The ultimate fishing chariot ?

I used to be in to my performance cars, my first car was a MG Metro, then a Metro Gti, a Toyota MR2, TVR Cerbera, Toyota AE86, Mini Cooper S, a Jaguar S type R which I owned for five years and then finally the Subaru Forester 2.5XT.

The Forester has to go this year, I've sort of fallen out of love with performance cars over the last few years and at the time the Forester seemed to tick all the boxes. I moved from Birmingham 4 years ago and I live in a semi-rural area of Warwickshire at the top of a hill where the roads are never gritted, the Subaru's 4x4 system therefore came in to its own when traction would have otherwise have been a problem.

The Jaguar was the worst though, 400hp, 400lb/ft and an open diff it just didn't move when the ground was even just remotely slippy.  When conditions were good though I drove countless times down to the bottom car park at the Leamington Anglers Association Wasperton stretch, for those that know it, it's a farm track. After getting it stuck and having to ask for assistance from the lovely Wife it was sold for the car known as Fugly.

For those that don't know the Forester is basically a jacked up impreza, so it shares the same turbo boxer engine, gearbox and AWD 4X4 system. 1400kg's with over 200hp and 230lb/ft of Torque it goes well too, less than 6 secs to 60 if you dump the clutch and give it some beans. It's a back to basic car, crude but has some decent creature comforts.

Heated seats, Sat-Nav, cruise control, heated mirrors and even heated elements under the wiper blades.  It's got good ground clearance too which has come in handy on many occasions when I've gone fishing. I changed the tyres to the Yokohama Geolander AT/S, it's an allseason tyre with a mud and snow rating and it's unstoppable when conditions get difficult. 

It's got a nice big usable boot and with the seats flat you have a bed, so hey why am I selling it, sounds like the ideal fishing rod transporter. Well not sure really, I fancy a change and the low twenties mpg can get tiresome after awhile. I turned 40 at the end of last year, I'd rather spend time fishing than on a track day, so any ideas for a suitable replacement are welcome ?

What a blanker ! - 05.01.2013

Decided to go down to Hampton Lucy Brook to try for a winter Barbel, the Avon had dropped considerably and with the previous few days being unseasonably mild there was a half decent chance I'd catch one.

The 400 yard walk down to the swim showed just how much the water had been over it's banks. This  picture shows rubbish left when the river dropped was just a few paces from the car park.

I settled in to a swim I've caught Barbel from before, the Avon is narrow here so it might be walking pace downstream at Stratford-Upon-Avon, but here, at the Brook it was motoring through still. With a boilie wrapped in paste on both rods I intended to try each swim for 45 minutes and then, if there were no bites I'd move on.

No bites or knocks at all in the first swim

Or the second....

Or third....

Or the fourth and last....

No sign at all of fish topping either, if previous trips were to go by, I'd expect at least a Chub. With some big debris wrenching one of my rods over, I called it a day.

It's starting to get cold again now and with some let-up in the rain, I intend to give the Brook a rest, hopefully it will recover and I'll be back in a couple of weeks to try for the big Perch and Chub. The Stour next weekend to try out some new swims.

Warwickshire Stour - 28.12.12

With a gap in the rainfall and the Wife talking the kids to a play barn I went for a couple of hours at Wimpstone, the Stour had dropped quite a bit in the last 48 hours so perfectly fishable , the intention was to use a small feeder full of liquidised bread with cheese paste on the hook.

It was a good 5 or 6 swims I tried before I had the first bite, a proper sharp pull of the tip that would have been hard to miss, a decent fight and a nice Chub was on the bank. No scales with me but was over 3lb. The picture below shows the swim, some slack water and some cover by the nearside bank. I stuck with cheese paste as the water was chocolate brown and with reasonable pace to the river, the bread discs probably wouldn't have stayed on the hook for long.

For December it was incredibly mild, 10 Degrees :( I want it cold, the water clear and the levels down fishes so so much better. Who knows when that's going to happen though, probably February time. Bread and lobworms for me has always been the most productive and unlike cheese paste you don't know what will end up on the end of the hook.

The heavens opened and I decided to call it a day, it was type of rain that gets you wet. That was the only fish and the only bite I had in a couple of hours, the fields were littered with flood water debris and the bridge showed the signs just how high the Stour had been, it's going to take time to get back to normal, and the fishing recover, after the Christmas pig out it was nice to be out though.

I've got a job lot of garlic spam in the fridge in the garage and as I don't go back to work till next Wednesday I might try Snitterfield Reservoir to see if anything is biting, that or as the weather has been mild and the Avon dropping I might get the Barbel gear out and ledger some garlic spam at Hampton Lucy Brook. I'll be checking the EA webpage with the Avon levels with interest, it certainly looked like it dropped quite a bit when I drove through Stratford this morning, Lucy's Mill looked as angry as ever though, maybe it's wishful thinking.

Oh and by the looks of these pictures I need to clean the lens on my camera, then again might be the stench off the maturing cheese paste causing all sorts of issues, the smell certainly has a similar effect on the wife, she hates the stuff.