If you ever find yourself in Stratford-Upon-Avon you couldn't find a more welcoming alehouse, it is situated on the busy Greenhill Street in the town centre and is easy to find. I remember the first time I went there maybe a year after it opened in 2016 and the weather was really nice and I was sat outside on my tod on one of the beer kegs with a bespoke cushion, when a group of elderly gentlemen that knew each other turned up one by one and joined me to enjoy the sun.
They couldn't be more welcoming and enjoying a pint and putting the world to rights without fear of being judged and having the finger pointed at you. I've been popping in from time to time ever since and despite its appearances, there is a reason why 8 years later it is still going strong.
They usually have 4 ales on, with at least 6 ciders and if that doesn't suit your palate there are plenty of other options. The turnover of ales show just how popular this alehouse is and it's a shame more town and cities don't have places like this where everyone is welcome with no pretentiousness whatsoever.
It is family run and there mission is to serve real ales and ciders straight from the barrel to your table (whenever possible) what could be simpler. Oh and there is a fish and chip shop over the road if you need some food and the bar snacks won't quell that hunger.
Sam wanted to go fishing but the conditions really are challenging at the moment if a bigger fish is your quarry. The small fish will still feed but if you need a bend in the rod you need to try and outwit the fish or fishing in to dusk like we had planned to do for this session.
We started down at the bottom end of the this near 2.5 mile stretch of the Warwickshire Avon (which we had to ourselves) with Sam doing to the steering along the track to the river. It's so nice to see his enthusiasm for fishing that seems to increase everytime we go.
The plan was to try and find some chub to take bread off the top in this gin clear river by moving from swim to swim and drifting bread down to see if any pieces were intercepted. We tried maybe 6 swims where it was only the first swim that after some decent rises and the bread disappearing from sight that chub were showing.
The problem was they vanished as soon as it was time to put the hookbait on so we decided to head to the middle of the stretch to fish static in to dusk for a barbel with a rather large piece of bacon grill on.
Dusk was an hour away so we set the stall out and chilled in the muggy evening sun where as soon as the light started to go the fish activity really was quite ridiculous. Chub were breaching the surface in the shallow water every minute or so and the matchbox sized piece of bait was getting attention from aforementioned, bang, pull, rattle !!!
Sam often helps himself the meat when we go fishing and he's partial to a spam sandwich 😃 which he enjoyed whilst we were bankside for this 3 hour session.
There is a strict curfew here where you have to be off half an hour after official dusk so we were running out of time to catch a fish. The barbel didn't seem to be showing (not unusual to be fair) and with the mist now blanketing the field Sam wanted a change of tactic, " shall we just try a big piece of bread for a Chub"
So we did exactly that, a gobstopping sized amount went on the rather large hook and within seconds a decent bite where Sam didn't connect. A cumbersome set-up for a chub didn't help where I'm sure the resistance of the rod top didn't help so I decided to try the slack line approach which worked brilliantly because after a foot pull the rod top continued over and a Chub has hooked itself, where Sam did the honours.
So a 3lb 11oz Chub (Sam wanted to weigh it) saved a blank in challenging conditions, but as I mentioned the fish activity really was quite something else and if we hadn't had to leave I'm sure we'd have banked a few more fish using similar tactics. My standard 1oz quiver tip on my TFG River and Stream rod would have been the perfect combination here, because we were rather overgunned I must admit.
Even though I'd rather fish on my own half the time because the 101 questions asked by Sam over the time we were bankside can be a bit of pain 😊, but 9 years as an angler now (I've taken him since he was 4) it really is so nice to seem him really thinking like an experienced fisherman and enjoying the adventure like we all do in our brilliant pastime.
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