Warwickshire Avon – D-Rigs and Daydreams

On my continued but seemingly impossible quest for a Warwickshire Avon 5lb Chub, I was back for another session. The grasp from the Monkey on my back is ever increasing it seems because despite catching quite a few 4lber’s this season on venues new, my PB over 4lb and 13ozs is still firmly intact.

I can daydream I suppose….

The other evening, dark, very dark, eyes fixated, tip watching for Chub bites, my mind starts to wander. The result, 3 positive bites missed, two strikes premature, l was fully expecting a blank. Eventually though the right hand rod starts to go, the tip continues on its trajectory and a fish is on, and a nice Chub of 4lb 10oz was landed.

That trip got me thinking though about the other trips down this neck of the woods and the ferocity of the bites I’d received with connecting to a fish. I specifically designed a rig to avoid the Chub when I was targeting barbel and The Gluttonous Chub Poka-Yoke rig was born. 

Maybe I could devise or use a rig to make use of them being bold biters, and try and put more fish on the bank because of it. 

Such the positivity of the bites, hmmm could a bolt rig work (the heathen). Could the mechanics that go behind it, with the aggressive hook pattern, short hook link and large lead to provide the self-hooking resistance do me any favours. 

For those non fisherman that read this, a bolt rig is where the lead is effectively fixed to the end of the hooklink and aims to induce the hook to be set by the fish as it pulls the hooklink to its fullest extent, thereby causing the fish to panic and bolt off at speed. The lead would typically be heavy in order to set the hook well, and the set up should be one which allows the lead to detach from the line should the line break, which then prevents the fish becoming tethered.

Here the Chub were active at dusk so much so, if the river had some decent clarity and the sun still up you’d be wasting your time. That certainly helps me with the quick sessions I enjoy as apart from being convenient for a quick after work sortie, it means I can generally fish more sessions as it doesn’t eat in to my family time as much.

I don’t usually fish for mud sifters but I happened upon the D-rig carpers use. It’s a set-up and I could certainly see working for Chevin.

The rig keeps the hookbait close to the eye of the hook – in a position that ensures the hook goes into the fish’s mouth even if it tentatively inhales the hookbait.

So on gazing through some the angling press the other day, some new hooks from Mustad called BBS UltraPoint hook collection caught my roving eye. It was Mustad’s answer to a D-Rig and with convenience in a packet. 

Tying or making a D loop is nothing new in the world of carp fishing, but it can be fiddly business and there’s no guarantee it will hold if a large, angry fish gets hold of your rig.

Nothing wrong with convenience in fishing now is there; it should be embraced not excluded.

So with some small laccy bands commandeered and a suitable bait purchased from the local tackle shop, only one way to find out, I need to give it a bash.The problem was a little design over function because despite the band being really thin, I couldn't get it though the bleeding hole.

Then I remember some bait screws I had from Avid that would probably work, and they did.

Perfecto...

The Chub don’t really become active here till sundown so leaving a rod to do its thing whilst concentrating on the tip of another, maybe is a good way to go. Such the size of the swim, one rod feels lost and I’m always left wondering what I’d catch on the other rod if I hadn’t fished with it. I lost a good fish to a snag on one of the sessions as well, and that always spurs one interest, what if it was the 5lber I've been seeking.

One rod as normal with cheese paste on the link ledger, tip watching the isotope, the other, the bolt rig as a sleeper letting it do its own thing. Bite alarm, bait runner and bobbin. Every 10 or 15 minutes or so throw small balls of paste in to the swim just to get the fish interested and grubbing around. It certainly leads to more bites I’m sure of it. The krill wafter was glugged prior to its dunking.

When I got to the river it was up a little from last time I was here, the water temperature a little below 5 degrees. 2 feeding cormorants spotted within minutes, as per the norm here now, like it is on maybe stretches I fish now, not good. The fish were topping heading in to dusk though, so I had my fingers crossed for when the Chub start to head out to feed.

As the light was going the sleeper sprung in to life with the rod top nodding and a fish was on. I thought it was a big Chub at first but then the fight was rather placid and when it surfaced it was a decent Bream. Certainly looked bigger than my scores on the bloggers doors so landing net in water ready to land it and when it twisted its body out the water and managed to dislodge the hook somehow. A last gasp scoop with the net was unsuccessful so I watched it returning to its abode. Git !!!

The Chub were nowhere to be seen and after half an hour or so with a motionless tip and a silent bitealarm it was time to head off with a blank. I had to peel the frozen landing net off the staging, it was going to be a cold night.

I'm giving them a good go, you cannot argue with that, its merely a numbers game, that's what I'm telling myself. Another book to add to the growing collection, I'm hoping to find an edge I obviously need.

