A wise tail...

I caught the same Chub three times yesterday evening, the distinctive tail pattern was easy to spot but

weirdly around an hour apart for each capture and on three different baits. 1^st a maggot medusa , 2^nd a couple of superglued pellets and thirdly a big Barbel hybrid bait from Bait-tech. 

The long hair seemed to put off the majority of the Chub but not this one, it seemed determined to get caught. So Mr Chub can you have a word with your friends and family and get them to teach you the why’s and wares to avoiding getting caught, and whilst you’re doing that can you also have a word with Mr Barbel and let him know that when it’s dusk you are allowed to feed.

Not ideal conditions for Barbel I know but apart from exploring a new section of river the second rod was a maggot feeder which luckily provided much evening entertainment.  Can we have some rain please.

The quest for a specimen Gonk

A chance capture of a ‘clonker’of a Gudgeon last year has always stayed at the back of my mind; pleasure can be had from catching even the smallest of fish it's not all about the biggest. So after a couple of average midweek sessions on the Avon, I fancied a bit of a change. The capture brought back memories as a kid where some of the first fish I caught were Gudgeon, they seemed to be in far greater numbers back then, who knows. I even bought a Tenkara rod with a tiny pole float to try for them whenever I fished the canal, the pursuit of ickle fishes never really got off the ground though.Why ?, well  It didn’t help that the non native Zander are widespread in my local canals so Gudgeon are few and far between, they have either buggered off or been eaten. I did catch a few but upon returning to the same spot they were nowhere to be found.

The ‘clonker’ I caught wasn’t from the cut however; it came from a stretch of the Warwickshire Stour when I was fishing for Roach. It took a liking to a piece of worm, in the same session I also caught a Ruffe, a fish I’d never caught before. So for the Gonk session it was a no brainer I decided to fish a familiar area just outside Stratford-Upon-Avon, a lovely peaceful stretch of the river where in places you can jump from one side to the other. In the summer months they can be scattered up and down the river in the shallows, in autumn however, when the weeds begin to die back, and the weather colder, then they group together, and are often found in the deeper parts of the river.

The problem with a specimen Gudgeon >30g’s is how do you weigh them, that’s where some pocket scales come in, ideal for weighing even the smallest of fish. Accuracy of electronic scales ? well that can be questioned but it’s only a bit of fun isn’t it, well unless I catch a British record that is. A good £2 coin weighs 12.00 grams or 0.42oz’s, that’s a good starter for ten. The record as it stands is 5oz and was caught in 1990, that’s one heck of a lunker. Talking of records and lunkers I remember reading this post from fellow blogger Danny Everitt who caught a huge 7” Gudgeon, didn’t realise the significance and chucked it back, a new record who knows. I wonder how many anglers have done something similar.

Gudgeon are bottom dwellers so my setup was simple an 8ft TFG quiver rod rigged up with a small cage feeder filled with dark groundbait, a light hooklink , size 16 hook with maggot or bits of worm as bait. It's only a small fish but it's surprising just how much bend they can put in to a quiver tip, they give proper bites too, a 4ft twitch in miniature, a scaled down Barbel in both looks and character.

The river was alive with fish, a bite every chuck and from each and every swim. I'd say at least 60 or 70 Gudgeon, with small chub, roach, minnows and even a micro pike taking a liking to the worm. Biggest Gudgeon went 31.5 grams, which is just over 1 oz.  Not the biggest but certainly an enjoyable day.

Fecal Matters

With my mate Simon in tow we went to Hopyards on the Warwickshire Avon for a few hours of evening fishing. He didn’t want to venture too far and it’s less than 10 minutes for me and a minute for Simon. It was the first time I fished it, it’s predominately a match venue, slow and deep. Where I was fishing it was 9 or 10ft. In hindsight I should have brought my float gear because it was slow, snail’s pace in-fact.

Just upstream of where I was fishing, Seven Trent have a canal boat sized outlet direct from their sewage works for final effluent release in to the river, there was a definite smell too it, sweet with a hint of chemicals. No doubt the water quality is strictly monitored but I was surprised just how much was being released, the fish didn’t seem to mind it as the area was alive with topping fish and the river like a bubble bath.

To my right was a nice margin swim with lilies and a nice overhanging tree so there I placed a link ledgered lobworm over the top of a few pellets and chopped worm. My other rod I cast mid river with my Barbel set-up, a feeder with pellets and meaty groundbait with 2 superglued pellets on the hair. I missed a few proper pulls on the margin rod which turned out to be a small perch, and the next 3 fish were also pesky small Perch.

Two kingfishers on the far bank kept me entertained for half an hour or so but without any indications on the cavier pellets I decided to have a bit of a reccy further upstream. With rod, landing net and a few lobworms I found a great little swim, peg 10 I think. An overhead bush that was draped in the water and what looked like a big hole. Within seconds I had a Perch about ½ a pound and then with the hook re-baited after a few minutes I was getting a few weird indications on the tip before it finally pulled round. It was ickle jack Pike over around 1 ft long, it was that small I didn’t bother to get the landing net but as I was lifting it out of the water it broke the line.

When I returned to the swim Simon had swapped to a float and lost a couple of small fish, I tried the margin swim again and had a small Chub. A few more Perch we called it a day, Simon blanked but it’s a nice stretch of water that deserves another look.

It looked ideal for Bream, so maybe lots of bait is required next time. The pace looked ideal for trotting a deadbait for Pike or even a static deadbait for Zander or even an eel. Lots to have a go out that’s for sure.

With some rain on the way and the rivers due a refresh, Barbel are on my mind again.