Warwickshire Avon - Solidarnosc Plums and Spectroheliokinematographs

My Wife friends are hosting a couple of Ukrainians' at the minute and she put us on to these dark chocolates with a plum in the middle and they are really rather nice. My Wife is taking one of them to yoga every Friday and out of the blue, these were given for some thanks for doing the ferrying back and forth. 

They originate from Poland I believe and can often be found in Tesco's if there, like Stratford-Upon-Avon a decent population from the aforementioned, they are in the world food section I believe. 1 of your 5 a day, jobs a good'un. 

Anyway for this short session in to dusk and two hours beyond I decided to head down to the Warwickshire Avon for some blanking. One rod with a roach and a bobbin on a long drop and then luncheon meat on the Barbel rod.

What I didn't expect was the roach to be taken literally 5 minutes of casting out whilst I was still setting up, as after a couple of beeps the bobbin rose and continued on its way. 

A Pike the culprit and not a bad one either, maybe 9-10lb but after a short fight it literally came off as I was going to net it, bugger.

Oh well plenty left of the session to go so I set my stall out. The chair as comfy as an arm chair luckily the non-stop action would prevent me going to sleep.

Ok best laid plans and all that, but it was the 'unstoppable' fish I wanted in on and I've yet to catch a barbel from this section, although the chub are keeping me entertained. Some nice ones too !!

Dusk came and went and I fully expected at least the chub to home in on the luncheon meat where I also added a PVA bag of freebies to each cast. But no very quiet indeed come sundown. 

With the rod tip illuminated by torchlight with a clear sky the mild turn turned in to a chilly one and when the mist started to fall an hour in to dark, I'd give it another hour to hopefully give it a good go for a big fish.

Nothing though, and the predator rod was quiet too. Hmmm not going very well at the minute. So another blank to add to the collection, I'm getting used to this !!!

The Tiny River Alne - Land Trains and Limnobiology

Fishing has always been regarded as a solitary sport, the pastime for the contemplative man. It was unthinkable as in pig sticking, dominoes, pontoon and three card brag that women should come within a mile of it.

Of recent years, however thanks to the increase in leisure time, the number of household labour-saving devices and family cars, the tendency has grown for whole households to go fishing together. I saw it for myself not so long ago, when on the local canal when I was targeting Zander 3 generations of family were float fishing and enjoying their time together on the turd riddled towpath.

This development had wrought subtle changes in the ethos of the sport. The old image of an angler was that of a loner, a solitary, a misanthrope, even, who went fishing to get away from the Wife and family. That image gained currency, and survived so long, for one reason and one reason only, it was true.

The influence of the family on angling is demonstrated quite clearly, you see the solitary angler was used to falling out of bed in the early hours of Sunday morning, pulling on his familiar ripe-smelling gear, having a quick scratch of the nether regions and a strong coffee, and stomping out bleary and blissful in to the dawn.

But now that the feminine influence has exerted itself, things are different. All Saturday morning is spent cleaning and polishing the car. Saturday afternoon is spent trying on the new fishing outfit. The old outfit is got rid of. The comfortable holey vets, pullover, long johns, saggy jacket, scale-smeared anorak, droopy wellies and bobbly hat are lowered on fire tongs into the dustbin. 

In their place go an electric blue windcheater with red and white facings, a pair of slimline, knife-edged cream trousers, a pain of Italian made slip-on shoes and a tartan trilby decorated with unusable flies.

I jest but I must admit I've over the last year or so invested in better clothing to suit ones fishing. Staying dry and warm is one of the biggest hurdles in fishing and after toying around with cheap gear, I made the decision to invest in some decent stuff. Not proper expensive gear I might add, but the difference in spending a few more quid is quite apparent.

Anyway with a short window of opportunity to get that much needed fishing fix a visit to the closest bit of river to me, The Alne for some lure fishing sounded just the tonic. You'd have thought such a short journey would be without incident but no, a really slow Land Rover Defender towing a load of hay bales thankfully turned off after a mile or so, but then a land train of cyclists (>20) on this hilly B road, meant I then joined a queue of cars stuck behind a loads of MAMIL's. Not a pretty sight either, I assume they have mirrors in their houses like the rest of us ?

Anyway, the Alne looked in fine fettle when I get there but swim after swim after swim, literally nothing doing on the Salmo Hornet whatsoever. All very odd as the last time here the hits and bites on the lure really an eyeopener. Still I stuck with it though and in the end went back to the car donned my wellies and negotiated the East bank to get down to the weir.

It was well up and the usual island of gravel was reduced to a small standing area but it was a decision that paid for itself after the 4th cast when the lure was hit like a steam train. 

Sadly it only stayed on for a few seconds but at least I knew there were fish in the swim, and sure enough the very next cast I hooked up good and proper this time. Yeap, the culprit one of the trout that reside here. Not a bad one either and put up a proper scrap where it launched itself clear of the water a couple of times.

