Warwickshire Avon – Rub a Dub Grub

With the available water I could fish limited and my weekend beyond busy it gave me a good opportunity to explore the upper reaches of the clubs waters and walk its near mile long stretch.

Pedestrian pace, lily pads in the margins, plenty of cover and deep, in-fact very deep in places.

With my polarised sunglasses I’m surprised I didn’t spot any carp but my roving grub set-up meant I could learn more about what was in front of me.

What I quickly learnt was that it’s a huge expanse of water and despite fishing in plenty of tasty looking swims the tactics employed were not likely to bag many fish.

Setting ones stall out would have been the better option, still plenty of small fish took a liking to the waxworms particularly the greedy perch.

A groundbait feeder with a couple of pellets for the bream, swap the hook links on the barbel rods and fish a dead roach for Zander, a carpet of hemp and boilies for the carp, a lure rod for the Pike.

Decisions, decisions….

The road noise was a little off putting as was the relative lack of fish milling around but if I’m in the same situation again I’d probably sit it out behind ones rods.

Now bream, I can give or take, carp too especially when I know of a certain swim I can catch them off the top, and another area where potentially sticking a bait on the deck on the carp’s patrol route the day ticket stretch could throw up a 30lber.

So Zander or Pike it is then….

Given the choice I’d like a double figure Zander, it’s a species I’ve grown to know and love but having only fished a handful of river sessions for them the results have been as expected.

Still, short and sweet, It certainly wasn’t time wasted.

I'll be back....

Warwickshire Avon – Plop & Drop

A flowing river, narrowed by overgrowth

Perched upstream, colours of azure, of bittersweet

Territorial, it watches, in wait

Lightning quick, reading the contours, kissing the surface

Eyes closed, it dives, beak open

It succeeds, the minnow aloft, it returns

It strikes, prey limp, head-first, it’s gone

I’ve encountered pairs of Kingfishers in all the river stretches I fish in Warwickshire but here they seem to be used to the angler, like they are part of the territory, the norm. When the rods are motionless they really are a joy to watch, their breakneck speed is something to behold, and it’s a privilege to witness.

I need a better camera.

For this short evening session I’d stick it out in one swim after adding a couple of baitdroppers of hemp and broken boilies. It was busy when I got there so I couldn’t fish one of the swims I’d liked but still plenty to choose from. So 3 droppers under an overhanging tree and one downstream amongst some reeds just off a crease.

I’d leave the swim for a good while whilst rigging up. A couple of boilies on the upstream rod on a long hooklink and downstream a chunk of garlic meat.

Talking of garlic meat Tesco sell a garlic sausage from the maker Morliny, it comes with a tough as old boots skin so when mounted on a hair even using a small boilie stop the bait stays on remarkably well, ok a chub will eventually hook-itself but it’s surprising just how many pulls and tugs it can have and still stay intact.

You can see why fish like it….

Pork (57%), Water, Pork Fat, Pork Rind, Potato Flour, Salt, Soya Protein, Stabilisers (E451, E452, E261, E326, E508), Pork Collagen Protein, Sugar, Flavour Enhancer (E621), Antioxidant (E316), Garlic Powder (0.5%), Gelling Agent (E407), Glucose, Thickener (E425), Vegetable Extracts, Spice Extracts, Hydrolysed Maize Protein, Flavouring, Smoke Flavouring, Dried Yeast, Yeast Extract, Preservative (E250), Filled into inedible casing

With baits plopped in and positioned not a fat lot happened for half an hour or so but an hour from dusk when the fish become more active I started to get indications. The first Chub gave the downstream rod a right going over and a mint one it was too, only 3lb or so but nice all the same.

Then the switched was pressed….

With 20 minutes or so before the end of civil twilight I’ve never see a river come so alive, fish topping everywhere, small and large.

3 more chub were banked, all of a similar size. Shame I had to leave as I was starting to enjoy myself, I’d have loved to have been watching the isotope as I’m sure a Barbel would have graced my net.

I think for the next evening session I’m going to have a static rod with the centrepin’s ratchet as a bite alarm and trot a bait, the fish were really coming up in the water, Barbel too which is encouraging.

Warwickshire Avon – Double, Double, Toil and Trundle

I’ve never been mad about fishing for Barbel, I’m not sure why, I’ve caught quite a few doubles now and am still amazed at the strength of them and how much of a scrap they give, the violent wrap over of the rod when fishing static is also something to behold too, no other coarse fish gives a bite like that.

Could I target them exclusively, errrr No….

Well I say that, I’d caught a few doubles from this one particular small section of the Avon when one morning I was playing a Chub when a Barbel that must have been disturbed came out from an overhanging tree towards some thick streamer weed where it must have been laying in wait….

…..and it was colossal, bold as brass and seemingly without a care in the world, a Warwickshire Avon record? Quite possibly, it would have smashed my PB of 11lb 11oz right out of the water.

No I won’t tell you where I saw it….

I tried in vain to catch it, even devising the Gluttenous Chub Poka-Yoke Rig to improve my probability of it banking it. Some nice fish were caught, but not, ‘The One’

I like challenges in fishing and something to keep the interest up, weight isn’t necessarily the bee-all and end-all as I do love sight fishing for Barbel in low rivers for example where any size of fish is most welcome but certain fish I’m up for spending time to target.

It’s a little like my womanising days of bladderation, playing the field with monotonous rogerisation situations after a while you get bored of the mediocrity, the easy, and fancy something that….

turns heads, gets the lads talking, the curtains twitching....

It was usually a long drawn out process but eventually the mission was accomplished.

On these pastures new, just a double won’t do….I want a big-un….A >14 pounder must be such an impressive creature in the flesh,and I want to see one.

It’s the wrong time of the year though, they ain’t at their biggest so again this session was more of a look-see at the swims on offer and to give me an idea of the contours, holes and features available to me for future reference and a Chub or two would be nice.

My head was nursing a rum punch, a self-inflicted hang-over but got to battle on haven't I.

Now the last trip out the river was on the rise but not as coloured as I thought, so for this session I'd fish too different styles, on the upstream rod I'd fish a sausage sizzle squab (with extra glug) and then use the other rod downstream with smelly garlic spam. from time to time I'd remove the lead and fish trundle style and move and bump the lump of meat around the swim to try an intercept a waiting fish.

The fishing was tough,and other anglers I spoke too on the walk back to my car had the same story. I gave it an hour and a half in 3 swims with a few rattles and plucks and that was it, a switch to lobworm I had a small chublet. The last swim was shallow and there was a nice gravel bar 20 yards out in-between some stream weed. The bait was bouncing nicely through the swim and I could feel every bump of the lump of meat when after the 20th cast or so a decent Barbel intercepted it, it powered upstream with the drag being tested and then I managed to turn the fish, and then after another powerful lunge the fish was off, the hook had pulled. Damn....

Not my day but I'm exploring more and more of the swims on offer and I've barely scratched the surface. The clarity was improving no end so I'm hoping I can start doing some sight fishing. Sitting behind rods, isn't my thing. I'm a roving angler at heart. It's always tough for me at the start of the season, I just need to stick with it.