Warwickshire Avon - Afflictions and Alcoholometers

I was quite amazed how the river had changed in a few days because the levels hadn't dropped that much but the clarity had changed to gin clear from holding a little colour.

Perfect for sight fishing but when the water clarity is like this it can put the fish off somewhat. The chub often go ultra cautious especially the bigger ones and they can be hard to tempt.  

The first swim drifting down pieces of bread eventually I managed to get some chub feeding off the top. They were tucked away under some cover and took some persuasion to come out, but once they did and they started to compete they go from shy to brash.

The problem was they were feeding quite a bit down stream and the only real vantage point was a good distance away. The Angling Direct John Wilson Quiver rod though is perfect for the job as it's a little more cumbersome than my TFG River and Stream so bullying the fish isn't a problem.

I could see some bigger fish milling about but they were not interested whatsoever for some reason, but they age brings wisdom and have seen it all before, and not interested in joining in the rave over a piece of bread.

I love this sort of fishing though because it it so simple and the tackle minimal. When it's this clear it's ideal barbel spotting conditions but swim after swim those elusive barbel were nowhere to be seen. In-fact even the tiny bait fish seemed to be down on numbers but in the middle of the day not entirely unexpected. 

What was unexpected was a huge tree that had fallen in to a swim that has been good to me in the past. When the river is up after some rain and teetering over the banks there is a huge slack here that provides at least one swim on the stretch being actually fishable.

No more though, unless the tree is removed and that would be one hell of a task. There were a couple of chub milling around but they were not interested whatsoever but then it was like looking in to an aquarium. 

The swim just up from this was perfect for a chub to be hiding and a flick of the bread in the shady swim bought an instant reaction where the fish hovered up the bread in a millisecond. 

It didn't fight particularly hard and there was probably a good reason for that because most of its dorsal fin was missing and a rather large wound on it's flanks, but credit dealing with its afflictions. 

Anyway an enjoyable two hours where the bigger fish were just not interested but the smaller fish provided some decent sport in tough conditions. 

Nice to see a healthy river though because there are certainly chub in half decent numbers and hopefully when the conditions are more favourable I'll get in and amongst the bigger fish. I did spot one that was easily 5lb and he followed his mate to the landing net.