Warwickshire Avon – Poka-Yoke and the Pestiferous Chub ( With Big Barbel Content)

Poka-Yoke is a familiar term for those like me who work in engineering and the like. Shigeo Shingo from the Toyota group introduced the concept in 1961, in a nutshell it means ‘mistake-proofing’ or ‘fool proofing’. Poka-yokes are mechanisms used to mistake-proof an entire process.

Can the same principle be applied to fishing I wonder….

Why you ask, well I’d been pestered by gluttonous Chub of late whilst evening fishing for Barbel, a couple of those sessions have been frustrating to say the least and I’ve ended the session prematurely. A large bait such as a 1/3 of a tin of garlic spam didn’t put them off the little blighters. There are a few swims I know where I could rock up in the middle of the day, trundle a bait through the swim and bank a splasher, but I wanted to try and target the big Barbel that I know are present here, a larger bait seems to be more selective in fish size in the areas I fish and that was the plan I intended to stick with.

The problem however is a Chub with their Leslie Ash lips can easily strip a lump of meat from a hair in a matter of seconds before it even reaches their pharyngeal teeth. A meat stop helps that situation but only to delay the inevitable, an unwanted Chevin. Either the bait would be removed entirely leaving the rig baitless or a Chub would be hooked. Rebaiting and casting in low-light or well in to dusk is a pain in the proverbials. Supergluing a couple of 8mm pellets on to a hair was probably the most effective method as at least you knew the bait was still likely to be there before the violent Barbel bite eventually came, however still lots of Chub were banked.

So the change I made for this session was to use an overly large fishmeal and liver based pellet made specifically for catfish which was glugged in pungent Salmon oil. Originally it was 30mm diameter and 40mm long, I halved it however which made a more manageable and cost effective bait. What I liked about it was that even though it was relatively easy to cut, it was effectively still a hard pellet and therefore relatively Chub resistant, and would be difficult to strip from the hair. Also being a big bait hopefully a larger Barbel will see it as more manageable mouthful unlike one of the smaller splashers where it would be a potential gobstopper. The pellet was secured on a long hair via a large pellet stop (tabs superglued) and for this session two rods were to used, one rod positioned just under a willow and the other in an area of slack just off the main flow. The plan was to sit back, ignore the rattles and twangs and wait for the rod to properly wrench over, simples. This was a 2 part session; the second would be a bit further downstream.

Would this set-up be as selective and chub-proof as I hoped?

I'd rocked up at 7.00pm added a couple of droppers of hemp and pellet into a very clear river, not as up as I expected either.Both rods went in half hour later and it was a matter of sitting back and waiting. It wasn't till dusk till both rods were getting attention and sure enough the Chub bites started, some of them one and a half footers too, but I knew unlike a 10mm pellet that reduces in size over time dunked in the water I knew the bait would still be there. I had intended to leave at 9.30pm however with clear skies and a full moon my rod without an isotope could still clearly be seen.

One of the rods had a pin fitted and the ratchet acts as a noisy bait runner effectively, the other a fixed spool with the bait runner activated. In my experience the Barbel because of the nature in the way they feed they tend to hook themselves. They are savage bites and there is no mistaking the 3ft twitch. I decided to stay another half an hour or so and sure enough at more or less 10.00pm, the rod violently wrenched over and the bait runner started to scream. It was a powerful fish too and already made some ground on me before I could get it under control, downstream is thick streamer weed and a snag riddled overhanging tree so with the rod bent double it was hold and hope.

I walked up the bank and tightened the drag and eventually felt more in control of it. After a cracking fight and breaking my landing net when the frame broke at the spreader block eventually I had the fish on the bank. I really did feel it would break my PB then again I haven't caught a double figure fish for a while, anyway it weighed 10lb 12oz. still pleased with it but upon resting and returning it and seeing it in the water swim away with my head torch I know for a fact there are bigger ones to be had.

A 10lb 12oz Warwickshire Avon Barbel

I was well pleased with the method and rig, it worked exactly as intended. I prefer fishing a moving bait if I'm honest but the bites Barbel give really are a sight to behold. For situations like this session though where it's clear, and there are Chub in residence and there bigger fish come out to play when it's dusk, it's ideal.

Warwickshire Avon - River Carp and Tench in the Trench

It’s not going too well this river carp lark; I’ve fished 5 sessions now so about 20 hours in total. I’ve hooked and lost one, had them fighting over the dog biscuits practically jumping on each other’s backs, fluffed a couple of strikes and witnessed the biggest out of the group a ‘ghostie’ hoover up a large piece of crust that had just parted from my hook in glorious slow motion, previous to that, he had completely ignored it, you couldn’t make it up.

