Warwickshire Avon - MOT's and Monopsychisms

I'm not quite feeling the urge to get that fishing fix at the moment, not sure why, I suppose the post holiday blues and now back bashing the CAD machine where I'm not back in to the three days a week in the office routine.

Dusk is upon us quicker than ever and is only going to get dark and darker as the days tick by. That may well be to my advantage however because some of the syndicate waters I fish are a slight detour when I leave the office and travel back home. I prefer short sessions these days 2-5 hours is enough for me, ok when I go to the Wye it's all day but those days are few and far between.

The Jimny was 4 years old this week and 30,000 in to ownership it still has character in abundance. It sailed through the MOT and was treated to a full service as a reward. Bit mad it's worth more than I bought it for and provides a nice little asset 

Anyway for this short 2 hour session I headed down to the convenient section of the Warwickshire Avon to try and catch a chub. I drifted some bread down first and it was clear when I saw them in one swim coming up to inspect the bread and then bugger off it was going to be tough.  

In one swim there was an almighty boil on the surface where a chub had come up to take the bread off the surface, and then the same again albeit half the size and then there was so sign of them again. I tried slow sinking bread for something different but they were not having it at all.

The waters is gin clear at the moment and the fish are as cautious as anything in these conditions so often the key is to wait for dusk when their confidence comes back and they come out for a mooch. I did manage a couple of chublets with some link ledgered bread in one the deeper swims. 

20 minutes before dusk I settled in to one swim and started to feed golf ball sized pieces of bread mash and cast out when the bats started on their insect assault.  

Bites can quick on the 1ounce tip but I suspect they were small fish trying their best on a huge piece of bread, Eventually a proper pull round where after a couple of pulls the whole tip bent round a good foot or so. I missed that bite but I cast out again and sure enough a quick bite I was in to a fish that was pulling back. Not a big fish I knew that straight away but at least it was giving a decent account for itself.

A scraper 3lb'er maybe but certainly not worth getting the scales out. With the fish now retained in the landing net I thought another one might be on the cards but oddly it was eerily quiet. In the end in the boredom I moved to the swim that the big chub surfaced where I could just about see in the low light levels. 

After a pathetic first cast the second was even worse where I cast straight in to a tree !! I could have re-rigged and stayed but in the end I decided to end the session early slightly disappointed. At least I didn't blank but not quite the stamp I'm after. On to the next one !!!