Warwickshire Avon - The Untrodden Pt.15

A tale of two halves this one, you see after getting bored watching motionless pike floats for a couple of hours in a couple of swims it was time to do some trotting. The colour was perfect for trotting bread for chub and I did think if the pike fishing wasn't all that (ok I wasn't at it that long 👀) I might as well bring the 15ft rod equipped with a big stick float .

Thankfully the wind had died down because the wind amplifies the cold and when you're handling mashed bread as feed those fingers can get very cold, and there is really nothing more than cold fingers when you are fishing. 

I really need to give maggots a go because Nic from avon Angling has been having some cracking session on the Avon fishing maggots and in his words "far better handling maggots in the cold than wet bread"

My fingers were fine for a good couple of hours trotting though, I think I picked a good morning, but like I said I'm sure the lack of wind helped. I had a swim in mind at the start of the session but that was tanking through and hook anything decent it would one hell of a job to bring the fish upstream. 

That peg might be better fished with the waggler as the cover is over at the far-side so in the end I decided to fish a lovely trotting peg that to be honest, had perfect pace. I had a pike rod just to the left of me and that had some interest a good hour after being out, when a 5 lber picked up the smelt and hook off it with it like a rocket. 

At one point I had to bully it away from a snag chub'esk but the hook pulled, which ain't a bad thing I suppose.

The stick float was going down nicely however it took a good while to get a bite but then out of the blue the float buried at the end of the run, and I lifted into a solid fish. Such a great way to fish for chub and after plodding around I teased it upstream and in to the landing net.

Another fish came soon after, this one a lovely solid Avon chub that weighed 4lb on the nose and a decent fight on the float set-up. I thought I would catch a couple more but no, the swim went quiet and a good hour without a bite I decided to fish another swim upstream to try and catch a last gasp pike.

You see all of a sudden my fingers and hands started to get unpleasantly cold. The wind had picked up a bit and I'm sure that was the cause of it. You are anchored to one spot though that doesn't help things and that's why I'm a roving angler at heart I suppose. Could I do a 5 hour session trotting in the cold, probably not. 

The last swim well those pike baits were never touched sadly but a couple of nice chub, which makes an ok session in my book.

I've get to catch a 5lb chub off the new stretch, 4lb 14oz the biggest if I recall, which I caught on the first go here. I've seen one that was massive and looked a 6 lber so I'm sure there are some biggest fish to be had. 

I just need to be in the right time at the right place. I'll keep plugging away though I'm sure one will slip up sometime. Banks to myself, quiet and plenty to go at, and with some nice fish to boot, I'm liking it down here. 

Warwickshire Stour - Shoulders and Shuftiscopes

So with the loss of that PB beating Roach in the back of my mind I decided to revisit the stretch for another go to see if that roach was home and well, to see if I could catch it this time. All very pie in the sky I suppose but you never know.

The Stour was cold, very cold, the water too, because that had dropped to 4.7 degrees which could explain why the bites were far harder to come by. 

Obviously I started off in the swim where I lost the big'un but a good 45 minutes in there with only a few minnow nibbles it was time to get on the rove. 

The Stour is rarely clear but without any meaningful rain for a while in one of the swims I could see a metre down at least which is probably why from swim to swim, there was nothing really doing at all. 

The colour was perfect though so I decided to concentrate on the chub fishing instead and fish tight to cover, snags and rafts to see if I could drop a bait in the right place at the right time.

It took a good while to be honest with maybe the 6th swim where a bite on the drop came and then after a minute or so a proper chub bite where I was in to a solid fish. Bread did the trick again, the most reliable chub bait ? well I think so. 

It gave me a bit of a run around and I could see it trying to bury its head in an undercut bank and then it tried to get in to some dead reeds right by my feet.  Dirty tactics but then I wouldn't expect anything less from chub this size, they are not stupid.

A nice solid fish for the Stour and really big shoulders on it, a proper bully I'd imagine and it fought really in the clear water. Anyway a small chublet from the same swim and that was my lot.  I even fished the first swim last again and swapped between bread and lobworm, but not even a bite.Tough going actually, but it has been barassic of late to I bet many fish are holding up trying to ride the temperature drop. I would if I were them anyway 👤

Warwickshire Avon - The Untrodden Pt.14

This car was wobbling on buckled wheels up the road, and bits kept dropping off it. It stopped on the white line, bang in the middle of the road, and the driver got out. He could get out easily because, as soon as the car stopped, the offside door fell off. 

