Warwickshire Avon - Holy Polony

With a smattering of rain recently there was a much welcomed tinge of colour to the river, it even looked up a gnat’s nadger, fantastic. There wasn’t anything scientific for this session I had come and geared up for Barbel. Two rods, some dampened sonubaits cheesy garlic pellets and some hemp and fishmeal groundbait for the feeder. Bait on the hair was a big lump of garlic spam, tactics well there were none really, just sit back and wait for the rod to properly hoop over.

Spam (the garlic variety particularly) has always been one of my favourite baits for Barbel, they just seem to love the stuff.....

In this short 3 hour session I planned to fish to dusk to give me a better chance of a fish, certainly the areas of the Avon I frequent most captures especially the bigger fish have been in heavily coloured water or when the light has started to go, the smaller fish I’ve found happy to feed in any conditions but the better stamp of fish definitely feed more confidently when they are less likely to be seen. One of the prime times is as soon as the bats start leaving their roosts to feed on everything flying; now therein lies the problem as their echolocation could do with a brush-up as they are forever hitting my line, the amateurs. Stick with it though, ignore the short twangs and knocks, and just wait for the rod to leave the rest, the classic and unmissable Barbel bite.

My PB Barbel is 11lb 11oz which is half decent especially when it was caught in a narrow snaggy swim and put up a cracking fight, but there are certainly Warwickshire Avon fish far bigger than that to be had. I’ve mentioned it before but last season I’d hooked a Chub in the shallows and whilst playing the fish a Barbel swam out from under an overhanging tree and proceeded to meander upstream amongst the thick streamer weed, that fish took my breath away, a real sight to behold, such an impressive specimen. 

Best laid plans and all that because despite fishing till 10.30pm all I caught were Chub, lots of them too so I actually ran out of bait, they loved the stuff. Even doubling the hair length they would still eventually hook themselves. I must have had a least 10 or 11 Chub and even removing the feeder on one of the rods and fishing the meat rolling style in the flow didn’t make any difference I still caught Chub, they were properly on it this evening. The biggest was a mediocre 3lb 10oz or so. The swim was littered with plump black slugs so I did think about using one of those for the hook, but Chub love them, and I didn't want a Chub.

Luckily Ibiza’s Cafe Del Mar the weekend will give me valuable thinking time, I’m Chubbed out

Warwickshire Avon - The wanderer returns

I was very tentative for this session, a stomach bug the previous weekend had knocked me for six and I still felt drained and knackered and not entirely in the mood for fishing. For some much needed fresh air and bank time I decided to travel as light as possible with a tub of lobworms and not much of a plan. The rivers are not the best at the minute, with conditions tough, very low and clear and in need of a top up, so even a bend in the rod would be nice.

I had planned to fish the weir at the brook because of the oxygenated water but the surface looked like the worlds biggest bubble bath and also the farmer and his helpers were planting meters from it, hardly peaceful. There are decent Perch in this stretch but there needs to be a tinge of colour otherwise the bigger fish are nowhere to be seen. This is probably the clearest I've seen it in a long time. 

I fished 5 different swims with plenty of small Perch and chublets with the biggest fish 3.5lb Chub that fought well in the clear water. 

I'm gradually getting back in to the swing of things but this weekend it will be the lads annual pilgrimage to Ibiza with beer and tapas at the Cafe Del Mar, hopefully the rivers will be better nick for when I return.

Warwickshire Avon - Betty Swollocks and the Wrong C

With the weekend’s river carp session a bit of a washout and the lovely weather returning, 19 degrees warmer in fact compared to a few days ago (34 degrees and too hot for me). For this short evening session I decided to return the lily pad sanctuary to see if the carp were more active and hopefully were revealing themselves. The plan was to use a bait dropper to deposit a bed of maggot, wax worms, pellet and broken boilie in the ‘blinkers on’ swim where the last session I’d spotted a couple of carp and then fish a sleeper bolt rig set-up with a hi-viz corn topped cell boilie on the hair.

A float laid on the lilies with breadflake or lobworm on the bottom would usually be my stalking / exciting method of choice but the amount of small fish attacking the hookbait last weekend was a sight to behold, it was a of non-starter. The swim was chocker as within 5 minutes of the large piece of flake resting on the bottom the greedy little blighters would have attacked it so vigorously it would break away from the hook and return to the surface. A lobworm just resulted in little Perch. The boilie could be left without issue and would be a waiting game.

The main rod was a water weighted bubble float with a highly visual piece of bread crust on the hook which would be coaxed down the stretch amongst  the flow and flowering nymphaeaceae, to try and coax them out chum mixer would be used as loose feed.

To accompany me on the trip my mate Simon was ditched for a couple of small cans of Fursty Ferret...it was f’ing hot and humid one that’s for sure. 

With the bait dropper sorted I set the sleeper rod and went for a wander. This time after throwing some dog biscuits out a few carp were milling about and they even had their backs out of the water, as quick as they turned up though they disappeared. Again wait and watch and they will eventually give their location away. As I was crouching down I even spotted a couple of carp which looked about 7lb literally next to my feet, you’ve have even possibly have scooped them up if you were quick enough.

At 8.45pm with an hour or so left I eventually found a couple in the middle of the stretch, there was a gap in the reeds and also it was less suicidal as it wasn’t as thick with lilies. After a couple of missed takes (me being premature) I positioned the bubble float on a lily pad and watched and waited with my hands under my legs. Sure enough a huge disturbance in the water and a fish was on, it had hooked itself on the weight of the bubble float. This was a decent carp, the water is incredibly clear and it looked a mid double and a dark as you like common, it looked a fantastic river fish. After a few lunging runs I felt I had it under control until it went for a one last dive for cover, I had to give it some gip and then the ‘bang’ the fish was off, you f****** w***** as I threw the rod down. Upon inspection the knot had failed at the swivel, nearest the rod tip. I cannot remember the last time I had a knot failure, a nightmare.

For the last half an hour I moved to the end of the swim and fed dog biscuits and bread. Initially small fish were topping but then a few larger fish had moved in. Again I positioned the bubble float on a lily and waited and watched. It didn’t take long either for a fish to engulf all the bread and a fish was on. It was a Chub, sadly the wrong C.

It was nice to catch it off the surface but being over gunned for a Chub it didn’t have much of a chance. I didn’t bother weighing it but it looked 3.5lb or so. I left with a wet net and another ‘the one that got away story’ to be added to my ever growing collection.

Back to the drawing board. They ain't easy these carp, but I've caught one before so I will spend more hours targeting them. I've not given up yet. Sadly it's going to be next week now as I'm looking after the kids all weekend. Incidentally not even a beep on the sleeper rod.