Warwickshire Avon - Hedgehogs and Herring Ponds

A big thumbs up from Sam for his first trip out in Dads new car, however sadly the session would be a short one after dinner and I had strict orders to get him back for eight thirty as he had been tired and a bit of a nightmare trying to get him up for school.

Then again his mother is just the same, who has to hit the snooze button three times, why not set your alarm and get up when it goes off !!!!

She likes her bed, as much as he does, both able to zone out early riser Ben's 'noise', sadly I myself am polar opposite. A recent change of job has meant the spare time I used to have when there were quite periods have been wiped out. Not in a bad way because busy is good especially when it's working on something very interesting.

But ones blog used to go off on a tangent which I used to enjoy but recently it's been all about fishing which probably isn't a bad thing.

So this short session was down to a section of the Avon where I've found depths over 20 feet, it's 10 to 12 ft in the main, but using the deeper fish finder I've found some proper deep areas.

We can drive down here you see and park right next to ones peg, for a quick session it's ideal, and there are some good fish to be had here as well.

We were after Zander and I've had some nice ones here in the past, the biggest heading towards 9lb and I've lost two bigger ones as well, one, certainly a double.

Now the water seemed lifeless when we got bankside, and a quick scan showed a nice bottom and 14ft of depth in-front of us. On a first go through of the deeper where were all the fish. Even the surface which usually has some activity on the surface was dead, hmmmmm not good.

So back in the Jimny and right to about as far as we could drive adjacent to the river and I recast the deeper to try and locate at least something for a chance of bite.

Sure enough eventually we found an area with some life, there was some weed on the bottom and the fish seemed to be in and among them. I cast both rods out with smelt as bait waited for a confident ding when the lead landed on a clean spot and hoped for the best.

The Avon is in dire need of rain and therefore not fishing particularly well at all. Most likely bream but usually where there is bream, there is Zander I've found. They probably are happy frequenting the same areas to be honest.

It's clear and levels are down which for fishing ain't the best, but you cannot catch a fish without a bait in the water.

When the fish are shoaled up here when it's properly cold, that's when things get interesting, you'd be forgiven if you'd wonder why anyone would fish it, such the mediocre fishing in much of the season but stick around you will be surprised, like someone has hit a switch. Oddly the banks are quieter when it gets cold, odd because that's when it gets interesting.

Anyway as the light started to go on the left rod there was a pull of the bait enough to set the bite alarm off and Sam nearly striking, but the bite didn't develop from that.

The water is still very mild indeed and to be honest , in my experience they don't seem particularly interested till the water temp drop s and the fish start to get hungry.

Still, the sun set was lovely and hopefully this will be the first of many trip out with Sam in Dad's new toy. A toy which on a few days in, really is putting smile on my face as someone who works in the industry, cars like this that break the mould really should be celebrated, I'm enjoy driving again.

Yeap, a blank but then fishing isn't just about catching fish now is it !!!!

Hedgehogs spotted this week, 3