Warwickshire Avon - Billysticks and Buckminsterfullerene

I'm very lucky indeed with much of the Warwickshire Avon I fish within the Stratford-Upon-Avon district 5 to 7 miles door to door. It means not only can I justify it in the travel restricted lock-down, but it means I can have spur of the minute sessions like this one with the drop of ones peaked beanie hat.

Now I was on this stretch in the week and the chub seem to have made a comeback, however the sun was particularly bright and high in the sky for this mid-afternoon, so a static bait may not be the best option.

Now I've used this truncheon float with success in the past, a large hook, a lump of luncheon meat or a chunk of breadflake. Often the fish are tucked away be can still be caught as they are less suspicious with a bait moving past their noggin's.

For this session a loaf of Warburtons Blue liquidised as feed with a 6 or 7 slices kept for the hook. Bread is such a visual bait for the sight feeding chub esepcailly 

The colour looked perfect for bread when I saw the river so I hot footed it to a swim I've fished before, a swim where the middle is steady, the far side pacey and the end of the swim which is a decent trot it shallows up.

There isn't much science to this type of fishing, feed some liquidised bread from time to time to try and get fish in to the swim and simply fish a large piece of bread on the hook which hopefully should be their downfall.

Nothing much happened for half an hour or so but I changed my line a little to when the river was a little deeper. This was the change that was needed because two trots down the float buried and the first chub was on.

It was hooked at the tail end of the swim though and in decent flow the fish give a great fight with the rivers current aiding their attempted escape.  I dread to think what a 5lb Barbel would feel like in this flow, probably something 4 times the size. 

I lost two fish in this two hour session, one where the hook pulled and the other when it got under the platform and broke off when the hook pulled when the line grated on the scaffolding.

I still managed to bank 4 fish though, this being the biggest I could managed, not a huge fish as caught a 5lber the swim just up from here in the week but it was a bit of a bruiser though and fought far better than its size suggested.

A short session because I had to pick one of the kids up from school, but well worth it though despite the wind which was gusting up to 30mph or so.

The previous few days really have been rather wild and it is set to continue before the season end. I'll still be out though Saturday and Sunday before the canal Zander quest kicks in again, now where to go what to do, decisions decisions.

Warwickshire Avon - Sociocracy and Sock Puppets

The pandemic has been a lesson in solitude.....

....our social circles have become parties of one, with technology the only real option for social interaction, and for many like me having to work from home (and don't like it) often thoughts lead on to the depths of the disordered mind.

Angling for me has always been a place to forget about the daily drudgery and noisy family life, where Microsoft Teams doesn't have its foot in and the background noise largely under my control.

A pursuit which not only has enabled me to seek an ever increasing need for 'me' time but more recently 'beyond the real life people', I also learned to appreciate nature even more than what I did. 

The very individual sounds of bird song in the morning when bankside for a dawn assault for the Dace, the way that the character of each Robin couldn't be more different, the differing sun rises and the sun settings, that distinctive sound of a fox breaking wind, those ambient sounds are amplified when waiting for a bite, and believe you me I do lots of waiting.... 

Simple things like that have made me enjoy fishing even more, which at the moment is every couple of days since the releasing of the shackles of the third lockdown. 

Eat, Sleep, Teams, Repeat !!!! 

Thankfully the no fishing didn't last long with the lobbying of the Angling Trust so there was a way out for me though to keep me firmly on the railroad, anglers are lucky we can still partake in our pastime, albeit locally. 

Anyway back to the task in hand, a break in the stormy weather, a small window of opportunity on a stretch where my membership will not be renewed, where ones blog will the only contact I'd have with it going forward. 

I lost a fish in the weir here you see, and it felt a decent fish too and I'm confident it was a Zander. I hate it when you lose decent fish but clearly you have to admire this fish as it knew what it was doing. 

Within seconds it had picked up the roach deadbait having probably realising it's fate and it motored off with it and snagged me up before I could say "For Gods Sake !!!!" or words to that effect. 

Now my reactions probably weren't the best if I'm honest, the flotsam deposited on the bed of the weir that ultimately became my downfall and that led to the fish escaping, now fresh in my mind.

With a little more water on, to be honest the weir was out of bounds really and probably not a bad thing as if I hooked it again I wouldn't want a repeat of the event now would I, I'd never forgive myself. 

So I decided to fish a swim a few swims downstream where close in has some deeper areas. Roach deadbait again but both would be suspended under floats. 

I prefer fishing floats for predator bite registration as you know exactly what's going on under the water by the visual movement of the sensitive float. 

This time though I'd try out the night floats I'm trying down the canal for the Zander in my double quest. Now these all the way from the Far East illuminate green normal but when a bite develops they flash red to register the fish interest. 

I like to travel as light as possible so no bite alarms or focusing torches and the automatic bite activation if it worked properly would mean less effort trying to focus on what the heck is going on in front of me. 

So will I miss this water ? well if nothing is picked up for this session, probably not. 

It's a nice swim this only a stones throw from the weir and off the main current there is a nice large slack where I've had a Zander before, this one below a 4lber caught on a bleak live bait. 

Now the walk down to the river was interesting as the weather was very wild indeed. Strong winds and a 10 minute shower where it threatened to hail. 

