Warwickshire Avon - Chuckle-Heads and Chionophiles

I was pondering where to go where to fish the other evening over one the easiest cocktails to make. A cocktail that I first had in Ibiza and have been drinking ever since. A little like my fishing, I don't want anything too complicated, simpler the better.

Over recent times the Caipirinha. has become globally famous and its main component is the Cachaça, a brandy distilled from juice of sugar cane in Brazil.

Now this is a cocktail with a strong character, who likes it… loves it, and who does not like it, probably detest it. The preparation is very simple

Brown sugar, Limes, Crushed ice and Cachaça
 
Put some brown sugar and lime wedges on the bottom of the glass and crush gently with a mortar until the lime juice and sugar mix  Then fill the glass of crushed ice until the top. It only remains to add the cachaça to taste. (75ml measure for me)

Now Sam couldn't be more different than me as a chionophile, you see when the weather turns colder given the option of joining his Dad fishing on the banks of a river, his first thoughts would be, not what fish he is going attempt to try and catch but sadly how blue will his nose become, or how much will his fingers hurt.

He loves his bed more than his mother, so trying to coax him out of it to go fishing when he is literally welded to the duvet is nigh on impossible.

 It doesn't help either his ever multiplying army of teddies compounding the issue where they won't release their grasp either.

I remember a session a few years ago now  where little Sam regretted joining me for a meet up with fellow Zed Heads at a meet up at Hawkesbury Junction. 

As soon as he got out of the warm car in to an icy cold canal towpath I could see the thoughts going through his head within seconds. 

After a good hour or two bless him, despite wrapped up to the nines and the sun cutting through the early frost, he really wasn't enjoying it so we made our goodbyes and cut the session early. It didn't help that the fish weren't playing ball, because that might have made the difference, and a welcome distraction from his cold pinkies.

However with the weekend temperatures much milder than than in the week there was a window of opportunity to take a visit to the gonk swim(s). 

You see he likes nothing more than I do having a chilled session catching these little bold biters and Sam had be asking me if the weather was going to improve because he really wanted to go..."I have't been for ages have I Daddy"

Now talking of Gonks, after a request by myself Brian from Pike Blog and Prawnsoda Design kindly did what he does so well and knocked up another one of his fantastic designs, so Brian now offers a 'Mighty Gonk' option, and I expect Father Christmas is wrapping Sam's up as I'm writing this.

I'm an engineer by trade and ones brain works in a much different way to Brian's as I wish I had an artistic part of it that would kick in once in a while. 

I work with automotive designers almost on a daily basis and I've watched them sketch in meetings and have always wondered, "how the heck do you do that", they are wired differently for sure. I work in straight lines sadly and not much I can do about that.

I no good with a felt-tip but I can catch fish though and this area of the Warwickshire Avon has always held some nice Gudgeon and the odd Gonk and year after year they are always around in half decent numbers which is encouraging. 

We have fished for them with the float and the quiver but the quiver not only seems to bring out the better fish, but the bites are more exciting. 

'Zen Master'

They don't mess around when hovering up the maggots with a light tip the bites are almost Barbel like in their boldness. Most swims here to be fair hold Gudgeon but one in-particular went from the "bleak swim" to the "Gonk Swim" when one particular session we couldn't fail to catch them, it was fish after fish till we got bored. 

Maggots cleaned up and that's what we would fish for this short 2 and a bit hour session.

Now my rig for them couldn't be simpler, a John Roberts big bore ledger bead holds the link with few small shot and a XL float stop with the same diameter means that the rig can be fished fixed or running. 

There is no hooklink so simply the hook is tied on to the mainline. The beauty of this rig is that by moving the float stop up or down the line you can vary the distance from shot to hook, allowing you to fish tight to a snag for example.

Anyway enough rambling to the session...

The small roach were biting ok in the first swim and after about 4 or 5 fish the quiver banged in to life and a fish was on. "Daddy it's a BIG FISH, it's a BIG FISH* as the fish carted to the left towards some snags Sam was on top of it and we saw it surface within a few seconds, "It's a BIG CHUB, BIG CHUB"

As soon as it realised it was hooked though, all hell broke loose and another powerful run towards the same snag meant Sam had to apply as much side strain as he could muster. The palm of his hand on the drum of the centrepin to act as the clutch I thought might be enough to restrain it.

