Warwickshire Avon - Maneki Neko's and Mammothrepts

Sadly for me the working week precludes fishing for any decent length of time, I could fish in to dark I suppose and I often do, but an hour is enough for me when the isotopes or torch light is needed because, well I don't particularly enjoy it if I'm honest unless I've waiting for that barbel bite in the summer sat in my shorts and t-shirt when it's often quite pleasant twiddling the thumbs and enjoying the solitude. 

So needs must for that fishing fix, so a short chub session methinks !!

Now I'm not sure what has been going on with my chub banker swim of late but the fish just don't seem to be there anymore. 

With the river up a little, the slack of convenience has thrown up some nice fish but I'm sure they were wising up to my status quo tactics. 

Bread, yeah seen that before, cheesepaste, errrr you caught us on that a couple of weeks you tw@t (an A not a I if you had wondered)

If you have ever suffered from the frustration of ‘unmissable’ chub bites that have seen you striking into thin air then join the club! This has long been part and parcel of fishing with larger baits, especially boilies, because the chub can easily pick them up in their lips, leaving the hook hanging outside the mouth. 

Sooo, yeah out with the Chicken Livers !!!

I'm not sure why the bites are so violent using liver as bait, who knows but I'm sure it helps they haven't seen it before, and they don't have to 'test' it first but mouthing and pulling at it with their huge lips. Now Liver is one of the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet, with significant amounts of iron, riboflavin, vitamin B12, vitamin A, and copper. 

Eating a single serving of liver can help you meet your daily recommended amount of most of these vitamins and minerals, reducing your risk of nutrient deficiency. So if you've some spare, just cook up some for lunch like I did !!! liver with a dusting of flour and caynenne pepper fried with, shallots, flat leaf parsley, a small amount of cider vinegar. They definitely give you an energy boost, vegans please look away. 

When I first started fishing with liver I missed loads of proper bites from chub at dusk, you know those unmissable ones you miss 😀 but a rig tweak seemed to do the trick. 

The key was to half the bait size and use a smaller shank hook which improved hook-ups no end. I was using a good chicken nugget sized piece initially, now the bait is the size of a plump prune. Another 'hack' was to dust the liver in a pungent groundbait which helped with initial handling of the bloodied organ and squidgy offal offering. 

The swim looked perfect for a bite, the big slack in front of me looked just at a nice level where the fish could get some sanctuary away from the boiling turbulence from the main river. I arrived half an hour before dusk and fed a little pungent groundbait with a few maggots just to try get nay fish there grubbing about.

The liver went out and  I fully expected a quick bite, Errrrr that never happened !!!

A switch to bread to try and mix it up had the same result and I was left wondering when I got the torch out to illuminate the rod tip when would that bit come ?

But then hang on a minute !!!

Damn it, I forgot about that bloody bright moon in the clear sky that looked almost full, you see looking back at my blog over the years I've never done any good at all when it's a bright as this. It was like a beacon of light hovering over the intimate swim.

I gave it a self imposed hour after dusk and made my way out of there without even a nibble. I switched to liver the last half an hour as that was the bait I came to fish with, but no, nothing materialised whatsoever. 

So a blank sadly, anyway I had to stop off at the shops afterwards where Tesco were selling these waving cats for New Year, so I'm hoping that will bring me some luck on the forthcoming sessions. 😀. Now this Fortune Cat, or Maneki Neko, is very popular in Japanese and Chinese cultures. 

The Maneki Neko is a talisman that is believed to attract good luck and fortune for its owners. Thus, it's very common to find a Maneki Neko on display in stores, restaurants and other businesses. Or in my case in the Jimny. Watch this space, my catch results are about to takeoff !! £3.50 well spent I'm sure.