Warwickshire Avon - Bantlings and Blennophobia

Chock full of weed this little marina holds lots of small fish that swim amongst its almost static waters. To entertain a kid bites is key so for this short session Sam and I had a little dabble.

He had his acolyte whip and a float rod I had a carp rod just in-case a river carp was spotted. Probably a fruitless task but this is the sort of habitat they like isn't it.

It's gin clear here as well but keep pinging out those maggots eventually the fish will find the bait, and this is where fishing light is the key because they can be tackle shy when it's a clear as this.

It took a while to get the first bite but then when the fish turned up it was a bit a chuck it really was. It's the Rudd here that keeps us coming back because I rarely catch them on other stretches I fish, where as here they are in good numbers. 

Often when those bites dry up it's because the perch have moved in and we caught quite a few of those in this short session too. 

Predominately rudd were caught with Sam catching the biggest fish of the day on his whip which was a nice chunky roach. A small silver bream and the odd bleak this place is a pikes dream, because there are bait fish in numbers. This selection below caught in about 45 minutes or so ....

If you want a float to dip, this is one of those places that can provide that. I fancy coming back myself with a more selective set-up and fish for one of the resident tench. 

We spotted some fizzing in one of the swims and it definitely looked like a tinca was feeding in anger. The carp rod wasn't needed sadly but Sam came away happy because not only did he have plenty of bites, but yet again he caught the biggest fish too. 

Canal Zander - The Hallowed II Chronicles Pt.6

One of the biggest problems on the canals towpaths is other people. To the casual wanderer, with nothing better do, the angler is there for the specific purpose of being pestered, chatted up, argued with or borrowed from. Complete strangers think nothing at all of pawing, through all of his personal belongings while rabbiting on about the weather, the state of the economy, the price of fuel, or the futility of an occupation which involves sitting for eight hours drowning worms.

He is approached by screwballs, layabouts, lurkers, peeping Toms, meth drinkers, religious maniacs, vegetarians, bovver boys, and old ladies with strong views on the dreadfulness of it all. Curiously, in my own experience he is seldom approached by a beautiful nymphomaniac heiress whose old man owns a brewery.

Now no matter how far away from human habitation the angler sits, it seldom takes longer than half an hour for a speck to appear on the horizon, homing in with the unerring accuracy of a moonshot. The angler cannot get away. The very immobility which often the pursuit demands (I had a chair with me for this session 😵) makes him the perfect target and gives him no opportunity or excuse for flight. The only defences the verbal squelch. 

Most of us can think of it but only ten minutes after the interrogator has gone. The solution is to rehearse, to have the answers ready before the relationship becomes too involved. To this end, the Piscatorial Quagswagging Institute of Verbal Studies has issued a leaflet which lists the most common approachees. 

'The old boy' who remembers a time on the river that never was (not in his lifetime, anyway) when worms were tipped in by the sack full and Barbel pulled out by the hundredweight, is really too nice to be given the straight brush-off. Even though he may be talking a load of absolute codswallop, he probably believes every word, and it would be a cruelty to disabuse him. 

So you can tell him that you really regret the ‘passing of those marvellous old days, that you are after the only carp left in this canal, and that the next few minutes might see the realisation of 5 years of hoping and dreaming. 

He will understand completely and will sit down, under your direction, in the wettest, windiest, coldest and most uncomfortable place on the bank, just so that he won't be a nuisance or get in the way. After ten minutes his rheumatism and gout will start playing him up and he will suddenly remember that it’s time for his morning coffee back home. 

Am I helping ? more whenever I get bored next. 

Anyway a trip back to the Hallowed cannot be taken lightly because, boy what a variety of fish to be had and predators of Stoltman proportions. For this extended session it was out with a method feeder sleeper rod where I'd fish some pellets with an eye catching band'um wafter for the Tench and fish maggot and groundbait as the main line of attack. 

Rudd, silver bream, roach and whatever else came along on would be nice and naturally the predators wouldn't avoid my attentions and from time to time I'd swap the method feeder rod to a deadbait set-up. To be honest I wanted to try out some small floats I stumbled upon that should be more visible when fishing this much larger venue than I'm used to. 

