Warwickshire Avon - Douglas Firs and Desideratums

House music might be faceless, it was still incarnated by the mythical yellow smiling face. Not to be confused with the much more modern emoticon which rose with internet and instant chats, the smiley face arrived in the late 80s and was to be forever associated with acid culture and everything it implies. 

Now in England it is Bomb The Bass who makes it official by putting a bloody smiley face on the cover of the head banging “Beat Dis” in 1988, they also add it in many of their videoclips at the time.

DJ Danny Rampling then uses for the flyers of the unforgettable Shoom club and a few weeks later acid house will become nation whose flag will be a yellow smiling ecstasy pill, much more politicised than one could think. The rave culture I was a big part of, an era to never be repeated I don't think. 

Now ok, a little unrelated but I loved this, you see travellers driving in Polk County, Oregon, might be getting a strange feeling that someone is watching them. And in a way, they are correct. Above them on the forested hillside is a giant smiley face of their own. 

It appears annually in the fall when the trees’ needles change colour. The face, measuring approximately 300 feet in diameter, was well thought-out. 

The eyes and mouth were planted with Douglas fir, while the much lighter “yellow-ish” colour of the face was created by planting larch trees proving to be most important. 

Now Larch is a conifer with needles that turn yellow and drop off in the fall, which is why the smiley face is best visible this time of year. 

To achieve the oval shape of the eyes and the outer circle of the face, the planting crews used ropes. Those driving along the highway will be able to see the huge smiley face every fall for the next 30 to 50 years until the trees are ready to be harvested and processed into lumber.

Possibly 2021 is one of the most important years to be able to view such a sight. 

Because we all may need a friendly face and a smile, especially one almost as big as a football field. 

Heck those toxic twitter users could do with one of these to light up their lives, dip ones toe in, then straight out again....

God I'm rambling....

Bored yet, as I'm getting there....

Anyway talking about needing a smile, working from home ain't all it's cracked up to be, and I for one are struggling the monotony of it all, the latest lockdown doesn't help for sure as weekends can become very much groundhog day when you limited to what you can do, where you can go. 

Luckily we can still go fishing and a post work trip was on the cards though and I'd better seize the opportunity hadn't I, anything to keep ones well-beng in check, you see by the time I'd finished this short session down at the syndicate water Storm Christoph would be winging its way towards the Midlands ready to dump as much rain as it could get away with.

Now some areas of the North could expect 100mm's of rain apparently with a number of amber weather warnings have been issued for parts of northern and central England, with those in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West, East Midlands and the east of England likely to be hit worst.

It warns of "danger to life" due to fast-flowing or deep floodwater and a "good chance some communities cut off by flooded roads".

Now here in Warwickshire 40 or 50mm is expected but with the ground already saturated the local rivers from being fishable again, would likely be over the banks once Christoph had been and gone.

With the air temperature 10 degrees and the low air pressure as I write this any rise in water temperature, even a degree or so could well get a Barbel to venture out from its hiding place and go mooching around for food. The session almost dictated itself, Barbel it was.

Given the choice of targeting only a single species of fish for the rest of my fishing days Barbel would be quite a bit down the list I would say. Ok they pull back, and I wouldn't deny them that, but I don't find them particularly hard to catch providing you have fish in front of you.

That's the biggest problem in the Warwickshire Avon where Chub and Bream now seem to dominate , those Barbel I'm finding harder to track down. Those stretches that did contain them in numbers the biomass certainly reduced and I fish many a blank sessions before a Barbel turns up. 

I used to be able to rock up on a certain stretch half an hour before dusk and almost guarantee that I'd be walking back to the car with a wet net and a smiley face. Not any more though, fish the same stretch, maybe 1 barbel in every 4 or 5 sessions. 

Now ones restless legs caused by Willis-Ekbom Disease doesn't help matters because I hate sitting behind motionless rods. It's why roving works for me so well if I'm to fish more than a couple of hours, that's why generally I prefer to fish for Barbel in the summer months when the rivers are low and clear so I can actually see them.

Feed some swims with pellets let them rest and then return to see if there any fish feeding to drop in a matching bait. I've also had some success fishing a large buoyant float with a chunk of meat suspended under it, or the simple rolling meat with a freelined piece of meat trundling over the gravel amongst the streamer weed. Those sessions I can cope with, not sat behind a motionless tip for hours on end.

