Warwickshire Avon - Acarophobia and Aischrolatry

The Wife faced her fears very well this week, she hates all things spiders and creepy crawlies and whilst I was slaving away in one of my days back in the office she had to rescue 'Yet Yet' (Sam's Yeti Teddy) from a big cricket that Ben found on the sofa and flicked in Sams direction with his wiggly worm.

She vacuumed it up followed by a rouge chocolate pillow to create the Dyson Death Centrifuge (her words not mine), a crisis averted, her fear tackled head on.

Anyway wow, what a week of weather, ridiculously hot and air very 'close' indeed. Not very pleasant if I'm honest because early to mid 20's does me no matter where I am in the world.

The lightening show we were witnessed to really was quite incredible and even Mrs Newey who like my youngest Sam is still relatively scared by thunderstorms faced another fear and sat outside with me till midnight or so to share this weather spectacle.

It was like someone pulled the pin to a grenade and it all went off (not a bad rum btw, cinnamon and caramel notes)

She even put up with the insects and bats, she must have enjoyed it. It was the coolest place to be the house still like a sauna, the bedroom fan blowing hot air around.

There was no audible thunder, well the odd rumble that was is, silent lightening almost . A shared bottle of wine a small bowl of beefy balls each it was very pleasant indeed, an almost surreal experience.

It was topped off with the most vibrant shooting star I think I've ever seen with both of us saying "oh wow !!!!" .

What was also surreal was how localised the rain was. We had the odd drop but not far away in Warwick it was a like a monsoon, a flash flood taking the drains by surprise and some of the main roads were effectively rivers.

Fishing was off the agenda despite me wanting to go but there was a threat of heavy rain to contend with, let alone a bolt of lightening up ones jacksie. Luckily for us the following day the heavens really did open and we had 2 hours worth.

Now Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts are a common phenomenon about 100 strike Earth’s surface every single second—yet their power is extraordinary. Each bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity, yes you heard right one billion volts.

That would smart a bit I'm sure, I'd rather not find out, no fishing for me....!!!!

Now a typical cloud-to-ground lightning bolt begins when a step-like series of negative charges, called a stepped leader, races downward from the bottom of a storm cloud toward the Earth along a channel at about 200,000 mph. Each of these segments is about 150 feet long.

When the lowermost step comes within 150 feet of a positively charged object, it is met by a climbing surge of positive electricity, called a streamer, which can rise up through a building, a tree, or even a person. 

When the two connect, an electrical current flows as negative charges fly down the channel towards earth and a visible flash of lightning streaks upward at some 200,000,000 mph transferring electricity as lightning in the process.

Anyway back to the fishing !!!

A fish, any fish would be nice so bread was the order of the day to at least try and get a bend in the rod. A chub would be nice, not caught one of them in a food while, a decent one either thinking about it. With the leaves starting to fall now though autumn is on the way and hopefully ones fortunes will change and I will get my mojo back.

I've just not been that keen to maintain my 3 times a week fishing for some reason, the weather isn't helping I suppose and the fact that the forecasters seems to get their predictions wrong more often than not. In-fact it seems to be getting worse as the years go one.

Maybe they are using the same modelling bunch that got involved with the COVID-19 GCSE'rs. Talking of which I was one of those that took GCSE's for the first time. Seems like an age now and to be fair it was, time flies.

To cut a long story short the Singapore Noodles was the highlight of the evening, the water temp still 21 degrees I didn't really want to pester the barbel but after being plagued by small fish trying to remove a huge piece of breadflake (would have bagged up on maggot), a trundle through of the swim before the bait settles a savage take and a Barbel was on.

The first Barbel I've ever had on bread and it powered off upstream and I had to try and stop it as it was reed bound.  It felt a decent fish but basically I could't do anything about it the clutch was a tight as I dared and it was pulling line by the bucketloads. I had to use my hand to apply more pressure and yeap, the fish broke me off. The hooklink breaking at the knot, damn, a lost fish.

And still the spam comments keep on coming, over 10 a day now !!!!

Warwickshire Avon - Spammers and Scumbuckets

Ones blog over the last few weeks has been bombarded with spam comments, up to 10 a day sometimes and despite me altering setting to try and quell the onslaught it's still coming thick an fast.

All adult website related, don't bother clicking, it's not even the good stuff (a little birdy tells me)

Still the weather has been nice hasn't it, in-fact probably too hot really because the rain has been few and far between, the rivers so low and clear I've stopped targeting the Barbel especially where I fish where the waters are deeper and sluggish.

A weekend of celebration and copious amounts of well, just about everything, this week is very much damage limitation.

Just felt all a bit blurrrrrrrrr after all the excesses....

....luckily with the good weather the BBQ has been out in anger, highlights include tandoori chicken, mint yougurt with salad and lentils and cus cus and some of the biggest prawns you have ever seen.

Alcohol off the cards for a week, heck even 'Wine Wednesday's' put on hold till the liver has its thumbs up. Thunderstorms could crop us most of this week so fishing could well be put on hold for a while.

