Barbara the Barbel Update - Pt5

With her shoulder still recovering post operation, it has been nice to have various lunchtime outings with Mrs Newey before she goes back to work after half term. The latest with the mouse jiggler employed as I was working from home, some lambs liver for starter and then Adana kebab for the main course.

Very nice it was indeed too with glass of Turkish wine to go with it. The Wife well she had some homemade lentil soup and a chicken kebab in similar vein to my Adana as shown below. Two courses for £14.50, which for me ain't a bad deal at all. Oh and to top it off a swift in Wetherspoons where a pint of Thornbridge Coltrane (very nice) was cica £2.50 I believe.

Anyway with another holiday on the horizon I only had a short session to try and get that fishing fix so with the gear to hand from the last session, it would be rude to not have another for the Barbara now wouldn't it. For this latest trip out though I'd go and fish an area that I'd not tried yet. 

Not a millions of miles away from where Barbara was spotted but another nice fishable swim because the river is still pretty high at the minute and that limits where the fish can get any kind of sanctuary. I cannot believe how little I've been catching, it's dented my piscatorial confidence I must admit. 

Anyway to cut a long story short, the river had dropped considerably since I was here last and the colour was dropping out fast too. Almost bread flaking trotting territory because it was dark grey in colour. Two rods the same approach as last time where nothing really happened apart from some nibble on worm until the light went. 

That's when the chub bites started where I managed a couple of swingers when the nightlights were needed to see the rod tips. Barbara or anything remotely big were in the swim sadly, but at least the weather was quite nice albeit it was a little nippy when the sun disappeared behind the trees. I fancy a small river fix next time, prior to that though I'll be casting in to salt water. 

Barbara the Barbel Update - Pt4

The new boots for the Jimny have been excellent so far, the previous tyres were past their best to be honest with the n/s left showing ones cornering prowess after 5 years of ownership, I now know its (relatively low) limits, where as a Jimny as a passenger you'd be left thinking is this your final time on earth. 

Anyway 4x4 Tyres in Stratford-Upon-Avon came to the rescue and fitted some Cooper Discoverer AT3 ALL Terrain tyres. It's situated in the middle of a huge solar array farm which I've always admired from afar mainly because of the sheer size of it, anyway decent service and a nice waiting room.

Talking about waiting, looking back at my blog my sessions here and there haven't resulted in anything decent for a long time and I must admit it's testing ones resolve, however knowing there is a huge fish that I would love to catch swimming around in these waters has meant these short sessions suit me down to the ground. 

After the recent rain the Avon has been bombing through however I'd arrive at a high river that has just started to drop, it's on the way home from work which is handy, so for this session I'd arrive at 4.45pm and would be leaving half an hour after dusk. Not a huge amount of fishing time but with the swims limited I could fish I was hoping Barbara would be home in one of the two swims I'd fish.

I'd bait one up first and then fish that swim if the first swim wasn't doing anything. Fishing for a single fish isn't my bag usually but with some nice chub here as well, at least if one of those was caught instead then it could be a good un.

Anyway a chunk of spam on one rod, and a hot fish boilie and a paste wrap on the other, both with Dynamite Big Fish Shrimp and Krill stuffed in the feeder. It's such a pungent mix this and I've had some good results down the Wye with it, it has always been in ones armoury. 

I decided to tip the boilie rod with a few worms as well as extra attraction and after both set-ups dropped to the bed with a satisfying donk at least I knew both baits was presented ok. Anyway throughout the short session it was clear there was small fish in the swim as the worms were getting mullered but an hour in the bigger fish were just now showing. 

I gave it a good go and tried the other swim as well without even as much as a chub clang in to dusk and a bit beyond. The river is dropping nicely now and I've got a window of opportunity on Wednesday after work to give it another go. This time I might try another area entirely to see if I'm missing a trick. Still with some sea fishing to look forward to I'm hoping in that time, the fish will settle in to their new normal and river conditions will settle down a bit, at least it was nice being out in the fresh mild air. 

Warwickshire Avon - Quims and Quomodocunquize

'Another' pass out from the Wife saw me venturing to sunny Spain where Benidorm was the first port of call for a night to blow the cobwebs away, and then 5 nights at my mate Wardy's place in Pilar de la Horadada. Good food, good wine, 26 degrees, and a much needed change from the daily grind I must admit, where as I get older those holidays and breaks are needed to keep me sane. Suppose working hard 😉 has its benefits. 

I'm not sure I could live in Spain personally (gets far too hot for me in the summer) however after cycling some nice irrigation canal routes within some nice scenery where the predominant species seemed to be carp, just the fact that I was in shorts and t-shirts appealed greatly I must admit. 