The rainbow was incredible though, the vibrancy nothing like I'd seen before. I was at the right time and the right place though as it only lasted like it for 10 minutes or so.

You unscrew the top of the float and connect the battery easy enough and the float has a nice glow to it. White isn't the ideal colour when it's light though, red being the better option, still these were intended for in to dark sessions only.

I had a bite within half an hour on the left hand rod whilst it was still light, the float bobbing like a good'un the float flashing red to indicate a fish had picked up the bait.

It carted off to the right straight in to the flow and the float submerged, when I lifted in to the fish though it didn't feel much weight at all, as I was bringing the fish towards me after a few seconds it let go of the bait and the fish was off.

An inspection of the bait clearly a tiny jack pike with eyes bigger than its belly. The baits went back out with the floats glowing nicely, the floats moving round the swim doesn't set the floats off, a jolt against the grippa stop would, on the canal would be perfect.

Dusk arrived, dusk gone, no more bites sadly, this stretch now confined to the archives. 

Warwickshire Avon - Metabolites and Metoposcopy

The wind was picking up big time after this session down at the Warwickshire Avon. I wanted to try liver out again you see and fancied a decent Chub before the season ends, because well, I've not caught a decent Chevin in ages. 

Unlike the unbelievable cost of the NHS track and trace system 25 Billion so far 😮 (anyone still got the app on their phones ?) chicken liver is as cheap as chips and from time to time it's nice to fish an honest bait, a bait that is not only cost efficient but it is also effective in catching fish and does what it says on tin, well ok, in Tesco's finest plastic packaging.  

Heck if you don't use all the pieces for your session whack them in a pan and have them on toast for some evening nibbles !!!!

Now as much as I don't mind fishing when it's blowy, staring at a quiver tip wouldn't really be possible in 25 mph winds never mind the gusts which could well be 40 mph. To be honest I do touch ledger from time to time but I've never really had that much success with the technique.

The bait certainly worked though because the last session here as the light was going and dusk was tapping me on the shoulder two ridiculous bites where I struck in to nothing, the chicken livers clearly doing the business despite no crafty Chevin on the end.

I wasn't particularly happy with the rig though, the longshank hook looked far too big and cumbersome and the piece of liver, well even Hannibal Lecter would raise his eyebrows to this rather large metabolite detoxifier.

Maybe the chickens that these came from were fed on a liquid diet of Chianti, even after the lovely task of trimming them down they still looked like they had come from a turkey not a blood brother of contrasting size. 

The liver however is the heaviest internal organ and the largest gland in the human body, so maybe not unusual and out of proportion for this egg layer after all ? 

So the hook was changed to the best Chub hook in the world for his session ? you know, those Drennan Micro Barbed Wide Gape Specialist jobbies. When they are in they don't come out that's for sure, but this time I'll partner the hook with a bait more befitting the hook size. A more manageable 50p sized piece, not something the cat had just brought up.

Last time here the flick of the feeding switch was quite incredible really with nothing at all, and then Wallop !!!, from a motionless rod and twiddling ones fingers to full on carnage. How I didn't connect was beyond me really, but still, fishing is never boring is it, well it is if you make it that way, I love experimenting and mixing it up, I always have done.

Now I'd had this stretch largely to myself being 'local' but for some reason for this session it was the opposite. I went all the way down to the end of the stretch but again after finding a deserted carp-park there were 3 cars that braved the bankside conditions and had actually driven to their pegs which is only allowed in matches.

A natter to one of the guys stick float fishing he and his socially distancing mates (100 yards apart) were having a friendly knock-up before the season ended and the weather changed. 

They had been trotting maggots they had been doing ok for the chub and one angler a couple of small barbel. My favourite peg was available though and one of the bailiffs wished me luck, like he did last time I was here. The river had dropped quite a bit and the water turbidity look ideal for a bite. 

I just got that feeling especially when the seat box frequenters were having a few out so to speak. A super short session this so with dusk half an hour away and the first liver bait untouched I rebaited the hook with a new piece for one last chuck.

With the bait I removed broke in to two pieces and thrown in to the swim as freebies it was just a matter of sitting back and waiting for my dedicated chub rods tip to go over. Out of the blue an inquiry, only a dainty pull though and not enough to dislodge the bait, but at least I knew there was fish in the swim.

Then official dusk went by so I had 30 mins to be off but I know from experience this is the time things can change big time when that fish feeding switch is pressed. Sure enough, wham !!! a ridiculous bite on the liver and as I was anticipating it with my hand firmly clasped on to the rod I struck in almost unison. 

A fish was on !!!!

I knew it was a decent fish but with decent end tackle which I tied afresh for this session I was confident there hook would hold and the fish would be mine. Sure enough after a decent spirited fish a Chevin on the liver was resting in the net.

Unhooked on the mat it had coughed up what looked like the matchman's maggots at first but I 'm sure it had already eaten the freebies and passed them through its pharyngeal teeth. A good fish too, I thought it would go bigger on the scales judging by its full belly but it wasn't that long like many of these Warwickshire Avon Chub.

5lb 2 ounces was not to be sniffed out though and I might try and get another session in if I can before the season end. So there you go, liver another bait that has merit, but then, you know from this blog and your own fishing, the Chub have an appetite like no other fish and that's why they are up there as one of my favourite species.