Warwickshire Avon - Blisters and Blandiloquence

It's quite hard to believe that the deck a good friend of mine Wardy fitted had been down for almost 15 years and up until this winter was still pretty robust. 

This blog of mine, now 13 years old started when after a 20 year lay off from fishing I realised with so much water around me and some solitude to seek with a young family, hey I know what, I'll take up fishing again. 

Now there were a few areas that were starting to rot and when I went through it with with the leg of one of the garden chairs and nearly took out the fence with it, I had to bite the bullet and get it replaced. 

Now I did think about slabbing it over but after ripping up the deck boards and cutting them up in to firewood for winter the frame, apart from the odd place was still pretty sound, so as I hate DIY and also a cheapskate, I decided to change all the deck boards myself. 

It's a decent sized deck 6x3.5m and only around 500 quid to replace with the replacement joists too. Oh and >600 odd bleeding screws, this will be fun !! But the weather was fair no time like the present it won't get done looking at it now will it. 

Wardy as well, he's almost semi retired now spending more time in Spain at his villa than actually working (yes I am jealous) so with the Wife thinking once it was ripped it she was going to be looking at a mess in the garden for a good while, I decided to make her eat her own thoughts.

I'm not used to this kind of work but a hearty breakfast can make all the difference. I need better power tools as well because the electric screw driver I have lasts up to about 3 deck boards before it needs charging again. 

Still I got on with it and 3 days of on and off work it was complete thankfully and even the Wife was impressed with some rare praise. The problem is the rest of the garden looks tired now so I've started on that as well now, no rest for the wicked.

Now talking of batteries after getting a new hedge trimmer recently I headed on down to the syndicate stretch to do some back maintenance and also see if there was ant signs of the carnage that some stretches of the Warwickshire Avon had seen over the last week where loads of fish have unfortunately succumbed to their demise due to what ? maybe we will never know.  

But how stupid of me because I'd only gone and left the battery at home 😁🙈 to that would have to wait for another day. So in the end I decided to head to another stretch to try and pick up a chub, and also a last gasp barbel.

I couldn't believe how much the river had risen in 48 hours when I fished last and it was clear maybe fishing for the chub off the top wasn't the best idea. They were just not interested at all. There was a few other anglers on the stretch and my favourite swim taken so I headed upstream where I concentrated my efforts. 

I did manage a nice plump summer chub because of a perfect cast where within seconds of the bread hitting the surface it nailed it.

But then apart form two missed strikes from smaller chub only two swims showed any signs of fish that were up for a feed. Dusk was an hour away so after also forgetting my rod rest I got set-up for a barbel with glugged dynamite hot-fish boilies and a PVA bag of freebies.

It was clear that the swim was full of small chub though because after the first cast it was non stop plucks, pulls and bangs on the rod tip. They managed to take the bait from the hair a couple of times too and I need a rethink on bait choice.

In thee end I managed a 3 swinger chub that really were determined to get caught. The barbel were nowhere to be seen, but then this area is hot and miss anyway. Nice to see some extra water on for once, not only will help with extra oxygen for the fish but will make the parched looking greenery vibrant again.   

Warwickshire Avon - Bronze Bosses and Brontophobia

Another evening, another chub session on the Warwickshire Avon, this time further downstream from where I was last time, and boy was it alive with fish. I might trot some maggots on a future session because I'm sure it would be a bite a chuck, the amount of bait fish was incredible. 

I did bring my barbel with a few bits and pieces because well, why not might as well give it a go rather than moving from swim to swim to try and pick up a chub using floating bread crust.

The ground was proper rock hard when I strayed on to the wheat field but the grains seemed to be fat and vibrant, but then what would I know about farming, probably as much as I know about fishing.

This fishing method couldn't be any more simpler though, a big size 6 hook tied directly to the line and drift some pieces of bread down to find out exactly where those often shy chub are hiding. They seem to be on to the bait really quickly at the start of new season where for the first month I do little else. 

It didn't take long to catch the first fish either after the first swim had chub queuing up to take the bread off the surface. When they wise up to this technique they can provide the most frustrating of fishing, because nothing worse than seeing a chub come up to the bread, give it a nudge with it nose and then decide, nah I'm not taking that.

When their cautiousness goes out the window though the feeding couldn't be any more different because in the shallow water you can often see a bow wave on the waters surfaces before they suck in the bread with the huge mouth of theirs. 

In 3 swims I managed 4 fish with the biggest over 4lb I'd imagine, however it decided that it didn't want a selfie with me and launched itself out of the net and managed to escape before I got the chance.

In another swim I got the chub feeding but I got caught up in some branches when retrieving a missed strike and stupidly I forgot my stash of hooks so that put pay to that. The group of chub had some freebies at my expense so it out with the barbel rod. 

