Warwickshire Avon – Flimflam and Formication

In the black corner Nash baits The Key (Kray) and in the red corner CC Moore’s Pacific Tuna.

Somehow I’d succumbed to the marketing of these two ‘super’ products and my wallet was quite a bit lighter than a usual week with the family.

To be honest I keep off social media on the most part and the first article I found on ‘The Key’ where the manufacturer was engaging with the potential purchasers of this apparently wonder bait did make me laugh, talk about heated.

Come on chaps, a bulk bait maker such as Nash is there to make money, if they can convince you to buy it because of some decent marketing and the tweaking of one’s angling purse strings then surely they’ve done their job.

No need for the insults….

The thing is, I rarely fish for river carp, if I do I prefer to sight fish and catch them off the top but even then I’ve only fish for them a handful of times and done ok.

I was back in the ring though and in particular in and amongst the walk on area, the corridor before the ring , to see what I could pick up. You see carp patrol these waters, basically up and down it, a little like the kerb crawlers of Hillfields in Coventry, if you’re PC plod looking to give someone a talking to, it’s not rocket science.

For instance with my eyes closed I’d flung out a boilie rig here last March after blanking for Zander and a 20 lber turned up out of the blue that gave me enough bloggers challenge points to jump Sean in to second place behind fish machine James.

They are greedy car after all, are they really that hard to work out ? a little like Barbel fishing, put a bait in front of it and it’s up for feeding, it will.

Sweetcorn, bread probably just as good, just don’t tell anybody....

We are all after that wonder bait though and like me, I am always looking for something that will give me the upmost confidence.

There were bream here last time, and apparently Tench, which I’ve seen no hide or hair of up till now so would these baits pick up something a little out the ordinary. It's not something I usually do but I decided to pre-bait a little. Ben came with me this time and deposited a little bait in the swim I intended to stay in all morning.

The left rod, pacific tuna boilie on the hair with matching crushed boilie and small pellets in a PVA bag and then on the right rod, The Key (FFS) boilie on the hair and then a PVA stringer of freebies.

Sit back and wait for a run, wait for a rod nodding....

The problem when sitting for long periods of time though is that, recently when being bankside the inspects, mites and tics or whatever they are have been playing around with my skin. Not only giving me itchy bites but also playing with my subconscious as even when tucked up in bed or sat at a CAD terminal in work I’ve felt like from time to time I’ve things crawling over me.

The Wife has been badgering on about using some Jungle Formula so this session was its inaugural outing of the Diethyl Toluamide so see if that would improve the situation.

I nearly always wear long sleeves when I go fishing to lessen the skin exposure but of late, this has seems to do next to bugger all.

So the session….

Well don't not why I bothered....

Not even one bleeding bite. Now it was still pretty clear so I'm wondering if a back lead, (heaven fordid) is the way to go.

Arhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!! I also got bit to buggery.

Should have stayed in bed.

Warwickshire Avon – Pedeconference and Pandiculation

Back from a long day at work, I step in the front door in to the hall and I’d literary had one foot in the office when the Wife appears.

“Hello love, good day?” “Anyway as I was saying yesterday…”

My foot in both camps, the hall and office

“Yeah, just give me a minute, just need to get sorted”

“So if we stop the weekend, it will be £*** oh and we get the next day in the park for free, oh and …..” “Could do with knowing asap, so we can get it booked up”

I continue on my way, I need to get showered and changed, the Wife still trying to hold conversation, even the overly extended yawn and outstretch it didn’t put it off her mission.

“So what do you think, shall I book it up, we can even spend some of out clubcard points”

An easy way to end this, card out wallet….

“Here you go, yeah whatever, just get it sorted, by the way, I’ve decided to go fishing later, how long till tea ?”

“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, look at the cool new trick I can do with my tennis racket”

“Ok, give me 5, let me have a shower first”

So this fishing hobby of ours, great isn’t it, as it’s on your terms, I thrive on the benefits of spending time alone, freedom is considered to be one of the benefits of solitude, you see the constraints of others will not have any effect on a person who is spending time in solitude, therefore giving the person more of a scope to their actions. With increased freedom, a person’s choices are less likely to be affected by exchanges with others.

As a solitude seeker, contemplation, spirituality and discovering ones identity, what’s not to like. Fishing is an avenue to get your fix.

And boy, do I need it....

Heck, maybe as an addition to maggot drowning some meditation and some deprivation of sensory input is the way forward.

Blest! Who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day.

