Piscatorial Quagswagging

...the diary of a specialist angler in around the Warwickshire Avon and its tributaries.

Tuesday, 31 December 2024

The River Arrow - Magic Twigs and Maggotoriums

Up and up go the prices of bait and tackle. Perhaps we've been too lucky for too long, but it does come hard when the cost of the working man's simple and innocent pastime starts to verge on the prohibitive.

I mean, it's not as if we were gambling, or boozing, or running around with women, is it?

Is it?

Pausing not for an answer, and looking neither to the left nor the right, he moves on to the next bit. Which is the Patented Piscatorial Quagswagging System of Piscatorial Barter.

The more I think about this idea, the crummier it seems, but that's probably what all the Great Minds of History thought when the still, small voice went Boi-oi-oing!

This system would do away with money and return to the old barter system. We'd just carry fishing baits and gear around to swop. A table of relative currency values would probably go something like:

  • 2 pinkies = 1 specials
  • 2 specials = 1 gozzer
  • 2 gozzers = 1 wasp grub
  • 2 wasp grubs = 1 lob
  • 3 lobs = 1 hook
  • 4 hooks = 1 float
  • 2 floats = 1 swingtip
  • 2 swingtips = 1 bobbly hat
  • 5 bobbly hats = 1 wellie
  • 2 wellies = That One More Cast Magic Twig you've never used 😁

  • ... and so on. 

The advantages of the system are obvious even to the dimmest. (Get out of that. You can't, can you?) Having, by common consent, agreed to them, let us look at some of the drawbacks.

Things could get awkward at times, having to carry around pocketful of wellies, bobbly hats, pinkies and specials. You could have a back pocket full of small change one minute and should somebody inadvertently bump into you, a horrible squashy mess the next.  

It might be difficult to find a landlord who would accept a handful of specials and lobs in return for a couple of pints of bitter. And if you were to say, 'One for yourself, landlord,' what would you offer him for the round? Eight six-inch lobs and a couple of inches snipped off a ninth? Or would you give him all nine and say, 'Keep the change'?

Flag-day collectors might look askance if you stuffed their tins with bloodworms. They might get their own back, though, by pinning a dead gudgeon to your lapel.

Casters might be classed as floating currency unless you anticipated the swing and stuck a dust shot to each of their little bums. 

And gozzers which survived the hazards of your back pocket might suddenly go downhill. Right down your trouser leg. And thereafter be fit for nowt. Or debased, as we say in the City. So invest in nothing smaller than gilt-edged hooks, chaps, if you want to keep your currency stable.

But even hard currency is not one hundred percent reliable. Top joints can develop a permanent set, even if you stick them down your wellie tops. And nobody wants to handle bent money.

Floats can be a positive hazard. Have you ever seen somebody with a porcupine quill in his trouser pocket forget that it's there and sit down quickly? Have you ever thought how much it costs to mend a bloke-sized hole in the ceiling?

Anyway, to the Arrow forthwith before I get carted off in a straight-jacket, I wasn't going to go but the Avon was so pants 24 hours earlier I wanted to catch something to bend the rod before 2025 arrives. So simple roving tactics (Hello to Tom who has the same idea, hope you caught something) with bread to try and winkle out a fish. 

So not a bad mornings session, 3 chub caught from 3 different swims, the best above >4lb I'd imagine with the other two a 2 lber and a 3lber. The Arrow was clearing and pretty low but there is lots of features on this stretch so ideal for chub and luckily that's what I caught, I really do love chub fishing, Happy Days !!

Warwickshire Avon - Tia Maria and Tintinnabulums

Well no dead bodies or rough sleepers in the shed of tales during ones bailiff duties but the river was as dark as the entrance itself. I couldn't believe the dramatic change in colour of the river from 24 hours earlier and I knew things could be tough. From a lovely light green colour to Tia Maria badly needing some Irish Cream on top. 

As anglers we get to know what the fishing is going to be like before we even dangle the maggot...

....talking of which a rare maggot trotting morning for me because I had some that were past their best to use up and I fancied seeing if I could locate any dace, well to be honest anything that would bite would be nice.

I had a smelt under a pike rod as a sleeper and I was hoping that might get some interest as the pike seemed to be on it, albeit on another stretch a few days ago. 

