Warwickshire Avon - Arch Dukes and Ape Leaders

Some odd weather of late, the ridiculous heat of the August bank holiday weekend and 7 days later not far off upping the tog on the duvet. Luckily for me missus Newey offers some rather large pillows so the change over has been put back for another week or two.

It's been very unpredictable indeed Saturday just gone, the retrieval of some WBAS syndicate signs to be relocated to another stretch of the Warwickshire Avon we have acquired meant sheltering under a tree after a heavy downpour hindered my progress.

You would have thought there would be some colour in the water but no, the Avon is back to being clear again. It can be very tough conditions as the fish in the Avon, particularly the big ones shy away to their sanctuary and cover and rarely venture out.

The bait fish though are in numbers, and seemingly this year putting their wet fingers up out of the water in support of the Extinction Rebellion disruptors.

But let's not dwell on that, as well as the obscene amount of massive slugs I saw the other days and the amount of insect, crawling and flying that dominate these waterways

I don't need to add to my carbon footprint either, I don't need to drive to Manchester to chain myself to a bank, all this is happening on ones door step. Kingfishers, otters, barn owls and buzzards, us anglers are lucky peeps we really are.

So the session was a quicky like lots of things these days. I wanted to fish a swim where I'd seen some Perch attacking some small bait fish. It's a nice deep swim in the main so headed in to dusk I'd pack-up the Perch rod and try and catch a Chub or Barbel.

I scaled down for this trip out and also fished a much small bait on a band.

The larger baits haven't been doing the business but then I think maybe are finding it tough at the moment. A PVA bag of stinky pellets should hopefully attract the attention of a passing fish. These Sonubaits spicy sausage versions really do stink and they also seem to leak off more attraction than other varieties I've found.

The Perch were up for it though and a lobworm picked up three fish the biggest an ounce shy of a pound. You could bag up in this swim with whip and maggot as it was chock full of fish. Mostly small dace but the looks of it but the odd chub and shoal of topping dace among them. I love catching Perch this time of year though because their fins are as red as they get.

As expected headed in to dusk and as the light went, not even a Chub pull on the pellet let alone a Barbel bite. The bait was nicely positioned in between a section of streamer weed too, just nothing doing at all. Heck the canal is looking a better proposition the weekend at this rate, I know where a barbel, yes you heard right, a Barbel frequents too.