Warwickshire Avon - Jolterheads and Jostaberries

Gooseberries have been grown in Europe for centuries, dating as far back at before the 15th century, especially prized as a sauce on roast goose and for making wine, in addition to pies and preserves. However, the name for this berry is not related to the culinary compatibility with a cooked goose.

The name evolved from the old English variation terms for berries: “groser, grosier and grozer.” Ancient medical books refer to gooseberries as “feverberries” with the fruit’s high amounts of vitamins A and C, as well as iron and potassium, to be key to lowering a high fever.

Now the bush in my garden bears fruit year on year and the harvest its harbouring now is ready to pick. Now I've not got a particularly sweet tooth. Savouries are more my thing but I always make a jar of jam or two because, well it's just so easy to do.

Gooseberries are a good source of vitamin C and vitamins of the B group and minerals such as copper, calcium, phosphorus and manganese. 100g of fruit contains only 44 calories. Jostaberry is a hybrid created by interbreeding of gooseberry and blackcurrants.

Gooseberries are also known as "fayberries" because of the ancient belief that fairies used bushes of gooseberry to hide from danger. Cooling properties of the fruit were used during the Middle Ages in treatment of fever.They also contain compounds that can prevent development of certain types of cancer, neurological disorders and inflammation.

Cultivated varieties of gooseberry are targeted by magpie moth, V-moth and gooseberry sawfly. These insects eat and produce significant damage on the leaves of gooseberry. A bush can produce fruit and survive at least 20 years in the wild

Heck they can even be added to Gin, what's not to like !!!!

Anyway enough of the guff, back to the fishing, unperturbed by the disappointing introduction to the new syndicate water, I had a small window of opportunity to visit the water again to see what I could catch. One thing I realised from the last session was just how much I detest being stuck on one fishing spot. I'm a rover, I always have been. Ones restless legs kick in with motionless quivers, and bobless floats and I looking to move.

That's all very well when travelling light but when you've everything but the kitchen sink things get a little more troublesome. Now the storms of late have brought some much needed rain and when I got to the river is was looking so much better than 24 hours before when nothing decided it wanted my bait, well a pike did, but less said about that the better.

The flow was up, a tinge more colour and just looked right. Now again I waited for the thunder and lightning to stop but being able to get bankside really quick is a Godsend. No gates to negotiate, a hop, skip and a jump from car to water. So back to basics for this <2 hour session, a new chub set-up 8lb main line and 5lb fluro hooklink. A link-ledger and a size 6 hook.

With a few lobworms from my wormery tactics cannot get much simpler than that. It would give me a chance to explore some of the swims too. A rod, rest, a small bag and a landing net, that's it. I settled down in to the first swim and positioned my bait near an overhanging tree and started to get indications within a couple of minutes.

There are plenty of bait fish here so assume they were having a good peck at it but then some better indications and a proper pull round I was in to my first fish. That was quick, a complete contrast to the last visit. At first I thought it was a chub but then it sort of gave up and when it surfaced it was a decent bream.

When it was in the net I realised one of the biggest I've caught from the river in a while.In-fact it was only when I checked my records I realised it was a PB by 2 ounces. All 6lb 8 ounces of it, cannot complain at that. Another lobby when out but nothing materialised so I went upstream where it's shallower, narrower and the flow is faster.

I wanted to the worm to bump along the bottom the line dragging it from upstream to downstream hopefully in-front of a fish. Big visual baits like this really can really be enticing to any fish in the area and having witnessed them on other stretches ignoring a static bait, a moving bait can often trigger a response in particular chub, who sometimes can be very coy indeed. 

After a few casts I could see the line tighten which was met with a couple of taps on the tip and I struck in a  fish. At first I thought it was a small Barbel, it was pulling well but when I got it near to me and the waiting net I realised it was a carp. I don't think it knew what was going on till it saw me or the net because then all hell breaks loose.

It bolted off upstream with me hanging on for dear life, the fish taking line at a rate of knots. I then realise it was trying to get in to some mostly submerged reeds with just the odd one sticking out of the water. No sooner as I realised where it was headed it managed to get itself wedged tight. Damn, I cannot lose this now, it's the first river carp I've hooked in a while. 

I pulled out some slack line and went above it and then pulled the line as tight as I dared, it was stuck solid but then it bolted downstream pulling a few reeds out with it. I quickly went back to where it was hooked keeping the line tight as I did so and I was properly playing the fish. So nice to play fish like this on relatively light tackle and a couple of times I thought I could net it, it powered off again.

Still it was tiring and eventually I netted it, oh yes, what a difference 24 hours and a bit of rain makes. That's more like it, a quarry unknown now less so. A lovely dark fish and proper chunky with sadly half of his tail missing after a lucky escape from one of our furry friends with claws and teeth. 13lb on the dials.

