Warwickshire Avon - Silk Snatchers and Simeonites

With the local rivers seemingly stuffed full of bait fish at the moment and the river being clear, what to fish for. Certainly the Barbel don't seem to be interested in a stretch where usually there are fish in numbers. Spawning who knows but after speaking with other anglers, they are wondering the same thing, where have they gone.

For this short morning session I decided to fish in and among the lily pads, an area that has not only thrown up carp in the past, but also tench believe it or not. Even with the river as low and clear as it is, the float stop need to adjusted time and time again, because it has some depth to it as well. 

Where the bait eventually settles away from the shoals of hungry bleak and dace, one would assume it would be a nice place for a Tench to hang out away from those that would prefer to partake in the rave.

I don't float fish enough because when I do, I really enjoy it, the concentration required is something a little different and when that static float eventually starts to move, visually as a fisherman there is nothing quite like it.

I fished lift style under a large crystal insert waggler and its a great method, the float lifting out the water and almost settling on the surface when the bulk shot is displaced off the bottom when the fish picks up the bait.

I used groundbait initially to get some bait on the bed, a mixture of dead maggots, hemp and small pellets. The fizz on the surface evident it was adding some attraction. Corn for bait because maggot would pick up unwanted small fish such the biomass at this time of year. There were a few pike hits when I was there, one jack even launched itself out of the water such the ferocity.

Sadly straight to the point, after half an hour the first bob of the float and then it sailed away, a small dace of three ounces decided that it would like a gob stopper. And that's as exciting as it got. Once the sun came up the amount of small fish I could see on the surface was ridiculous. The bigger fish seemingly not interested, even the bream.

But that's fishing for you, sometimes it's nice to be out, especially when you can watch a feeding kingfisher, a novice in a rowing boat flapping and flailing, a butterfly chasing a dragonfly. 

Warwickshire Avon - Spice Islands and Spindle Shanks

250grams of decent lean beef mince, chopped red onion, half a teaspoon of coriander powder, half of ground cumin and lots and lots of salt and pepper makes the burger you see in the picture. I don't like to mess around when I comes to barbecuing, bigger the better.

Huge lumps of pork shoulder slow cooked on the Webber kettle being one of my favorites, no real finesse just meat, meat and more meat. In complete contrast though, for this session I had to go a bit more reserved, because Rudd were the target for this morning’s short session, you see an area I’d been told about by Nic (Avon Angling UK) was well known to him.

With the third series of Stranger Things on the TV,  I assembled it to pay hommage to the 'upside down'. Stuffed in the grilled bun, the thick hommade burger, large flat mushroom with baked egg within it, cheese slices, sliced tomato, red onion, some green leafy stuff and a mayo and sriracha chili sauce, the only thing missing was the bacon. I'll remember that for next time, a burger should be done properly or not at all, chicken and chorizo filled in the gaps.

Rudd and Roach shoals can be found in numbers here apparently, hence Sam in tow. If there are bites to be had, Sam is up for it, especially if it’s for a new species.

Now I caught Rudd from the Warwickshire Avon before, often providing sport during the summer months when nothing else seems to be biting and also on the Stour where again they are there in numbers. I wanted to see the lay of the land before maybe returning on my own to fish for them properly.

Some mad vibrant ones, almost ornamental

Rudd are most commonly associated with still waters, particularly those that are profusely overgrown with aquatic vegetation, although they do occur in slow-moving lowland rivers and sluggish backwaters.

They are well suited to life in nutrient-rich shallow farm ponds and pools where they will often form vast shoals that hugely overpopulate the pond.


In such situations they strip the naturally occurring invertebrates from the environment and consequently become stunted. Farm ponds are usually full of them, and get them feeding you can catch several hundred Rudd in a day, seemingly everlastingly hungry.

They are in the river to be caught though, come a warm evening those topping fish trying to infiltrate insects on the surface are usually small Rudd. Their mouths shaped to take food off the surface in relative ease. Here the tangleator could cast without hindrance, without appearing to try and cast in to every tree possible. To be fair he is getting better for sure, in-fact he can almost fish independently now which makes more of an enjoyable session.

So simple tactics for this potential point registering sortie, a loaded clear waggler between some grippa stops, a size 16 tied directly to the line and that’s it. I’d ping the maggots out and hopefully the slow sinking bait would be picked up by one of the Rudd shoal, if we’d manage to locate them that is. I’d also had a couple of slices of white bread if they would prefer a surface bait, they are surface feeders after all.

So me, being me, I’d also have a sleeper rod out for a bream that also frequent this relatively pedestrian area. So with a rod already made up I’d employ the same tactics I used when I fished for them recently. A small method feeder filled with small pellets, fishmeal and krill groundbait and a pellet on the hook.