The wine too, apart from being rather cheap to buy in restaurants and supermarkets, I've been dabbling more in white wine rather than their red which so far have been right up my palate. Rioja and the like I've found hit and miss and for me a very much a marmite country where wine is concerned, and the fact I've a finger in the air when I've opened a bottle, or ordered a glass whether or not I'm going to like it or not. 

That couldn't be said for the Gambas Pil Pil, which I'm not quite manage to replicate back home as yet despite many many attempts. Saying that, they can vary quite a bit, some with more of a chilli kick, others overloaded with garlic, smoked paprika and then those with the distinctive flavour of sherry. 

Sat in the sun, a nice cold Albariño on the go with some crusty bread and garlic prawns that's a nice afternoon right there just watching the world go by talking all manner of subjects with good friends. Fishing has a taken a back seat and that chill time was certainly most welcome especially when I got back to work with a bang.  

Tony left me a sketch of an airduct I needed to knock-up in CAD that was needed for a cold climate test 48 hours later, so a CATIA model created and a 3D printer kicked in to life to appease the penny payers. At least the sketch gave me a chuckle even though after a nice break I was back to work with a bang.

I got back from Spain late Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening I was out with a mate for a curry and a few beers before some abstinence, before another holiday October half-term in North Devon. I'm actually really looking forward to that I must admit.

I'm meeting up with my twin brother for starters where hopefully I'll have a couple of trips out to try and catch a smoothhound from Westward Ho ! all being well. The conditions and tides have to be right but I'll be packing the rods anyway. The LRF gear too, some decent rockpooling down there. !!!

 Anyway I could have gone before this session but wasn't really feeling it, so decided to try and winkle out a chub locally from one of my favorite section of river. The Alne was shooting up as was the Stour after the recent rain, however the Avon was at a nice level however I needed to be quick as that was heading only one way, and that was up too.

The colour was all wrong but I had a variety of baits with me such as bread, meat, worms and a batch of newly concocted cheese paste.

It's not quite cheespaste weather yet because it's a great winter bait for chub I find, but with the water coloured it might just be the key to getting a bite. The fish had other ideas though because swim after swim the tip apart from minnow taps didn't move whatsoever.

I alternated the baits too and used worms for the last two hours where in the end after lack of action on the 'banker stretch' I ended up moving to the syndicate stretch. 

Sadly after my best efforts and around 8 swims fished the water was shooting up and getting more coloured minute by minute. I expect the bigger fish were grouping together to batten down the hatches before another deluge to contend with.

So sadly a blank, however after waking up with a headache that was gone when I returned home after the decent walk in lovely Autumn weather (well apart from that light rain that gets you wet for an hour) it wasn't all bad.

The River Arrow - Redeye's and Robots

I've had a really bad cold that thankfully on the way out as I'm in Spain next week for some chill 😎 time,  a couple or three lemsip hot toddies sorted me out throughout the day. So from a sore throat, to a cough, to a streaming nose, a painful cough and losing my voice for 24 hours, a proper one this one, the end is in sight. As I'm typing this though it's almost gone, I think eating everything in sight over the last few days has helped, feed a cold and all that. 

Anyway glutton for punishment I was back on the Arrow again for some reason. To be fair Sam wanted to try and catch a big perch and a couple of the match guy's I'd bumped in to down here, recalled some stories of some huge perch, and even bags of perch winning matches. (last week, 2 years ago, 20 years ago ? your guess is as good as mine)

The problem was Sam came down at 7.15am blurry eyed and yeap, you guessed it, he was going back to bed. Oh well, with the decision made the night before and the gear sorted. Didn't have much other choice now did I !!! 

Now talking about eyes !!!, before you unhook the next fish, look into its eyes. (OK, unless it's a pike, you've got to look into them one at a time, but you know what I mean.) When you've done it, you'll find yourself taking the hook out ever so gently.

We'll start with the roach and get her out of the way because, lovely though she is, her eyes are the least impressive. Gentle eyes, modest and unassuming, but not much else. Like the eyes of the faded daughters of the clergy or the military, who finish up running Olde English Tea Shoppes.

The bream has eyes that are sort of soft and sort of dopy. Like the girls who used to line the wall at the Palais and-in reply to your sophisticated opener of, 'Do you come here often?'-would reply,

'Yer...'

The gudgeon has eyes that are soft and warm, gently smouldering with a hint of restrained passion. If you met a girl at the Palais with gudgeon eyes, you knew that she would finish her chips quickly to make time for five minutes round the back.

