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 !!