Warwickshire Avon - Molariforms and Molotov Cocktails

I first discovered the Godfather cocktail back in 2005 when the Wife and I were in Florida and I was umming and ahing over the cocktail menu and the Wife, pipped up, 

"Jesus, like watching paint dry" "You'd like this I'm sure"

Now The history around the drink is a little mysterious: no one knows who invented it. But it became popular in the 1970's when cocktails were strong and sweet (and often included amaretto). It's believed to be named after the Godfather movie with Marlon Brando, which came out in 1972. (the year I was born)

So soooooo simple really, Whisky and Ameretto, bob's your uncle fanny's your aunt, where it's a winter warmer especially when you ditch the ice.  

Anyway why bring it up, well it's a note to myself , as I need to get some for the weekend to reminisce over good times with mu mates, as it was often the tipple of choice before venturing out on the town.

So change of tact come January and February, you see looking at my blog those months seems to be when the bigger barbel turn up for me, probably because they are in a hungry mode and the banks are quieter. 

That easy meal of a 1/5 of tin of spam certainly a hunger-queller for a big old Barbus, and it's worked for me plenty of times when the brass monkeys are beating their drums. 

You see I'm lagging behind on the barbel front with the likeminded, my PB of 12lb and 14 ounces was caught back in 2019 and that is easily beatable now on the Warwickshire Avon where bites are scarce, but get one, it could be from a right old beast. 

Just this week Dave a fellow WBAS syndicate member caught a 14lb 10 fish not from now our waters, but waters a molotov cocktail chuck away. George, well we know just how big the fish he caught was, as it can be seen here. (take a look at the other videos, something different from the humdrum)

I'm convinced the fish I caught was heavier, but the Korum electronic scales couldn't lie could they ? well the battery was on the way out as I had to warm it up in my hands just to get a reading. I weighed some weight training cast pates I had in the garage afterwards and yeah they were as accurate as the weekly weather prediction from the Met Office. Not a millions miles out, but enough to get me thinking what it might have weighed. 

I'd never know that's the problem, still I didn't dwell on it 'that' much, however now I've some mechanical scales for a side by side comparison if another potential PB beater ever graced the net. Oh and some NGT electronic scales that upon testing look spot on. A schoolboy error on the battery state, but every day is a school day, blog readers. 

Anyway I've plenty of time to plan the next Barbel mission on the Warwickshire Avon so for this session I fancied trying for another chub again. This time though pastures familiar but I've not fished it for a good while now and its a club book I can fish in to dark, and not only that but it's a nice detour from whenever I'm working from the Coventry office.

I've mentioned before I need that fishing fix and at this time of year every opportunity needs to be seized to keep me on the straight and narrow. As anglers we know what such a great pastime it is, because it's a much needed departure from the troubles of the modern world, where your mind is on fishing and nought else. 

Something angling is to be praised for despite the negatively it gets from the finger pointers. So with the gear already in the car after work and before I had to pick a few things up from the shops I decided to try and winkle out another chub. 

Some of the cover isn't quite what it was here but with the river still a lovely colour and starting to drop, would a chevin be up for the manky cheesepaste headed in to dusk ?

I decided to bait another swim with freebies just in-case the first swim wasn't doing the business as often that can produce a quick bite when a blank looks like it's on the cards. I've caught some nice pike here so that's another quarry I could target and you never know, there could be some zander milling around too. 

Anyway the river was nicely up and looked perfect for a bite but nearly an hour in swapping between swims nothing whatsoever was happening.

A small 3 inch pull happened when the light was almost gone and I had to illuminate the rod tip with a torch. With a self-imposed curfew assigned literally on the final 30 second countdown a proper bite where after a couple of plucks the tip violently pulled round and sadly I struck in to nothing. 

An unmissable bite missed !!!

Damn it !!!, knowing that there was a fish in the swim I decided to give it another 10 minutes where almost the exactly the same thing happened. This time though I think I was premature on the strike, I should have left the bite develop more.

At least I know there are fish to be caught for a future session. I sadly had run out of time so I didn’t get to see what was up for eating the cheese paste. Oh well, I’m coming for you !!! watch this space !!!