The Tiny River Alne - Foolocracy and Foghorn Leghorn

This week I have mostly been working !!!  I've been in the office twice, where sadly I couldn't switch off the person that was overly loud on their teams call, the bloke opposite coughing and trying to bring up one of his lungs, and the aircon / heater unit with blower set to max. 

Don't get that issue WFH now do you ☺

Even the remedial action to replace the Skullcandy Crusher Earpads (with a lovely green colour because they were cheap ) didn't blockout the racket from Foghorn Leghorn.

I might need to upgrade to the latest noise cancelling version ANC 2 versions but then I hate chucking stuff away when they are still working, and >6,000 mixcloud DJ mixes listened to, they are still going strong apart from the signs of wear, a bit like me I suppose, because I've been back on the weight training for a few weeks now and enjoying it. 

On the positive note due to working, working, working, my pension funds are growing nicely at the last inspection, because every year that goes by working for that extra pound, I could easily find more enjoyable things to do with my life. Even when I was a jobber (20 years or so) I made sure I ploughed in to a pension fund and I'm amazed how many people don't especially when I cannot claim state pension until I'm 67 👀😠

Anyway to the fishing, with the Wifes yoga kiboshed because of the cortisone injections she had in both hands and thumbs still a little sore I could go fishing instead. Now I could have jumped up and down for joy but rather than revel in her misfortune I played it down instead whilst silently giving myself a thumbs up ....

"I've cancelled yoga you might as well go fishing after work"

"yeah could do, ta, fancy a cup of tea ?"

The Alne was on the rise which is my experience is better for the fishing. Well looking at my blog anyway, but then this is the Alne, a moody river is there ever was one, just when you think it will fish well it will kick you in the googlies. The fish just seem to switch on more, I had this on the Wye too, the change in catch rate was undeniable. 

....Boom or Bust

Prosperity and Depression....

Anyway dace and chub were the target and I'd target two areas. Both deepish areas, the first area >6 foot and the second area a quite ridiculous 13.2ft when I decided to see just how deep it was. 

That scan was done when the river was motoring through and the swim was difficult to fish and I still to this day don't know what the fish were. 

Since the floods though I can approach the swim from the other side of the river and that it what I intended to do for this session.  How it got so deep God only knows because I can only imagine it was to do with the railway line that once ran through here, where the deep swim is yards from it.  The Alcester–Bearley branch line was a 6& 3⁄4-mile single-track branch railway line in Warwickshire, It was built by the Alcester Railway Company.

It connected the manufacturing town of Alcester into the Great Western Railway network, opening in 1876. Running through sparsely populated country, it was never commercially successful. During World War 1 it was closed and its track used in support of the war effort. During World War II it brought Coventry factory workers to a relocated manufacturing plant near the line when their own factory had been bombed.

The line closed in 1951 apparently.

It's the dace that keeps me coming back to this stretch, oh and the big trout that have eluded me thus far. But the closed season I'll have a dabble on the lures because it's one of those quests that needs to be concluded. Anyway I digress the 12 ounces dace I caught from here came on bread and that's what I would use for this session. 

The minnows were a pain last time and I thought bread might be the better option especially when in the coloured water it would stand out better than the pungent worm. 

I had worms as back-up though and when I arrived I'd bait the deep slack with some bread and fish that at dusk with a much bigger bit of bread to try and winkle out a chub. I've found the dace seem to switch off at dusk and beyond where the chub are often just gathering their knives and fork and awaiting that dinner bell.

Well I said that, best laid plans and all that, this is the Alne after-all !!

Well the small fish were on it because after about half an hour eventually the fish turned up. Small dace and fat minnows sadly and oddly after catching around 5 or 6 dace of similar stamp the swim went quiet. There was loads of small fry in the margins which was encouraging because apart from that there wasn't any fish showing at all.  

I'd pre-baited the last swim to fish so decided to head there earlier than anticipated where on arrival there was a small fish being chased by a predator. I've caught perch here in the past but they don't show that often. 

There was other fish topping as well so encouraging signs so at first I tried worm and maggots on the deep deck but after fifteen minutes without a bite I decided to switch to bread flake and stick it out to try and catch a chub.

Dusk arrived without even a nibble and despite having fingers and toes crossed that pull round never happened. I'm not sure what's going on with the Alne of late because it has been really tough going for some reason. I'm sure I'll give it another go before the season end but for now I'll try some other venues.