Warwickshire Avon - The Untrodden Pt.15

A tale of two halves this one, you see after getting bored watching motionless pike floats for a couple of hours in a couple of swims it was time to do some trotting. The colour was perfect for trotting bread for chub and I did think if the pike fishing wasn't all that (ok I wasn't at it that long 👀) I might as well bring the 15ft rod equipped with a big stick float .

Thankfully the wind had died down because the wind amplifies the cold and when you're handling mashed bread as feed those fingers can get very cold, and there is really nothing more than cold fingers when you are fishing. 

I really need to give maggots a go because Nic from avon Angling has been having some cracking session on the Avon fishing maggots and in his words "far better handling maggots in the cold than wet bread"

My fingers were fine for a good couple of hours trotting though, I think I picked a good morning, but like I said I'm sure the lack of wind helped. I had a swim in mind at the start of the session but that was tanking through and hook anything decent it would one hell of a job to bring the fish upstream. 

That peg might be better fished with the waggler as the cover is over at the far-side so in the end I decided to fish a lovely trotting peg that to be honest, had perfect pace. I had a pike rod just to the left of me and that had some interest a good hour after being out, when a 5 lber picked up the smelt and hook off it with it like a rocket. 

At one point I had to bully it away from a snag chub'esk but the hook pulled, which ain't a bad thing I suppose.

The stick float was going down nicely however it took a good while to get a bite but then out of the blue the float buried at the end of the run, and I lifted into a solid fish. Such a great way to fish for chub and after plodding around I teased it upstream and in to the landing net.

Another fish came soon after, this one a lovely solid Avon chub that weighed 4lb on the nose and a decent fight on the float set-up. I thought I would catch a couple more but no, the swim went quiet and a good hour without a bite I decided to fish another swim upstream to try and catch a last gasp pike.

You see all of a sudden my fingers and hands started to get unpleasantly cold. The wind had picked up a bit and I'm sure that was the cause of it. You are anchored to one spot though that doesn't help things and that's why I'm a roving angler at heart I suppose. Could I do a 5 hour session trotting in the cold, probably not. 

The last swim well those pike baits were never touched sadly but a couple of nice chub, which makes an ok session in my book.

I've get to catch a 5lb chub off the new stretch, 4lb 14oz the biggest if I recall, which I caught on the first go here. I've seen one that was massive and looked a 6 lber so I'm sure there are some biggest fish to be had. 

I just need to be in the right time at the right place. I'll keep plugging away though I'm sure one will slip up sometime. Banks to myself, quiet and plenty to go at, and with some nice fish to boot, I'm liking it down here.