The River Arrow - Maharajahs and Malversations

There is nothing more satisfying when the weather is cold than a good old curry. This one is a simple recipe that had ground pistachio nuts as one of the ingredients and me being a tight git, everyone of those pistachios that are eventually ground up were deshelled by your truly.

A labour of love most certainly but this is one of the richest tasting curries I have in my homemade curry armoury. I don't make it that often but the wife prefers mildier conconctions and this is right up her street. There is a small amount of Kashmiri chilli in there but I pep mine up with a couple of chopped up birds eye chillies and a sprinkling of coriander. 

Will it feature on the Newey's curry night we host a few days after Christmas ? probably not because it does take quite a long time to prep and make, but this rich and mildly spiced dish is fit for a maharajah. Now walking about Kings, the mighty chub is right up there for me out of all river fish.

A fish you can rely on when the conditions are tough and challenging, when many of the other species are just not up for feeding.

For this session at the river Arrow it was out with pungent cheesepaste on the balanced chub gear to try and winkle out a fish or two.

I started off in the weir where after missing 2 unmissable pull rounds of the 1oz quiver tip the 3rd bite I felt some resistance and the hook came back with a scale. Only a small scale at that so I can only assume using a large piece of paste on a hair set-up the fish was too small to get it in its gob and it was snatching at the bait. 

At least I knew the fish were up for a feed though so it gave me a bit of a spring in my step.

The beginnings of storm Bert could be felt throughout the session and the rod was being blown all over the shop which to be honest didn't really help in trying to register those bites.

Chub can be funny buggers from messing around with the bait to full on barbel'esk three foot twitches. 

The next swim I fished is pretty deep for a small river it being over 6 foot I know that and the next bite was no denying it was a chub.

The tip after a couple of plucks had a full on meltdown and I struck in to a solid lump that was putting up one hell of a fight.

I thought I was going to lose it at one point because it was trying to get right under the staging I was stood on and there was scaffolding and all manner of bad stuff under there.

Thankfully with the rod showing just how much of a battle this chub was putting up eventually I managed to tease it in the net.

Certainly a good fish and judging my the length of it when rested in the net I thought it would go bigger than the 4lb 4oz it weighed. 

It certainly didn't have its winter belly on it just yet but wow what a scrap that was. I rested it in the landing net to allow it to recover and fished for another bite in the same swim but sadly it never came.

 A battle scarred warrior this fish definitely has seen some action over its lifetime that's for sure. With a bite in the first two swims I was fully expecting to catch some more but swim after swim apart from the odd rattle it was oddly quiet.

I returned to the weir but again nothing doing there and also a swim above which is much slower and deeper. There wasn't any other anglers on the opposite side of the river which is on another club book, so I had the river to myself again so I'm not complaining. 

As I type this Storm Bert is in full force with rain lashing against the window and the wind making a right racket. The local rivers are motoring up with I suspect a few of those going to be over their banks. I watching the Avon though because with that milder rain and temperatures I'm hoping to try for a barbel possibly if I can get to the river that is. 

I'm just hoping Barbara got the memo this time !!

The Tiny River Alne - Bert and Bedswervers

I must admit it was quite a surprise when on Tuesday we woke up to a decent amount of snow on the ground. I was all for working from home but stupidly I'd left my laptop's power supply in the office so I had to go in, not before dropping Sam at the bus stop mind you. Sadly that warm bed had to be vacated because of my own stupidity !!

The roads to be honest were not that bad so the Jimny which is excellent in the snow didn't really get a decent workout. Only the road out of the estate was snow covered the main roads apart from being slushy were pretty clear.

I did have plans to go fishing after work for an hour or two but I just didn't get round to it. It had been proper barassic and with the snow melt going in I doubt the fish would be in a feeding mood anyway.

Well that was the excuse anyway, I just wasn't feeling it to be honest so fish at the end of the week would have to do. I finish early on a Friday so I had 2 and a bit hours to try and winkle out a fish or two from the Alne which is just down the road.

Simple tactics this one with a small cage feeder full of liquidised bread and the either a thumbnail piece of bread on the size 12 hook or a few maggots. I did have some worm for backup but it did look a bread colour to be honest. 

A quick check of the water temperature the water was rather chilly, but even though I fancied a big dace with my best on this river and my overall PB is 12 ounces, I'm sure the chub would be biting. 

I wasn't wrong because the first cast I literally got a bite as it was falling through the water, sadly I missed that bite and the next one after that, when the hook came back with a fish scale. It didn't take long mind you when the 3rd bite was a classic chub bite and I struck in to a decent chub.

