Warwickshire Avon - The Untrodden Pt.14

This car was wobbling on buckled wheels up the road, and bits kept dropping off it. It stopped on the white line, bang in the middle of the road, and the driver got out. He could get out easily because, as soon as the car stopped, the offside door fell off. 

The driver stood by the car, traffic whizzing past on either side, saying plaintively, 'Where am I? I think I've had an accident.' He had, poor lad. Two miles back. In a daze he'd driven on, then realised something had happened, and stopped. As soon as the kindly locals took him in hand, he went to pieces, trembling violently and flopping about all over the place. Delayed shock, that was. It took several brandies to get him on an even keel.

His condition was a classic example of the effect a sudden traumatic experience can have on the nervous system. I mention it to lead up to the fact that the average angler has at least one traumatic experience every outing, and therefore often returns home in a state of delayed shock.

Signs of delayed shock in an angler are an unsteady gait, difficulty in focusing, and a tendency to fall down if left unsupported for any length of time. If more wives, girlfriends and other interested parties would recognise the symptoms, there would be an immediate reduction in the number of battered anglers.

The mere sight of an angry lady person in curlers and dressing gown can induce secondary shock and send the poor lad into a catatonic trance, an easy victim for the coal shovel or whatever means of wifely therapy is about to be applied. 

Another school of thought has it that such a sight can result in the angler immediately sobering up - sorry, immediately recovering his equilibrium though such cases are relatively rare. 

The traumatic experiences of angling are too many and varied to list more than a few, but the following examples should serve to illustrate the commoner causes of shock:

1. He catches a record pike. 
2. He misses a record pike.
3. He catches a pike which is nothing to get excited about, but which bites his finger off.
4. He catches the first decent-sized catfish of his life, which frightens him almost to death. (Analysis of anglers' reactions to such a confrontation - that enormous mouth, those evil little eyes, those horrible waving whiskers - show that the shock to the system is the equivalent of opening the front door and finding the mother- in-law standing on the step.)
5. He catches 300lb of bream and strains himself lifting the keep net.
6. He catches 300 drams of gudgeon (a personal best) and they all swim out through the holes in the net. At the end of the day, intent on showing off his catch, he gives the net a titanic heave. And falls flat on his back.
7. He falls down the bank into ice-cold water. Not so bad if it's soft water, but very painful in hard water areas.
8. He falls down the bank, misses the nasty cold hard water and hits a nice warm rock. Unfortunately, there are no soft rocks.
9. He wins the match for his team and is beaten senseless by thumps on the back.
10. He loses the match for his team and is beaten senseless by thumps all over. Not to mention being perforated by rod rests and having ill-tempered pike stuffed down his trousers by ill-tempered team-mates.
11. He wins the match and is bought drinks all night. 
12. He loses the match and has to buy drinks all night.
13. He loses a HUGE Roach

These examples of just some of the hazards an angler faces will hopefully get him a more sympathetic reception on his return to the old homestead. You must remember that an angler in delayed shock is like a sleepwalker: on no account must he be rudely awakened or upset in any way.

Anyway to the fishing, well I fancied a Warwickshire Avon chub for this session so to the syndicate stretch forthwith. Friday afternoon was out of the question so if I didn't get out then I wouldn't get that much needed fishing fix. The sun had been strong throughout the day and it was pleasant working from the home office which is a rarity but with gear packed during lunchtime I really was desperate to go !!.

So as per the norm is seems, could I winkle out a nice chub in a couple of hours ?

Well it didn't take long you see the second swim I fished I managed a rather nice 4lber that hit the rather large piece of bread on the drop in a liquidised bread primed swim, where after that initial indication the tip jumped in to life and a hard fighting fish was on.

As the light I fished two more swims without a bite and swapped between cheesepaste and bread but it was the bread that did the business in the next swim which had also been primed. A slack right out in front looked perfect for bite and sure enough, after slowly dropping the rig in to the slack under a dim torch light, a few minutes later an unmistakable chub bite where this time I think the fish hooked itself.

It tried to get under my feet straight away but I managed to steer it away from the snags ok and it was in the net soon enough. A solid 3lber this, so well worth coming out to fish for a couple of hours.

I also wanted to try out a couple of new purchases, a cheapo <£15 LED zoom torch which is really quite ridiculous for the money. Almost like a searchlight it's that bright and the range is mad and I've bought an obscene amount of torches over the years.  

The battery on full power I'd imagine wouldn't last a huge amount of time, but still for the outlay it is cracking value. The other purchase, well that was some LED interior lamps that replace the standard bulbs in the Jimny which were not better than candlelight 😁 

Literally night and day as you can see here, the outlay, well a fiver so I'm well happy easy to fit and should give that much needed light I need when I'm loading the car after a fishing session. So another successful smash and grab session. 

There are some much bigger chub here that I've not managed to catch yet, but they are swimming around as I've seen them, so hopefully it won't be long when one will slip up and grace ones net. The river is in lovely condition at the minute I'm just hoping the expected rain will be kind to us, the count down to the close season is well on the way after all.