A good hour in the first swim feeding maggots with the float going down nicely nada, nothing zilch not even a sucked maggot. Like I said when the water is a dark as the heart of Shylock and over 3 foot of visibility you are often wasting your time unless you stumble on some fish or are prepared to fish in to dusk and beyond instead

That meant having to try a few more swims and get on the move. Ok I could have stayed there stuck to the spot like a human statue with a begging bowl, but that's just me now is it, have I told you about my restless leg syndrome ?

The wind was starting to pick up now and the sun was out which I'm hoping will ease the energy bill for this month because it's not far off a small mortgage already. Those Chinese solar panels and wind turbines made by using coal power stations haven't been doing much over the previous few days as it has been foggy and there hasn't been much wind has there, are you listening Red Ed ? 

Anyway another two swims fished, no bites on either of the rods and one of those sessions where even before the session I knew I should have done something else. 😀

A load of arse !!!

Oh well, on to the next one 

Monday, 30 December 2024

Warwickshire Avon - The Untrodden Pt.11

The tourists were being shown round an Irish castle by an old retainer. They came eventually to a gigantic pike skull mounted on the wall.

'That thing there,' said the guide, 'is the skull of the Giant Pike of Ballymuckduffin, which used to swallow whole cows alive. Took six horses and twelve men to drag it from the water, so it did. And that pike, yer honours, was a hundred years old. Just think of that: one hundred years old!'

One of the visitors pointed to a much smaller pike skull mounted nearby.

'And what's that?" he asked.

"That, yer honour,' said the guide, 'that is the skull of the same pike when it was only twenty five.' 💣😀


Anyway to the syndicate section of the Warwickshire Avon for some chub fishing where 24 hours early I caught a lovely fish on the float. This time mind you rather than concentrate on one spot I'd feed some bread mash in 6 or 7 swims at the start of the session and then fish the swims with either leftover Christmas cheese or large pieces of bread on the light quivertip set-up.

The Avon is starting to clear and there is around 2 foot of visibility at the moment which is perfect for trotting, but the session yesterday showed that with the cormorants around maybe fishing the snags or cover might be worth a go.  


I'm a roving angler at heart if I'm honest even though I love float fishing but towards the end of the session with a change in wind direction handling wet bread in the cold, my fingers were certainly feeling the full force of winter.

Anyway I arrived at lovely looking river where the sunrise looked like the above picture for 5 minutes then it was gone as quickly as it arrived. I glad I made the effort to get up early mind you as I'd have missed it otherwise. 


The 2nd swim gave the only bite of the short session  and another nice Warwickshire Avon chub of 4lb and 2 ounces. It nearly did me in the dying reeds during the fight and the bite came so quick I didn't even have time to extend the landing net handle.

That came on the bleu d'auvergne which is probably my favorite French cheese out of those that I have tried, the chub had good taste. I got small fish nibbles in the other swims but a rather quiet morning I must admit, where overhead I counted 23 cormorants in two seperate groups during one of those quiet spells. 

Sunday, 29 December 2024

Warwickshire Avon - The Untrodden Pt.10

My largest chub on the float of 5lb and 11 ounces was caught from the Warwickshire Avon on a stretch that sadly is no more, you see a pollution incident wiped out the stretch and others up and downstream of it. The same time the farmer decided to concentrate on horse events on his land so the small syndicate I was part of was no more, and those fees for the new season were never collected. 

A blessing in disguise ? 

Well those big barbel and chub that once existed on this stretch were lost in large numbers and someone else who used to fish the stretch that I bumped in to, was brought to tears when he saw the devastation the pollution had caused. Fish have started to migrate to the polluted areas over recent months so there's some glimmers of hope, but it's going to take a while before it gets back to anywhere near its past form. 


With that stretch now out of action it forced my hand really to find another similar area where hopefully there were some similar long trotting swims. When the river is cold and with a couple of feet of visibility trotting bread flake and feeding bread mash is a great way to explore a large river, and often when the fish are hiding because the threat of cormorants ( I spotted 5 today feeding in the river and plenty flying overhead) it can often bring the fish out from their hiding to impulse feed.

A good hour and half of long trotting I decided to have a much needed cup of tea and then fish the next half an hour around a foot shallower than I had been fishing and a meter further out, to see if that was the change I needed to make the trip out in to the cold pay. 

