Warwickshire Avon - Cat-Ice and Catastrophisms

The sunrise over Stratford-Upon-Avon was spectacular as it often is at this time of year when the skies are clear and the mornings cold. There wasn't a frost on my car which I was surprised at but still cold for a fishing session.

I decided to venture to a stretch I'd not fished before but it was only 20 minutes or so by car and around 11 miles and this year I'm going to cast my net wider so to speak.  

The sunrise changed colour from an orange to a lovely red hue in a few minutes so it was rude not to stop for a photo. Ok we see these all the time as anglers but it did seem particularly vibrant this morning I must admit.

Chub were the target because I knew the water temperature would have dropped again overnight and they seem to be the most hardiest of the river species and if I were to get a bite off a fish, the chub was about the only fish I would be confident of a bite from.  

There was still ice in the margins when I got bankside and I couldn't believe that in less than 24 hours the water temperature had dropped another degree to bang on 3 degrees. Ok I've caught fish on the Avon at circa 2 degrees but I didn't expect such a drop to be honest. Nic from Avon Angling had messaged me to say he'd managed a chub on the Warwickshire Stour when it was 1.7 degrees so fingers crossed I had a chance of my own. 

3 degrees is certainly cold for the cold-blooded fish and I'd have been happy with 1 bite given the conditions. I just love chub as a species though because with their voracious appetite means they need their fill and if a river has a good head of them your probability of a bite has increased significantly. 

So simple tactics really a quiver rod with 1 ounce tip, a running rig with big pieces of flake as bait and fish as many likely looking chubby looking swims as possible. Most of the cover seemed to be over at the other side but there was still enough on my side to go at luckily. 

Another angler was on the stretch whilst I was there (he arrived an hour after me) and he was trotting which I'd prefer to do to cover as much water as possible, but he was clearly tougher than me (28 years in the forces apparently) and could deal handling wet bread and cold hands better than I can.

I fed a few swims before getting on the rove to try and chance on a fish. The first swim was nicely sheltered from the cold wind because it was proper biting I must admit. Nothing for half an hour in the first swim and then out of the blue a proper bite where I struck into thin air. At least I knew the fish were milling around, but another missed bite soon after I was convinced maybe it was small fish pulling a the bait.

Chub don't mess around usually with big lumps of bread, tap tap and then wallop the tip pulls round. These were fast bites difficult to strike at.

 That swim went dead so I fished another two swims without even a tap but then the last but one swim I decided to fish looked perfect as a chub lare. It had some depth and also a nice sucken tree as well for cover and thankfully after a premature strike on the first pull after 10 minutes, a recast brought an almost instant reaction.

I struck in to a solid lump that immediately tired to get under my feet. A decent fight but after a couple of runs it knew it was well hooked and decided to let me land it. Ok only 2lb and 14 ounces but most welcome I must admit. And that was my lot, no more bites in the near 3.5 hours I was there. Still I'm not complaining the fish felt like a block of ice, boy it was cold !!!