Anyway best laid plans and all that, what a really odd session, you see when I got there the fish were biting. All silver bream mind you with the odd rudd in-between but once the boat traffic got moving the usually green canal went chocolate brown.

Not only that but the canal was moving one way and then the other. The method feeder rod as well that didn't get any bites whatsoever, not even a pluck, pull or an enquiry.

Once the canal settled down for a while bites again were forthcoming but they came in fits and starts. The tench were nowhere to be seen and oddly the bigger rudd didn't show either.

Eventually some small perch and the odd skimmer, hybrid and proper bream turned up. Nothing like the sort of weights than can be achieved here if the fish are in a feeding mood.

In the end I got a little bored with the lack of bites and decided to go on the rove to try and pick up a predator. The float was certainly a good choice as cast over to the far bank against some cover the float stood out brilliantly. 

Three sections of cover without a bite though even the predators were having an off day. But when the fish are not up for a feed there isn't a fat lot you can do. So with boats every few minutes, 1 out of 5 easing off the gas when they went by, I wasn't enjoying it and decided to call it a day.

I suppose with the schools finished for half-term much of it was holiday traffic but there was also a fuel narrowboat and what looked like a tug of some sort.

Still a few bites initially and all caught on the whip which I've really enjoyed off late. Only 75 grams in weight it's a joy to hold too, just don't Sam as it is his really. Anyway with a busy weekend on the cards where I'd struggle to get out I'm glad I made the effort to come over even if the results were not as expected. 

What I didn't expect either was to see a decent size eel drift on by as I was packing up. Not nice to see. Not a massive one but looked a metre or so long which to be honest would have certainly been a PB eel for me. 

How it died is anyones guess, but boats, otters and all manner of other predators live here as well so it could be any one of those or even natural causes I suppose. To be fair not the first dead one I've seen here, the other by some lock gates, let's hope it's a rare occurrence, anyway on to the next one. 

Canal Zander - The Hallowed II Chronicles Pt.3 (Eels)

Now the Hallowed stretch home to my PB Canal Zander of 11lb 8 ounces and my PB Pike of 17lb and 8 ounces may also hold some specimen sized Eels to be caught and could this area offer another personal best to add to ones mediocre list ?. To be fair fishing here anything is possible and there isn't many canals 'near' me that hold not only huge predators but tench, big rudd, roach and silver bream. 

There was a rather large dead eel in one of the locks and since seeing that fish I know of a few people that have caught eels here when targeting the other species. Some of the eels I catch take luncheon meat meant for chub or barbel so maybe I'll try and small piece of meat next time I try for them, but its mainly when fishing maggots I tend to catch them.

There are those that denigrate the eel. Indeed, is any fish so badly treated ? For many an angler in that slimy, twisting knot, one look is enough; with his scissors he snips the leader and bends to his tackle-bag to repair the damage leaving the eel to writhe among the rushes, wrapped in nylon with a hook in its gullet. 

Thankfully through various media avenues, NAC  etc especially for those for anglers that want to specifically target big eels there has been some significant changes to how to approach eel fishing, and rigs developed to lip hook the intended quarry to try and prevent those deep hooking that can often occur if they are a bycatch when fishing for other species. 

It's such a huge body of water here and fish maggot all along the stretch bites generally are forthcoming and it just shows how many fish swim in this canal utopia. Now considering the amount of times I've been Zander fishing using deadbaits on canals I think I have only had one proper bite off an Eel. 

That was quite recent actually where after a weird bobbing bite I tightened in to the circle hook and upon feeling some resistance whatever it was bolted off in a ridiculous fashion and when shared one my blog a readers suggested it might have been an Eel. 

I know Eels take deadbaits and to be honest here they probably have rich pickings but for me anyway using them just doesn't inspire much confidence. I may well have had other bites of eels using deadbait but the bait could well have been far too big for them to take effectively and those fast missed runs where the float moves half a metre in a second could well have been one of them. 

For this session with Sam in tow I'd fish a recently made up specific eel rod where I'd use a single lobworm on a size 8 hook with the worm cut in to multiple pieces and then impaled on the hook. 

