Warwickshire Avon - Forests and Folkloristics

The Heart of England Forest is a charity that acquires land to try and achieve their vision of creating a 30,000 acre Forest which will be here for future generations.  At the moment the Forest covers a mosaic of habitats across 7,000 acres of land in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, including 4,450 acres of new woodland and 600 acres of mature and ancient woodland.

At just 23% of the way towards their 30,000 acre goal, they are already the largest new native broadleaf woodland in England. 

The Forest will benefit the environment, wildlife, and people for hundreds of years to come, so owning the land to give it permanence is vital. 

Last year they secured new land at Bearley, Perry Mill and Cleeve Prior, adding 240 acres to the Forest.

To continue to expand the Forest, the charity is assembling a three year land bank. 

Each site can take anywhere from one to over three years from acquiring the land to planting trees and shaping the Forest on the ground. 

More recently March 2020 they purchased 200 acres in Bearley 

(where I live and we walk it most weeks after discovering it in lockdown.), a site which offers great tree planting potential, but it also buffers some mature woodland, enhancing this habitat, too, and is only a mile from land they own and have planted at Newnham.

A further 20 acres was acquired at Perry Mill is adjacent to a disused railway line, so this is a strategic purchase for Forest connectivity and finally, 20 acres was purchased at Cleeve Prior, adjacent to a Cleeve Prior Heritage Trust site, which is excellent example of habitat creation and enhancement undertaken by local volunteers.

We know that many species within the Forest rely on linear features to migrate and to feed, from barn owls which can be seen hunting along mature hedgerows at dawn and dusk, to hedgehogs snuffling along hedge bottoms hunting for food whilst remaining out of sight from predators, so this sort of thing can only be encouraged. 

 

Talking of predators, with Sam catching a 2lb Perch the other day I fancied a lure session to try and see if there were some other decent perch around.

Even when the river is gin clear I still find a bright green lure can often provoke a reaction from a predator when many a lure angler would be reaching for a more natural colour. Chub especially I find like something that stands out more, almost wtf is that. 

Now Nic from Avon Angling Uk was bankside too and he would do what I was going to do later on in this short session. He was baitdropping some pellets in to a few swims (we had the banks to ourselves) to see if he could see any barbel feeding to try and stalk one out.

It was clear as the session went on the barbel and the bigger chub were suspicious in their absence in-fact so much so, Nic after a returning to the baited swims time after time, knew what the outcome would be, and cut his session short.

I managed a perch on 2nd cast but boy it was tough, even in the the weir banker swim cast after cast no hits whatsoever. Other swims the same result, the fish were just not having it.

I stayed in to dusk a swim where I spotted a decent Barbel when I was bankside with Sam but nothing doing whatsoever not even any chub pulls on the reliable Hot Fish Boilie. Oh well nice to catch up with Nic and some much needed fresh air after the dry air-conditioning I had to endure in the office !!!. 

Warwickshire Avon - Slipslop and Snafflers

Something different for this session, you see after Sam caught that lovely Perch I fancied one of them for myself. I had earmarked an area as well down at the syndicate stretch where two adjacent swims have some nice slack areas away from the main flow, where I planned to fish a live bait.

One of the swims has some nice depth to it as well, where a couple of sessions ago there were chub milling around at the bottom really not interested in the bait at all. The plan was to also drift some bread down to see if any chub were up for feeding off the top for another potential option too.

One good thing about being able to park behind your peg means I can bring all manner of tackle and bait and if need be the kitchen sink.

So apart from my float rod with some maggots, I had ones chub rod with bread and also a predator rod set-up with a float to try and see if there were any decent perch here to be caught. It certainly looked the perfect hideout for Perch, ticking all the boxes for their needs and desires.

Only a quicky but what's new, you know me !!!

Now I had planned to fish on my tod but sam wanted to tag along, not a problem but having some time on my own is one reason why I fish. Peace and solitude is must needed but plenty of time for that when winter hits and Sam is less keen on joining me. 

