River Arrow & Warwickshire Avon - Ammonia and Aichmophobia

There was a decent turn out for my mate Daz's 50th on Saturday where after watching the England versus Ireland rugby in the 6th nations where somehow England were victorious, we all went for a ruby murray. Now I made the mistake of ordering a dish with a three chilli rating on the menu, and a garlic butter naan to go with it. 

Well I say that, it wasn't a mistake because I do like hot spicy curries I always have done, but this exceeded vindaloo chilli levels and was heading towards the phall scale I'd imagine. Even a standard balti was turned up a notch at this restaurant where those that cannot handle any levels of chilli heat at all, like me had a surprise waiting for them as well. Luckily a few beverages before and after help reign back the scoville scale, albeit temporarily, but it was certainly one of the hotted curries I'd had for a while. 

You see the first toilet run in the morning I was soon reliving the nights pleasantries' where not only what went in looked exactly as what came out, where within a split second the house was soon filled with a veritable vampire garlic roadblock, and the spiced pungency of the thick air around Birmingham's balti triangle. (Thankfully we were out in Leamington)

That tub of unopened sudocrem finally got its comeuppance, because let's just say I needed cooling down, the 'sting' from mouth to exit seemingly amplified in intensity as it passed through ones intestines. The positives I could take from it, well, I know not to choose that particular main course on the menu again and it also narrowed down the bait I was going to use for when the river is up again. 

You see when I was fishing the Arrow last I was going to try a newly purchased bait which was some Dark C.K.O. Boosted Cocoon Specials from Vortex baits which I never got round to trying because bread was doing the business. As far as I got was to show them to Nic from Avon Angling where upon removing the lid we both jolted our heads back in unison because the hit was like sniffing a tub of smelling salts. 

Now smelling salts are used to arouse consciousness because the release of ammonia (NH3) gas that accompanies their use irritates the membranes of the nose and lungs, and thereby triggers an inhalation reflex. This reflex alters the pattern of breathing, resulting in improved respiratory flow rates and possibly alertness.

It wasn't just the instant reaction either because that smell (Crab, Krill and Oyster apparently) lingered in the air for a considerable amount of time, and feet from where the lid was opened. Pungency off the pungency scale most certainly, and as a bait for the fish to home in on, it was right up there with the other smelly baits I use from time to time when conditions dictate. 

Anyway with a rare couple of days off work the plan was to fish the Arrow in the morning when it was hammering it down and then the Avon when the rain had stopped.

Well it didn't start well because I missed two unmissable bites on the Arrow where the rod violently pulled round and I stuck in to nothing, WTF. Those bites came on bread and after a couple of more swims without a nibble, I returned to the same swim and sat it out for another bite. That didn't happen obviously 😠

So it was off to the Avon which like the Arrow was motoring up, where already the bridge that connects the two meadows was already a couple of inches underwater, luckily there is an escape route so I didn't need to retrace my steps. 

Anyway the boilie was getting interest straight away in the last swim on the stretch that is usually a sanctuary away from the main flow most of the time. Today it was already boiling and swirling but the bait was being snatched and pulled by a chub in the swim I assume.

The fish didn't hook itself mind you so maybe it was a greedy chublet, even a switch to bread I didn't get to see what the fish was. Bites were forthcoming and all of a sudden they stopped completely so I went on the rove and baited a couple of spots that I would fish towards the end of the session.

In one of those a determined chublet decided that it would like a taste of the boilie and eventually hooked itself the greedy blighter and I felt sorry for it when I swung it in with the barbel rod. I switched to meat at one point where a deep margin had been baited with hemp and pellets at the start of the session but a good hour in that swim without so much as a chub pull let alone a Warwickshire Avon barbel.

Now I'm not one to sit behind motionless rods, each to their own but after almost watching the river rise with my own eyes, I decided enough was enough and after around 6.5 / 7 hours fishing which is a long session for me I packed up fishing early and popped to the pub for a swift pint instead and would reconvene somewhere (no idea yet !!!) tomorrow afternoon and Thursday after work for a last hurrah.