I'd better up my game...

This morning's reccy down the Avon Brook is my first in many months. Other venues have caught my attention instead even though this small off-shoot of the Warwickshire Avon has produced some of my biggest fish. I was in a bit of a quandary though so being only 10 minutes from my house, I thought I'll go and have a look. As the rivers are up I had Chub was in mind with liquidised bread in the feeder and cheese paste on a sort hair. In the summer I've seen some massive Chub here, I've just not managed to catch one.

It was crisp under foot and as the sun began to rise I was subjected to a fantastic visual setting. It was only when I reached the river I realised just how fast it was flowing, it was properly motoring through. As the river in some places is jump-able in summer any decent volume of flowing water turns the river in to a raging torrent. There are slack areas though and that's where I'd target.

There was plenty of debris being washed down the river so that would certainly put fish off. I doubt the fish would want to be clonked over the head with a piece of two by four, to be honest not ideal conditions. Three or four swims without even a knock I decided to battle myself through some dead stingers and found this swim which an upstream fallen tree meant that the swim I intended to fish was relatively calm.

It certainly looked chubby and sure enough the tell-tale knocks of the quiver resulted in a proper bite and a fish was on. Sadly this was no 5lber but the little Chub gave a good account for itself, it certainly was a scrapper. A 1lb and a half or so, small but in perfect nick.

I don't go back to work till the 5th of Jan so a few more fishing trips are planned, Zander at my usual haunt and also an area of canal where I spotted some topping Roach. A bit of big fish drought of late, I need to up my game as least I need to properly christen my new Garnder landing net.

What lies beneath…..

College pool is an intriguing water, from its unfathomed and infeasible dark and deep depths, the draw of the huge variety of wildlife that inhabits this secluded area in this small Warwickshire village but for me and what keeps me coming back, is the weird and peculiar fish that turn up from time to time. I’ve caught finless perch, blind chub, barbel that appear fitter than their flowing water brothers and carp that pound for pound are easily the hardest scrapping fish I’ve ever had pull my line, I even caught a chunky newt on a bit of worm. Come winter time it’s largely deserted, ideal for an angler like me who seeks a bit of solitude.

I found out by accident when fishing for Big Perch on the marginal shelf or next to a feature such as an overhanging bush, provided largely unproductive. It’s not that I didn’t catch any Perch, I did, thousands of the little greedy gits, the pool is full of them but hardly any over a pound. My luck changed however when by chance I decided to cast in to the deepest part of the pool. By deep, God knows, most of the lake shelves off pretty quickly to 15ft of water, the middle, well, 20, 25, 30ft ? Cast a lead and feel the lead ‘donk’ on the bottom takes a long while indeed. Deep means cold so the fish are relatively slow growers, however the carp are bucking the trend and are putting on a bit of timber. A word of warning, use decent tackle if you fish for them, they are something else.

Deep water mean dark and gloomy and even in bright sunlight which tends to put the larger stripy’s off, it’s not an issue here. For them it’s saturnalia. Bait was air injected lobworm and liquid krill glugged King Prawn on simple running rig, my usual Zandavan roller over indicators for bite detection. It was a pretty windy day, so they make the ideal indicators; a bobbin would have been blown all over the shop.

A slow morning, a few aborted takes and then a fish that looked around a 1lb and 3/4's that took a liking to the fat lobworms. If I look back at my blog, the winter months is very slow here and late March seems to be a productive month. With Warwick ressi shut any ideas welcome for big Perch venues locally, please let me know.

Chub 4, Barbel 0

The week previous to this morning session had been pretty mild, well for this time of year anyway. A December Barbel was a possibility and if the Barbel weren’t feeding then a Chub should be. I’ve neglected the ‘Brook’ of late but as soon as the temperature lowers my favourite stretch of the river will be my first port of call as I’ve seen some PB beating Chub that I need to get into the mix with.

 I was bankside just after 7.00am, just as dawn was beginning to get into its stride. Garlic spam on one rod, cheese paste the other baits were positioned just off the main flow of the river in a nice slack area. It was the highest I’d seen in ages and looking at the debris in boarding trees it had been much higher too.

The first hour proved the most productive with 3 fish banked, albeit only small Chub, and an absolute whacker of a bite that could have only been a Barbel but it somehow ditched the hook. I decided to try a couple more swims without success so I returned to where I came and had the biggest Chub of the day, a nadger over 3lb. Not the most successful fishing trip but enjoyable all the same. It’s the Christmas break soon so I’m looking forward to a few trips out, Zander and Perch all going well.