Small Brook Fishing Pt.2 – Dace and Derrières

Game little ones the Dace, and to be honest once they are feeding not that hard to catch, you know the routine, a nice trotting swim, work the swim up with maggots, and more maggots till it’s a fish a chuck and then maybe switch to a lobworm or a piece of bread-flake in an attempt to single out one of the bigger specimens.

Easy and undemanding fishing where on some day’s big numbers of fish is can be caught, other day’s maybe scraping around for a bite where the shoals have seemingly vanished.

The ungoverned bit of the Warwickshire Avon can be like that from those in the know...

Now a big Dace aren’t big in sheer size but catch anything more than 12 oz’s it is a giant among the plebeians, a fish worthy of a trophy shot. It’s probably the smaller of the species we have in our waters where they are still specifically targeted.

For a short morning session before the conditions changed I had planned to abandon the usual trotting tactics and was going to fish a small maggot feeder.

The theory was to not only to try and build up a swim and to get fish searching, but to try and get a bait to the bottom past the ten a penny darters to find the Van Gerwen’s. I like to fish the feeder like I do for Roach from time to time down the aforementioned neck of the woods.

Often the small fish attack the hook bait on the drop, so you often get taps and knocks before it settles, just wait for a proper bite and more often than not a fish is on.

Well fifty, fifty anyway, it can still be a hit a hit and miss affair, despite the ferocity of the bites.

Cast the feeder and target an area the size of Demi Roses derrière, which is easier than you think, and the fish will eventually come, well that’s the theory anyway.

But hey best laid plans and all that as that went out of the window when I'd fished this diminutive brook recently for it's Dace potential, you see some sizeable fish came out despite only fishing one spot and for a short amount of banktime. Why waste my efforts on sorting through the huge quantities of small fish in the above mentioned large river when a larger stamp could possibly reside here.

So a 8oz fish without much effort, not to be sniffed at....

The brook is underlain with clay by the looks of it and there is abundant gravel present in most of the channel. Generally the habitat looked very good good for trout, with a meandering planform, an excellent pool and riffle structure, good variation in depths, natural channel features such as gravel shoals and side bars, and good cover in the form of tree roots and low overhanging vegetation

There are numerous shallow, faster, gravel-bottomed sections of water riffles, which are where most river fish species choose to spawn, including trout no doubt.

So I was back, this time with a change of bait, liquidised bread as feed and either a section of lobworm on the relatively small size 12 hook hook (I usually use a size 6 when after Chub) or a small piece of bread flake and if I was struggling back to maggot.

I was hoping that the change would be a little more selective and would target the larger fish that were possibly in residence. Scales more suited, rule for measuring, better equipped basically.

With it being cold, Sam was not with me for this session so it meant I could do a little more roving if need be as the surrounding ground was boggy as anything last time. Fine with my big Wellies, he would have been up to his knees in it.

It was much lower when I got there and after settling in the same swim as last time and waiting nearly an hour for the first bite I new it might be tough. So I had to go on the move and fish any swims that looked like they might hold fish.

The first fish was a 5oz Dace, then 3 bullheads came to maggot with half an hour or so, all from the same swim. All registering the smallest of bites so might try and catch them by design next time and scale down a bit.

Back to the first swim I switched to a lobworm topped with a red maggot and managed to get a bite within seconds, the tip properly slammed round and decent fish was on. I thought it was a big silver dart the way it was making a mess of the swim but it turned out to be a trout, which in this part of Warwickshire they don't turn up that frequently, well not for me anyway, and sure this brook is reputed to hold them.

Another Dace ended the rather slow session but enjoyable all the same. I'm sure with a bit more water on like it was a couple of weeks ago it would fish differently, maybe that's the key here, wait to the conditions are right.

Warwickshire Avon – Bloodied Chickens and Hairy Crabs

It’s always a bit of guess what the hell you’re eating when you’re asked to try some of the latest bush tucker bought over from China. When I’ve been over there for work, it’s the same, but at least when you’re being entertained by a client for example, you can ask “so, what's this then?.”

“yes, more rice thank you” "oh and the vegetables"

Bullfrogs, ducks tongues as well as their necks, livers, stomachs and feet, tortoises, bull frogs, Spitting Image looking anemic and bloodied chickens. Fish filleted at the table with flesh seemingly still pulsating and the tiny seasonal Shanghai hairy crabs are some of the delights that have whetted my palate.

The saving grace, at least plenty of rice wine was plentiful.

I’m one for trying new foods though, ok many of the foods I’m left wondering, “why the hell would you want to eat that”, but I appreciate the use of all the animal, not just the best bits and then left wondering what to do with the rest.

