Warwickshire Avon - Quagmires and Quarromes

With the temperature still mild the tangleator fancied a trip out whilst he could still feel his fingers. When it's freezing or just above he doesn't cope with the cold very well and despite wearing all his winter gear his extremities start to go blue. 

The river was up a good foot or maybe more from the morning before not a million of miles away and the colour had changed to something more turbid.

Feed maggots though, here there are bait fish in numbers, it can take a while for the fish to turn up but when they do it's a bite a chuck. Not the biggest of fish admittedly, but to keep Sam from getting bored bites are what is needed.

Here the swim is quite wide and throughout the short session the water went from almost static to a decent pace on it so more casting was required more than I'd especially as there was snags close in to get caught up in.

Oddly throughout the session the only fish we caught were bleak, there are usually dace and roach here in shoals as well but not today. Baitfish attracts the attention of predators and whilst Sam was sat on the comfortable chair I was sat on the bucket waiting for the sleeper rods to jump in to life.

Two rods both with  a roach flapper, one close in, one further out where there is a nice clear bottom. I'd caught Pike here before so knew they were around, sometimes it's nice sitting back and relaxing whilst someone else does the fishing.

The first dropped take came quite quick and on inspection of the bait it looked like a Zander had to hold of it, the tell-tale stab marks only that species can give. Oddly me and others that fish here haven't had a Zed either, so that to me was encouraging, even though I didn't see the fish.

With the swim fast becoming a quagmire and the mud acting like a wick up Sam's wellies and up his trousers the left hand rod that was fished closed in jumps in to life.

It was taking line quite quickly so I didn't hesitate and leant in to the fish, I don't think it realised it was hooked at first till it surfaced and then saw me most probably. It bolted off on a couple of powerful runs and tail-walked at one point as it existed the water and I had to steer it away from the platform.

With Sam doing the landing duties the fish was in the net, "Feels like a good fish Daddy, what's your biggest again ?"

"Not far off this I reckon"

I knew it was a double but the scales went round past 11 and stopped at 11lb 8oz. Quite a hollow fish so if it gets its head down feeding over winter it will easily better my mediocre PB, which is only 2 ounces more.

The water clarity didn't scream Pike so just goes to show, put a bait in the right place or attract baitfish in the swim, bites can be forthcoming when odds are stacked against you.

Warwickshire Avon - Bomb Holes and Botherams

Bob my postie who come rain come shine, delivers all manner of fishing related items through my postbox that cannot be obtained from ones local tackle-shop. Back in the day he used to be a match fisherman on the circuit in and around the local area. I've had some good leads over the years and despite not wetting a line in anger for a while, those 'secret' areas we all know and love but don't share often come good.

A feature on a river for example there 20 years ago is likely to be there now as well, and us anglers know full well, that any feature no matter how insignificant it appears to the novice can make the difference in whether the string will be pulled, the maggot sucked, the bread engulfed.

A chance conversation recently over a stretch of river I fish now and he did back then....

"So you must have fished the bomb hole !!!!? "

"Errr the what ?, the bomb hole"

"yeah, the bomb hole swim, there was Chub in there so big if you drew the peg you'd be heading back to the car to dust off the proper gear, 7lbers !!!" "It's a big hole much deeper than the main river, you know the ****, well if you go up from there, its....(you get the picture)"

"Cheers Bob, I'll let you know how I get on !!!! "

"Big hooks and bread flake the size of Tunnocks Tea Cakes, that's how we used to catch them"

From his description I knew exactly where it was an how I would try to find it. So it was out with the deeper, something I'd not used for a while to try and locate the bomb hole and the Chub of humungus proportions and even bigger appetites.

Now for those that haven't seen let alone used the deeper, via an app on your phone, the castable sonar shows you depth, contours, features and fish. Inbuilt GPS you can recover your scans via an online portal that shows them on a map.

Out of the 32,000 German air raids on the United Kingdom between September 1939 and March 1945 I don't think many ended up in this neck of the woods. Apparently Hitler said that he would never bomb Stratford-Upon-Avon because of the centrality of the Shakespeare to Germany's national culture.

Whatever the truth about Hitler's rumoured attitude towards all things Bard is that the town remained surprisingly unscathed by enemy action. The town is after all, not far away from cities that suffered some of the most severe bombings of the early years of the war. My Grandad always went on about the bombings in Small Heath where they lived and the fact they "flattened his local chippy, the one that did a free handful of scraps !!!"

Ok, most likely an 'actual' bomb hole, but who cares, it apparently could be mistaken for me. So back on track a short session this and one rod only, bread on the hook and cheesepaste for back-up, could I find the big rubber lips utopia ?

Anyway enough of the preamble, how did it go....

The river had been well over its banks and very sticky underfoot the mud getting worse as I made my way to where Bob told me. To be fair the swim sort of revealed itself, down from the crease of the river where it was 4 or 5 foot there was a big swirling mass of water much slower than the rest of the river.

Now bare in mind that the river here doesn't really vary that much, 4 foot being the average depth the second pass of the deeper the bomb hole revealed itself

16 Ft!!!!

The change in depth was ridiculous, the depth varied between 14 and 16ft in an area not much bigger than a mini tennis court. There were bait fish showing as well so this could well be hiding a decent predator or two something I might try in the future.