They ain’t stupid these mud sifters…

Conditions need to be right really so it’s taken me a few weeks and a holiday in-between to fish for them again. The problem is unless it’s clear(ish) you wouldn’t spot them, they are amongst the thick lilies and rarely venture out, and I’ve often taken a couple of hours watching through my cocoons just to spot one, there doesn’t appear to be a pattern to them making an appearance either.

They seem to prefer the smaller dog biscuit rather than crust so to try and outwit these crafty carp I swopped the bread for an ET31N enterprise imitation dog biscuit. You secure it with a long hair with a spilt shot that orientates it in such that you can keep the hook out of the water and out of view from wary carp. The biscuit has a raised area that you nip the hook through, very well thought out indeed (not cheap mind). There is a bit of foam coloured matched to the fake bait that fits through the middle of the biscuit, not only is it there for buoyancy but it also can be flavoured if you so wish. I soaked mine in scopex, btw.

I need an edge without resorting to multiple rods and buckets of bait; I was hoping this was it...

This area also looks ideal for Tench, thick with marginal lilies,decent depth with pedestrian pace. I also know one was caught upstream from here in similar surroundings. So to try and kill two birds with one stone so to speak the first half of the session (early morning) I’d float fish for Tench after feeding some chopped worm, red groundbait and a few dead maggots close to the pads within a long trench. I’d fish a red worm and a red maggot of corn on a lift float set-up for a couple of hours or so and then have a sleeper rod out with a few pieces of Rod Hutchinson’s huge corn baits on a hair amongst a carpet of freebies just to see what I could pick up. There are marginal lilypads over a decent length so a bit of the groundbait mix would be added in a few likely spots to try and spot the tell tale micro bubbles that show that the Tench were feeding.

Any one of the target species would be nice.............

So, the above is all very well, but had a bit of a nightmare for the session. The reeds had grown massive since I was there last so lots of the swim I couldn’t see, despite looking long and hard for the carp over the 5 hours session, none were spotted. An angry Swan was in one of the swims I intended to fish and no amount of landing net waving would shift it. The first cast of the float with a worm hookbait was picked up by a Jack Pike that bit and broke the like and the rest of the fish caught were small Perch and Chub, a change to a couple of grains of corn the float remained motionless as did the corn sleeper rod.

So back to the drawing board, I think a Warwick Book is on the cards. At least it was a nice day

Warwickshire Avon – The Raft

I know there is a huge Barbel in this area of the Warwickshire Avon, I’ve seen it with my own eyes when I disturbed it in the low and clear water. Sadly my attempts to capture it have been nothing more than a failure. I’d caught a few smaller fish (up to 8lb) sure but as I know their Father is here (I hope he still is) there is always a possibility it would eventually grace my hook. It appears to be elusive though and I’ve not spotted it since. I’m not saying I’m bored of catching the smaller fish, far from it, but this area because of what I witnessed is one of those that will get me returning, time after time till I catch it. Having fished it in ideal chocolate brown flood conditions and in and around the features the area exhibits, such as holes, creases, slacks and streamer weed there was one particular area I hadn’t tried.

It was a rather deep and lengthy raft caused by a fallen tree which appeared to growing in size by the day………

The issue has been for previous sessions that it was way beyond the reach of my amateurish Wallis cast, in these clear conditions bigger fish tuck themselves away so a change of tactics was therefore needed. I nearly always have a plan of action before a session so to carry out this undertaking the centrepin was swapped for a fixed spool so the raft was now reachable. Due to its proximity from the bank I felt a static lead or a trundle through would disturb the swim too much so a large buoyant float would be used for bait delivery which I aimed to just get to skim the perimeter of it.

Bait on the longshank hook was either a lobworm or a chunk of garlic spam, loose feed would be catapulted in to the swim just upstream so to trickle down and hopefully draw the fish out from their overly large security blanket. What is also nice about this swim is once past the raft providing you have a big visible float fitted you can trot a good 30 or 40 yards past it as there is a large area of open water.

The second part of the plan was for the last hour or so in to dusk as the float was fitted to the line with a silicone adaptor I’d remove the float and freeline a gobstopper of garlic spam and wait for that savage rod wrencher that only a Barbel can give.


Best laid plans and all that….

Chub are prevalent here and throughout the session that’s all I caught, every third or fourth trot down with worm or meat a greedy Chevin gobbled down the bait, I’d managed to get the float the majority of times to kiss the raft too, if a Barbel was in residence I’m sure one of the trots down would have tempted it.

Around 8.30pm I swopped to a gobstopper and the tip didn’t stop (1/3 tin of Spam), all Chub though with sharp twangs and taps. Eventually a couple of fish were landed but only small Chub in the scheme of things. It really did switch on big style when the light dropped so I’ve an idea or two to try and make use of that, if that doesn’t work back to the drawing board.

A Tench reccy Saturday morning, I’m expecting a blank…