The Tiny River Alne - Solitude and Solemnsides

The angler was fishing a lake deep in the heart of a safari park when a hippo emerged from the water, smashed his rods and trampled all over his gear.

The angler left his tackle and staggered back to his car, to find a troop of monkeys pulling off his windscreen wipers. 

He chased them away, got in the car, and had just moved off when a kangaroo leapt out of the undergrowth and crashed into the aerial, bending it very badly. 

By this time he was in a foul temper, so when elephant crossed the track in front of him, he screeched up to it, slammed on his brakes and hooted loudly. The elephant looked around calmly, kicked in the rear wing, then sat on the bonnet and caved it in.

The angler roared off to the park warden's hut and hammered on the door.

'Look at the mess your animals have made of my car!' he yelled when the warden answered the door. 'I demand compensation!'

'Oh, my dear sir,' said the warden. 'Do come in. How can I apologise? Here, drink this scotch for your nerves.' Down went the scotch in one and the warden poured out another tumblerful.

The angler was calming down by now, and he and the warden had quite a long chat about the hazards of the park. Every five minutes the warden filled up the tumbler, and before long the whole bottle of whisky had disappeared.

The angler was halfway home, his car weaving all over the road, when he was pulled up by a police patrol car. 'Been in the wars by the looks of things, sir,' said the officer. 'Like to tell me how it happened?'

"Yish,' said the angler. 'Windscreen wipers... bunch of monkeys pinched 'em. Aerial... flaming kangaroo bent it. Damn great elephrump kicked the side in then sat on the bonnet...' 

'Of course, sir,' said the officer. 'And do you mind telling me where you've been?'

'Fishing, of course,' said the angler. 'What does it look

like?'

'Where is your tackle, sir?"

'Smashed to smithereens. A bloody great huppo.. hitto... hittotopamus jumped all over it.'

'Silly me,' said the officer. 'I should have realised. Could you do just one more small thing for me, sir?' 'Shertainly,' said the angler. 'What is it?"

'Just blow into this little bag..."

Anyway to the fishing, with the works Xmas do last night I was slightly hung over I must admit so I didn't fancy a long drive so the Alne it was. I've said before the Alne is often boom or bust but those sessions when the fish are up for feeding it's a lovely little river to catch some fish, especially when out of the blue you can have a surprise or two. So liquidised bread in the feeder and a small thumbnail piece of bread flake on the hook.  

It was eerily quiet with no wind whatsoever and considering I was partying in to the early hours of the morning the situation I was in couldn't have been more different. 

Anyway to cut a long story short it wasn't a particularly productive session and the majority of the swims I fished didn't even produce any bites. I caught 2 chub with the best shown above and I also managed to lose one that tried to get under my feet and got caught up in some thick grass, where sadly the small hook pulled.

The water was a light olive colour which I was surprised it because the Alne is rarely this shade of green. It was clearing too with at least a foot of visibility so unsurprisingly the chub were in the deeper swims.  All in all a nice head clearing session and the solitude this little river can bring, is most welcoming I must admit. 

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.119 (Canal Zander)

A busy week this week 😠, I was in MIRA twice to sort out a squeak and rattle issue on one the prototypes being used for a management ride and drive event(s) and I've seemingly been here there and everywhere with family stuff too, fishing just ain't going to happen. On a positive note however I'd been out in the Polestar 5 on the track on all manner of road surfaces and the 'containment fix' seemed to do the job which got those finger pointers off our backs. 

Pheeewww and then a chance conversation around the coffee machine with good friends Cathy and Beth at work, they asked me if I wanted to join them on a lecture, so straight after work we are all off to 'The science of Magic Mushrooms' with Dr David Luke in Oxford. 🍄

All very interesting too and if you have been a reader of my blog over the years you will know my 'interest' in psychedelics but Dr David Luke is on another level. A associate professor of psychology at the University of Greenwich, London, UK, where he has been teaching an undergraduate course on the Psychology of Exceptional Human Experience since 2009. 

His research focuses on transpersonal experiences, anomalous phenomena and altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics, having published more than 100 academic papers in this area, including thirteen books, including Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience. 

I'm certainly not academic in any way ☺ but such an engaging presentation and obviously a huge passion of his and plenty of humour during the talk, I'm glad they asked me to tag along. 