The hook baited, rod rest in place, a simple cast without needing to look behind me, rod high. Ten minutes went by, over at the far bank the resident otter surfacing from amongst all the bubbles it had created. Then the first pull on the tip, then another, then a confident pull round. A fish was on.

I don't think it realised it was hook at first because as soon as it came to the surface it went on a powerful run. This was a decent Chub, the rod bent double. There are no real snags here for it to get near though so after a while I think it knew the game was up. I've caught longer fish but when I lifted the landing net this felt big. A very dense fish built like a wombat, and I wasn't wrong....

....it was a PB !!!!

A 5lb 6oz Warwickshire Avon Chub

I love it went a plan comes together, and a decent bottle of Red for Bob for Christmas. That was the only fish of the morning, but considering the feedback from others fishing the local rivers finding it tough, I went home very happy indeed being bowled over by the 'bomb hole'.

'Not Quite' The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.144 – Thunderclaps and Thummikins

It might sound like an easy challenge, but chowing down on a super hot chilli should come with a health warning. A chilli-head like me you see ended up in A&E suffering "thunderclap" headaches after eating the world's hottest chilli pepper

The unnamed man began dry heaving as soon as he swallowed the Carolina Reaper chilli pepper. His pain was so severe he rushed to hospital, where concerned doctors tested him for a number of neurological conditions.But when those tests came back negative, the patient was sent for a CT scan.

Now it showed several arteries in the man's brain had narrowed, making it harder for blood to flow through. Doctors diagnosed him with thunderclap headaches, caused by reversible cerebral  (RCVS)  vasoconstriction syndrome, that's narrowed arteries to the pork pie consumers.

Apparently RCVS is temporary, and causes sudden narrowing of the blood vessels. As a result, a sufferer is left with a drop in blood flow to the brain, and a surging headache.  Known as a thunderclap headache, there is often no obvious cause, but it in this case it was put down to eating the Carolina Reaper which is 1,641,183 Scoville units, give or take.

If you've not seen them they are red, round and wrinkly, with a little tail.

They noted the condition can be caused by a reaction to certain prescription drugs, or after taking illegal drugs. While it's the first case of thunderclap headaches triggered by the fiery fruit, other peppers have caused similar reactions elsewhere in the body.

Cut Zeds using deadbaits, a waiting game !!!

Cayenne peppers have been known to narrow the artery supplying blood to the heart. The result of a sudden constriction of the coronary artery is basically a heart attack.

So why then have I bought some and decided to give them a go ? well in my case I've some dried ones not fresh ones but certainly when her indoors is out for the evening I'll manage to get it in to one's meal somehow. Probably a beef chilli where I do like a hot one especially if it's covered in fresh coriander, cheese and birds-eye chili's

Now the bird's eye chilli is small, but is quite hot It measures around 50,000 - 100,000 Scoville units, which is at the lower half of the range for the hotter habanero, but still much hotter than a common jalapeño, the reaper is on a different scale though, but heck what have I got to lose.

I just need to remember to use plastic gloves to crumble it up, I've made that mistake before, albeit with a scotch bonnet where rubbing one's eye post chopping probably wasn't a good idea. Anyway I'll let you know how I get on, if my blog goes quiet for a while, you will know why, it's been nice knowing you. 

Then a brain wave, you see hot spicy additives stimulate senses within an animals feeding palette and as a result trigger a response. In the case of carp, a positive response is provoked, often leading to a harder feeding reaction.

Now there is no way I'd eat all the reapers, it was just out of curiosity really so with time to kill over the weekend I decided to make up my Chub cheesepaste and clear out the cheese draw in the fridge. With winter on the way and last years job-lot more or less gone it would be a waste to chuck it whilst it could be put to better use.

It's a simple recipe really, the base is a Jus-Rol shortcrust pastry block and then grated mature cheddar and grated blue cheese, in this case Shropshire Blue, Stilton, and Gorgonzola. Then add whatever you want, garlic or krill powder or whatever is lying around in your bait fridge that looks suitable.

So out with a couple of reapers for added attraction, to get the Chub's big lips burning, to be fair they are the most gluttonous of fish, I bet they will love it, it's something different after all, the edge I may need to start looking at catching a 6 lber.

Knead everything together, jobs a good'un !!!!

So with that done and dusted with tackle still in the car, it was back down the canal, the rivers after all really are not worth looking it, not for a while most likely either. This time though it was back to where it all started, in-fact home to ones 2 biggest Zander. A stretch I've trodden many times for my quest for a cut double.

What an odd session, it was like I'd woken up to a set from 28 days later, abandoned boats, no one around and a spooky silence about the whole place. It was clear from the Zedlet I caught yesterday the fish are likely to be laying up as it was covered in leeches so it was a roving session. Now that didn't help as the towpath couldn't have gotten any muddier.

The properly sticky clingy stuff too so not exactly easy to walk in it, Sam wasn't with me for this one and a good job really as I knew he would likely end on his backside. I covered a total distance of 3.5 miles and tried to drop on the fish, in some banker swims as well and yet not even a bite. Very much twiddling the thumbs session this and despite hardly blanking on this stretch, I did this morning.

A blank !!!!