Warwickshire Avon - The Untrodden Pt.22

Back in 2021 I had I had a suspicious looking lesion in the middle of my left cheek checked out because it had changed colour and also was starting to grow. After a referral from an online GP via video call I was off to see a dermatologist at the Nuffield in Leamington where thankfully it was nothing to worry about. It was a seborrheic keratosis which is a common non cancerous skin growth, however as us anglers spend lots of time outdoors you cannot be too careful. 

Anything suspicious get it checked out !!

So this week I had it removed by laser by Eve Clinic in Leamington because it was definitely getting bigger and more pronounced. The procedure after the initial anaesthetic went it was rather painless with only the smell of a pig on a spit when the audible laser was doing its thing was all I had to worry about. It's a bit scabby but that will sort itself out. Ok I will most likely be left with a small scar, but it looks better already to be honest, less of a quasimodo. 

The following day I was out for the evening with a mate Phippo, a fellow automotive design engineer who has taken early retirement (jammy git) and we've been frequenting various indian restaurants and pubs every few weeks for many a year now. Like me a lover of beer and the lover of spice. 

Cinnamon Arch which are now operating out of the Duck on the Pond in Long Itchington is still our favourite from when we first discovered them in the Joseph Arch pub in Barford, where they were fondly known by us as 'The Joey'. 

We'd not eaten here before which was Lavang in Solihull so we had been looking forward to this for a while as they do have a good reputation. 

Anyway before the curry we'd had a couple of Ale's in the Pup and Duckling a few doors down and also to buy some of the imperial stouts of their well stocked shelves from where we entered the vibrant and busy restaurant which is so nice to see. 

It's a small space so the tables are rather close together but to be honest that didn't overly bother me and the service was excellent, like a military operation, where every member of staff knew the task in hand. 

Many other hospitality businesses like this are finding it tough to just to make a living because that spare cash for the punter is harder to find these days with the cost of living spiralling, not helped with the various tax and business related rises to come in April. 

Most cut their cloth to suit and meals out are a luxury these days even though it's good for the soul, which for us it was out with the mango lassi palate cleanser before we ordered our food for the evening and we got onto eating the warm poppadoms and the various dips, when out of the blue my phone 'pinged' literally as my nihari lamb chops starter turned up (tasty but I'd have liked them spicier) and the waiter put down a dish of dry ice, yes really !! . The dry ice was all very dramatic at first but fizzled out like my fishing has been this year. 👀. All very Insta !! (no I haven't got an account !!).

Anyway the ping to disturb putting the world to rights was a WhatsApp message on the syndicate group from George who was fishing at the Untrodden had caught his biggest ever chub EVER, not just from the Warwickshire Avon where he managed a 5lber recently after years of trying.  This latest one went 5lb and 15 ounces and had beaten his long time PB off the Hampshire Avon which went 5lb and 12 ounces. 

A cracking fish and I no doubt will think George will get that six pounder next with the way his chub captures have been going recently, as he is definitely on a bit of a purple patch and in-fact he actually caught another PB from the River Leam after 13 years of trying, however I'll leave that for him to tell you on his blog 🤞 . The season is running out though and I've still not had a barbel for ages, even though we know there are some on this stretch to be caught. 

I have decided to get myself down to the Wye though before the season end because the weather looks fair for a few more days before the temperature drops again as we head in to next week. Sooooo little time and so much to do. I also fancy trying for a pike here before the drawbridge comes down, and George fishing meat, managed a 7lb pike on the same session. 😀 

I'm going to make changes in the new season to explore more waters and cast my net wider however this stretch will no doubt still factor in, because well, it's like our own little utopia away from prying eyes, and there just happens to be some nice fish caught to boot. It helps that I'm the closest as well, and more often than not, I've got it all to myself. 

Anyway for this session I decided to give some pimped up spam I've had on the go for a while.  Astaxanthin powder, phall curry powder and some garlic oil to hopefully tickle a barbel's tastebuds, which has been in and out of the freezer more times than Buffalo Si's deadbaits to that the flavours infuse ☺. 

Whatever happened to garlic spam anyway ? despite me and others writing to Hormel Foods Corporation they are yet to appear on the shelves again. I'm sure their share price would jump if they only took heed of the cry of help from me and other maggotdrowners. 

My standard pellet  / paste wrapped boilie approach doesn't seem to be working of late, well for the Barbel anyway, because all I seem to be catching is chub, chub and more chub. 

