Warwickshire Avon – Bogey Fools and Horses

So this Kryston Bogey stuff, is it an edge that is worth a go? I stumbled upon it when perusing some of the free videos on fishing TV and looked worth a dabble.

Bogey is a sticky jelly-like glue that enables you to create solid seed hook-baits from the particle of your choice.

It’s been out for a while and I‘m surprised I’ve not seen it before.

A quick google it seems that some users had difficulty getting the particles to fix but I followed the instructions on the video and it worked no problem.

So a hair rigged ball of hemp that was resistance to nuisance fish looked ideal to try for a wary Barbel. After all, despite fishing a few times for Barbel in the day now I’ve only caught them when it’s approaching dusk and the light has started to go.

Unscrew pot

Wet fingers

With curled index finger remove a ball of bogey and when it starts to stretch, ‘snap’ quickly so you are left with a slug of material.

Using moist fingers hold the edges of the Bogey in each hand within moist finger and thumb. Now move both hands apart slowly stretching it just like a piece of chewing gum.

Its appearance has changed appearing to be very shiny and extremely sticky.

Stretch it apart and gently fold it back on itself.

Once folded simply drop it into a bag of dry hempseed or particle of your choice.

The hemp will adhere to the material on contact, roll it around to fully coat it.

Roll it between palms of hands which will compress the seed further in to the sticky surface.

The uncooked hemp bogey concoction was then left in water for 24 hours which darkened the seeds and the result of which turns the floating bait in to a sinking one.

It’s certainly looks the part….

What I did notice though, is if you leave it at room temperature it will start to lose its shape, a bit of a poor show that maybe I had a bad batch ?, but as I’d be bankside in 15 minutes after leaving the house, it should hold up.

To maximise the attraction I also glugged them in halibut and hemp oil.

At the start of the session I used a bait dropper to carpet the river bed with hemp and small stinky krill pellets and then it was sit back and wait.

Now this stuff is a cracking idea, but it practice it failed somewhat short. I'm not sure if the hemp flavoring I used did something to the molecular structure but it lost it's shape pretty quickly. A nice neat ball turned in to something flatter than a witches tit. It was still was attached to the hair though so if there was a Barbel around hopefully he would find it.

What also didn't help was there had to be Barbel in the swim, now there had be a match on the stretch the day before and it was still very clear indeed so maybe they were in hiding. The few anglers on the stretch were also struggling it seemed, I'm sure come dusk as always here, a Barbel would have been banked.

Nearly four hours in one swim, one hour in the other, without even a chub knock or pull. 

But that's fishing for you, don't want it too easy now do we.I still enjoyed catching minnows and small fish on the float, sadly the Perch were not biting either, a small jack that was it.

Will I buy some more ? well the half used pot is in the bin, shame really as it showed promise.

Back to the drawing board. 

Warwickshire Avon – Colder of Fortune

I could see its silhouette crawling along the dimly lit wood floor, it looked huge, easily the biggest spider I’ve seen this year, and it was headed towards me.

I’d caught and released countless ‘daddy longlegs’ up to now, but this brute needed to be tackled in a different manner.

Luckily the Wife was upstairs because she has an irrational fear of anything eight legged and this really would have kicked in her arachnophobia, big time.

She would have jumped out of her skin and woken up the kids in the process.

Now I don’t particularly like handling spider and I was in no mood to chase it round the living room so, quickly over to the lights, and with the space now illuminated it’s stuck in its tracks.

Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes book comes to hand and with a swift underarm throw, its spider bound.

This thing is ginormous, I see its fear, but not for long…..

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggg !!!!!!!!!!!

This air-breathing arthropod is no more, it’s deaded, I’m already feeling the quilt.

The resulting splat got me thinking, maybe it’s worth trying an all out deadbait assault for these large Warwickshire Avon Zander, I’d had a run last time you see but didn’t connect but then I’d fished the last half hour without a bleeding bait on for Gods sake, that won’t help now will it.

6lb 2oz being the biggest from this stretch up till now…..

Anyone else noticed how quickly dusk is creeping up on us, gone are the evenings where I could finish work, see the kids, eat ones dinner and then still have reasonable bankside time to catch a fish. My twice weekly fishing fix is headed towards one session only, and I’m not looking forward to it. I’ve a night session planned on a guest ticket soon mind you so depending on how I do, I may well in the future anyway broaden my horizons and fish another area of the Avon.