A PVA big of dead maggots would hopefully draw these vivacious feeding fish in to the area and as we would fish in to dusk and a nadger beyond (so Sam could use the new fancy head torch) hopefully fishing at the right time ie the witching hour would increase the chances of a bite. 

The main reason why we were here to be honest was to try out a new 7m telescopic whip and the chosen swim which is quite big and open means that it was ideal to get grips with it. (And grips with it we didn't because a bite received less than 2 foot out with this small silver bream we didn't even unpack it)

Maggots and small balls of groundbait would be used to try and induce some bite, and here is by far the best place to try and get some bites of the smaller stuff. I know from the likeminded that the bites are not as forthcoming as I know they can be, but with the weather warmer hopefully that will improve no end. 

To target the bigger Eels here there could be one issue and that is the Otters that live here too which I've seen a few times since I've been fishing this stretch and it's not a secret that Otters have eels in their diet. 

Now one saving grace here is that there is plenty of escape room because this body of water is very large indeed. You can see why anglers get obsessed with the Anguila Anguila when the 'modern' angler is chasing carp. It's something different than the humdrum, which always interests me. 

And they can get big, VERY big, just looks at this video from Drennan and Steve Pitts, a cracking watch if you've not seen it. 130 nights 5 bites and ended up with a monster where his 40 year quest was concluded with a halo fish over the magic 10lb . 👀

Anyway back to the session, as we walked up to the intended swim John Glover the Canal Zander author was in the swim I had intended to fish and after a natter with biteless John we settled in just down from him and got fishing.

The eel rod went out in to the middle of this large swim and was set-up as a sleeper. To cut a long story short the odd pull from smaller stuff throughout the 2.5 hour session nothing materialised in to a bite. One of the otters was spotted as soon as the sun started to set and Sam was well happy, as oddly its the first one he has seen.

Thankfully the other fish were biting though and from the first initial Silver bream over the session, where myself and Sam swapped the whip between ourselves and also moved down the swim 10 yards after the bites dried up.

We managed to catch a few Rudd to 1lb 4 ounces, a few bream to 2lb and roach and small silver bream. A really enjoyable session especially when all those bites came a small whip distance out.

Despite a decent coat when the sunset the temperature dropped notably Sam was getting cold and when Sam is cold he ain't happy. So not long in to dusk with the eel rod still quiet we'd ended the session half an hour early, and void to come back when it's a tad warmer.

One of those memorable sessions because you never know what you will hook in to here and believe it or not a Rudd worthy of noting down on the PB list and Sam also registered silver bream to his fish species tally. 

Warwickshire Avon - Gablocks and Gastrophilanthropists

I was watching a Cadence Fishing YouTube video the the day and the Angler was fishing a section of the Warwickshire Avon at Evesham where using the 'Wag and Mag' method he was picking up some nice fish. Maggot was used but it was bread punch he was using initially with a thought to change to maggot later on in the session.

That didn't happen really to be honest as the bread really did work from the off, the feed wasn't that much either, on the day the humble bread they were queuing up for.

Now some 'hybrids' were caught but straight off I knew them as Silver Bream, to be honest you can see why they get mistaken for other species of fish because they are not as identifiable as others are.

The last time I was here at this section of the Warwickshire Avon I used a small cage feeder with maggot and would have had a decent net of roach if I'd had one. Towards the end of the session I had to pack up sadly because a larger stamp of roach were coming along, 8 or 9 ounces, and some nice plump fish too.

Friend Dave who had been catching some superb specimens of Silver Bream not far from here had told me that they had mostly been caught when the light was going, when, out of the blue a shoal would just turn up.

So for this session, not a long one sadly, but I'd fish the float with castor or bread and also later on as the float was difficult to see I'd switch to a cage feeder and fish bread on the deck to try and add a Silver Bream or a Roach Bream Hybrid.

To be fair to the species tally of the Blogger Challenge River Scorecard where I'd already hit 14 species, but I suppose after an initial surge I'd hit a bit of a road block.

Considering the angling literature I've got in ones library there doesn't appear to be that much written about this forgotten fish. I doesn't grow big, it isn't that distinctive, but what it does have is character of it's own.

