Grand Union Zander - A Surfeit of Lampreys

With the local rivers out of sorts and providing difficult fishing I decided to seek some relative sanctuary and venture to a section of the Grand Union that Zander frequent to see if they are partial to a section of lamprey.

A lamprey bleeds more than a bladderated warfarin user with a head wound,so would they like the weird looking jawless Petromyzontiforme more than they would a headless Roach?

I've caught hundreds of Zander, this was a mere experiment and to keep the interest up and to provide knowledge going in to another cut double closed season quest that I enjoyed so much last time.

On the float rig I scaled down to a much smaller hook than I usually use, on the main rod a simple running rig with a tried and trusted bass hook.

Now King Henry loved a Lamprey pie, sadly it eventually led to his downfall, overindulgence, food poisoning or a post meal wafer thin mint, who knows but in 1135 the 67 year old popped his clogs after being advised against easting them by his physicians. Anyway, if you fancy a bash.

Take your Lamprey and gut him, and take away the black string in the back, wash him very well, and dry him, and season him with Nutmeg, Pepper and Salt, then lay him into your Pie in pieces with Butter in the bottom, and some Shallots and Bay Leaves and more Butter, so close it and bake it, and fill it up with melted Butter, and keep it cold, and serve it in with some Mustard and Sugar.

Would the Zander also be partial to this bleeding morsel dunked within the cuts murky depths....

Before the sun came up strong against the clear blue sky and the swim went dead I had 7 Zander, not bad for a couple hours, the bass hook hooked in the scissors as expected the smaller Dragon hook, not so, all but one fish were hooked a little down the throat, I crushed the barb so not too bad to remove, but not ideal.

Incidentally no lost fish....

The biggest went 3lb 13oz, not huge but a welcome change and the Lamprey worked wonders. I'll definitely use it again.

On the drive back home I stopped off at the lure banker swim and sure enough after a few casts, a small angry Zander grabbed the small lure.

Got to love the Zander, as a predator, right up there with the best of them..

Warwickshire Stour – A Worm in Waters New

I’ve decided I’m not renewing this book for next season, it’s been good to me over the 4 years I’ve fished its club waters, but I’ve decided for the 2016 season it’s out with the old and in with the new. So before the book is confined to the bin I wanted to have one last bash on its waters. I’ve fished in and around this part of the Warwickshire Stour before but this particular stretch I’d never wet a line only having previously fished it ½ a mile upstream.

For those that have never fished the Stour what I would recommend is in the summer when the river is low and the clarity clear, go and walk the banks. In places the river will be shallow and the bed exposed but it’s full of character, deep troughs,holes, gravely runs and provides plenty of visual intrigue. It definitely fishes better in the colder months so before the waters rise it’s well worth doing, very much value added.

The recent forgettable trip to Blenheim Palace left me with a load of lobworms so for this roving session I’d feed a few red maggots and anchor one of the worms to the deck with a simple link ledger set-up. My sort of fishing this especially when it would help walk over the Christmas overindulgences.

I was hoping to find the odd Roach or two…

Now prior to this session I’d been at a local village hall tabletop sale and out of the blue stumbled upon some boxed and apparently unused Salter Brecknell Model 15 scales, I recognised them straight away as Jeff Hatt uses a version of these.They weigh up to 4lbs in 1oz increments so ideal for weighing Roach, they also look great in the photos. A squirt of WD40 and a twist of the zeroing out thumbscrew we were back in business.

Now I got them for £15 quid, Jeff reckons they are worth at least £40, so not a bad purchase.

Being a spring balance it works by Hooke's Law, which states that the force needed to extend a spring is proportional to the distance that spring is extended from its rest position. Therefore the scale markings on the spring balance are equally spaced.

They seem very accurate indeed with the items I weighed (2 small tins of beans are 500grams) so maybe the spring hasn’t been overworked so maybe it was as described, unused.

The first spring balance in Britain was made around 1770 by Richard Salter of Bilston near Wolverhampton. He and his nephews John & George founded the firm of George Salter & Co., still notable makers of scales and balances, who in 1838 patented the spring balance. They also applied the same spring balance principle to steam locomotive safety valves, replacing the earlier deadweight valves.

So enough of that, I was here to catch some fish….

After recent rain which has put the Avon mostly out of action the side tributaries were like a raging torrent and it was putting even dirtier water in to the already coloured river

This was going to be difficult...

It was a matter of moving swims every 10 or 15 minutes or so till I found some fish.

7 or 8 swims later I was wondering what I bothered but then I settled in to a nice open swim with a large bit of slack water and I was eventually getting indications.

The first fish was a Roach and then everyone thereafter, only small fish though and after running about of time and family duties called I managed to catch 25 / 30 roach or so, all on lobworm,the end nipped off and hooked through the broken end seemed to work really well.

The problem was only a small stamp of fish, the biggest 7oz. The size of the fish were poor but at least I christened the scales...

The larger of the brass cylinders is 7"in length...lets hope I catch something more suited at the next session.

Warwickshire Avon - Meet Bob

I've caught this greedy chub 6 or 7 times over the last couple of years so this morning I've decided to name him Bob.

Sadly Bob hasn't been at the Christmas party food as yet as he only weighed 4lb 8oz but I've no doubt we will meet again, till the next time.....