From a forgettable session to one unforgettable on the same stretch, I went home happy. Just goes to show how small differences can change things in fishing and that's why we love it.

Warwickshire Avon - Brachymetropia and Brobdingnagians

As countries in Europe being to come out from the lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants are starting to experiment with new ways to have people safely dining out again. Now a restaurant in Amsterdam called Mediamatic has found an innovative and adorable solution that ensures social distancing rules are applied. The restaurant has set small green houses along the Oosterdok river that allow for an intimate dinner for two.

Like a scene from those camped out on the River Trent without the white vans, bite alarms and body odour , dubbed serres séparées, French for separated greenhouses the transparent structures offer a safe and intimate dinner by the water. It takes into consideration both customers and people working there. For example, staff will be wearing personal protection equipment all the time and food will be served on wooden planks, guaranteeing the 1.5-meter distance. 

An area out of bounds for a good number of years, the urtica dioica left to feral, the dense axillary inflorescences standing proud without hindrance, till last week that is. You see I took the hedge trimmers to the new water on the WBAS syndicate with much enthused swinging, largely controlled destruction.

Now a couple of hours outside ones busy schedule went very quick indeed and it was certainly good for the well-being especially when being all consumed in the wildlife and nature. What it did show in that short duration spent bankside was that just how nice this place will be spend time in.

Stretches of river like this locally are few and far between these days where much of the river is already under club control, private ownership or out of bounds. For me and the likeminded the quarry may well be unknown but that is only part of the appeal, you see it is also an area where solitude can be sought, and where fishing without outside influence is achievable. 

A rare thing these days it really is....

....now the fishing is likely to be tough initially because lets face it, it always seems to be at the start of the season where the waters are low and clear and it takes a while to get things kicked off in any sort of vigour.  Still for me being only 15 minutes away from leaving my house to being bankside I can fish short sessions to alleviate the biteless boredom.

To be fair when I put the sign up which Sam painted himself flinstone esk I went for a wander to see the fruits of Sean's labour and there were plenty of small fish topping, so Sam can fill his boots. He needs bites generally and lots of them because with motionless floats and quiverless quivers like any 9 year old his mind wanders. This his 5th year as an angler his attention levels despite being able to fish more or less independently now are still trying and sometimes I've had to end the sessions early because we are both not enjoying it.

Anyway on a positive note with paid holidays now though I may well take a well deserved break from work and spend a whole day here and try and build up a swim and see what we can catch. There are Barbel upstream and downstream of here I know that for certain and Big Chub too, and when the rivers are up and bombing through in Autumn and Winter, this area could well offer sanctuary away from the bubbling cauldrons. 

Sluggish and pedestrian at the minute so predators and bream are likely to reside here already but who knows what could turn up, it's one of those places.

For the first session it was simple tactics to see if anything bigger was around and was willing to take my bait as we headed in to dusk. It's amazing just how things can pick-up at the start of the season when the light levels reduce, a biteless day from the rod benders can change at the snap of the fingers, when the bigger fish start moving after their day of slumber. 

So to give myself a good chance of banking something worthy of the first day of the river season a two rod attack. So on the upstream rod a meat-furter oily hookbait with pungent Dynamite Baits Big Fish River Shrimp & Krill Groundbait.

What a great groundbait it is too, very pungent and has a nice mix of pellets to get the fish grubbing around and a chunk of meat on the downstream rod. After some of the towpath I was treading turning in to a circus, it was nice to be back on the rivers again, where my allegiances lie, where my mind is at is most chilled.

Half an hour before I wanted to leave the heavens opened and not only was the rain lashing down but their was thunder and lightning to accompany it. Luckily it cleared up slightly to I decided to make my way to the venue. I was parked up soon enough having driven through some water logged roads and had to wait a while before I could get out the car.

Still with tackle now out the car I had a good couple of hours fishing. Now like any new venue you need to spend time on it to make the best of it so for the first half an hour I dropped the lead in a few swims before deciding on the one to fish. A swim with cover up and downstream with small fish already topping. It gave me the option of taking shelter in the shed as well if the storm was headed this way again. In the distance the lightning was still going strong and didn't really let up the whole time I was there.

A good hour went by without a nibble but what a lovely place to , cuckoos, swallows and kingfishers and some huge birds of prey keeping me entertained. It was a nice trotting speed so with maggot I suspect it could well have been a bite a chuck. There was evidence of small fish attacking the meat and the pellet, but then on the retrieve of the meat a pike had grabbed it and a fish was on. It looked 5 or 6lb and after it had a couple of runs it decided to give it. On the way to the net though the inevitable happened and one last head shake it's teeth did the business and it was off.

