Warwickshire Avon - Floods and Floccinaucinihilipilification

Well I've not managed to get anywhere near the banks since the Grayling trip which was last Sunday morning because the local rivers have been over their banks yet again !!! So combined with the cold weather and the fact I'm always ridiculously busy at this time of year I've not managed to get out sadly. I'm on 195 sessions this year thus far, could I beat my tally from last 2022 ? I'm sure that won't be a problem if the weather plays ball. 

Heading in to next week it looks like there is some settled weather on the way so fingers crossed heading in to the Christmas festivities fishing opportunities on all things flowing will have improved from the rubbish week of weather we have had. 

Anyway on a more positive note I received a nice parcel in the post this week from the Loafer which took my mind back to all things fishing related because a couple of these hand made floats looked perfect for the swim I was trotting for Grayling. It wasn't so much the distance, but the fact that it was a really dull and dark day which meant that I lost sight of the float at the tail end of the run. The extra large red tip I'm sure will improve that issue so I'm hoping to give one of them a go the next time I go.

My eyes are pretty good for distance still thankfully, it's the close up stuff that I struggle with these days so some reading glasses are required to tie hooks for example, where after handing bait ones glasses they are like trying to look through the bottom of milk bottles !!!

Anyway to the fishing, the Avon has been well over its banks in many areas and the Alne for example flooding the local roads it's been that high. There was a small window of opportunity though before they were due to rise again because there would be more heavy rain this time accompanied with gusty windy conditions. The Warwickshire Stour was about fishable but I didn't had much time so it didn't justify the trip over there. 

The Avon would be bombing through however on this stretch there is a nice slack that can be fished where often there are chub laying up away from the main flow. I'd made up a new batch of cheesepaste recently so that would be mounted on the Depth Bomb and positioned in the slack where hopefully there was a chub that had migrated there from the mosh pit and the swirling vortex of energy. 

The water temperature was mid 6's so still pretty cold despite all the extra water on and when I got to the river it was not only far higher than I thought, but the swim I wanted to fish was borderline unfishable. I know this stretch intimately though so I knew what was underneath me.

I could have gone back to the car and maybe don the waders but treading carefully in my wellies I managed to get just about near enough to the river to present a bait. You see with an underarm cast upstream the link ledger settled in to position with a satisfying donk. 

I fully expected a blank looking at the extremely coloured water but after 15 minutes or so a couple of plucks on the tip the tip pulled round confidently and I somehow managed to hook in to a fish. It didn't feel that big and to be honest didn't up much of a fight, I'm sure it thought what the heck is an angler doing here FFS !!!

Not a huge chub by any means but apart from a wound on it's gill plate it was in pretty good nick apart from being a little grumpy having made the mistake of trying some of my freshly made cheesepaste.

I used predominantly bread in the past for chub, but cheespaste is doing it for me at the minute, I'm sure the overly coloured water is helping that to be honest, but it's a bait that will always been in my armoury going forward.

Anyway it went 3lb and 5 ounces on the scales, not exactly the size I was after but I wasn't' complaining considering the conditions. I stuck it out for another half an hour just as the light was going but I was satisfied with that outcome so headed off home without the need for a head torch. Probably wise in these conditions.