Having caught a few stillwater fish, once you know exactly what you are looking at, they do offer something to the angler I say. The large specimens Dave was catching they were unmistakably Silver Bream, the large eyes and fins an instant giveaway to me.

I'd certainly like one of them, and I was hoping for this session I'd manage to come across one fishing a little differently to how I fished for them last time. Now I did think about a sleeper rod for Zander or Pike but I'd give that a miss I think. They were not interested last time, maybe it wasn't cold enough for an easy bait, because lets be honest, there is enough bait fish here for them to peruse whilst it's still mild.

So I got bankside and got sorted, a quick plum up to try and drag bottom and lets get fishing. The river had that green tinge to it, the clarity wasn't brilliant either so I thought I'd start off with fishing bread. Liquidised bread a feed, a small amount initially but I could see it filling the swim nicely when it dropped through the turbulent surface.

It took a while for the first bite, maybe an hour in to the session but the float went out of sight in this relatively pedestrian glide. It felt decent as well, so I was hoping for a Silver Bream first off, but after it tried to get under my feet I knew it was a chub. A decent one though, 4lb 8oz's. A walked downstream after netting it and placed it back where it came from albeit away from the pack.

Because a pack there was....

The float going under 4 more times and each time was a four pound chub. The roach were not interested but the Chevin were, a cracking session especially as the fish were a decent stamp. There was quite a wait between bites and I had to feed more than I thought but not fishing the float for a good while, I could get used to this 'wag and mag' lark, maybe next time I'll wait till the clarity is a bit better and fish maggot instead. That or maybe try and find the bream with the deeper and fish a fishmeal donned method feeder with a worm or pellet hookbait to try and single out the bream.

An enjoyable session though and as I headed in to dusk where I struggled to see the float I switched to the feeder rod. That didn't take long to have it's first bite as the light was going, a chublet though this time and that put an end to the session. I'll be back for sure, because I'm sure it's just a matter of time before a Silver Bream or Hybrid graces one's net.

Warwickshire Avon - Exophthalmos and Excutient

Out of the blue a year or so ago a friend Dave sent me a picture of a fish he'd caught down at the WBAS section of river we'd access to and wasn't quite sure what it was. Now I knew what it was straight away as I was quite familiar with the Silver Bream through Jeff Hatt's unique ramblings, and also because Warwick Racecourse Reservoir before it was redeveloped had a good head of them and I caught quite a few up to 1lb 5oz.

The forgotten fish for sure, because like Dave unless you are in the know, you would think like he did, it was a roach bream hybrid maybe, or even a skimmer bream.

Now obviously being an avid carp chaser trying to get the exact location of these silver bream he was catching was like getting blood out of stone. :) You'd

Yeap it was virtually impossible, but then fair enough, I'm not likely to share where the 'bullhead banker' swim is, or where the 'deep' bit on the canal is where big Zander reside, that wouldn't be right now would it.

If I look how my blogging had changed from the first post ten years ago I used to reveal the locations more often that not. 

Ok I've not a PB list to shout from the roof tops about but I'v caught some nice fish over the years and would rather keep good areas I know about to myself and maybe the like-minded if they share the passion for certain species like I do. Canal Zander and Barbel seems to get the most interest from the lazy lead lovers and to be honest, those are some of the easiest fish to catch.

I knew where the stretch was though, the only problem was it was a mile long. The stamp was a good'un as well up to 2lb 8oz's, which for a river silver bream is proper specimen no doubt. My lead in the Bloggers Challenge River leaderboard is reducing all the time though. To maintain that lead I need to catch bigger specimens of the species that I've already caught to increase my points but also to register a weight for those species I'd not already done so.

Dave Roberts with a huge Warwickshire Avon Silver Bream

A river carp, tench, silver Bream and a roach bream hybrid all certainly doable because there are areas I know they reside, in-fact the more I look at what I need to catch, I'm on it.

The problem is I don't fish properly for them to be fair but at this stage of the competition maybe now is the time that I should.

