don't really want more sessions like this.