Proper Chinese food, and nothing like the stuff they serve up here, but then there is probably a good reason for that.

“I’m not selling it to you am I”

So this week’s delight from Alex one of the exterior designers was some spicy fish strips, quite tough in texture, with that really fishy smell the Wife hates and with a proper chilli kick at the end. I’ve a google translate App on my phone so you can hover the camera over the text and it will translate for you in real time.

Still none the wiser to be honest, but I hazard a guess at herring or mackerel fry.

“I bet you could catch some fish on that, Mick” said Captain Paul, “I bet they will want to jump in your landing net, wanting you to get the spicy food out their mouths and gasping for a drink”

“They really have got a chilli kick that’s for sure, might give them a bash”

On a second inspection, I bet mounted on a hair, kebab style’y they would certainly catch Chub, there isn’t much they wouldn’t have a bash at and having had some success on whitebait recently, only one way to find out.

What I was worried about was the texture, and the resistant to pulls and plucks they are famous for. They seemed ideal as you could mount 4 or 5 pieces and even the most determined of fish would eventually get themselves hooked if you gave them a chance.

So back down to an area where I know there are some nice Chub to be had. To hedge my bets a little especially with the water temperature being very cold indeed, I’d also have a rod with some cheesepaste on.

Last time here on chunks of steak, I had some ridiculous bites which I struggled to connect with. Eventually a fish was hooked but it carted to me left, straight in to a snag and stuck his fins up at me.

Many don’t like using hair rigs for Chub, but I’m the opposite, especially when using big bits of paste, the hook being just that little bit freer seems to give me better hook up’s. I’m not quite ready to try bolt rigging for Chub, because I’m usually pretty confident in the tactics I use, but the last session here, I was puzzled, proper puzzled.

The large chunks of steak were stretched out more or less, like a pair of pliers had been at them. Maybe the issue was the bait was overly large, messing up with the mechanics of the rig, or maybe I’m just over thinking it.

Chub though, for a least the first hour past dusk, when the air cools and the sun drops, feed by foraging near the bottom so unlike when the sun is up, static baits have the edge. Dormant lifeless baits have an advantage if they smell. I have no doubt about this and believe that the reason a Chub takes cheesepaste rather than ordinary paste is because the smell or taint of it attracts him to it when other baits might remain unnoticed their presence unadvertised.

Their diet sheet seems to exceed that of any other fish, however he does not necessarily feel in the mood to take anything that is offered to him at any time. I’ve heard about all manner of baits used to catch them, from whitebait and big slugs that I’ve used successfully, to frogs, chicken skin and even chunks of liver.

During the summer and its clear conditions one method that I’ve used a few times is a floating lure that looks like an insect. Cast upstream just before sundown and let the rivers flow take the lure downstream.

They take the bait off the surfaces so confidently that you don’t even need to strike, they properly nail it. A fantastic way to fish, and I don’t do enough of it.

That why I’ve grown to love them as a species, despite the other fish switching off because of the ridiculously cold weather, and because they are not shy round the buffet and need to quell their appetite.

For those anglers that need to get out on the bank, when the fair weather anglers are cleaning their rods and washing out their maggot tubs, you can always rely on them for a bite or two.

So a quick session this, an hour before dusk, and an hour past, it's been not much above freezing now for a few days so to be honest even though being wrapped up warm my resolve can be tested, especially if the bites were not forthcoming. The wind was relatively light, so that would help the testing conditions. You cannot catch fish without a bait in the water can you.

Hairs were pre-baited prior to the session as they were messy things to handle and as I use quick change beads, the hook link could be swapped easily and quick if necessary, and that needed to be done as dark, I didn't want to be messing around.

The river was down to 4.7 degrees and to be honest I had thought about just going home especially after looking at the clarity and the patrolling cormorants, but you cannot catch without a bait in the water. Nothing much happened before dusk apart from a pull on the cheese paste, another 'mad' angler turned up and after a quick natter he settled in a swim downstream of me.

So in to dusk I thought it would be one of those sessions again, because I was getting some decent bites on both rods and was striking in to thin air. I felt the weight of the fish on on of the rods so decided to stay a little more. Sure enough the right hand rod that has the spicy fish chunks on arches over and continues on its path towards the river and a fish is on.

It gave a spirited fight but eventually it's in the net. A decent fish too, long, very long with a distinctive mark on his flanks and a goggle eye. Not the best looker but gave me a few more bloggers points as it registered 4lb 10oz on the scales.

Still not the 5lber I'm after, but encouraging signs that's for sure, especially when the more I fish here, the more the fish become active at dusk and quick sessions work well, which suits me down to the ground.