(With your permission I'll drop the Palais before I get into any more trouble.)

Perch eyes are bold, brassy, indignant and challenging, saying, 'If I were four feet longer, I'd bite your bloody leg off-right up to your flaming ears!'

Chub eyes are hard and stubborn, like those of a Yorkshireman who is being badgered to pay his round, but who is standing there sullen and saying nowt. (Yorkshire readers over twelve stone and with any skill in the noble arts of self defence or clog fighting, please read 'Lancastrian' for 'Yorkshireman'.)

The tench has the African gold eye of the toad who turned into a prince after the beautiful princess had let him sleep on her pillow all night. But he doesn't have the same luck. There is not a single recorded instance of a tench shacking up with a princess.

(Remember the story of the toad who was still a toad next morning? The princess said, 'But you promised to turn into a prince', 'Just shows you, darlin',' said the toad. 'Some birds will believe anything.')

The eel has small, glowing ruby eyes, set in the most delicately featured face. Neither face nor eyes get looked at while the poor old thing is being bashed, hacked and stomped on. Being an eel is not much fun.

The pike. When he comes to the top those eyes frighten you to death. But look at them properly. You might see what T. H. White saw and recorded in the magical book, The Once and Future King. 'his great jewel of an eye was that of a stricken deer, large, fearful and full of griefs'.

It is, too. And the discovery is one of angling's deep and lasting revelations.

Only mind your fingers.

Anyway I don't know why I bothered, because after catching literally every single minnow out the river eventually some proper big sized perch baits appeared, where under the float they were ignored in the weir for a good 45 minutes, and also in the deep swim for nearly an hour that looked like it would harbour a predator. 

Nada, naff all, zilch, WTF !!!

Then after bumping in to a member who was making the pegs good for a match soon, "I've not caught a perch in ages, let alone a decent one" 😃 Errrrrrr ok !!! 

Maybe Pixel Farm Robotics that had their farming robot in the carpark could offer some advice for easing one's situation and to catch something to put a decent bend in the rod, because after fishing bread on the chub rod, the chublets were obliging, their mums and dads not so.

So the Arrow isn't fishing well for me on this stretch, the 3 cormorants wouldn't have helped that I spooked and the resident herons, but I did well towards the end of the last season, this season it's been pretty pants. Anyway the Avon is back in fishable condition so the Arrow can do one for a bit, and I'll pop back when it's much colder I think when I need that small river fix.  

The River Arrow - ATV's and Arachibutyrophobia

Nothing like a day's fishing in the country. Get away from all the smoke, muck and noise of the town. Into God's good air. But you must do it properly if you're to gain the full benefit. You need some distinctive transport for a start. Range Rover, Land Rover are fine. Japanese or American runabouts which look like an upmarket jeep or souped-up builder's truck, with names such as Shogun, Samurai, Maverick, Laredo, Mohawk, Cherokee, etc. The original trim is usually very butch, but you can improve on it by having it painted in full camouflage or with safari-park zebra stripes.

Mount a piece of plastic drainpipe on the top. This not only holds the rods, but makes it look as if you're about to zap a tank at any second.

The advantage of such transport lies not only in its looks. When you arrive at the spot you can drive across pasture and ploughland, sown land, mown land, down-land and upland, to get to the water. 

Leave the gates open behind you: saves a lot of time on the way back. The open gates also give you, on looking back or doing a U-turn, the full effect of the tracery made by your four-wheel drive over the different surfaces of the fields. Such interesting textures. 

And it might encourage you to try a few figure-eights on the more friable surfaces.

While you're at it, why not try rounding up the odd herd of bullocks, aided by nothing but the souped-up horsepower under the bonnet? Surprising how fast they run when they put their minds to it.

Here we are, at the water. Let's get cast out, then, and open a few cans. Ah, that's better. Nothing like fresh air for giving you a thirst. Save the empty cans. And the bottles. When things get quiet you can sling them in the water or range them along the top of a wall and get in some target practice with your .22 or air rifle.

Let's have the old CD's on while you're waiting for a bite. An earful of Groove Armada's Superstylin . Makes you feel you're right out there in the wide open spaces. Turn it up a bit. Spot of Mick's Angrybeats vintage Mixtapes as well. What a life those boys have, eh? Riding the range. Rounding up the dogies. Punching the old cows.

Talking of which those bullocks have come back through the gate from the next field. Never learn, do they? Let's give them a run for it. Hee-yah! Woah - hee! Round 'em up, head 'em out, Rawhide...! By heck, they didn't stay long. Never mind: we've got those sheep over there. Get your wellies on, lads! Maa- aaaah! Gerrup there!