Nic and Anastacia would join us as well and Sam could "meet a real life YouTube'r"

With the limited time I have to go fishing, planning is always at the forefront in almost all of my sessions, I need to get on and get dangling, no messing around once bankside, I need to keep the bait in the water as long as possible. That’s easier said than done with Sam as like his mother, he is a bit of a sleep monster,

“Hey Sam lets go fishing !!!!!”

“Can I have another ten minutes please” eyes close, back to snoring.”

I’d prefer to fish as the sun was going down but sadly a busy weekend put pay to that, if this morning was a struggle I’d give an evening a go instead if I got a chance. In-fact another stretch altogether there were topping shoal fish as the sun was setting, so there appear to be in pockets up and down the river. Maybe a roving approach might be the better way to winkle out something bigger than I expected to catch during this trip out.

Anyway back to the task in hand, for the first hour bites were forthcoming, with some Rudd, Dace, Roach and Bleak caught. The biggest Rudd only 1.4oz's but Sams first which he was excited about especially as some of them have the most vibrant colours. But the bites dried up for some reason so we had to get on the move. Nic was also struggling but when nothing much was doing Sam wanted to go to the stream we know about to try and catch bullhead.

So we left Nic and he updated me on his progress, he'd managed some bigger fish, 6 or 7 ounces in the end I think, again he had to move around to try and get bites. The stream provided the biggest trout Sam had ever caught, it took two maggots in one foot of water less than a metre wide. It shot off like a rocket as well, I've not seen a float so move so fast, he was smitten !!!!

Warwickshire Avon - Jitterbugs and Jobbernowls

In the world of cryptozoology, that is the search and study of unknown or unidentified animals, one of the things that is highly prized is photographic evidence.

In the absence of any sort of body or physical evidence of these mysterious creatures the next best thing we can hope for is pictures taken of our quarry, but the sad case is that this rarely goes far to really proving anything at all, and considering all of the hoaxes and fakers in this day and age such photographic “proof” is becoming of less and less use in our quest to get to the bottom of these mysteries.

For every promising picture there seem to be a dozen fakes, and it seems only natural that such photographs should generate plenty of discussion, scepticism, and controversy, no matter how clear the images may be.

Now the legendary Albuttbarbelbutt, Warwickshire Avon’s largest Barbel is known to me and one other (I think) it’s eluded me thus far but the conditions have to be right to even consider trying for it. My PB of 12lb 14oz’s came in conditions where I knew if I didn’t seize the opportunity it would pass me by and the next available weather window could be a while off. I fancied easing myself in to it though and get some practice in before hopefully getting a selfie with the lumbering lunker.

So let’s get fishing, a large open swim with some depth close in, a swim, where in the past I’ve caught Chub surface lures where other methods were fruitless.

Also like the barn owls here they Chevin seem to patrol this area and when the light starts to go, things big start to move. But Mr Barbus is here as well, in-fact this area provided me with the first fish with whiskers I’d even caught. Their fighting power experienced right down to the butt, and like many, I’ve appreciated them as a species ever since.

Only a short session this and again one of two parts, the first a spot of surface lure fishing and the second part two rods for Barbel headed in to dusk. Krill wafters on the hair and PVA bags of mixed pellets for feed.

One bite required, fingers and toes crossed to register one as a species for the challenge board. To be honest I rarely fish for Barbel, if I do it is usually in the winter where the banks are quieter, the fish a tad tubbier and when the rivers are coloured, the fish more likely to bite.

Twilight though at this time of year brings twitches, you see like carp actively feeding in the margins of their mud puddle post whistle, you know that time soon after the seat box frequenters have dumped in their leftover bait and emptying out their keepnets.

A clear river can be very much like that. Forget fishing during the day, just turn up an hour before dusk with the minimum of tackle, Bob’s your uncle, Fanny’s your aunt.

Well lets just say it didn't quite go to plan, before I settled down for the Barbel I went roving to try and find some Chub. They were quite easy to find to be honest with the water as low and clear as it was.

Their dark shadows appearing and disappearing from among the thick streamer weed. They were as cautious as I'd ever seen them to be honest, not even bothering to come up to look at the lure.

A change to a tiny plug in an oxygenated swim I hooked a Perch that managed to get free of the hooks by launching itself high in to the air.

With the sun setting with it's kaleidoscope of colours it was just nice to be out bit now was the time. With the rods now out as expected the Chub started to move, a tentative pull then a more confident bite there was fish milling around. I use long hairs though because I'd rather a Barbel than a small chub and headed in to dusk that's all that seemed to be biting. Some proper whacking bites in the end before I left but I did't connect in to any fish, the Barbel as elusive as ever at this time of year.