Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.36

A little run down maybe but during the Ragley Hall air show with the family a sore throat turned in to a horrible cold. Painful sinuses, bunged up nose, headache and a cough symptoms over a couple of days it moved to my chest where I was seemingly coughing up Mike Wazowski

My usual motivation to get fishing wavering big time so I had a couple of well deserved lies in. Still a visit to tramp alley was planned and after packing a float rod and bread as bait I managed to get myself towpath side.

The first boat I stumbled upon was this one with a huge mast displaying its wifi antenna proudly. The next boat had one too, maybe they work from 'home' or something and need to be connected to the grid so to speak. 

Because to be honest a few places I fish have literally no signal whatsoever and it's quite nice being in a mobile blackspot where the world doesn't have any influence all the time I'm fishing.

Anyway back to the fishing, the first swim I fished was the swim I caught the chub from. Minnows were being chased by Zander or Perch as soon as I got there but the other fish were suspicious in their absence. 

I'm sure if I scaled down to a small hook and maggots I'd have gotten a few bites, because I did get the odd bite or two on the float where I assume a small fish was having a good go at trying to engulf the large piece of breadflake. 

I stayed longer that I would usually do because surprisingly the footfall and boat traffic was far less than it is normally he, but the chub, bream, roach or hybrids were nowhere to be seen.  

So I headed to an area where I caught my PB roach from and a fish topped as I was walking up to it, but again after feeding some liquidised bread to prime the swim, after an hour there was nothing doing whatsoever.

In a desperate attempt to get a bite I leapfrogged a section of reeds to try and drop a bait on a fishes head, as that is exactly how I caught the roach before.

Not this session though and after giving it a good go and not particularly feeling brilliant throughout the session I decided to bring the trip out to a closer as bit earlier than planned, and headed back to bed.

I'm still not 100% as I type this but hopefully I'm over the worst of the cold and it can only get better from here. I've oddly enjoyed the canals more than I thought I would not chasing Zander but the rivers being open again are thankfully just round the corner. 

Brook Trout - Warwickshire Tenkara Pt.3

Another busy schedule again today so before the reprobates surfaced from their cratch covers or started up the bow thrusters I was headed up the noisy path to the trout stream. This forgotten water I'm sure is never fished, well if it is I've never seen anybody of the years. 

To be fair further downstream where it is much deeper there is a stretch where a fluff chucking fee payer has put a smile on the farmers face by crossing his palm with, in my opinion far too much silver. He has it all to himself though, so welcome to my world. 

Now these are wild brook trout after all so not exactly tackler testers because let's be honest they don't grow very big in waters like this. The nearby Alne a tributary of the Warwickshire Arrow is where the larger ones reside but closed season applies in these mostly leased waters. 

Now I'm re-joining an angling club I was a member of many moons ago because I actually miss fishing smaller waters for coarse fish because not only are they often overlooked, but because they offer fishing in solitude outside of the odd match that takes places in some of the waters.

For two weeks before the river season starts though with a newly purchased club card you can fish the fly on a river I've never caught a trout on before and that is the Warwickshire Stour. 

The upper reaches are much better suited to trout being shallower and pacier, where as the middle and lower is your more traditional coarse fishing affair. That would have to wait for another session though as I didn't have time to venture over to there especially when an hour and a half fishing time would probably be about the most I could muster up. 

Now a Thai Street food affair at one of the local pubs the afternoon before the air was filled the repeat of lemongrass and the sounds of satay but before the fish wondered who the heck this imposter was, hopefully I'd winkle out a fish on the dry fly. 

They was still a decent amount of mayfly activity and when I got flowside there were some raving on the surface and some completely lifeless. 

I thought I was in for a few fish but cast after cast, nudge after nudge with the fly floating nicely down the brook I there was nothing doing whatsoever.

The key was a move where I followed the stream downstream where it was a little more secluded. To be honest it was difficult to fish but after a couple of drifts down a confident rise and a fish was on. 

To be honest a decent fight on the pencil thin Tenkara rod where it took me all over the shop but eventually the game was up and it was safely in the net.

Ok only a small fish but who cares a lovely fish on the dry fly and at least it was bigger than the last fish I caught. This is Bards country after all. Trout are rare creatures in these parts, but it just goes to show what can be achieved in fishing these wild small streams and brooks on your doorstep. Give them a go, you never know what you will find. 

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.35

A very busy time of late, you see in addition to the daily work grind family 'stuff' has dictated the days events which have been unpredictable to the extreme. Fishing obviously has to take a back seat in these circumstances but luckily after one of those seemingly ever lengthening days a treat was in store.

You see the Wife had taken the kids to Cadburys World and came back with a wellbeing right'erer, yeap an Old Jamaica bar, which if you are struggling to read the wrapper is dark chocolate with rum and raisin which is a great combination for the uninitiated.  

The recipe hasn't changed over the years but you cannot please some people as if you look at the recent reviews, vegans are up in arms.

You see due to use of shared manufacturing equipment, Cadbury's must now declare that their products may contain milk solids, the recipe for Cadbury Bournville hasn't changed apparently but it seems the additional text to conform to industry standards ain't gone down to well. 

Now what hasn't gone down well in certain quarters is the non-native fish the Zander. The 'invasive' fish that frequents these turbid shallow waters in my geographical location and others a short car journey away. Specific locations where to be honest all and sundry know where they are, yes that's correct 'all over the shop'.

Removing Zander is merely papering over the cracks, because they are so naturalised and established in these quarters now, the wands wavers and bucket fillers are wasting their time, unless there is another reason for their neuron nudging ? 🤔. 

Imagine trying to remove the Ex Pats from their caravans in Benidorm and from their 1 Euro pints of mediocre beer, yeah it ain't going to happen.

Anyway with all that has been going on I didn't think I would be able to get out for this evening session. But a quick smash and grab with the Zander rods in a swim where I'd managed some recently. The fish seemed to tuck themselves tight to reeds over at the far bank despite the swim being shallower than I was 25 years ago (hands up 🙌)

A lovely quiet stretch this and that's why I like it, the sound of birdsong mainly with the feint drone of a main road which luckily doesn't spoil the solitude.

A muggy evening but it looked good for a bite but an hour and a half in moving the baits around the 100 yard stretch not a sausage. So it was time for a move to a lock mouth which has some turbulent water.

It is a little deeper here due to the boat track and lock make-up but again half an hour in with two roach deadbaits the floats remained motionless.

Look on the positives though, no phone signal whatsoever which for me is a Godsend at the minute. Those messages on hold till the 4G signal pops its head over the towpath and those bars unfortunately appear.

I was on for another move when out of the blue the left hand float moves an inch and after a short pull on the float after a few seconds a bite develops.

At first I thought it was a perch the way it was fighting but no it turned out to be a small schoolie. The target species but about 5 times smaller than I'd like. That was that, no more bites and as the sun was setting I decided to end the session early head back to reality.