The driver stood by the car, traffic whizzing past on either side, saying plaintively, 'Where am I? I think I've had an accident.' He had, poor lad. Two miles back. In a daze he'd driven on, then realised something had happened, and stopped. As soon as the kindly locals took him in hand, he went to pieces, trembling violently and flopping about all over the place. Delayed shock, that was. It took several brandies to get him on an even keel.

His condition was a classic example of the effect a sudden traumatic experience can have on the nervous system. I mention it to lead up to the fact that the average angler has at least one traumatic experience every outing, and therefore often returns home in a state of delayed shock.

Signs of delayed shock in an angler are an unsteady gait, difficulty in focusing, and a tendency to fall down if left unsupported for any length of time. If more wives, girlfriends and other interested parties would recognise the symptoms, there would be an immediate reduction in the number of battered anglers.

The mere sight of an angry lady person in curlers and dressing gown can induce secondary shock and send the poor lad into a catatonic trance, an easy victim for the coal shovel or whatever means of wifely therapy is about to be applied. 

Another school of thought has it that such a sight can result in the angler immediately sobering up - sorry, immediately recovering his equilibrium though such cases are relatively rare. 

The traumatic experiences of angling are too many and varied to list more than a few, but the following examples should serve to illustrate the commoner causes of shock:

1. He catches a record pike. 
2. He misses a record pike.
3. He catches a pike which is nothing to get excited about, but which bites his finger off.
4. He catches the first decent-sized catfish of his life, which frightens him almost to death. (Analysis of anglers' reactions to such a confrontation - that enormous mouth, those evil little eyes, those horrible waving whiskers - show that the shock to the system is the equivalent of opening the front door and finding the mother- in-law standing on the step.)
5. He catches 300lb of bream and strains himself lifting the keep net.
6. He catches 300 drams of gudgeon (a personal best) and they all swim out through the holes in the net. At the end of the day, intent on showing off his catch, he gives the net a titanic heave. And falls flat on his back.
7. He falls down the bank into ice-cold water. Not so bad if it's soft water, but very painful in hard water areas.
8. He falls down the bank, misses the nasty cold hard water and hits a nice warm rock. Unfortunately, there are no soft rocks.
9. He wins the match for his team and is beaten senseless by thumps on the back.
10. He loses the match for his team and is beaten senseless by thumps all over. Not to mention being perforated by rod rests and having ill-tempered pike stuffed down his trousers by ill-tempered team-mates.
11. He wins the match and is bought drinks all night. 
12. He loses the match and has to buy drinks all night.
13. He loses a HUGE Roach

These examples of just some of the hazards an angler faces will hopefully get him a more sympathetic reception on his return to the old homestead. You must remember that an angler in delayed shock is like a sleepwalker: on no account must he be rudely awakened or upset in any way.

Anyway to the fishing, well I fancied a Warwickshire Avon chub for this session so to the syndicate stretch forthwith. Friday afternoon was out of the question so if I didn't get out then I wouldn't get that much needed fishing fix. The sun had been strong throughout the day and it was pleasant working from the home office which is a rarity but with gear packed during lunchtime I really was desperate to go !!.

So as per the norm is seems, could I winkle out a nice chub in a couple of hours ?

Well it didn't take long you see the second swim I fished I managed a rather nice 4lber that hit the rather large piece of bread on the drop in a liquidised bread primed swim, where after that initial indication the tip jumped in to life and a hard fighting fish was on.

As the light I fished two more swims without a bite and swapped between cheesepaste and bread but it was the bread that did the business in the next swim which had also been primed. A slack right out in front looked perfect for bite and sure enough, after slowly dropping the rig in to the slack under a dim torch light, a few minutes later an unmistakable chub bite where this time I think the fish hooked itself.

It tried to get under my feet straight away but I managed to steer it away from the snags ok and it was in the net soon enough. A solid 3lber this, so well worth coming out to fish for a couple of hours.

I also wanted to try out a couple of new purchases, a cheapo <£15 LED zoom torch which is really quite ridiculous for the money. Almost like a searchlight it's that bright and the range is mad and I've bought an obscene amount of torches over the years.  

The battery on full power I'd imagine wouldn't last a huge amount of time, but still for the outlay it is cracking value. The other purchase, well that was some LED interior lamps that replace the standard bulbs in the Jimny which were not better than candlelight 😁 

Literally night and day as you can see here, the outlay, well a fiver so I'm well happy easy to fit and should give that much needed light I need when I'm loading the car after a fishing session. So another successful smash and grab session. 

There are some much bigger chub here that I've not managed to catch yet, but they are swimming around as I've seen them, so hopefully it won't be long when one will slip up and grace ones net. The river is in lovely condition at the minute I'm just hoping the expected rain will be kind to us, the count down to the close season is well on the way after all.