I've huge confidence in fishing with meat, in-fact most of the doubles I've caught and also my PB have come to the spam (other brands available)

I like catching chub as they are probably my favorite species because I catch them using various methods and they do seem to feed all year round from the hottest of days, to the coldest of winters. 

Anyway as per the norm here of late, a short session after work where I'd arrive before dusk and fish an hour in to dark which would be around 7.30pm. 

Two rods for this one, meat on one rod and boilie and paste wrap on the other with some pellets pinged in initially to get any fish in the area grubbing about. I decided to venture up to the area where I spotted a big'un and set one's stall out. It's a swim of features and if I'm going to meet something to put a decent bend in the barbel rod, it's a creature of habit I was hoping for. 

Anyway enough waffle better get fishing !!!

Well the river had that grey colour like these floor tiles and I knew I would be lucky to get a bite, and Nic was out trotting maggots on the Avon in a couple of decent swims earlier with not much to show for it. I've fished it enough to know it is likely to be bust rather than boom and after getting the rods out heading in to dusk without even a chub pull in to dark would likely be no better.

Sure enough dusk came and went and I gave it a good go well in to dark but nothing materialised whatsoever. The fish were definitely putting their fins up and to be honest what I should be doing, so with the wind picking up I decided to head home and get one with the fishes with this rather nice stout. 

Warwickshire Avon - Voyeurs and Volumenometers

It may seem I fish a lot looking at this blog, but the reality is my sessions are often short ie 2-4 hours, with 5 hours at a push. Little and often works for me because to be honest I struggle to sit behind motionless rods waiting for that bite which some sessions dictate. 

Fishing at the right time and the right conditions for a particular species can often pay dividends and arrive a couple of hours before dusk like I did for this session, you're often in prime bite time. Those that say they haven't time for fishing, have a word with yourselves !! for me I need that fishing fix to keep on the straight and narrow. 

I'd not fished this club water, well in this area anyway for a good while but it's usually good for a bite so I wanted to see what I'd been missing if anything ? A couple of anglers were just leaving as I arrived and I don't think they did any good, well they certainly were not forthcoming with any information !!

Unlike my old house in Birmingham thankfully no blatant exhibitionists to be seen here !!, just some nice fish to catch, as fishing opposite houses is not ideal as your effectively looking in peoples windows. The fish seem to like it here however and I've caught plenty of barbel in years gone by here.  😁. They are the odd one or two flitting about but they are certainly not in the numbers 'barbel alley' once had.

A proper lovely sunny day again it was too, so I was surprised after setting my stall out and pinging in a few pellets with a couple of pellets on the hair I had my first chub pull. I thought that would materialise into a fish eventually but didn't until I changed to a boilie and a paste wrap which was nailed by a fish after a few minutes of being out. That was quick !!, maybe they had been on the Carling. 

I knew it was a chub and a decent one too but it was soon in the landing net using the 1.75TC Harrison Barbel rod. A lovely really stocky fish of 4lb and 7 ounces around 15 minutes of getting there. Happy with that !!!

I got the rod back out after returning the fish upstream and again after pinging in some pellets the rod top was starting to nod with another bite. I struck in to another solid fish, this one taking some line and giving me the run around. Another chub, this one far bigger than the first fish and went 5lb and 8 ounces on the scales. 

This one built like a brick out house, not far off 60cm's in length and felt a decent fish as soon as I lifted the landing net. It felt cold when the sun disappeared and dusk came and oddly apart from a few more sharp twang's on the rod top, that 3 foot twitch never materialised. 

Curfew had arrived and I'm sure I'd catch another chub if rules were not an issue, but to be honest with around 2 hours fishing I was happy with that. The chub seems to have a different statue down this neck of the woods, however because there is regular matches on here they do see more bait that than the stretches I usually fish.

I was in two mind to renew this book in the new season as I've only fished it a handful of times, but it could be getting back to some form and it's Soooo convenient and so much to go at it would be stupid not to really. It's certainly on my radar again anyway, happy days !!. 

Warwickshire Avon - The Untrodden Pt.21

A dawn roving session, two missed bites in the same swim where on the second missed bite, the hook comes back with a rather large scale. Damn It !!!

Still the sun came out and stayed out, and despite the lack of action I stayed till curfew time because it was just sooooooooooooo nice out there. Kites and Kingfishers and Kangaroo's (ok maybe the latter was an exaggeration), heck even the noisy planes stayed away for this session where I finished up at 11.00am.

It's just nice to be out sometime isn't it, from a misty frosty start to full on blue skies and sun. It felt great just to be alive !!!

Shame the fish didn't play ball !!!