I seem to be fishing more than ever, maybe because up to now my results have been very mediocre and I need to bank something half decent.

For this stupidly quick session of an hour and a half I didn’t have time to mess about, the rods were set-up with matching running set-ups, the deadbaits defrosted, so it was out with the baits and wait for any interest.

I’d noticed when fishing the local cut that Zander feeder much better when it’s cold, there was a notable difference in catch rate, not only that but the bigger fish seem to be more interested too.

So with the Autumnal temperatures gradually kicking in would a larger Zander be biting?

What an odd session, it was surprisingly mild compared to the start of the week, so maybe the session was a little premature. The first fish came within half an hour or so and at first I thought it might be a half decent Zander as it was giving a good pull on the string but when it surfaced it was a greedy Chub that took a liking to the headless Roach. I'd caught one on deadbait before but considering the amount of time I've used deadbait it was still a rare occurrence.

It had a distinctive tail, so should be able to recognise it if I catch it again. Still plenty of filling out to do but it still weighed 4lb 8oz's.

The next fish came on the other rod and it was a small Zander complete with someones end tackle. I removed it the best I could but the little fella had properly swallowed the rig and taken the bait right down. It gave a reasonable scrap so hopefully it will survive the ordeal.

After putting out a bait after catching the Chub I noticed the odd little tap on the rod tip, but not enough to sound the Delkim, I didn't think much of it but when retrieving the rods at dusk I thought initially on the last rod I'd snagged up some weed but on closer inspection a crayfish was hanging on to the bait like its (short) life depended on it.

That could explain the end tackle found, maybe a suspended bait is needed.

Warwickshire Avon – Arse Wasps

This particular chilli must have been topping the 300,000 level on the Scoville scale, far hotter than other varieties I’d had. Maybe it was the super skunk of the cannabis world as usually Scotch Bonnet’s go through my torturous intestinal passages without issue.

It wanted to attack me ever since I took a knife too it, as stupidly I’d not worn gloves, so not only I got it in my eyes but whilst siphoning ones python.

I now know what it’s like putting deep heat on ones nether regions....hopefully not to be repeated.

Thing is it was in good company, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, coriander stalks and onion as a base and then wilted spinach, chopped fresh tomatoes, peppers and the contents of my masala dabba. Even the lamb wasn’t any old rubbish, I knew the farmer who lovingly cared for it before he shoved it in the van and passed it over to the abattoir.

All stomach were not created equally and mine seems to be up there with the robust and hardy, however, Jesus, this Chilli was determined to give me a boot where hurt and when I was doubled over come back for more. The capsicum cramps had properly set in and it was man down…

Roving was out of the question, uncomfortable to the extreme, a static approach was necessary.

So the swim….

Middle and far,cover with decent pace.

Inside, overhanging trees, pedestrian, reeds and lily pads.

Barbel, yes, has to be, Pike and Perch, no-doubt, Chub what a stupid question.

So, for this extended session, I decided to set my stall out and go lob-handed. As a bait the humble lobworm is hard to beat so the plan was to do a bit of trotting but also allow one to roll around the swim with a light link ledger.

Both methods are good at searching swims and often bites can come very quick indeed so it was a matter of alternating between the rods and see what popped up.

For the last hour I'd also put out a bait to see if a Perch or Pike popped up.

What a fantastic morning, a heavy mist blanketed the river and that lovely Autumnal cold fresh air that has been missing as of late, you could really notice the change, I could even see my breath. Then when the sun came up, wow.

You don't get to see that in bed, now do you....

I was hopeful for some fish, it looked that good.

Weirdly bites were hard to come by, but eventually after feeding red maggots and also switching to maggot on the hook, dace and small chublets turned it. The water is still incredibly clear you see and this venue in-particular I've found tough going.

I switched to a static offering with feeder but the first fish that I thought might have been a nice Perch was a greedy little jack pike that couldn't be very good at catching fish as his stomach was really hollow.

Maybe I should have switched swims as It can be very peggy here but ones derriere didn't allow it.

So out with a bait it was and after half an hour eventually the float went under, this was no Perch but a greedy little Pike. Not the biggest but a nice fight on light tackle. A chat with a member from the village he has given me a few pointers, so looking forward to trying some of those out.