I'd usually put some droppers of hemp and pellets in and fish a bait over that but I decided PVA bags full of the aforementioned might have been the better option.

A small glugged dynamite hot fish boilie on the hair and and underarm cast in to the chosen swim to fish. One piece of bread caught up in the bag that I throw out in to the swim was hovered up by a chub in no time at all so I did think the first fish I'd caught would be a greedy chevin.

But no 10 minutes after the bait being out a sharp chub type pull out of nowhere a 3ft twitch and I'm in to a hard fighting barbel. It powered off downstream first but then after turning it to get away from a snag it then tried to get under my feet before powering off mid river.

Not a huge barbel by any means but certainly giving a good account for itself !! I didn't weigh it but after a quick selfie after letting it rest in the net and then the same again, it didn't take any time at all to recover which was nice to see. Unlike me fit as a fiddle !!

After that was returned a small chub decided that he wanted in on the act too and as I only brought 2 PVA bags I decided that I'd forget fishing in to dark and a little beyond, and come back better prepared next time.

Considering what's happened on the Warwickshire Avon not a millions of miles from here I was very pleasantly surprised that this is another area that has escaped the issues that some others areas of the Avon have suffered. 

Warwickshire Avon - Troubled Waters and Tragomaschalia

The canals can do one !!!

I've said many times they are a means to an end really, because flowing waters is where my heart is and I'm so glad were are back fishing again. Tell that to the fish locally though because there has been reports of an "alarming" amount of dead fish being discovered on more than one stretch too.

Barford AA which I was a member of for many years called the proactive EA out to find the heck what was going on but it took them ages to turn up where after monitoring they deemed that everything was fine. 

They have suspended fishing there at the moment which I'm sure wasn't taken lightly with many anglers wanting to get back on the bank fishing.

The EA said that during the summer months its staff respond to many reports of fish in distress.

"Prolonged warm weather followed by intense summer rainstorms, such as those we experienced across the Midlands in the last week, including the Avon catchment, can wash material into watercourses from roads and in gullies," it said.

"Once in a watercourse, this material will further deplete the water of oxygen, and can lead to serious fish mortalities."

Now the top end of Barford stretch over the M40 is suspiciously close to a huge sewage treatment works where in the past I've fished next to the outflow where treated effluent is released. As you can see from the Rivers Trust website in 2022 444 hours worth went in 😠💀🕱☠. The reports of dead fish stretch much further downstream as well and beyond and another angling club has also suspended fishing where during some bank maintenance for the new season there was also some grim scenes.

An easy finger to point though, with the rivers we fish not exactly healthy and with the lack of rain and the BBQ weather we have being having lowering the oxygen levels, I would imagine it wouldn't take much to reach a tipping point where fish will suffer. Various reports on the ground said the water was very foamy which doesn't bode well now does it, could well be the result of a chemicals, which does make more sense with the huge amount of dead fish showing up.

The rain was biblical during the storm I must admit, that could well have contributed to the 'perfect storm' so to speak. We had similar conditions last year without the huge fish losses so something different must have happened. Our rivers and seas have been treated with utter contempt over the years and it doesn't seem that is going to change any time soon sadly. 

More reports to come I'd imagine with anglers now on the ground that can only be a good thing, however will we ever get to know what caused the pollution incident ? well your guess is as good as mine !!! 

There are also areas above the outflow that had similar issues so the suspicion could be off Severn Trent for the time being anyway. So enough of the bad news, the first session back I fancied heading to one of my favourite places on the Avon for more of a nose really to see if that was effected too. 

At the start of the stretch there is a weir which often shows how the river is doing but it also provides much needed oxygen. Chub off the surface using bread was the chosen tactic because you can tell how they were feeling if they were up for a rise in these sadly troubled waters. 

Thankfully after walking the whole stretch it looked in fine fettle. The water had colour which I was surprised at but the storm that brought plenty of rain was the cause of that I'd imagine. No signs of dead fish and the bread when floated down in most swims was being attacked by lots of small fish.

I love this simple method because all you need is a hook on the end of the line and that's it. After not been fished for a while the first month or so of the new season it's a tactic that does seem to work year on year.

The first swim we tried with some bread on the hook the chub were queuing up for the bread, I'd say there must have been a good number of fish in the swim as well and due to the competition they gradually came further and further up the swim. The key is to get them feeding confidently first before drifting the bread down with a piece of bread on the hook.

We managed 2 from the first swim and another swim one further chub was caught. Not the biggest of chub where one was probably getting on for 4lb but you kind of forget just how well they fight, and one of the reason why they are probably my favourite river species. 

We didn't stop long, probably not even 2 hours and we left at 9.45pm where the temperature was very pleasant indeed. I'm glad we came out late evening rather than brave the midday sun. So so nice to be back on flowing water though 👌 have you have a good season blog readers.