It was giving me the run around too and I was surprised it was a fish of just under 3lb because it gave a right good scrap, and I thought it would go much bigger.

These fish don't see much anglers bait but this one had a right old belly on it. A lovely chub indeed and only fifteen or so minutes in to the session, I enjoyed that !!

Now what I didn't expect was two more chub from the same swim within the space of around 20 minutes or so. They were certainly up for a feed. !!

Anyway that swim went dead so I went on the rove. I fished another few swims and managed a chub on maggots and then another one when I went back to the first swim. Only the chub showed for this session the dace were suspicious in their absence. 

It was a nice colour and maybe a foot of visibility which may have been the issue. Some of the bigger dace I've caught here have been when the river has been chocolate brown believe it or not. 

Oh well 5 chub in around 2 hours I wasn't complaining and you know how much I love to catch chub as they are up there with my favorite species. Once the sun started to set it was rather nippy I must admit and my hands after making some mash bread to bait up a couple of sadly unproductive swims were as cold as some of the pensioners under Keir Starmer.

I fished until I couldn't see the quiver tip and vowed to come back again to try for the dace. There is storm Bert on the way apparently with some rain on the way so that will no doubt turn to the river to chocolate again, lets just hope it isn't too much.

Warwickshire Stour - Fish Spuff and Fistuliforms

Well a dedicated set of fishing reading glasses is a must these days for me because after ruining another set because of getting covered in fish spuff, luncheon meat grease, fish scales, halibut oils and God know what else that just won't budge no matter what I try to clean them, that cannot happen again. 

So I've a work pair and a fishing pair now (and lots of cheapo spares) and that will have to suffice, and ok the fishing pair is still like looking out of the bottom of milk bottles but at least I'm not too worried about that now. Luckily I can claim through work as another pair would have to come out of my coffers and decent glasses are not cheap are they. 

Well what a glorious Sunday morning it was down at the Warwickshire Stour. I had planned to go to the river Alne which is 5 minutes away but a quick look at the back of the club card there was actually a match on, so that put a kibosh to that, the Stour it was then, but then I do love this diminutive waterway. 

Anyway the Stour which is a tributary of the Warwickshire Avon is home to my river roach PB of 1lb and 9 ounces and there are certainly bigger fish to be caught I know that for certain. Chub well I've had 4lbers and that's not bad for a river that winds itself through farmland in the main. 

The conditions let's be honest were not exactly ideal !! clear blue skies in the main and the Stour which usually carries some colour was as clear as I've seen it. It was also very low indeed which meant some tricky landing of the fish from the elevated banks. You often have to make your own swim too, so it's not easy fishing really.  

What I didn't expect was a chub with the first cast of the scaled down chub rig, a small cage feeder full of liquidised bread and a thumbnail squeezed piece on the size 12 Guru feeder special hook. I've been using this rig on the river Leam and I've huge confidence in it. 

These sort of small rivers you need to move from swim to swim and try and locate the fish and those bites can come quick when you actually find them. I didn't take long to find the next fish either in-fact it was the next but one swim after this and a fish of similar stamp.

That came from the pool swim where looking at the far bank I usually fish this swim when there is at least another couple of foot on. It seems to always hold fish this swim and Nic from Avon Angling loves this little river as much as I do. 

The sun highlighting the chub bronze colourings and again a fish of similar stamp to the first. They do fight well these small river chub especially on light tackle and if anyone has a TFG River and Stream gathering dusk and wants to part with it give me a shout, as I'm on the lookout for another one, it is probably my favourite rod. 

Another fish came from this swim below where a large slack looked a perfect area where fish would be sheltering away from the main flow. After missing an unmissable bite !! I got the rig out a again and this time hooked in to a hard fighting river chub. 

Ok not the biggest admittedly but I wasn't complaining as I thought I'd struggle for bites on this 3.5 hour session. The best was yet to come though as the last swim I fished I couldn't believe my luck because a bite on the drop first cast I managed to catch 3 chub out of the same swim all in the space of 10 minutes.

I really didn't expect that !!!

The biggest was slightly under 3lb but all in decent nick and like I said considering the conditions to go away with 6 chub at the end of the session I was well happy. Those roach didn't show though sadly but to be honest they rarely show up, when they do it's usually a good'un !!!

I really do love sessions on small rivers especially when the weather is as nice as this. Ok the wind was chilly but that sun made up for it and as usual here I had the river to myself, well apart from the kingfishers and birds of prey 😎