Then out of the blue after what seemed like a hundred or so long trots down the float shot under the surface and I lifted the 15ft rod in to a solid fish. The problem was the bite was exactly where I'm pointing and after 5 seconds of me hanging on for dear life the chub did me over good and proper and snagged me right up....

....oh FFS

At least I knew there were fish around and after setting up again after losing literally all the gear I got fishing again and decided to stop twenty minutes longer than I was going to. With a few minutes beofre the curfew left I got a second chance however this time I managed to steer the chub away from the snag in to the main part of the river.


An epic battle ensued with the rod doing most of the work to control the fish and in the end the hard fighting fish knew its game was up. A lovely fat fish as well going 4lb and 10 ounces on the scales. Not the longest of fish the Warwickshire Avon is renowned for but certainly a chub with like me, its winter belly on.

I'm glad I stayed a little longer now, it only takes a bit of luck doesn't it to change a session and the fishing Gods were looking down on me thankfully. I really do love this method and the river is in decent nick at the moment so I'll have another go before the year end hopefully. 

Saturday, 28 December 2024

Warwickshire Avon - Mist and Mithridatisms

I didn't really know what to do and where to go for this session but I wanted to give the Avon a go trotting with bread however I didn't have much time sadly, so in the end I decided to go pike fishing at a club book I'd largely forgotten about.

To be honest with the ground saturated the Avon after being in the fields and in flood has finally started to come down, that has seemed to take an age mind you hence fishing the smaller local spate rivers that rise fast, but also drop fast allowing some fishing. 

A smelt under a float and a roach on a running rig over at the far side it didn't take long to have a bite on a moody looking river. 

On the float rod that is, because the ledger rig had no interest whatsoever...

...I missed the first bite where after a confident run I tightened up to the circle hook where after the first bend of the rod the fish ejected the bait.

Damn it !!!


But nothing gets in the way of a pike and it's need to feed and literally a minute later the fish has picked up the bait again and the float has buried under the drink. This time I tightened up to a solid fish and the fish realising it was hook went off on a powerful run.

When it surfaced it was certainly a pike that was worth catching and it put a decent bend in the rod before I managed to net it. It was hooked perfectly in the scissors so quickly unhooked and returned from whence it came. 


That was the first fish of 3 in-fact all caught on the float set-up and the first fish the biggest at around 7-8lb, the smallest maybe 5-6lb or so proudly showing its war wounds. No Zander showed up sadly but it was cold, proper cold with the temperature just above zero degrees.

I had to get back sadly to prepare for a curry night we were hosting later on but I'll be back. Next time I might see if Sam wants to tag along because he loves pike fishing too and also it is going to get milder before going colder again, and milder is good for Sam, he like many are fair weather fisherman. Again the banks were deserted, where are the other anglers ?

Thursday, 26 December 2024

The Tiny River Alne - Otters, Cormorants and Herons'

A Christmas day of excesses on the food and drink front it was nice to rove the banks of the handy river Alne especially when it was lovely and misty out there and not that cold.

The problem for me was that being biteless in the first swim opposite the house usually means a tough session on the river. Then things got worse, you see after entering the the 2nd field I disturbed some cormorants in their roost and also some rather large herons.


 Hmmm....

...and it got worse too because in the third swim I fished I noticed out the corner of my eye a disturbance in the water downstream which I thought might have been a duck, however around 10 seconds later an otter popped its head out of the water, saw me and then proceeded to swim underwater right through my swim, with bubbled galore.

For the next 4 hours I must have disturbed another 5 feeding cormorants, where two popped out the same swim at the same time just yards from me and flew off in disgust. 


For such a small river, the amount of piscine predators really was quite staggering and after 8 or 9 biteless swims demoralising for me as an angler too, because I fear for the fish that live in here mainly because it sees little foot traffic and they are going to be largely left undisturbed to do what the hell they want to do.

I even ventured to the swims at the middle of the stretch to try and get at least one fish to bite but there was nothing doing whatsoever. A boxing day kick in the balls, not good at all 😬

Tuesday, 24 December 2024

The Tiny River Alne - Chickens and Chiliahedrons

I've been fishing this little stretch of the Alne for a good while now and it's always been an intriguing little water mainly because you cannot really tell beforehand how it will fish.

