Warwickshire Avon - Treadmills and Transcendentalisms

Sam was up for fishing again so we decided to head down to his favorite bit of the Warwickshire Avon to try and catch a chub off the top. We also had some maggots with a float rod to try and catch some gudgeon. A bag with bits and pieces,two rods, and a landing net, simple roving tactics, no kitchen sink to be seen here.  

Now the landing net, this comes basically in two pieces, the net and the handle, and is used to net the fish as it is drawn on the line to the bank. The golden rule is to make up the landing net before anything else; before you even assemble the rod.

Many anglers, in their hurry to get to the fish, neglect to do this, and find themselves with the catch of the season on the line and the landing net lying in two pieces at the top of the bank. Assuming, that is, that it's been unpacked at all. Those who do make up the net tend to forget it in their wanderings and hook a whopper 50 yards round the river bend.

Those who keep the net constantly by their side can also suffer from the application of Sod's Law when the bottom of the net which has frayed a little and which they have been meaning to mend for weeks  gives way under the weight of the first decent fish.

The handle gets far more use than the net as a cow-prodder, swan-blonger, duck-dissuader and dog-basher. 

A telescopic handle allows cows to be prodded, swans to be blonged and ducks dissuaded at some distance from the bank; dogs can be bashed well before they can steal your butties, sneeze in your maggots or cock their legs up against your leg.

When landing a fish, the idea is to have the net in the water before the fish gets to the bank, and then to draw the fish gently over the tim, dropping the rod tip as the net is lifted clear of the water. Why so wait until the fish is thrashing almost at their feet and then bash it with the next, causing it to jerk and break the line, is one of the deeper mysteries of angling....I jest !! 

Anyway enough of that, Sam out fished daddy, today, well to be honest I couldn't get my hands on the rod, because the chub were really up to take the bread off the surface today in almost all swims we fished. 

So after catching a few maggot munchers it was Chub that were the target and I was really proud of Sam, barely a teenager he is a cracking angler and battled with some hard fighting chub this morning and lost a few too sadly. I've taken him since he was 4 years old though, he's had some experience over the years. 

Sam actually caught the biggest chub that went 4lb and 14 ounces on the scales and I couldn't be more made up for him, as he chose the swim, baited the hook, cast out and followed the bread quite a way down the river before the chub hoovered it up and the fish was on. 

The first fish in this swim I caught in the swim was retained in the landing net out of sight of the other fish, because they can easily spook the other fish in the swim. The next cast was Sam's turn, and and wallop !!!, I saw the fish come up and nail it it and there was no second takes from this fish. 

It's snag city here and Sam did the business with no coaching whatsoever, getting on top of the fish asap before they could get tangled up in the reeds, where the inevitable would happen. A lovely mornings fishing, the chub just seemed to let their guard down today, for some reason. I bet they would have seen us too in a couple of the swims, odd behavior I must admit. 😆