What is has already shown to me just being here a few times is that I'm sure it's a haven for predators, some of the swims look ideal for Pike and Perch, even Zander possibly ? and there is certainly lots of bait fish to feed on. Anyway back to the fishing, the last hour in to dusk again fairly quiet on the rods tips but then the first Chub bite came just before the bats came out.

Sadly the bite never developed and with dark clouds looming above me I got the gear packed away with just the rods left out. Dusk came and the bats really were active, some decent sized ones too, swooping and circling around the swim crashing in to ones rod and line multiple times. Dusk had past and noticed a disturbance in the water on the far bank that was heading downstream and knew instantly what it was, with the powerful headtorch on yeap and Otter its eyes illuminated and it was heading towards me.

By the time I cobbled together my camera to try and get a picture it disappeared from view. Now as fisherman I'm on the fence with Otters, they have certainly put their stamp on some stretches that have never been the same again, but in my experience that must be in literally every waterway I fish now, from canals to small rivers, just got to live with them. I've probably seen more Otters in the wild that the whole Countryfile team added together.

With my time up, not a brilliant introduction the new syndicate stretch but I'm not disheartened, why would I be, for me the solitude puts me in a good place, the fishing secondary. I'm going to enjoy learning more about the stretch and getting to know the swims, I think next time though, fishing for what come along is probably worthwhile, fishing maggots you never know what can come along.

The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.167 - Macrocephalics and Misanthropy

I wouldn't argue with you, I'm a selfish fisherman, I want the towpath to myself, I want to hear the bird song not the sound of footsteps, dog barking and wheels turning.

This mornings session I was like a fly with a blue backside. I just couldn't settle. I usually have this stretch to myself but after positioning ones deadbaits a figure appears from around the bend, a fellow maggot dangler.

To be fair he's a decent chap and we've had some good conversations in the past because he is after carp and whatever comes along and I yeap, you guessed it, I am usually after the Zander.

We'd arrived at the same place but from opposite directions and both wanted to fish the same area. Not an issue there is enough space, but I want fishing on my terms, no one in sight.

He'd started earlier than me, 2 hours in-fact and I was banskside at 7.00am, an early started for sure. Nothing wrong with that, the best time to go, when the fish feed, the bigger fish off guard.

The problem was he'd walked past a shallow bend where there were carp spawning, a good 10 to 15 fish doing what they do this time of year. So my plan of trying for a few more bloggers points kiboshed there and then. Not only is there Zander in the stretch we both headed to, but there are Carp too.

I wanted to try and winkle one out before challenge end, and out of all miles and miles of canal I fish, this small section they are ALWAYS here. Well unless they've their minds on other things and yeap. I chose the day they are partaking in bankside bukakke. (Don't Google it, for God-sake )

I gave the swim half an hour for Zander but nothing doing at all, I rarely blank in the area too. hmmmm, they are certainly off the last couple or three weeks.

See'ya, I'm off. 10k steps done within a few hours, various areas fished.

I'm finding bites hard to come by at the minute despite putting the effort it. Ones rewards have been few and far between of late, like I've done something wrong or something.

In a typical canal session I'd at least pick up a few fish leapfrogging like I do, but swim after swim, section after section, even changing the canal entirely, I've struggled for a bite.

After countless dog walkers, odd looking joggers who look like they'd need oxygen at any moment and death old'uns who don't respond to a 'morning' , ones resolve was becoming tested for sure.

But then I need to remember the good times here, not the bad !!!

So I headed to the swim that produced my PB of 9lb, a last horrahhhh ?

One bait smack bang in the turning bay, the other next to some cover. The towpath now like a circus, there are less people in my village I'm sure of it. Anyway an hour in, the right hand float starts to bobble, only tiny indications at first, but then a pull of around an inch.

A bite, a bite !!!, it then went to a confident pull quite quickly, so I lifted the rod tightened the slack and pulled in to the fish.

Then with a couple of seconds I lift the fish up to the surface and see its flanks and then can actually see the bait being pulled from its mouth. Damn !!! looked a good stamp of fish too, possibly a >7 lber such its statue.

I should have let the bite develop a little further, but not having a bite for a while, these thing happen, I got caught up in the moment. Now sometimes put the bait back out there have another go as it, but sadly not in this case. A blank to end this years Closed season Zander Quest, which to be honest, has been as tough as old boots. Luckily ones mixing with the great unwashed is about the end and the river season is upon us.

I was starting to lose the will and that's not like me Pt 167, yes Pt 167, if anyone needs a break or a bit of luck it's me, I think I need a distraction from fishing, anyone point me to a rave in Manchester ?