Then again solitude is torture for those in solitary confinement, then again after finding oneself alone in the house sometimes, is all very weird, noise is the norm, no denying that.

So with the bank balance battered yet again, I was back at the Warwickshire Avon, this time a swim of convenience and this time smaller than usual boilies with a paste wrap. In this case some Barbel slick sense from West Country baits, some of the most lovely smelling baits I've put my hand on.

There had been a nice sprinkling of rain you see and also with a drop in temperature I wanted to see if there was any Barbel up for feeding.

It was much clearer that I thought it would be, but I know for a fact that's not a problem it's just a waiting game basically.

With the bait positioned over some gravel between some streamer weed, the bites started, the odd tap and pull here and there, from chublets and then the odd proper pull from a proper Chub the hour before dusk was pretty uneventful.

About 20 minutes before I'd have to go the rod starts to nod a few times, bang,bang,bang.

So unusually for me I struck in to it as the bite hadn't properly developed. Then that's when all hell broke loose, obviously a good Barbel initially it headed further in to the streamer weed but I managed to abate it's powerful run but then it came back towards me upstream and I could visually see the fish in the water.

It eventually surfaced and look a decent fish, maybe a double. I grabbed the landing net and positioned it on the platform in readiness but then it had one last run upstream where it wedged it self among some thick reeds.

The fish was stuck fast....bugger

I put on as much pressure as I could but nothing was doing, so only one thing for it, maybe a stupid thing in hindsight.

I gave it some slack....

The problem was it buried itself even deeper into the reeds but this time when pressure was applied I could feel the line grating up and down the edge of the reeds.

As suspected upon applying as much pressure as I could the line caught the feather edge of the reed and the fish was gone.

It's happened before in similar fashion but luckily for me I don't lose barbel that often, this one I wanted to bank though as it would have upped my bloggers points for the species that's for sure.

Lesson learnt and with my tail between my legs I was homeward bound.

Warwickshire Avon – Fins and F**K Ups

Picture the scenario, CAD work complete on the remaining load of block models for an interior buck property that the ‘A’ surfaces were finished nearly a month ago, another job well done, I can now wind down a little after a week of solid modelling, my eyes, feeling the strain, I need the break, so….

5 Axis milling machine about to cut ureol.

“Mick, hang on, we have a problem” “you haven’t sent the models yet have you ?”

“Errr, yes, why !!!”

“Computer says, No !!!!”

So this week up till now had been correcting someone else’s boo-boo, sorry f*ck-up that should never of happened.

Oh well, these things happen, hopefully back on track.

Luckily caught in time, crisis averted.

Well till the next one anyway….

The thing is with one’s head down, bluetooth earphones streaming Sacred Passions 2 by Journey Escapes (Mixcloud), it’s surprising just how quickly I can plough through the work.

Mind elsewhere you see, something electronic music, not unlike fishing can give me.

A little like Barbel, who can often get preoccupied feeding on the layer of bait dropped hemp, so even the most wary can get caught out as they are zoned out like I can be and that’s what I was hoping for this short evening session.

As nearly all my fishing sessions, nearly 500 now, since I started blogging, I plan them….

I suppose that’s the engineer in me, very meticulous on the most part….

So Hemp and small pellets via the dropper, leave for an hour / an hour and a half to let them munch and grub over the free offerings, and then fish a bait over the top for the last hour before dusk, no real science to it and more often than not an unsuspecting barbel will get caught out.

I bit like my youngest and a finger buffet though, churn through the sausage rolls, pork pies and cheese sticks and eventually sometime remotely healthy will enter ones chops, lesson learnt next time.

"Dad, yukkkk, what's this green thing !!!!"

For the hour after the hemp drop, I’d fishing a link ledgered bit of bread flake just to see what would crop up.

Martin was already bankside and on the Barbel, ended up with 3 fish lots, one a near double and lots of Chub.

After a natter I went to my chosen swim and couldn't believe the difference from a few days ago. all the colour was out the water and must have been at least 1 ft lower. I was committed though with not much time left but in hindsight I should have moved back to where Martin was where the swims are deeper and the streamer weed thicker.

I put some bait down and proceeded to seeing what I could pick up from the weir, after a few chublets it was back at the chosen swim.

Bait cast out, it was sit back and wait.

The krill boilie received attention straight away, yeap chub in residence. With dusk fast approaching I needed a Barbel but a few minutes before ten and the light all but gone and my home time a Chub hung itself, I hand landed it and looked around 3lb.

Probably not the best decision to fish where I did, oh well, at least I know for next time.