Now the biggest issue we had on this session was catching some nice sized live baits. They were either too big or too small. 

There were bleak around but fish shallow the minnows nailed the bait on the way down and literally sucked the life out of them within seconds of falling through the water column. Still the live bait bucket after 40 minutes or so had enough snackets for any predators milling around.

What we didn't expect as the sun was setting was bite after bite after bite. As soon as the livebait hit the water within 30 seconds or so the float would bob and go straight under.

The culprit(s), well sadly small perch, in-fact in both swims there seems to be an abundance of them with none of their parents or grandparents showing whatsoever.

We were fast running out of livebaits but almost the last cast from Sam in the flow bought an instant bite and the float submerged out of sight within a split second.

Thankfully more of a rod bender this where a jack had snaffled the tiny dace livebait and gave Sam a merry old run around. An enjoyable session for sure, but sadly the stamp of perch I had my mind set on before the session has started didn't materialise. 

On to the next one !!!

Warwickshire Avon - Cadets and Caduceators

Work slowly easing up, the last DFM (Design for Manufacture) ticked off on all the components I own, just the dotting of i's and crossing of t's left, which to be fair can be a laborious affair. 

3 years of full on work coming to fruition thankfully, although when the parts start to come off tool can be the fun part, but it will be nice to see the next round of prototypes and eventually cars rolling down the production line. 

Still I will worry about that when they do, which at the moment could be later than expected as Chongqing in China where one of my suppliers resides, are on enforced Government shutdown at the moment. 

A heatwave (43 degrees) meant factories were ordered to close to allow the grid to cope with the extra demand for air-conditioning, fans and the overly stocked beer fridges. 

Bugger !!! 

I've already been told of the next project I'll be working on, which is back to what I like best. Conceptual and Concept work, and it sounds right up my street too, no rest for the wicked. Cannot complain though, as it will see me to retirement at this rate. (I wish !!!)

Now 11 year old Sam is 7 years in to his fishing and he likes nothing than going back to basics with his fishing.

In-fact a whip is very much in his angling armoury because what kids doesn't like catching fish, sometimes its all about the bass, all about the bass !! 

....sorry bites.

He is a dab hand at chucking a lure, can bully a chub from a snag, holds the Newey roach bream hybrid record, can stalk fish off the top with bread and more recently confident in unhooking and handling fish himself. 

That has taken some time to be fair because he doesn't like "pooping rudd" "they are disgusting" and after feeling the spikey dorsal of a perch once, he is very wary of those too.  

So he was well chuffed to win the Cadence Cadets competition where I entered the out of focus gonk picture that still brings a smile to my face every time I see it.  Who doesn't love a gudgeon, one of the most characterful of all our coarse species. 

So when his prize of a CP10 4.7M elasticated starter Pole turned up this week he wanted to go to where he caught that gudgeon and that was the "brook brook". His cap is still en route sadly but still won't stop Sam getting a few bites now will it. 

"Daddy it has elastic on the end !!"

The fishing to be honest was tougher than expected, but still enough bites to keep Sam entertained. Not unexpected though bright sun and a gin clear river. 

Bleak, small dace, tiny chub and the odd small perch were hardly tackle testers but the best was yet to come. Sam did moan a bit about the weight of it but to be honest the cheapo Drennan Acolyte whip is amazing considering the quality of it and the fact it is feather light. 

That would have struggled with this 2lb 2oz perch though, where it pulled the elastic quite far out the end of the pole. Sam doing a sterling job of playing it and I did the honours for him and landed it. He's not seen a proper perch and was amazed at the scale of it. 

I was well chuffed for him as he really was shocked an impressed on what he just caught. He didn't want to hold it mind you, cannot blame him though, a serious impressive looking predator.

Another hour the same again, small bait fish and the odd perch mixed in with them but this fish was the highlight and we will both remember this session in years to come.

'The biggest fish of all' they certainly are when they reach this statue !!!