Avon Chub Chasing – Guttle Shuffle

For this morning’s fish pursuit I was after big Chub, easily the greediest fish in the river and certainly not shy round the buffet. Their gluttony and pursuit of a full belly means they can be caught in the hottest of summers and the coldest of winters. They have an unmistakeable fight that makes them right up that as one of my favourite species to catch, proper scrappers and snag seekers. My PB is a mediocre 4lb 9oz, and I want to catch a Warwickshire Avon quintuple.

3lb 6oz

The Avon Chub I’ve caught are long but not as tumified as their Southern cousins, so despite catching literally hundreds of them I’ve struggled to achieve my goal, less food available, more active who knows ? Maybe I should target them exclusively for a whole winter, a carpet bombing approach so to speak. I could take to my car and find a better stamp of fish in an entirely different river and county. I prefer to catch fish on my doorstep though, it suits my limited free time and I find it more of a challenge.

They do exist because I’ve seen them and other anglers have caught them. One day last summer when the water was low and gin clear I witnessed a couple of Chub in one particular swim through my polarised cocoons that would have been closer to 6 than 5. They were easily spooked though and any hint of the presence of an angler (ie heavy footy me) or a baited rig, vamoose nowhere to be seen, gone, back to their thick cover and sanctuary. Trotting fared better than a static bait in terms of numbers of fish caught but a static bait seemed to always bring the bigger fish. Come winter time and with a bit of colour in the water though, the fish feel more confident, far less easy to spook and there is a better chance of catching a good’un.

My usual tactics were used for this session. Cheese paste, maggots and worms for hookbait, liquidised bread as feed and my favoured roving approach. Before fishing the first swim a few potential swims were pre-baited on route with marble sized cheese paste balls and these baited swims would be fished on the return. For keeping cheese paste on I tie a small hair with a bait spike attached and use a small cork ball which gives the paste something to grip on to. You get savage bites too so as a rig it work well. Size 12 hooks seem to be just about right.

No more overhang :(

As one particular swim I was planning to fish also contains Gudgeon I brought along my trusty 8ft TFG super light quiver rod with a light link ledger set-up and planned to fish a small section of worm or a couple of maggots. These were not battery wasters either as I’ve caught some right lunkers, strangely when I’ve had a large pellet out for Barbel. I’m sure there would be a possibility of clonkers of specimen proportion too as in this relatively short 20 meter stretch of river where it’s fast flowing with a bed of gravel they seem to thrive and don’t venture too far, bit like those from Southam.

Best laid plans and all that as weirdly they were not there today; the river was low and clear but had a decent flow to it. Maybe that put them off. The weather is settling down by the looks of it so with the close season fast approaching I’ll give it another go in a couple of weeks.

Blurry, a bit how my head felt after a night at the Champions.

At least the Chub were paying ball, the 2nd swim I managed a 2lber and the last swim a hard fighting one that went 3lb 6oz’s on the scales. Certainly not the best conditions to fish for big Chub but an enjoyable short session all the same.

An act of meddlesomeness….

Am I mad ?, a disappointing reccy session at Guy’s Cliffe the previous week and yet I left my warm and overly mammiferous bed at first light to trudge up a thicket riddled path to hopefully fulfil my inquisitiveness and find a roach sanctorum. To be honest I probably set myself up for a blank session as it’s been bitterly cold, fishing shouldn’t be easy though should it. I’m not one to park feet from my fishing peg from a carp plethoric pool. I prefer adventure and possible untapped big fish fortuity. (well, within <15 minutes of my house anyway ).

Old Milverton is ideal for this as a fisherman seeking detachment and remoteness from everyday life. The hamlet is situated on the bend of the Warwickshire Avon, situated upstream of the parish of Guy’s Cliffe where the swims are denser and the city sniffers more prevalent. Here the northern reaches are more barren and inhabited and don’t suit the sluggard. The only issue is the road noise from the A46, it ain’t the best.

Wintertime seemed to be the best time to tackle this stretch, I love to seek solitude, but if that means tackling 7ft nettles in the process that’s a no goer. With a couple of tearaways who need constant attention and with a limited time to fish my time is precious.

