Warwickshire Avon - Clank-Nappers and Co-Conspirators

With my Closed Season Zander quest about to kick in again with the end of the river season soon upon us I fancied catching a river fish before having to reacquaint oneself with the poo riddled towpaths.  The quest will continue avidly where hopefully I can better my PB of 9lb and bank that elusive double.

Now this socially distanced session I'd join Nic from Avon Angling UK where I'd revisit the private stretch where the video below was filmed. 

The roach biomass here is quite incredible where feeding regularly with maggots the large shoals can provide a bite a chuck if that's you thing. 

The Zander are here too and myself and Nic have caught some nice fish here static fishing deadbaits in to dark.

Not huge ones though but usually when the light starts to go the Zed's that reside here go on the hunt and as the video showed above you can get multiple bites when the pack turns up.

I've not caught a Zander for a while and you know me, I love catching them especially on the canal so I was hoping for a fish especially as I'm confident the fish I lost just 24 hours earlier was indeed a good Zander.

There is good depth here and a clean bottom to a deadbait can be left to it's own devices knowing that it will always be in the eyeline of a hungry fish when it drifts by.

I've been using smelt almost exclusively for the Zander even on the canal but for the start of the 2021 quest I will also fish small snack-sized roach from time to time.

Zander are scavengers and will readily take anything that is in front of them if they see that it will quell their hunger. Smelt is not only highly visible but there is a cucumber fishy pungency to it which I'm sure can help a predator to home in on the bait.

The roach is a more natural quarry though and these small offerings from Online Baits  are dirt cheap 2 quid for 15 to 20 baits so for a relatively insignificant outlay when defrosted and sorted in to individual bags.

 

I've now got plenty of bait for ones upcoming canal Zander sessions where I was hoping the smaller baits might leave to more bites which my most recent canal sessions. 

Yes that's the kitchen sink, don't tell the Wife !!!!

The Zeds on this stretch of the Warwickshire Avon were all of similar size a 5lber the humdrum, a 7lber a good'un. I'd not fished here for a while though so if they were still here were had they grown to more specimen size fish ?

Well only one way to find out !!!!

After a mild spell the week before the weather this week had been pretty cold but my confidence we'd get a bite was boosted obviously with sadly the loss of a decent fish the evening before.

 
I didn't get to see the fish sadly as it snagged me up good and proper but the characterful fight Zander give is unmistakable really and I felt the 'nodding' so I'm sure I did lose a Zander 👎

I might go for a revenge mission next week as it did feel a good fish, but then having caught 7, 8 and 9 pounders on the canal you rarely will catch the same fish again in the same swim, was the river different though ?

I got to the stretch at 5.30pm and Nic was already fishing to see what would come along till he, like me would put the deadbaits out.

The conversation had barely started till his tip bent round and judging by the bent rod and a nodding tip clearly a bream was on. A good chunky fish too and gave a good flight with a river with some pace on it, some roach bites after that led to some small roach before he packed that rod away and would sit on the deadbaits to hopefully catch a Zander or three.

With dusk now here I didn't think we'd at least have a jack pike or a zander would have been nice, but no, nothing doing at all, the bobbins remained motionless well in to dark where usually we'd get a bite or two.

Still it was nice to catch up because I've been fed up of seeing the same old faces. The air temperature had dropped dramatically and Nic like me is a roving angler at heart so we called it a day and vowed to meet up on the canal in the closed season. As we were packing up with our head torches on, over at the opposite bank we spotted an otter patrolling the margins, that wouldn't have helped for sure.

Warwickshire Avon - Comperendinate and Comeuppances

One of my club cards won't be renewed for the upcoming 2021/2022 season, a club card I've had for a good while now. 

There has been highs and lows over the years I'd had it to be honest, its club waters were home to my first double figure Barbel also my first ever Bards country 5lb Chub after countless 4lbers from what became my favourite winter stretch, however this year it had been mostly lows, in-fact the lowest of the low. 

Those Warwickshire Avon stretches I used to love fishing gone off big-time which does go someway to confirm ones decision, you see the fishing has been mediocre with nothing of note caught this season and I was already questioning whether to keep hold of it . 

Then late last September one of my favourite sections of the Warwickshire Stour, in-fact the only one really I used to fish over the last few years because it was quiet for ones solitude seeking, deep in countryside and a proper wild stretch, has had been destroyed by the farmer.

Now he had been consulting with said club to improve the stretch to not only to help improve the match fishing (his words as I spoke to him whilst I was bankside), but also to "sort it out, as it had got a "little overgrown". 

This huge pile above the results of river bed dredging, just one of many along the half a mile stretch that meant this diminutive and characterful waterway ended up unrecognisable and changed beyond recognition. 

The straw that broke the camels back for me, it's not a club I wanted to be affiliated with. With an order to stop notice, the EA put a halt on the works for a throughout investigation, where once completed I assume he will get his comeuppance from the jungle drums I was hearing. 

The problem was the damage was already done, any recompense impossible because of the staggering destruction that actually took him two weeks to complete. 

How had it gone unnoticed for so long....?

Anyway back to the fishing for this session before the shredder was fired up and the card succumbed to the same fate as the thousands of swan mussels he dug out I decided to have one last visit.  There are Zander here on this stretch you see, there never used to be, but then a chance conversation with a fellow member he revealed he'd caught a couple out the weir up to a decent size.