The carp can wait for a while but I've a few session planned now that hopefully will enable me to make a dent in the species I've yet to catch. Sadly the stretch is no longer available to us and because of that Dave recently revealed the location, tactics and the swim
type

Nothing startling for sure but interestingly the swim type was very much like one I stumbled upon recently which was a back eddy away from the main flow. Before I fished that however for this session I was down within a megaphone shout of the area where some of the big silver bream were caught.

Interestingly I'd caught Pike and Zander in this area also, so a double dipping session this would be, a small groundbait feeder with a fishmeal based sweet ground bait with maggot or caster as hookbait. I don't to enough of this fishing I suppose, a match fishing build up a swim jobbie. 

Sometimes though even that kind of fishing can be tough because I'd been fishing opposite a match once when after Pike and many were biteless fishing maggot despite the river being 'decent', but then you can only catch what is in front of you, if they are not there, they won't usually magically appear. 

A weapon in ones armoury though, before I'd start the session I'd put the deeper down a couple of times to see if I could spot anything of note, a possible fish holding spot or maybe even a shoal of fish.

I've not used it 'that' much to be fair, but for the gadget freak, what a bit of kit and to be honest despite being a princely sum, I've certainly got my moneys worth I reckon.

It's pretty uniform here, 7 or 8 foot being the norm and it has a nice clean bottom, excuse the pun. It didn't take long to find some fish  after a few runs through so just as the light was coming up I sorted the gear out.

A smelt was cast to next to an overhanging tree and I unpacked the feeder rod. The first bite came quite quick which I subsequently missed. Oh and a sweet groundbait mix with caster and maggot mixed in with it. A really nice smell to it, you can see why the seatbox frequenters like it.

A fish came on the second cast and it was a small roach, as I cast out for the third time I spotted two otters over at the far bank without a care in the world. They were patrolling and stalking the margins as they do and I watched them for a good while whilst they ventured upstream for hopefully easy pickings.

The roach keep on coming though and often they would grab the maggot on the drop. I missed lots of bites as well but after a good couple of hours and lots of similar stamp caught, it was time to move. The deadbait was left untouched as well and yet the swim looked ideal.

So I moved upstream and started all over again. It was a little deeper here and also a tad slower, again the small roach came quite quick but this time there was a longer wait before bites. Again the deadbait was positioned next to a snaggy overhang to hopefully drop it on a Zanders head or a mooching pike.

With only half an hour left to go the first decent bend in the rod, a fat roach of 8 ounces gave the quiver a right good doing over, determined to hook itself.

Another 3 followed of similar stamp but sadly the clock put a stop to proceedings. Oddly nothing on the deadbait and it looked perfect for a bite. Whilst I was packing up lots of thoughts going through my mind, for one the silver bream Dave had been catching came headed towards dusk after others species of fish were caught, and secondly after landing what would have been a nice bag of fish I missed lots of bites.

A change to finer wire hook I did land more in the end but It ideal for 'Mag and Wag' here so I think If I come again I'll try that out instead.

A nice introduction though I'll be back very soon.

A Sliver Bream PB

Or is it ? Jeff over to you, you're good at these things...

I was at the ressi this morning trying to tempt a big Perch, the plans didn't go well as I couldn't get past the small ones and there were literally hundreds of the buggers. Come winter, it's a different story and the only fish likely to down the wriggler is a big Sergeant. After about 30 small Perch this fish came along devouring 2 lobworms, I thought it might have been a roach at first but I'm hoping it's a Silver Bream. The big eyes and anal fin suggests it might be. (yeap, looks like it is)

Not the bulkiest of fish but still weighed 1lb 5oz, I should have photographed it with some scales next to it, the next best thing the black strap on my unhooking mat is 1.5"

I only fished for a few hours and the float and sleeper rod didn't stay still the whole time I was there. 17.5 Degrees when I left, madness.  

Anyway on a different note, there is talk of the ressi being developed, who knows if / when it will happen but there is definitely something going on as there were surveyors there today. 30 years of falling leaves has left a 2ft accumulation of silt on the bed, reducing the irrigation reservoirs capacity. Shame if it does happen, and what's going to happen to the fish ? Big development plans too but the sounds of it, so if it gets the go ahead it will never look the same again. New fencing, felling of trees, bank developent, even enlarging and a car park. Watch this space....