This short session wouldn't quite be grin and bear it, because two hours is just about dooable when I've untapped quarry to catch. I don't want any old Warwickshire Avon Barbel I want a big'un. Well what's big, well to get in to the 14's would be nice, 12lb 14oz being my current PB which I caught a couple of years ago now. 

This stretch sees little pressure and two good doubles have already come out to me and another syndicate member and I know from fishing another couple of stretches a short distance away, there are decent Barbel here to be caught, you just need to be in the right time, the right place. 

So better get the rods out hadn't I, a groundbait feeder filled with goodies and a pungent hardened boilie on the hook was the method of attack. There are some good Chub here to be caught as well, but if there were any around I want to know that even after some persistence plucking the bait would still be there.  

The fishing hut came in handy because as soon as I got there the heavens opened and I had to take shelter for a while. Still, some of the cobwebs were worth admiring and I had to go in and out for the 2 and half hours I was there.

Anyway a short session an even shorter post about it because to cut a long story short I blanked. There was only one fishable swim really and not my chosen one but usually there is at least a chub or two in the swim.

But not for this session, everything pointed to a fish, the water levels dropping, the colour, the pace of the water and the temperature that had increased a couple of degrees since the weekend, but nada, not a jot, not a sausage.

Were there any fish in the swim at all ?

Well there was, however I'm not sure what, you see for the last half an hour I baited with a whole lobworm and two halves and was having the odd tiny indication on the rod top, certainly nothing strikable, what I didn't expect though when packing up, that whatever it was, removed them from the hook entirely. 

Eels ? not sure as they give nice positive bites after usually hooking themselves, small perch ? I don't think so as they usually leave at least some dregs behind. 

Answers on a postcard please....sadly a session as dull as the weather

The Tiny River Alne - Litterbugs and Lickspittles

The Alne after a good dumping of rain really does rise and fall like a stone, in 24 hours it can be over its banks, covering the road and the locals using an alternative and much longer route to get to Dermot's Aladdin's Cave, but then a day later providing there is no more rain it's fishable. 

It give me an option to fish when other local rivers are out of bounds and it helps it's only 3 miles away so I can fish 'locally'. 

The problem is it may well be fishable but he colour of the water can really make a big difference to how the fishing will go, and what quarry to target. 

When it's strong tea coloured fishing for the Chub is a waste of time but fish maggot and worm there is always a bend in the quiver to be had.

This is where the womery was well worth the investment because once lifting the lid of their home amongst the potato peeling, swede shavings and cabbage strips there are some fat worms ready to be sacrificed to the fish Gods. 

They are breeding quite successfully too, the tiny worms all there to see.  

It's quite incredible just how quickly the fish can find the bait too, but then worms and maggots do stink to high heaven, there are a good bait for the fish to home in on.

I got there at dawn and settled in to the first swim below the beam of battlement. It was 3 degrees so this was negotiated without issue.

The first fish was a greedy minnow that was determined to hook itself looking at the noise on the 0.25ounce quiver tip so I upped the bait size which I'd use for the rest of the session.

A bisected worm and maggot cocktail to try and get something bigger, the size 14 B993 just about big enough for the aforementioned.

Sure enough the bait went out and 5 minutes later a proper bite from a proper fish and the change of bait was justified.

A fat proper dace providing some nice rest bite from ones cold hands. Catch one dace and you'll catch more and that was the case here, a few more fish banked till it went quiet.

Yeap it was time for a rove so I went upstream and fished some swims where I knew I could get a bait in. The river can vary so much in depth over the >1 mile stretch, from properly shallow to >12-14ft plus (one mad swim that needs to meet the deeper sonar).

The river was still well up and most shallow swims are unfishable due to the pace of the water but managed to find a few swims that would allow me to drop in a bait.

After biteless in all those swims I decided to retrace my steps and fish where I started, however before that a walk to the very bottom of the stretch showed just how turbulent it was and just how much the fish have to tolerate in this small spate river. 

So back the starting swim where here the river is almost static in places. I'd put a bait just off the crease and drip fed maggots as loose feed.

A few more dace succumbed to the offering, the first dace I caught as pictured the best of the lot though, a good 5 or 6 ounce fish that had a belly fit to bursting.

Now I bumped in to a rare angler on this stretch as I made my way to the upper reaches and he'd fished matches here for years and recounted stories of how it's changed over the years.