The plan was have a short session in to dusk here before I confide it and ones mostly found memories in to the history books, I'd only regret it otherwise.  

Since then I've caught two here, nothing of note to be fair my biggest 5lb if I recall, but with the gear already in the car for a socially distance catch up with Nic from Avon Angling Uk the following evening, it would be rude not to have a last dangle. There are Zander on much of the Avon now, nothing out of the ordinary I suppose, but it's not an area that I thought would have them.

One last hurrah....?

Errrrr, not quite !!!!

Two rods one swim both with roach deadbaits. Now I'd only be bankside for a couple of hours after finishing work because the Wife had her Oxford COVID vaccine and was feeling a little rough so I wanted to relieve her from the shackles of the kid duties.

Still enough to try and winkle out a fish....

The river was up overnight with a nice green colour that looked ideal for dace or chub, a bread hook-bait colour if you will. The air temperature was 5 degrees but with the sun setting the wind picked up a little and it felt rather chilly.

As expected nothing really happened till dusk was near and after an hour without a bite suddenly the left hand rod jumped in to life, the bobbin dancing and the alarm sounding.

I removed the bobbin from the line which in hindsight wasn't the right thing to do because as I lifted the rod to feel the fish through my fingers the fish was already taking line, not just a little either, it had bolted off. When I wound in to the fish it felt decent with a couple of Zander'esk nods but then just as I thought I had it under control all went solid, damn it !!!

Clearly knowing where its escape route was it had managed to get me snagged up good and proper. With a vocal grating line after leaving it for a while sadly there was only one outcome, sadly I had to pull for a break and didn't even got to see the fish, don't you just hate that when it happens. 

It was a Zander I'm sure as Pike are usual a little more cagey when taking baits in my experience, Zander are meant to hate resistance but I've caught loads now mainly on the canal admittedly but they bite confidently I've found.

With the other rod still with a bait out when I left it was unhindered, so a blank and what could have been,  I went home with ones tail between ones legs. An extended Zander session tomorrow evening, fingers crossed I can winkle one out.

Warwickshire Avon - Liver-Eaters and Lampadephores

If you've read my blog over the years you will know I love experimenting with different baits for Chub and this session down at the handy club water I'd fish up to official dusk and a little after and I'd something new to try. 

So Tesco visited for the bait, luckily largely deserted unlike the garden centre I drove past which was full to the rafters with post vaccinated pension plunderers I'd imagine....

Remind me why the pubs are shut again ?

Liver you say, well yes....

....i'd stumbled upon a YouTube video you see from a German angler who was using Chicken Livers straight on the hook for his local loggerheads. I don't think it's anything new to honest, but still had it popped up in ones feed for a reason ?

Another bait to try for Chevin, would it work ?

Only one way to find out !!!!

Now I've used lamprey, steak, whitebait, unidentifiable Chinese meaty snacks even chunks of mackerel in the past and the latest bait to catch a greedy Chevin on was of all things, Tesco Raspberry Nipples, sorry Raspberry mushrooms.

To be honest is there anything that Chub wouldn't eat ? probably not a huge list, their insatiable appetite proceeds them. 

The advantage of chicken liver much like the steak and meet offering is that not only does it give off a smell that is attractive to the chub, but also distributes a small cloud of blood in the water, which should hopefully draw the fish to the bait.  Because this effect does not last forever, the bait should be renewed regularly. 

Still I was only here for a couple of hours so a small packet of cheapo livers should suffice.

Apparently using this method if you have to wait more than half an hour for a bite, I either have to change the bait or the spot, because most of the bites usually come shortly after being cast out.

A quick fumble with the fresh liver to trim off the nasty bits to more manageable pieces, the Wife gave me a look of discust, nothing new there I might add, but probably using the best kitchen scissors probably wasn't a good idea. 

Now when I tried whitebait which was a success by the way, it's also something different the Chub may not have seen. 

After banking a few nice fish here on cheesepaste my results have been more blanks than anything else. 

Ok the fish may not even be in the swim which doesn't help but they do wise up to baits no denying that, so why not try something different, it could well be the edge I was looking for. 

The recent drop in temperatures could well put the other fish off, but at least there is an outside chance of a Chub or two if they were around and up for a feed.

Like much of the Warwickshire Avon when the levels have dropped and its clearing coming up to dusk the fish start to move after hiding up where ever they can, out of harms way.

This swim has some nice depth and there is always chub there and I've had some decent ones over the years.

I've a dedicated chub rod these days because I've found that ok, the most determined of Chub can still hook themselves on the Barbel rod but with a more flexible quiver to pull against the lack of resistance or the less the chub feels he is less likely to eject a bait. 

If you do get snappy bites that you cannot connect to, often leaving a slack line allows the fish to feel less resistance and often it can outwit these crafty fish. 

Anyway method in ones madness ?

Well an hour without so much as a nibble as soon as the light started to go I started to get bites but then nothing new to be seen here. Anyway to cut a long story short as I've dinner to make and wine to pour, dusk came where I had two ridiculous barbel'esk bites where I pulled in to nothing. 

I think I used far too big'a pieces and wasn’t confident in the longshank hook I used. 

Club rules dictated I had to be off before a headtorch was needed as I'm sure I'd have banked something, still it was nice to chill. I will try it again next week as the bait certainly worked the rig didn’t, a smaller bait and a better hook, and somewhere I can fish in to dark what is the best chub hook again....?