Phew. Takes it out of you. Still not a twitch on the rods. Let's get some grub down us. Big fry-up. Nothing like it, over an open fire. Get one going under those trees, out of the wind. And let's have some stones off the top of that dry stone wall to hold it in. Don't want to set the undergrowth alight. Country Code and all that.

Sausages, bacon, eggs, tinned tomatoes, fried bread. Can't whack it. Just chuck the wrappings under that hedge. Soon get grown over. Sling a bit more wood on the fire: keep the midges off.

While it's quiet, let's stack some stones from that wall into the back of the van. Look smashing in that rockery back home. 

No luck with the rods yet? What kind of water is this? Anybody fancy climbing a tree? Tell you what, race you to the top. Me Tarzan. Aah-ahah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaah! Phwarh! That was fun. 

Can't trust those branches, though. It was touch-and-go when that big one broke. Right... let's look at those rods. Looks like a nibble on Hey up! Who's this? Looks like some sort of a farmer. None too pleased, at that. And what's that he's raising to his shoulder? Looks like a Eek!

Tell you what, you're not going to take this lying down. Having to leave all the gear at the water like that. Only just escaping with your life. There'll be a strong complaint on the club secretary's desk on Monday morning. My God, if you can't enjoy a quiet day's fishing in the country without some loony peppering the seat of your pants...

Anyway enough of that, back to business, a bit of fishing down the Arrow !!!

I had stopped off on-route to a convenient stretch of the Warwickshire Avon however despite the river being within the bank now, the problem was actually getting to the area I wanted to fish. The route to their was waterlogged and was wellie height easily so waders would have been required really. 

So it was to the Arrow to try and winkle out a chub or two. I've had some nice fish from here since I've started fishing it, my best chub so far 4lb 12oz which ain't bad for a small river.

However this 4 hour session wasn't exactly going that well for the bigger fish and it was clear they were not really on it. There was plenty of small fish nibbling the bread as soon as it hit the bottom where swim after swim all I was managing was chublets of this stamp.

At least it was better than last time here but despite the river losing lots of colour from the previous visit where there was now around a foot of visibility, those proper chub were suspicious in their absence. I do fancy trying for perch here though, because plenty of predator activity and plenty of small fish topping. 

When I headed back to the car I decided to drop in to the turbulent weir where after 5 mins two tentative pulls on the tip, which was unlike the fast bites I was getting, after 30 seconds the tip bounced in to the life again where I struck in to a solid fish. A DECENT CHUB !!! OH YES !!! the problem was within seconds it was heading towards the reeds by my feet where after steering away from the its first escape route, this time right under my feet.

I had to give it some stick and sadly the inevitable happened and the size 6 hooked pulled and the fish was GONE, GONE FFS !!!. The first decent fish I've hooked on a while and I'd gone and lost it 🙈. I fished on until I couldn't see the tip and sadly drove home with the tail between my legs !! 

A session I'd rather forget, as it looked a good fish too, send some luck my way please, Ive forgotten what a decent fish looks like thanks 😄

Warwickshire Avon - The Untrodden Pt.8

With work seemingly intensifying day by day with the countdown to the launch of the car I've been working on forever and a day, some much needed me time was needed so on the way back I stopped off at the convenience syndicate stretch.

The river had been over the banks and in the fields and when I arrived at the parking spot luckily the river was now back within its banks albeit I'd have to make my way through the waterlogged field to get near the river.

I walked the banks and thankfully found a nice swim with a decent slack because there was hardly any other swims that were not bombing through and looked as worryingly turbulent as the middle east at the moment. 

No messing around a spam bait on the hair with some worms on the hook to add to the attraction. A satisfying donk when the paste plugged lead fell to the bottom at least I knew the bait was being presented nicely. 

As the afternoon progressed heading in to dusk the skies were rather lovely indeed, especially when the sun was setting with the strong wind causing the clouds to move at a rapid rate. The fish had other ideas though because not even a pull or an enquiry despite the slack offering some sanctuary from the post flood conditions. 

After nearing two hours and a few recasts dusk arrived and went without any change of circumstances, the fish were either not there or just not interested.   

The wind nicely blew the cobwebs away because I do like fishing when the conditions are testing especially when its only for the duration of a good movie. Sadly that ending didn't play out for me but what it has brought, is some much needed colour in the water.

The Avon for months and months has been gin clear so fingers crossed when the fish have gotten used to their new habitat they will be up for feeding again. I've got to be realistic two and a bit hours is not a huge amount of fishing time but hopefully eventually these short sessions will bring up something worth blogging about.