 I like many anglers and gardeners to be fair at the minute are praying for rain, because lets face it the ground is looking parched the oxygen levels in the rivers low most likely.

For this dodge the shower session I decided to pop to the syndicate stretch to clear some one of the downstream swims for a potential dangle in the future.

I've not fished this area yet so it will be interesting to see what turns up because there is more cover here, a safer place for the bigger fish to hold out.

Once that was done I got the deeper out to find the deepest area which turned out to be nearly 9ft.

There were fish in the swim as well, the water temperature a swimable water 22 degrees. Two sections of lamprey went in just before dusk to try for whatever came along basically. I've caught decent Chub and Zander on lamprey so it was fingers crossed and sky watching to try and winkle something out.

Dusk came and went though without even a raised bobbin or an enquiry, there were hardly any fish moving either this was not looking good.

I stayed an hour past dusk and apart from one tentative pull that was my lot. Still nice to be out out though the sights and sounds at dusk amplified by the senses.

A short session, an even shorter blog post....

Warwickshire Avon - Secret Squirrels and Scuttlebutts

We've been coming to this pub for a while now it's a nice leisurely walk along the canal towpath and a canal waters that hold some good fishing memories. The garden great for roaming Ben, containment not his thing, for him to be limited to a 2 metre circle which some other local pubs are doing just won't happen.

Here he can stretch his legs, wiggle his worm, feel comfortable in his surroundings, heck his brother Sam can even kick a football. Now the food and drink ain't bad too especially when making use of the government scheme where the food was half price basically, it felt very odd tapping ones card on the machine with a total so unbefitting.

Now Guinness is exclusively served on nitrogen, meaning it is pressurised in the keg with a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mix (at a ratio of 75% to 25%) as opposed to being strictly carbonated like most beers. 

Unquestionably, nitrogen taps pour differently that standard lines, coming out rich and velvety and, indeed, taking a little while to settle, but luckily not 'that' long.

Guinness's two-part-pour myth-making might have worked back in the days when few beers were available as nitrogen pours.

But, nowadays, countless beers are available "on nitro," with most bars devoting a line or two to special faucets which help further facilitate a nitrogen beer's correct flow.

Now If you're a newcomer to all things Guinness though you might really enjoy a pint of the back stuff, the problem is there are so many nicer stouts around these days dare I say it, it is rather mediocre in its offering.

Still if you're in and around Lapworth near me you can actually get a proper hand pulled pint here, in-fact 'apparently' it's the only place in the UK you can get one poured like that (I wonder if Guinness know ?). I find that hard to believe but then when I think about the rare pint of Guinness I have had they have all been served the same way, yeap taps not pumps.

I must add, most proper Guinness drinkers just drink Guinness though, I need more convincing.

Does it taste any better ? Well all I can say is with an ale offered at the same bar that's where my money will be headed, especially as it's such a well kept pint featuring Styrian Goldings, Goldings and Fuggles.

The Landlord who serves a cracking pint of his namesake does wonderful stuff to his beer all very secret squirrel stuff.

Now talking of secret squirrel stuff revealing Barbel swims does seem to be a complete no no these days.

To be fair I can understand why because I'm finding them harder to track down myself of late. Those usual places I've found them in the past not as prolific as they once were.

For this session I was back at the syndicate stretch because here I can fish as late as I like which when targeting Barbel in these gin clear waters can give an edge. Obviously you need fish in front of you but there are Barbel here because, well I'd caught one, a good un too, so I was hoping a quick session I'd find one milling around.

Barbel I find are not particularity hard to catch but they need to be there first, that is the biggest hurdle.

I didn't rush to get fishing, it's a place of contemplation. a place to chill and just enjoy the environment. That's a byproduct of our pastime we are very lucky indeed, not many others offer such involvement with nature like ours does.

A few balls of scalded pellet and hemp when in to a swim on the inside and I could see them hit the bottom the water is that clear. Nothing much happens till dusk, no rush.

Dusk came and went with only a tentative pull from something small very small indeed materialised after an hour after the bait went in. Still I was here in to dark so fingers crossed something would happen.

There wasn't a breath of wind so any kind of fish in the swim would register on the tip. Dark now, the isotope glowing dimly and I had decided to give it an hour past official dusk which was approaching fast when all of a sudden a motionless rod went in to meltdown.

The rod almost pulling off the rest the centrepins ratchet taken by surprise. The bite continued and kept on going water-ward, a bite that could be measured in seconds not in milliseconds . I fully expected to lift the rod and be in to a Barbel after the fish had clearly hooked itself.

But then I lifted in to nothing ? no fish, not even a persistent Chevin, "you what ?" It didn't make sense, the bite so violent it could have only been one species, the barbel. "Why wasn't it on though ?" Damn !!!! I put the bait back out and stopped for another half an hour but nada, nothing, zilch, back to the drawing board.