I was also hoping a longish trek in the cold would help with the grog-blossom, port and stilton the night before wasn’t an ideal belly filler for a fishing trip the next day and to be honest I didn’t feel the best but I battled on. I dreamt of big roach and dace utopia ( btw a good series on 4oD if you haven’t watched it. ) and was hoping I would find it.

Anyway back to the fishing, compared to last week I scaled down for this session, a smaller cage feeder, lower diameter line and a finer gauge hook (Kamasan B983). Lobs were exchanged for dendrobena tails and once again maggots would also be used as hookbait. As the clarity of water would likely to be pretty good I also decided to bring some 12mm diameter bread discs. Liquidised bread and maggot filled the feeder. To give myself even more chance of catching a fish I brought along a trotting set-up to try and find the fish if they were not accepting of a static bait.

The second swim produced a nice Roach of about 5oz’s on worm and the first trot through the swim on bread I caught another Roach of similar size. The swim went quiet for 15 minutes and as soon as the 15 mph winds were becoming unpleasant I decided to look for some other swims downstream. Most swims I tried produced fish but the static bait easily out fished the moving bait. In the last swim I just used the feeder rod and had 10 fish in half an hour or so, the biggest Roach went 8oz's.

Strangely I didn’t miss many bites, the B983’s doing a grand job. No big Roach for this morning’s session, or Perch for that matter, but compared to last week certainly encouraging. It’s cold again this week and with the close season getting nearer I might have a session for Chub, I’ve neglected them of late and need a proper bend in the rod.

A ruff day at the mill....

I’ve never fished the Saxon Mill stretch of the Avon before so Sunday morning was very much of a exploratory look-see. I knew the day was going to be tough as nowhere seems to be fishing any good at the minute.Even Postie Bob said a recent match down the Avon was won with a Gudgeon and a bullhead and there were ex England fishermen in attendance.

My mate Simon was in tow and the first swim we fished was opposite the infamous Guy’s Cliffe House. An historic country estate built on a cliff that is still clearly evident today.  It’s seen plenty of change in its past and today it’s a mere ruin, albeit a visually stunning one.  The estate has land as far as Blacklow Hill which was the site on an ancient settlement and location of Piers Gaveston the 1^st Earl of Cornwalls beheading.

The erected “Graveston’s Cross” stone to mark the event exists within the grounds. In more recent times the house was used as the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital in the First World War and during the Second World War as a Boys Home by the Waifs and Strays Society. Today you can visit the house for Paranormal Investigations and Ghost Hunts, it’s certainly a spooky place that’s for sure, a summer evening fishing in to dusk is certainly on the cards. I bet it’s truly haunting. 

I had liquidised bread and maggot in the feeder and decided to alternate between, bread, lobworm and maggot on the hook. Maybe trotting would have been the better option as the river hasn’t much pace to it and it was pretty clear too. The huge tree opposite the house gave suitable cover and the stone steps made an excellent seat which I assume were used in the past to ‘ferry’ people from the house over the river. There was a deep hole in the near margin so I was hoping that a Perch was lying in wait, but after an hour and a half with only a solitary bite to show for it I decided to go on a bit of a roving session. 

Some of the downstream swims looked excellent despite being fished by beer drinking Eastern Europeans judging by the discarded cans. I tried 6 or 7 swims and remained fishless. The area is a haven for dog walkers and after a Labrador helped himself to my bread and maggots I decided to try the swims upstream of the Saxon Mill, it looked very canalified but again some nice looking swims. It’s more of a trek to the swims by the looks of it and certainly as an angler who seeks solitude more my thing. I managed to winkle out a Chublet on worm before calling it a day. 

I bumped in to a Warwick angling bailiff as I was packing up and he told me about some upstream swims that were worth a try so I’ll take action on his advice. Talking about taking action, as I was making my way above the mill I walked past some novice Pike anglers who looked like they were more suited to rowing than fishing. Anyway the bailiff confirmed they didn’t have a permit.  I’m sure better signage would help as apart from the odd one it wasn’t that clear that you had to be a member of WDAA. I’ll be back, this time with a trotting set-up and bread. Jeff you know this area very well indeed, so any tips welcome.