Warwickshire Avon - Metabolites and Metoposcopy

The wind was picking up big time after this session down at the Warwickshire Avon. I wanted to try liver out again you see and fancied a decent Chub before the season ends, because well, I've not caught a decent Chevin in ages. 

Unlike the unbelievable cost of the NHS track and trace system 25 Billion so far 😮 (anyone still got the app on their phones ?) chicken liver is as cheap as chips and from time to time it's nice to fish an honest bait, a bait that is not only cost efficient but it is also effective in catching fish and does what it says on tin, well ok, in Tesco's finest plastic packaging.  

Heck if you don't use all the pieces for your session whack them in a pan and have them on toast for some evening nibbles !!!!

Now as much as I don't mind fishing when it's blowy, staring at a quiver tip wouldn't really be possible in 25 mph winds never mind the gusts which could well be 40 mph. To be honest I do touch ledger from time to time but I've never really had that much success with the technique.

The bait certainly worked though because the last session here as the light was going and dusk was tapping me on the shoulder two ridiculous bites where I struck in to nothing, the chicken livers clearly doing the business despite no crafty Chevin on the end.

I wasn't particularly happy with the rig though, the longshank hook looked far too big and cumbersome and the piece of liver, well even Hannibal Lecter would raise his eyebrows to this rather large metabolite detoxifier.

Maybe the chickens that these came from were fed on a liquid diet of Chianti, even after the lovely task of trimming them down they still looked like they had come from a turkey not a blood brother of contrasting size. 

The liver however is the heaviest internal organ and the largest gland in the human body, so maybe not unusual and out of proportion for this egg layer after all ? 

So the hook was changed to the best Chub hook in the world for his session ? you know, those Drennan Micro Barbed Wide Gape Specialist jobbies. When they are in they don't come out that's for sure, but this time I'll partner the hook with a bait more befitting the hook size. A more manageable 50p sized piece, not something the cat had just brought up.

Last time here the flick of the feeding switch was quite incredible really with nothing at all, and then Wallop !!!, from a motionless rod and twiddling ones fingers to full on carnage. How I didn't connect was beyond me really, but still, fishing is never boring is it, well it is if you make it that way, I love experimenting and mixing it up, I always have done.

Now I'd had this stretch largely to myself being 'local' but for some reason for this session it was the opposite. I went all the way down to the end of the stretch but again after finding a deserted carp-park there were 3 cars that braved the bankside conditions and had actually driven to their pegs which is only allowed in matches.

A natter to one of the guys stick float fishing he and his socially distancing mates (100 yards apart) were having a friendly knock-up before the season ended and the weather changed. 

They had been trotting maggots they had been doing ok for the chub and one angler a couple of small barbel. My favourite peg was available though and one of the bailiffs wished me luck, like he did last time I was here. The river had dropped quite a bit and the water turbidity look ideal for a bite. 

I just got that feeling especially when the seat box frequenters were having a few out so to speak. A super short session this so with dusk half an hour away and the first liver bait untouched I rebaited the hook with a new piece for one last chuck.

With the bait I removed broke in to two pieces and thrown in to the swim as freebies it was just a matter of sitting back and waiting for my dedicated chub rods tip to go over. Out of the blue an inquiry, only a dainty pull though and not enough to dislodge the bait, but at least I knew there was fish in the swim.

Then official dusk went by so I had 30 mins to be off but I know from experience this is the time things can change big time when that fish feeding switch is pressed. Sure enough, wham !!! a ridiculous bite on the liver and as I was anticipating it with my hand firmly clasped on to the rod I struck in almost unison. 

A fish was on !!!!

I knew it was a decent fish but with decent end tackle which I tied afresh for this session I was confident there hook would hold and the fish would be mine. Sure enough after a decent spirited fish a Chevin on the liver was resting in the net.

Unhooked on the mat it had coughed up what looked like the matchman's maggots at first but I 'm sure it had already eaten the freebies and passed them through its pharyngeal teeth. A good fish too, I thought it would go bigger on the scales judging by its full belly but it wasn't that long like many of these Warwickshire Avon Chub.

5lb 2 ounces was not to be sniffed out though and I might try and get another session in if I can before the season end. So there you go, liver another bait that has merit, but then, you know from this blog and your own fishing, the Chub have an appetite like no other fish and that's why they are up there as one of my favourite species.