The river had been over its banks again however it drops nicely this little river and being the closed bit of running water to me that I fish it's nice and convenient. 

Even in milk chocolate coloured conditions it can fish ok, finding the fish which is half of the problem.

 The swim opposite the house is deep and even when the river is banging through some sanctuary can be found here away from the main flow and this swim is often the benchmark on what the rest of the river will fish like.

If you're biteless in this swim you might as well go home and go back to bed to annoy the Wife because the outcome of the session is dictated to you right there and then.

It was a chilly morning and I had frost on my windscreen so I thought I would be tough even more so when literally settling in to the swim a cormorant surfaced over at the other side of the river and flew off in disgust of me being there. 

I mean come on ? what the heck are they doing here it's not exactly rich picking now is it. 

They are much better at hunting out fish than what I am however especially when literally 5 seconds after the cormorant surfaced I missed an unmissable bite on bread where the 1oz tipped pulled all the way round to where it enters the blank.

I missed a further three bites (yes really) before eventually I was hooked in to a solid fish. I've scaled down of later because I want to try and better my dace PB of 12 ounces that came off this stretch. A lighter fluorocarbon hooklink and a small size 12 Guru feeder special hook and I'm sure that didn't help the situation. 

The chub and soon after a chublet succumbed to the thumbnail piece sized bread, you would think being that coloured it would be a worm day too. It just goes to show how reliable bread is in most conditions.

Once the bites dried up I went on the rove where the wind was very cold indeed, infact as the morning when by the wind got stronger and stronger. Anyway another two cormorants scared off and then one that went to land in its roost (first pic) saw me and then did a quick about turn !!!

Oh so that's where they are holding up !!!

The next swim I had a bite that literally nearly took the rod in when it caught me off guard where I struck in to nothing 🤣and then 5 mins later after getting the bread back out, another nice Alne Chub.

I fished another few swims but nothing doing and when the wind was making any registering of bites almost impossible I decided to knock it on the head. Still a lovely morning and it's the fact that I have the stretch to myself keeps me coming back.

It really is a nice place to be, ok the fish are not anything to write home about, but so what it's not all about specimen fish now is it. Ok it's nice when the appear from time like the dace but it is the solitude that is the Winner Winner Chicken Dinner. 

Monday, 23 December 2024

Warwickshire Stour - Coaches and Coadjuments

The old match angler was past his best and he had been kept in the team more out of sympathy than anything else. But after an end-of-season losing run of six matches, a new and ruthless team captain was appointed.

The first thing the new captain did was to call in the old boy.

'I assume you want to know if I can fish for the team next season,' beamed the veteran.

'Not on your life,' said the captain. 'I've never seen an angler like you. Your tackle's thirty years out of date. You can't see a float beyond five yards. You can't even see to the swingtip on the end of your rod, come to that. You can't bait up with a maggot without sticking the hook in your finger. 

You can't cast without hooking somebody behind you. You're so slow on the strike that the fish has time to call in a second opinion. You can't play a fish bigger than a stickleback without losing it. You make such a splash with your landing net that every fish within a hundred yards disappears. 


You're so hopeless that I wouldn't even trust you to sell pop- corn on the bank. I never want to see your stupid face at my matches again! Now get out!'

'Ah,' said the old boy. 'Am I to take it, then, that you'd like time to think it over?"....

....

I must admit my bites to netting fish ratio hasn't certainly taken a bit of hit recently and todays short session on the Stour was another one of those session where my own lacklustre approach, probably led to less fish on the bank.

I fished a small cage feeder with liquidised bread and a small thumbnail piece of bread on the size 12 hook. I was hoping the Stour was going to be much more coloured as I fancied a go for a decent roach, but no it was the usual Stour chip shop mushy pea colour. 

A chub first cast I think I peaked too soon, because after that I managed a couple of small roach and one of those was foul hooked. The fish just didn't seem to be interested. Still the chub was a nice one so I wasn't complaining. 

Friday, 20 December 2024

Small Brook Fishing Pt.25 - Milk Bottle Tops and Microminiaturization

Its been a while since I've visited the little stream to do some fishing but with the local rivers banging through again I was hoping there would be some rebite here. I've caught all manner of fish from this diminutive waterway and it was the dace in particular that really surprised me because there are some really nice chunky ones to be had.