One more trout succumbed to the Salmo Hornet and that was my lot. No more bites in this ridiculously mild day before I had to head back home and get on with family duties. An enjoyable could of hours in solitude though, it really does work wonders.  

Warwickshire Avon - Stormtroopers and Stigmatophilia

This post is all over the shop and I'm not going to apologise for it, this is my blog after all and I'm ultimately the gatekeeper and keymaster. It's one of the reasons why the blog is still going after 12 years and 1318 posts. Quite unbelievable really how I've kept it going so long, but it's a diary of my fishing after all and world events are not enough to stop my keyboard bashing just yet. 

Anyway is China about to abandon its struggle with covid-19 ? You see Judging by recent moves in the markets, you might think so and someone who might have to travel there soon, I'm hoping so. (more of that later)

On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization was informed of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. A novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was subsequently identified from patient sampled, ended up spreading to nearly every country, upending life and derailing the global economy. Rumours that China had assembled a reopening committee inspired a big rally in the country’s shares, the offshore yuan and even the price of copper in the early days of this month.

A social-media message that helped circulate the idea was subsequently dubbed the “trillion-dollar” tweet. If nothing else, the market movements were a reminder of the costs of China’s “zero-covid” strategy, which requires mass testing and frequent lockdowns to stamp out the disease. 

Few policies are so economically damaging that mere rumours of their repeal can create so much wealth so quickly. A reopening could lift the value of China’s shares by 20% or $2.6trn, according to Goldman Sachs, a bank. Because China is the only big economy still prone to lockdowns, it is the last opportunity for investors to profit from a reopening rally. 

Why I am so bothered well a work colleague of mine you see is currently in a Chinese Government quarantine hotel where he is confined to his hotel room for 10 days before heading on to see a supplier. Escape ? well yeah all very good but 3 years in the clink is good deterrent.   

The red tape is staggering and just look at this picture, this is from the hotel check in, don't get to see that on the BBC now do you, like a scene out the movie Outbreak and the hotel well "only fit for squatters" I'm getting daily updates and lets just say if he knew now what would happen before he agreed to the trip, he wouldn't have gone. But who are we to judge in the West, have to just get on with it I say.

Anyway back to the fishing !!!

It was rude not to take advantage of Total Fishing Tackle  birthday 10% discount on anything basically. You see I'd had my eye on a Solar Tackle SP C-Tech Low Recliner Chair to add to my ever expanding tackle collection having sat on one at tackle show I was waiting for one to pop up at a decent price.

The problem was it was out of stock at TFT however they have a 'notify me when this product is in stock' function so I really was surprised when registering 24 hours later I had an email from to say the item was back in stock. 

So after the discount it was £116.99 all in, which was a bargain if you ask me, and I'm looking forward to receiving it. I'm not getting any younger you see and sometimes I want a little more comfort than my lightweight roving chair when sitting it out for a bite, for those sessions when I use a chair that is. 

You see with the nights drawing in, static fishing often is the only option if I want that fishing fix, and with certain sections of river I can drive the length of the banks, a heavier chair isn't really an issue because it's most of the time in the back of the Jimny.

Now as someone who works in automotive and having been involved in seat comfort trials over the years using expensive pressure mapping equipment, there isn't a one size fits all approach to seating. Comfort is very subjective and it is the user that ultimately has the final say not a computer.  

Anyway I fancied a bite from a chub so the cheesepaste was taken out of the fridge and the minimum of gear sorted out. Only a short post work session this where literally I'd be getting the gear out half an hour before dusk and then fishing a little in to dark before curfew calls.

But often that is all you need to get a bite because the witching hour is the best time to get a bite from a decent fish in these quarters. The stretch of convenience was chosen as there are some nice chub here and it's very unlikely a bite isn't received providing the conditions are fair like they were for this sortie.  

The river was well up as expected and here there isn't many slacks really when its this high so I added a little more weight than I usually do and went about dropping in to likely fish holding swims.

I've huge confidence in using cheesepaste for chub and it is a very selective bait because apart from the odd hungry pike all I've caught is chub, chub, chub.

It didn't take long for the first bite but after the first pull a little disappointing what was on the end considering the stamp that usually swims here. Still it was a bite and with dusk now here still enough time to winkle out a bigger fish. Two more swims though nothing so I headed to a swim that post dusk is usually good for a bite. 

The problem was the quivertip was well under tension from the leaves and debris coming down the, so a couple of casts were needed to keep a bait in the water.

A proper sharp twang on the tip I knew it was a fish and then when a proper bite came I lifted in to a better fish. This was giving a good account for itself in these windy autumnal conditions and after a decent battle on my dedicated chub gear it was in the net.

A much better fish this at 4lb 8ounces and made the short trip worthwhile. With that resting in the net I got the bait out again and gave it another 15 minutes but nothing happened so I headed back home with another satisfying session ticked off.