Don't neglect what's under you feet was the first tip so for the last half an hour that's exactly what I did. This time a 1/4 of a fat lobworm again tipped with a red maggot. 15 minutes in a couple of violent sharp pulls and I struck in to a confident bite.

At first I thought it was one of the resident trout but then it surfaced and it was a roach, a potential mediocre PB beater too. I thought a simple slide in to the net and the prize would be mine, but as I reached for with the landing net, one last lunge the fish is gone, the hook hold no longer. Damn !!!! a rubbish end to the session.

Now talking of rubbish this was the result of me clearing the area in and around our syndicate stretch of the Warwickshire Avon. After stopping off for some essential shopping the gloves the donned and I got to it. It's not a place you'd stop really but much of this had been there for sometime.

However sadly of late the muddy parking verge had seen a visit from the littering scumbags and such an eyesore I had to do something about it. Why is that some really don't care for their environment ?, chucked from windows, out of sight out of their tiny minds.

Small Brook Fishing Pt.14 - Poachers and Potato Traps

I'm glad that working week is over, to be fair it started well as I was in the office Monday and I got to see other people other than ones own family. I had to attend as I needed to update a physical property, cannot do that working from home can I. A handful of fellow colleagues in too, some banter, good times again.

The work and meetings seemed to stack up after that however and it culminated in one of those job all us CAD engineers hate which I want bore you with the details but it's a ball ache. 

Luckily I'd manged to get the projector sound to work again and with YouTube fired up and Ibiza Sonica Radio providing the chill-out beats all was good in the world again.

The job was done and dusted and the working week concluded better than I thought. 

I'd not been out for a while with Sam and he'd be good with the home schooling (The Wife a Godsend) so a session was on the cards and he had the decision where we'd go, and to be fair I knew what his answer would be.

The 'brook, brook, BRook, BROOK"

Now with the 'bullhead swim' and subsequent stomping ground out of bounds due to me and the tangleator inadvertently treading on a fluff chucking fee payers toes we had to find some waters new.

Our local streams have offered some really decent fishing to be fair and it's always a surprise to find what ends of the line after the maggots have been given a seeing to. 

Minnows can be an issue but then out of the blue, those little plucks and tiny pulls of the tip all of a sudden can change dramatically and a proper decent bite can be forthcoming.

Ideally I'd use a float if the stream is clear but for this short session the rod of choice was the Derwant Valley 8ft Specialist Quiver. This pencil thin rod even with a relatively stiff 1oz carbon tip shows minnow bites quite clearly though.

A lockdown wellie walk with the Newey rabble came good you see and we'd stumbled upon a short section of stream , just off a public right of way and we really needed to fish it.

This short afternoon session was ideal to be fair as the local rivers are high at the minute and the Alne just down the road which would be my preference is dropping from being over its banks so probably not in ideal fettle.

It's not a millions mile away to be fair and from parking up it's a decent 10 minute walk to get there. Now with the water strong tea coloured fishing these diminutive water ways can be tough especially when the water still has some pace on it.

But to find places to fishing couldn't be simpler. You just look for any slack water, be it near or far bank. The winding nature of the stream can also offer wider bays where the water can often lose some of its pace, it's there you need to dangle the maggot.

After negotiating a 'huge stick forest' and an arse over t*t incident Sam settled in to the first swim. It was rather narrow here but we know from experience that is not an issue, in-fact some of our largest fish caught in these interesting waterways have been from swims you can jump across.

A rather simple set-up I've detailed before, but essentially a bead with a link ledger attached that can be fishing running or free-running as the diameter of the bead is an interference fit with the large grippa stop.

The hook is tied directly on the line and a small no 8 shot to nail the maggots to the bottom. As per the norm, the bites came quick but the small taps on the tip of t dictated the size of the quarry. 

Yeap these were minnow, after a couple dropped off, it was time to find another swim. Again after wading through the 'forest school but bigger' we found another fishable swim.

Another slack clearly visible away from the turbulence of the main river "there must be fish here Daddy".

Sam was right because after 5 minutes the motionless tip went in to meltdown and this wasn't a pull from a minnow this time, but a proper fish. And a proper fish it was a good 5 or 6 ounce roach succumbing to the maggots.

The problem was after Sam handed the fish after I did and returned it back to where it came from his little donnies remained cold in the rather bitterly cold day (1 degree) and he just wasn't enjoying it.

His gloves not helping either, so only one thing for it, time for the off. Still not a wasted effort and we will be back when the conditions are a little more favourable.