But no, sadly not, you see not long in to the fight one more lunge the hooked pulled and it came back straightened. Sam was as gutted as I was as this would have easily been his biggest Chub, and probably not far off mine.

After that loss his enthusiasm wavered for a while especially as he was feeling the cold, however a walk to another swim to warm up a little the first drop of the double maggot on the size 16 hook the small roach and tiny dace were biting. Still after no Gudgeon showing which was the target, Sam crossed his fingers and sure enough not long after one of the smallest Gudgeon we have ever caught. 

A happy boy in the end though and that fish we ended the session a little early. The target species either not there, or not up for a feed.

The river was up and with only a few inches of visibility maybe the conditions were against us, but another fishing session ticked off with Sam and in the main he enjoyed it. Still gutted he lost the Big Chub though but that's fishing for you, we will go geared up for one properly next time.

Warwickshire Avon - Vulcans and Villeggiatura

Now the seasons are a result of the 23.5 degrees of tilt of Earth's rotational axis in relation to its orbit around the Sun. 

This tilt means that throughout Earth's orbit around the Sun which is our calendar year, certain areas of the globe are tilted towards the Sun, while other areas are tilted away from it.

This creates a difference in the amount of solar radiation or sunlight that reaches different parts of the Earth, therefore creating the global cycle of fluctuations that we know as the seasons. 

The problem is finding the time to fish in the winter because work gets in the way doesn't it, the summer couldn't be more different as it stays light to late, in the winter it's dark at 4.00pm. 

However it's not often I find myself in the predicament of where to fish for an extended session, but after an enjoyable few hours targeting roach for a few hours last weekend they were one of the targets again. 

My working day came to an end at midday you see so I hotfooted it bankside where unusually for me I'd be contained to the same swim. Some nice plump roach were caught, some bigger ones around ?

However this would be a bit of double dipping, I'd have a Pike sleeper rod out just in front of me and then as the light went I'd fish a lump of cheesepaste to try and catch a chub. 

I've not caught huge Pike here, but I've had them over double figures and also the Chub are decent too, a 5lb not uncommon and I'm sure there are bigger fish here to be had.

It's a nice uniform depth you see 4 to 7 foot the norm and with it being deeper in places when the weather turns cold it's always a reliable place to get a bite or two. 

I fished the feeder last time, but with the river at a lower level for this session where the water reached 0.9m at the monitoring station at Stratford the chosen swim would be less turbulent so I decided to fish the waggler instead.

Liquidised bread, a smattering of hemp and red maggots as feed, and this time rather than worms a small piece of bread or a couple of red maggots on the hook. I had a few lobs as back-up but smaller baits would feature mostly. 

Also a smattering of roach flavouring would add some flavour to the dry the bread but it would also wet it down a little so it was easier to deposit in to the swim. 

The ever reliable smelt as bait for Pike and the plan was to fish for the roach till I couldn't see my float, then I'd fish an hour and a bit in to dark with a lump of ones pungent cheese paste on, a reliable bait for big winter Chub is there ever was one.

Now it was predicated to be cloudy for the whole day and it's amazing how fishing can change in these sort of conditions. I've been struggling for bites in certain sessions I can remember however when clear skies are taken over by a blanket of cloud and you can actually feel the air temperature rise, out of the blue the float dips or the quiver starts quivering on the sight of stratus, stratocumulus and nimbostratus.  

Guarantee a Barbel bite, nimbostratus is your man 👌

So best laid plans and all that....how did I get on ?

Well what a cracking little session it was, there was a cormorant feeding when I got to the river so it took a while to get things kicked up but eventually the fish started to bite. The small roach as always seem to turn up first but keep on feeding the better stamp arrive on mass and it's a bite a chuck.

I thought this session will be like the last but then out of the blue a decent fish was on, this wasn't a roach, at first I thought it might be a chub or even a perch but no, a decent bream. 

It gave a pretty good fight on light float tackle and the bream here seem much different than the humdrum. Very light indeed and actually a bream strain I don't mind catching.

3 more came along in and amongst the roach that were all a similar size. I'd have amassed a decent weight at the end of the session if I had a keepnet. A small pike was landed around 6 or 7 pounds but that was it for the predators sadly. 

The river was nice and coloured and over 6 degrees but they didn't seem to be around today.

I packed most of the tackle up just before dusk and fished well in to dark to try and catch a chub. I've found cheesepaste a brilliant bait for them to home in one, but no, not even a bite let alone a fish. 