Tis the season to be jolly mind you and like the dace from this dirty stream there is also no hiding from my winter belly, lots of socialising of late and plenty still to come . To be honest it's the same as this year on year where the 1st of January brings abstinence and clean living to one's life order, where the willpower is certainly tested. 


.....Mussssssssssttttttttttttttttt Resist !!!!

Anyway a bizarre dream the other day post some lovely French Bleu d'Auvergne, a very lucid one this.... anyway an enterprising tackle dealer with a shop near the local lunatic asylum chatted up the psychiatrist in charge one day. 


'Look,' he said. 'Why don't you encourage your patients to take up fishing? It's very soothing, very therapeutic. Make the world of difference to their well being. You've got a big lake in the grounds, anyway, and I'll be happy to sell them all the tackle they want."

'Good idea,' said the psychiatrist. 'Just one thing, though. We can't trust the poor lads with money. They don't know the value of it. So if they offer to pay in milk tops, just accept them and I'll settle up with you at the end of the month.'

'You're on,' said the tackle dealer.

Every weekday for a month the shop was packed with patients from the asylum. They bought so much tackle and bait that the dealer was constantly phoning the wholesalers to order fresh supplies.

At the end of the month, in came the psychiatrist. 'How did you get on with my lads?' he asked.

'Marvellous,' said the dealer. 'No trouble at all. They bought no end of stuff and paid for it all, just as you said, in milk bottle tops.'

'Great,' said the psychiatrist. 'Well, I'd better settle up with you now. What's the damage?'

'Five thousand seven hundred and forty three pounds 11ap, including VAT,' said the dealer.

'Seems reasonable to me,' said the psychiatrist. "Can you give me change for this manhole cover?'



Anyway to the fishing, well I had a pint of maggots and a float rod and that was it. The stream was well up however despite that, there are small areas of the stream that I could fish. From small slacks to back eddies. It didn't take long to catch the first fish either, literally the first chuck of the float it shot straight under a fish was on.

The first fish was a brook brownie and a rather skinny looking fish and a fish that looked a bit sorry for itself. The next fish, well that turned out to be a decent roach, however stupidly and very cavalier of me I decided to swing it in because I hadn't extended the landing net handle. 



Well you can guess what happened, yeap it and the hook parted and gave me the two fins as it dropped back into the drink. 

....Oh FFS !!!

Lesson learnt and all that I got about fishing again...

Plenty of bites from roach, dace and also a hybrid ? but once the bites dried up and a I tried another couple of swims, I decided to knock it on the head when the rain started in anger.



So around an hour and a bits fishing, was actually pretty prolific really considering the colour of the water. Nothing big mind you apart from that roach that dropped off but all in all I satisfying box ticking exercise where I needed to get out drowning maggots because this seasonal affective disorder has kicked in bit time and I need to seize every opportunity I can.

I will hopefully get out the weekend though and next week it's Xmas but I will be working till the death sadly because I've burned up all my holidays up this year. I'm just hoping the river will be in better fettle than they have been recently. 

Sunday, 15 December 2024

The River Arrow - Martians and Margaritomancy

The Martian reported back to his leader after a fact- finding mission on Earth.

"The Earthlings have a very strange custom, O Six- Headed One,' he said. "They call it fishing.

'Lots of them work very hard so that they can buy strange wands and sharp hooks. They also buy great quantities of the foods they call bread, cheese, sausages, and also the larvae of a blue flying insect.

"Then they go down to the waterside and, in a mass ritual, throw much of this food upon the water. Some of it, also, they stick on the sharp hooks which are attached by lines to the wands.

'In this manner they capture quantities of water-dwelling creatures called fish, which according to my information are nourishing as food."

'Interesting,' said the leader. 'And what do they do with these fish creatures?'

'When the ceremony is over,' said the Martian, 'they throw them all alive back into the water again." The 18 eyes in the Leader's six heads narrowed to slits and he quivered with rage.

'They told me!' he screamed. 'They told me before you set off for Earth and I should have listened. 

Next time I'll send somebody sober!'


