Warwickshire Avon - Banjo's and Bandobasts

Autumn is in full swing now with the leaves falling off the trees and littering the garden. The mornings more often than not start misty and overcast and then with the light breeze the skies clear nicely, the dinky 1000kg Jimny praying for snow because there is some on the way apparently, well will we see, we are in a global warming climate emergency after all. 

Millions of kids want to clean up the earth to reverse it, millions of parents want them to start with their rooms fist. So some escapism will do nicely at the moment with this constant doom and gloom from the sanctimonious, so lets go fishing. 

The problem is, is that the Avon is back to clear again and with the skies also being clear fishing can often be tough for the bigger fish, so where to go what to do. I need some thinking time....!, out with the comfort food before finishing for shutting down the computer for the weekend !!!

Now the Egg Banjo is probably the most recognised snack in the Military (and often referred to as 'The Food of Gods) but why is it called an Egg Banjo? Well ingredients are simple, heavily buttered thick sliced bread, and one or more fried eggs.

Ok to many civilians, it is basically a fried egg sandwich, however within the military, it is widely known as an ‘egg banjo’ because when it is eaten, egg yolk usually squirts onto the eater's shirt/jacket, typically resulting in the person raising their sandwich out of the way, to approximately ear height, while they attempt to ‘strum’ the yolk mess from their shirt with their free hand.

Resulting in the appearance of someone playing an air banjo....

My effort though isn't quite an Egg Banjo but a rather nice egg mayo sandwich that contains three eggs, one boiled which is halved with the yoke still soft and then topped with traditional egg mayo. Simple I know but often simple ingredients makes the tastiest of food. A sprinkling of salt, a dash of white pepper, jobs a good'un.

So after that belly filler after a rather busy working week I fancied a Zander, the problem was the only window of opportunity I'd have really would be mid-afternoon which lets be honest is not ideal for Zander that like to feed in lowlight where they are the top dog, however this section of the Warwickshire Avon I'd been doing ok to be fair.

Ok nothing massive admittedly bu the bigger fish don't give up easily now do they. !!!! 

It helps that it carries some depth which I'm sure can only help because the deeper the swim, the darker its depths.  Also with the river low I could also fish the weir swim which has produced some zander for me in the past. The disturbance caused by the oxygenated water also providing a safe place for the zander to lay in wait. 

It certainly feels like the predator season has kicked in because there was a few more anglers on the bank but also the wind was blustery and the back of my neck a little chilly. The fish are wanting to pile on the ounces going forward and I prefer the autumn and winter for my fishing, its those seasons I cannot wait for. 

As I mentioned previously the Avon is back to clear again and when you can see the clearly one metre down as I could for this short session I thought bites might be hard to come by, but how wrong was I.

A small zed and a jack decided they wanted the roach deadbait, a 2.5" whole fish tempted the jack pike and the cut section was devoured by the zed. It took forty five minutes to get a bite though but not unexpected given the conditions. Now when the bites dried up I followed the river downstream and would end up in an area I'd finish in.

The problem was that it was littered with leaves and not only that but the flow was mimicking a washing machine so it was quite difficult to keep the light float set-up presenting the bait properly. 

I persevered though and eventually after half an hour I had a dropped run it didn't last long so would usually indicate a small zed with eyes bigger than its belly. Dusk was around half an hour away so no point moving now because there was certainly fish in the swim. As the light started to go the right hand float which was quite close in bobbed a couple of times and then buried straight under the surface.

What I did expect was what was on the end though because a greedy chub had taken a liking to the 2.5" whole roach deadbait. Not unexpected I suppose because I've caught chub on deadbait before but I was fully expecting a zander.

Oh well and that was a wrap, no more bites and a strange session but then fishing is one of those pastimes where the unexpected can happen. Oh and the chub was 3.5 - 4lb so not exactly massive but welcome all the same as especially when you can often rely on a chub to bite when other species are not interested. 

Warwickshire Avon - Bush Botherers and Buckminsterfullerenes

The one day a week in the office for our small team is most welcome because it gets me away from the four walls which to be honest can become a little prison-like. Faces other than the usual does boost wellbeing for me especially when banter is part of the conversations away from the busyness of work which has never let up since I started on the project over 2 years ago.

Now some post pandemic home workers probably don't realise they have almost have Stockholm syndrome which is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors during captivity.

They are more than happy to work from home especially with the pump prices the way they are at the minute, how much !! 😖. However in this case the pandemic is the captor, and for many still especially the elderly it has still has the scaremongering grip firmly on them.

 

At least I've Saturday to look forward to as Fatboy Slim, aka DJ Norman Cook always puts on a good show, finally the life we knew it, a no-holds-barred hedonistic rave with scant regard for consequences. (well ok maybe not but I can reminisce ) 

Face coverings nowhere to be seen not even any late-80s acid-house revivalists togged up in Altern 8-style PPE. Social distancing and fear of one’s fellow man were checked at the door. 

Strangers no doubt hugging in the aisles and grim-faced security blokes tapping their feet. I've returned to normal like many have it seems, well the best I can anyway...

Now I need to break the working week up and despite the short days there are a couple of local venues I can fish in to dark with no issue at all. 