Still it was an enjoyable session and a road closure meant I had to drive past the Vulcan which is always a pleasing sight. The cormorants seem in ridiculous number at the minute. Lots of low flying individual birds but then also in big groups.  

So where to go, what to do next, decisions decisions. The river is in fine fettle at the minute, but I fancy a decent Pike and might try something a little off the wall for them and also as it's milder the weekend I might take out Sam for a gonk session.

Chub are still on the radar though so might wait to go in the week for those because I had a great session well in to dark not long ago and I fancy a 6lber which is my target now a 5lber has been and gone.

(Not Quite) The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.169 - Callipygians and Cathisophobia

Not my first choice this time of year trudging a rather wet and muddy canal towpath but it was about the only fishing choice I had available to me. The rivers you see were in a pretty rubbish state with the levels rising overnight it was bad enough trying to fish effectively 24 hours earlier. 

Still you know I like my canal Zander fishing if you've been reading my blog and the quest for a cut double continues, I'm sure I will eventually manage one because hopefully effort equals reward.Why not have a well deserved lie-in bed instead, errrrr no thanks, that's not for me.

Now the weather report said it was going to be dry for this short morning session and much colder, but they couldn't be more wrong as it rained the whole time I was there and felt much milder too. 

I do enjoying walking the canal towpath and leapfrogging sections of cover like I do because not only is it some welcome fresh air, but working from home ones steps are pretty mediocre this time of year. 12k steps down at the end of the session it just goes to show how much walking is involved.

You would think like many fish Zander would not be up for a feed in these brass monkey conditions but I've found providing you've managed to find the fish they are up for a nibble. 

That is half of the problem as they don't tend to move much but not is all lost because if you think about it when the weather is testing roving around to find the fish is a good way of keeping warm. The second biggest canal Zander I caught was after a hard overnight frost and I've managed schoolies when snow has covered the banks, you're mad, errrr yeah !!!!

You can tell they are laying up because they are covered in leeches when you catch them so they are waiting around for a meal to come to them, rather than up for a chase.

My usual set-up for this short trip, tackle to a minimum which allows moving from one area of cover to the next without any cumbersome lugging of gear.

There is nothing worse than roving when you've far too much gear and over time I've reduced my gear down to a level where you don't really notice an extra weight. I've compact rods, a small landing net handle and a net just about fit for a 10lb canal Zander. Even the shoulder bag is stripped down to the bare essentials because to catch canal Zander and decent ones, roving is the key.

If you've not had a bite in the swim after 10 / 15 minutes it's time to move on and if you're loaded up like a cart horse believe you me all that gear will start to test your resolve after a short while.

Now the colour of the canal changed quite considerably over the distance that I travelled, it went from an almost milky white colour to clear. In-between mind you there were a couple of chocolate brown areas that seemed to coincide with some overflows dumping a load of coloured water straight in to the drink.

It was those areas I concentrated on in the main but swim after swim, cover after cover there was nothing doing at all. I rarely blank when using deadbaits, it was an off day for sure.

Now this is an area that has been very kind to me, ok not the area that has produced a 9lb and a 8lb 10oz fish but I've had a couple of 7lbers and quite a few fish over 5lb. When I started this quest I didn't realise just how tasking it would be, because believe you me fish over 5lb are rare as rocking horse poo.

They can turn up almost anywhere though so there isn't really any science to catching the specimens, it really is time on the towpath.

So 4 hours in without a bite it was time to head home. The only highlight I managed to haul out this and the gear stood up no problem. Shame it wasn't a Zander that tested the set-up to its limits. No boats, a couple of walkers, a couple of joggers one with a derriere that would stop a narrowboat in the track, a proper jaw dropper it was eerily quiet out today.

I do love this sort of fishing though and although flowing water is a preference, the closed season means I get to do this even. I wouldn't say I wish I could fast forward to March because that's not the case, but I do feel at home on the towpath, you only have to see how many sessions I've ticked off to confirm that.

A dull day, and a fruitless session but at least I did the lure anglers a favoured and hauled out the lure loser. I gave a usually productive swim a good 20 minutes on the way back to the car but not even a nudge or a bob.

The banks are very baron at this time of year though so the usual areas that hold fish because of the thick cover no longer do. If I'm forced in to another session any time soon, I'll visit an area that usually sees less attention from the cack handed contractor hackers from the canal and rivers trust, I've not seen a Zander for a while, I've missed them.