Anyway to the fishing a short trip to the convenient Arrow to try and winkle out a chub went to plan for once. You see after being biteless in the weir I moved up to the next swim where the recent storm was showing its power. That didn't deter the chub though because...

...the bread had only been out for 5 minutes or so when after a couple of tentative pulls on the 1oz tip the rod went into meltdown an a hard fighting chub was on and it taking me all round the swim with me playing it on the drag.



A lovely fish indeed though, short and fat and went 4lb and 6 ounces on the scales. A good start indeed but as the session went on those bites dried up however I did manage another couple of chub and also lost a decent one and also missed a couple of unmissable bites. 

I seem to be getting the odd hook pull of late which rarely happened until recently which has got me questioning my set-up.


 It was mild at around 9 degrees and rather nice when the sun came out but the sun sadly put a kibosh on proceedings. The chub just didn't seem to be interested, even the small fish for that matter because even those didn't seem to be up for nibbling at the bread either, well apart from the odd swim.

Bread the king again though and big pieces too, it does seem to be my default chub bait these days and despite having cheesepaste with me, it was bread that did the business once again. 

Again the banks to myself again, where the heck are the other anglers ? 

Warwickshire Avon - Nickers and Nigroglobulate

The run-up to Christmas is a good time for free additives to the groundbait. All the stuff left over from office parties and works Outings. Sausages on sticks, vol-au-vents, crackers, cheese and what have you. No shame in sticking it in a doggy bag and taking it home.

I've even tried in pubs, at the end of a lunchtime session, asking if I could relieve them of the curling butties in the glass case. No luck there, though. The usual reply from a publican advertising fresh-cut sandwiches is: 'Get lost. Them's for tonight.'

At any function it's always best to make sure stuff is left over before you appropriate it. 

Many an angler's wedding has been ruined because his mates were discovered nicking great chunks of cake at the reception. (Currants, raisins, spices, marzipan and icing-sugar, apart from anything else. What fish could resist that lot?)

Opposition to the purloining seems to come mainly from the bride's mother. The bride's father is either very understanding, especially if he's an angler himself, or too far gone to care.

Whichever way you look at it, though, nicking wedding- cake is highly reprehensible and unworthy of the angling fraternity. It's usually the first-timers who are caught, because they sit there wrapping it in paper napkins and shoving it into their pockets. The more experienced nickers stick it swiftly behind a curtain and collect it later. So I'm told.

Maddocks and Baker recommend Paxo stuffings among the list of savoury additives for carp groundbait. That's OK, but as Christmas draws nearer it's best to check with the wife first. If she's hunting frantically around on Christmas morning, with the bread rubbed and the onions boiled, and not a packet of Paxo in sight, you may not be the most popular man in the world.

Glad I mentioned the bread. A couple of Christmases ago, I found two loaves going stale on top of the bread bin. Magic. Big bucket of groundbait in no time. But my reception when I got home that night was a bit on the frosty side. The loaves had been left to go stale to make the stuffing.

Best to check anyway before you use anything from the kitchen. I did a roundup of the goodies once. Sweetcorn, bread, sausages, tin of luncheon meat, couple of black puddings and some other odds and ends.


When I got home I gave the traditional greeting: 'Where's me tea?'

'I wouldn't swear to it,' said the Wife. 'But I think you've spent all day chucking it in the canal.'

Ho ho. Very droll...

Anyway with the Avon dropping nicely and the colour more suited to fishing I thought I'd go and have a dabble on one of my favorite stretches to try and winkle out a chub or two.

The fish had other ideas though because disappointedly only one swim produced any bites and sadly the biggest of the chub from that swim the hooked pulled when I had to bully the fish close in. It wasn't the traditional chub hideout either because it was boiling and swirling, still I managed a few smaller fish so I went away happy.

Another few days it will be cock on I reckon where hopefully next weekend I'll give some trotting ago on the syndicate stretch, something I've been meaning to do for a while. Oh and some pike  / zander fishing hopefully.

Talking of pike fishing, I'm sure Buffalo Si with catch a pike on his Buffalo Fly 😁, if you've not subscribed to his River Masters channel, make sure you do, it's a cracker !! A nice change from the usual fishing videos with his own unique style.

Btw, Si, don't forget I've still got your cap in the back of my car !!

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