It means I can shut the CAD station down, cobble a few bits of tackle together and be bankside from leaving the front door in 10 to 15 minutes, and be back in enough time to make the tea and see off the kids to bed. 

The sessions are often short like this one was where where most of the time I know exactly what swim(s) I'd fish going in to dark. Now with the Avon low I wanted to fish this one particular swim that carries some depth. 

 

Strangely I'd not fished this swim before for the chub which would be my target as I'd only fished it for the pike in the past where I'd managed to winkle out some nice fish over the years. 

There is a nice bush to act as cover though and its always been on my radar because of it. 

The same tactics as the recent chub session where I'd fish my dedicated chub rod and a lump of cheesepaste. Dusk (16.49) would arrive almost as I'd just got my bait in the water so the tip would be illuminated with torchlight. 

I've had some cracking chub here in the past and even when the water temperature has been 3 degrees or so they can often be coaxed in to a bite.

I had some liver with me as well and as the paste would be fished on a hair I'd also also a small bite size piece to the hook for added attraction. 

Oh and one other thing, I'd also prime another swim with a couple of paste freebies so if the first swim wasn't doing the business after an hour I could drop in to the other swim for the last half an hour.

So anything doing ?

Well you can see from the picture below, errrrrr no !!!!

There were fish in the swim for sure as I did get the odd tentative pull so they were either small fish or very very cautious chub indeed.

There was literally no wind to speak of so a very pleasant time to be about indeed but when I got bankside to see a really low and clear river, I wasn't expecting them to crawl up the rod. I've experimented with bait quite a bit with chub and they can wide up to certain baits that for sure, so I might have to get the secret bait out sooner than expected. Very technicolour let's leave it at that. 

I fished an hour and a half past dusk and it was clear the fish were just not interested in either of the swims. The deep swim the line is almost vertical, but even that didn't produce, in-fact there was more action in the shallower swim, so on the next one whenever that will be, I'm not sure as I've a very busy weekend coming up.  

Warwickshire Avon - Thrill Seekers and Throttlebottoms

A nice start to the evening proceedings, one of my favourite curries, now a chicken rendang, or rendang ayam is an Indonesian dry curry that's loaded with tender chicken simmered with a spice paste and coconut milk until there's almost no sauce left. The paste is made from shallots, ginger, garlic, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf, and errrr, that's about it. 

The balance and depth of flavours of rendang is really remarkable considering it doesn’t contain all that many ingredients, but it does have one major drawback, I always have to tone the heat factor down a little for the Wife, luckily the rather pungent birds eye chilli coming to the rescue. 

Now the local pubs bonfire and fireworks thankfully would take place this year because it's a nice friendly village get together that doesn't happen very often. A sensory overload for sure and especially for Ben with autism and special need he shouldn't deal with it like he does. All very odd for sure, but for Ben rollercoaster cannot be fast enough and the fireworks cannot be loud enough. 

The fire luckily wasn't as wayward as the last time he took place here, but the wind did certainly make it interesting, the fireworks well, considering they were free, top notch with Ben wiggling his comfort worm in unison, his enjoyment all to see. 

His best day ever was the following day however where the Wife would take Ben to Alton Towers for the day for the fireworks and also to ride all the rollercoasters in the dark before the park closes for the winter. 

He loves all the big rollercoasters too from the superfast Rita to the disorientating Smilier, the vertical drop Oblivion and his favourite the Wicker Man. 

Sam well, the runaway mine train is about his lot, so what were me and Sam to do ?

To be honest I didn't have much choice in it, "Daddy can we go fishing in the morning, then go and have an English breakfast for lunch, watch Boss Baby 2 Family Business in the posh cinema with sofas, and then can we go for a Chinessssssssssssseeeeeee !!!"

"Not out usual Sunday but yeah, lets do that then"

I should have checked the cost of the Everyman first, before saying yes, Jesus I know they are probably trying to claw back some money when they were forced to close, but wow, for the outlay I was expecting to be given a copy of the movie afterwards signed by the cast and crew. 

The Avon has dropped considerably and the colour dropping out fast but with Sam's chosen venue good for a few bites on the float, and the outside chance of a Zander for me on the deadbait rod it marked the start of a good day.

Sam has been using his whip of late but he wanted to bring his float rod along as he wanted some casting practice so the first swim we chose was wider than the norm on this stretch and no real trees overhead to get caught in.

To be honest the bites were not a prolific as we hoped with the river still littered with leaves and the first swim was still swirling like a good-un in places and the flow seemed to vary considerably throughout out time there.

Sam seemed to love the float getting caught up in a whirlpool though, " Weeeeeeee !!!!!!" Still some fish succumbed to the maggots with perch being the predominant species. The gudgeon didn't show oddly, but at least the perch put on a good show.

We fished 3 swims and the deadbait rod didn't have any action whatsoever. Even some sink and draw of the small roach didn't spark any interest from perch or pike, let alone the zander.

Now Sam when he gets bored goes on the wander and when he starts climbing trees its time to make tracks. So the session was caught short by half an hour because of the lack of action, a few bites though and we do enjoy our time together bankside especially when the kingfisher was particularly active.