Warwickshire Avon - Nodders and Nychthemerons

This McEwans Champion ain't a bad drop, for a dark beer it's a strong'un too at 7.3% but without the overly sweet taste that others of this ilk can possess. With all these 'craft' type beers that are appearing on the supermarket shelfs these days this 500ml bottle can be bought from your local Tesco for the pricey sum of £1.49. 

Apparently brewed specifically as a competition entry, then going on to take first place, Champion was the obvious name for this outstanding premium beer that to be honest is hard to fault. 

Pours a clear caramel reddish brown, with a finger plus of tan head. Good retention, sheets of lacing. The aroma is toasty and a touch sharp, caramel malts, some light fruitiness.

I had a couple the evening before this fishing session with a glass or two of red wine where a nice log fire and some binge watching of the New BBC series 'The Terror' with the Wife, really was very enjoyable indeed.

The amount of recognisable actors in this new series is frankly quite staggering, jobs for the boys for sure.

Frozen and isolated at the end of the earth it's a chilling tale based on one of polar exploration’s deepest mysteries, with a crew stalked by a murderous presence. 

With 4 episodes down already it won't take us time to get through it, but still, I don't watch a huge amount of TV if I'm honest, but this was certainly palatable to ones viewing pleasure.

There was no obvious sign on how this fox died but I discovered it when I was on route to one of my favourite swims on the river Alne.

Half an hour in without a bite all I could think about was this unfortunate fox and decided to up-sticks altogether and switch river to the Warwickshire Avon. I only had my light trotting gear with me but with the Alne a rather lifeless widdle in this cold March morning I needed some bites.

This stretch of the Warwickshire Avon has been good to me in the past where I've caught some decent Perch, Pike and Chub but there are decent shoals of roach here and also bream so they were my target.

The Avon had lost some colour in 24 hours and it was a nice tinge of green with around 6 inches of visibility, but feed maggot you will get the fish feeding and when you do there are plenty of them.

I chose a swim with decent depth where I spotted some topping fish and the float was running through rather lovely indeed.

A cormorant had already been enjoying himself further upstream and I don't think it liked that I was there to spoil the party. Still I was here to catch fish as well so I'm sure he had his quota looking at the size of it, it really was massive and I was surprised how easily it took to flight.

This little selection of roach caught in around 40 minutes, the bites coming thick and fast and the maggots were depleting at a rate of knots.

2 Pike strikes from jacks I presume because they didn't feel particularly big but enough to bite through ones 3.5lb hook length. Shame I had geared up for the Alne as I'm sure I would have caught one by design. I was catching the roach by feeding maggots but I also fed some groundbait at the tail end of the swim where the river lost some of its pace.

As I said there are bream here and het them feeding you will know soon enough. I manage to catch 2 rod tip nodders and usually they put up a fight but not this morning, a rather lame affair if I'm honest. Still unlike many anglers I don't mind catching bream especially when the strain they reside here are very distinctive with the bronze, almost golden glow.

A session that was required I think having found it tough recently but with the season coming to an end next weekend hopefully I will manage a few more sessions on running water before I switch to fishing the canals for Zander. 

Warwickshire Avon - Parapsychology and Paroemiographers

The hard overnight frost didn't put me off because I've caught decent Zander when it has been cold, very cold in-fact.

This would be a roving session with two deadbait rods and the exercise contributing to ones Twik points for the #Polestarchallenge. 10,000k steps was covered in this 4 hour session dropping in to likely looking fish holding swims.

So many people think fishing is sat on ones backside and eating Cornish pasties whilst waiting for a bite. For many yes, but this pursuit of ours contributes a lot to my weekly exercise.

The river had risen and had coloured up quite considerably but much like the turbid canals I fish for Zeds I'm sure if I could drop on one it would readily take the bait.

The largest Warwickshire Avon Zander I've caught was in similar conditions to this but 3 swims down without a nibble this could well be a tough'un.

Fishing can surprise you though so I was here I might as well just get on with it. I've even caught jackpike when the river has been coloured so a Pike could well be a blank avoider.

I've not caught a river Zander for a good while but then I haven't really fished for them this season having chosen other species to concentrate my efforts on.

It's a big water this, maybe that doesn't help because I do prefer to fish smaller river and streams because, well it's just my thing.

Roach on one rod smelt on the other 2 hours in I was wondering why I left a warm bed to walking a muddy river well below freezing.

There were a few anglers braving the conditions though, fair play to them I thought I'd have the banks to myself again. 2 guys trotting and another predator angler who after a biteless hour and a good natter when he passed me switched allegiances and up-sticks and went to fish the canal instead. 

Maybe I should have joined him because 3 hours in without even a nibble the fish were just not having it.

I travel light though so I decided to go above the weir in the deeper swims that also have lots of cover to fish tight to. One swim had quite a bit of activity to with some fish topping. I even disturbed what I think was a carp that I think was holding up right under the staging.

Having lost a Zander (99% sure) recently, blanked with Nic on a usually productive stretch and then now this session I was getting a little bored with it all.

Still I couldn't do anymore, that's fishing for you, you cannot catch a fish if you haven't a bait in the water. It was some solitude away from a noisy household though, sometimes that is all I need to recharge the batteries and feel good with the world again.

A blank !!!!

The Tiny River Alne - Aberuncators and Arborists

The Alne can be a tough little river but catch it right, the odd bite here and there to a red latter day. The more I fish it the more I learn about it. Baits too, bread can do the business one day, fish the same way the following the day they are not interested. 

The levels and colour obviously have an effect but then I've had cracking days when it's tea coloured and then fish it again with the same amount of teabag dunking, not a sausage.  

There is no denying they do like worms, big'uns too. A recent session here using a size 6 hook and a half a lobworm I had a brilliant session especially for the dace where all but one were over 5 ounces.

The biggest went 7 and I'm sure there are some better ones to be had here so this session with Sam by my side was the first of a couple I had planned over the weekend. 

I rarely use groundbait as I generally loose feed but I had the small feeder rod with me to see if a change in tactics again would again alter the fishing to my favour.

We didn't have any lobworms but ones womery has had an explosion of worms recently so I collected a few of them and would fish a small worm and a maggot on the hook.

Again another tough session this minnows seemed to be a problem which haven't be an issue before. The groundbait having an effect I don's know, but they were big enough and fat enough to register a decent bite on the 0.25oz quiver tip.

The dace didn't show at all but the chub did. Sam landed this 1lb fish after it gave him the run around but the same couldn't say for me because I took the reigns for one bite and a 3lber took me all over the swim and ended up getting in to the cover to my left and the small hook pulled.

The bites dried up so we did go on the rove for a while but again the bites from any fish were hard to come by. Even fishing the fast water I thought maybe I'd catch a dace or even a trout but no it was very tough session indeed.

Sam is generally fine on the whole if we are getting bites but he soon gets bored and you know when it's time to think about leaving when he takes to the trees or splashing in the puddles.