Warwickshire Avon – Trotting like flies

I love these midweek evening sessions, the sun retracting, the gnats at their most active and the river surface comes alive. I had to be on the move so roving and trotting was the order of the day, sciatica that had laid largely dormant for a few years had been creeping back in over the last couple of weeks, the usual symptoms, lower back pain, numbness and pins and needles. After 6 mths of excruciating pain, physio and the use of private chiropractors, it finally it sorted itself out. I need to keep it at bay, being as active as possible works so sitting on ones posterior looking at a quivertip just won’t cut it, to be honest with the river so clear trotting was probably the best way to tackle it anyway.

Got to love the humble earthworm....

such a primitive hermaphroditic life form that hasn’t evolved since its existence on earth 120million years ago, getting on with its day job of enriching and aerating the soil and generally keeping itself to itself. For us anglers though it’s up there as one of the best baits. A hooked or chopped worm literally oozes amino acids that attract fish from a great distance. It’s a visual bait too, so in clear rivers like it was today, a bit fat wriggling lobworm on the hook is hard for a fish to refuse.

I’ve caught all manner of decent fish from this stretch, one being the King of the river, the Perch. This was my target for this trip, if they were absent in the October banker swim, I had to find them. With the river clear many fish such as Barbel and Chub will be seeking sanctuary so a moving bait is ideal as it can bring them out from their cover. I don’t mess around when trotting, a big buoyant float secure between a couple of Drennan grippa stops, a wide gape hook tied direct to the line and the bulk shot a few inches away. The Centrepin features in much of my fishing these days, and especially when catching a Barbel it just feels right when playing a fish, I find the control infinitely better than a fixed spool just takes a little time to get used to. 

Not ideal conditions low and clear but after roving around to 5 or 6 swims I still managed plenty of fish, perch a plenty albeit nothing big, 8 or 9 chublets and also a nice Chub of around 3.5lb. The float is secured by a silicon sleeve so as the light was fading I removed the float and put a piece of meat on the hook. Within a few minutes a Chub gave it a good pull but the bite didn’t develop. I left it for half an hour and decided to head back home, it was only upon retrieval that I realised it had nabbed the bait and I’d fished half an hour with bugger all on the hook, dooohhhhh.

Warwickshire Avon – The fleeting flowing piscator

For the first six weeks or so of the new season the banks are notably busier with anglers, it’s usually those fisherman who fish their favorite carp puddle and goldfish bowl and switch to the rivers as ‘it’s what everyone does’ and then they quickly realise it isn’t easy, especially when you have to find fish and heaven forbid, use ones legs.

You want to fish one of the notable Barbel hotspots, forget it….IT will be occupied…..

They leave as quick as they turn up though, so be patient. So for me as an angler that seeks solitude this time of the year it’s an ideal time to visit stretches well off the beaten track.

The area in question is a bit of a trek, well for the modern angler. Even hardened ramblers would need a backpack, trekking pole and Ray Mears in attendance just to attempt it. In reality it isn’t that far to walk but because of the distance involved, the boscage and forna it’s an area that’s largely devoid of anglers. What gets me returning every year though, is the Carp that frequent this thick lily pad sanctuary. They seem to love it here, the problem is it appears to be a short-lived holiday as one minute they are sunning themselves, the next they have packed their bags and buggered off.

They are also crafty and difficult to catch, and as the cover is so thick it would be suicidal to hook one amongst the nymphaeaceae so they rarely venture away from the confides of their self-catering accommodation. I’ve found early morning is best when you can often find them feeding off the top away from the cover but even then the window of opportunity is very small indeed. My approach is simple, a surface set-up with bread or dog biscuit and a safety clip sleeper set-up with a boilie, lobworm or pellet as hookbait and a PVA bag of small pellets just on the edge of the lilies. They are not that easy to spot either, in the past I’ve often spent a couple of hours looking through the polarised cocoons without even wetting a line. It took 15 fishing hours for one fish; I’m hoping my knowledge would reduce that.

So to the session, this is the second weekend where the weather reporters have got it completely wrong, it was like a winters day and also raining. With my float fishing mate Simon in tow a carp was spotted as soon as we got to the first swim, not the biggest and wouldn’t have made double figures, it was also stupidly clear as I could see the lobworm bait on the bottom being attacked by all manner of things. I didn’t want to catch small Perch all day so I switched to a plastic corn topped cell boilie. Every break in the rain I went to try and spot them but it clearly evident they were happy amongst the thicket. After a consolation 4lb Chub The same common was spotted again but it didn’t seem interested in feeding at all. The decision was made to pack up early and upon returning to the car I watched a load of Chub and Barbel feeding in the shallows. I was half tempted to cast a line over the bridge. The Barbel was easily double figures.

With the Wife on a Hen Do the weekend, two trotting sessions are planned....the carp can wait.

Talking of Barbel, nice one Keith, a lovely fish.

Warwickshire Avon - Been there, done Bat

The Warwickshire Avon can be funny at times, not much interest in the bait prior to dusk and then as the bats start coming out to feed on the huge number of gnats and the like the fish start waking up.I only had a 2.5 hour session so I rocked up at the 'black hole' swim fed a few bait droppers of mixed pellet and hemp and gave it a rest whilst fishing a couple of the other swims with lobworm.For each evening session apart from the main rod I've also rigged up a simple JS Eel rig to try and catch an Eel of any size, this will be fished sleeper style. I'm going to try a few baits, chopped lobs, roach head and maybe some King Prawns.I used a simple ledger stem with memory free mono, a swivel, beefy Kryston Quicksilver and a size 6 Raptor.

The river was up but still pretty clear so bait and wait was probably the way to go, If I was fishing a day session I'd have brought my beefed up trotting gear.

The 2nd swim produced a small cublet which took the lobworm on the drop and a few perch later I returned to the 'black hole' set the traps and sat back and relaxed. About 9.30pm, 10 minutes in, and still light I'd missed a take on the Eel rod. I re-baited with another Roach head and whilst doing that noticed the main rod was getting sharp Chub pulls. I fish with a really long hair when I want to try and avoid the Chub as they can knacker a swim once caught, I wanted a Barbel to take my piece of meat.

The roach head hadn't really settled when the bobbin was rising, I struck and felt solid resistance, yeap an Eel. The short carp rod was bent double but was soon under control. Not the biggest at 1lb 4oz but certainly most welcome. I'm lucky is was only a small one as having forgotten my new Gardner spoon net would have been more appropriate.Come on Mr Barbel, at 10.30pm again the main rod was being knocked all over the shop, kamikaze bats, fish in the swim brushing the line, chub bangs, the lot. 10.45pm I was packing in the sleeper when a small bite developed in to a proper pull round, was this a Barbel ? it felt weighty as first and give an initial lunge but it soon came to the surface.Nope a Chub, darn, and sods law looking back at my pics it was the same Chub I'd caught twice last week, this time an ounce less at 4.2oz . The distinctive colouring, pike wound on it's flank and tail pattern was easy to spot.