Now he has given over 500 invited public lectures and conference presentations, won teaching, research and writing awards, organised numerous festivals, conferences, seminars, retreats, expeditions and pilgrimages, and has studied techniques of consciousness alteration from South America to India, from the perspective of scientists, shamans and shaivites.

 

Some of his research and others show that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can certainly can help with those with chronic depression and anxiety amongst others. 

Where often a single treatment of synthetic psilocybin, the mind-altering ingredient in magic mushrooms, improved mood in people with treatment-resistant depression within three weeks.

Not only that but one of the lasting changes of post treatment was to seek more of the outdoors because of its well-being improvements that us as anglers know all about. We don't know how lucky we are really with our pastime, but it's no secret I suppose, it never has been. There is a reason why we brave the elements isn't there, the pursuit of the angle is mind altering in a good way. 

Now the topic on LSD and brain activity was particularly interesting especially when its low toxicity means that there is no one better to get involved in the testing than Dr David himself. Designing parts for cars or psychedelic research, hmmmm shame my IQ isn't up there with the Doctor, maybe I'd be up for some work experience on a weekend, free of change of course. 

The beginnings of Storm Darragh had already brought some heavy rain and windy conditions and the wind and rain were going to amplify as the weekend went by. The local rivers were unfishable yet again so for this session I thought about trying for some canal Zander before having to batten down the hatches. 

So a roving session this to try and find those Zander which can be tricky as they tend to go in to a slumber when the temperature drop. You need to drop the bait on a Zanders head basically so leapfrogging sections of cover if often the best way to try and find them.

To cut a long story short nothing was doing whatsoever. I covered lots of different areas too that usually throw up a Zander but they were not interested whatsoever. No fish topping and the canal was much clearer than it usually is and that could be why the only splashes I saw were kingfishers on the hunt.

It's usually a nice brown colour which suits the Zander but it was an olive green with a foot of visibility. Oh well, plenty of steps covered and some much needed fresh air which was nice.  

Warwickshire Stour - Redfins and Representationalisms

With the Avon still banging through I fancied a small river fix to hopefully catch a decent roach that the Leam holds or a few chub would do to be honest. The Stour had been over its banks recently like the other local river however I really was surprised of the colour of it when I got bankside for this short morning session.

It was that lovely green colour that the Stour is renowned for so the roach might not be up for a feed but the chub certainly would be.

I've found the bigger roach seem to only show when the river is strong tea coloured and also when the river is carrying lots of water like it was today. Still plenty of swims to go at to try and winkle out a fish or two.

The first swim I fished I caught 3 chub on the last trip so I had high hopes for a bite which came around 5 minutes of the thumbnail piece of bread being out. A rattly bite rather than a chub pull round and sure enough the culprit was a roach I thought it could be.

A minter too but I've caught them to well over 3 times the size of this previously but who doesn't like to catch roach like this ? I thought I was on for a few more bites but sadly no more bites in that swim so I went on the rove.

I'm an inpatient angler and certainly small rivers like this you need to try and find the fish rather than them try and find you.

As I made my way down the stretch the signs of the recent high water was all there to see. In the 3rd field the whole electric fence had been wiped out giving the farmer I right old headache I'd imagine because it was in the hundreds of yards rather than a small section of it.

Anyway the banker swim didn't produce apart from the odd tippy tappy bites which presumably were small fish nibbling at the bread. I swapped to worm from time to time throughout the session but not one bite, bread seemed to get the most interest.

Anyway the morning was ticking by fast and I was wondering where the chub were. I need not worry though because the swim I caught my biggest river roach from produced a tell-tale chub bite, and I struck in to a solid lump.

A dirty fighter too and at one point I thought I was going to lose it as is was trying to get right under my feet. A stroke of luck I managed to get it in to the landing net at full reach because it's quite an elevated swim this.

Only a 2lber but a welcome sight because if I'm honest it wasn't fishing well at all. A small dace got in on the act in the next swim but that was that. Three fish and that was it, and that was after a few hours and probably 6 or 7 swims.

Some of the swims were just not fishable because the river was still banging through and boiling so I was limited to the ones that were. So not that productive but I wasn't complaining, a nice bit of winter sun and roving this cracking little river.