Warwickshire Avon - Warlords and Wallydrags

I'd not ventured down to the bottom end of the syndicate stretch but I thought I'd go for a nose. You couldn't really get any closer to the river either, and thankfully I decided to have a few extra minutes in bed before heading out, as the kingfisher but be living out its dream.

There is more cover down here you see and I suspect the chub in this cold water are not exactly roaming around like they usually do.

The water temperature had dropped a degree in a day which when you're a cold blooded fish unless you're like Derek Chisora and up for a beating because. well you like it, it's best to stay indoors with your feet up and chill.

Because yes, it was very chilly indeed with the ice warning showing up in the car for the first hour and a half of fishing. I fed a few swims with mashed bread and would ledger a gobstopper sized piece over the top of the Warburton's chunky dandruff.  

After an hour though without even a nibble I decided to head back to swims more familiar and again fished similar tactics.

This was worth doing because the first 'good' swim I fished a drop back bite the first fish was on. It felt a nice fish as well with the line singing under the tension of the hard fighting fish. It was soon in the net though and the fish exactly 4lb on the scales was worth removing myself from the two large warm plump pillows. Not an easy task with the gas and electricity prices as they are. 

It was clear though that I had to find the fish so with the Jimny mostly in 4x4 mode I drove up and down the stretch to try and drop the bait on the chub head.

Tougher than I thought after that first fish but I did manage another 3 fish where ones hands were like ice blocks. The cars heater coming to the rescue when driving from swim to swim. The wind chill had certainly kicked in big time, 3 degrees air temperature, felt certainly in the minuses.

Bread the king again, but it often is in these conditions, and for targeting chub not a bait I could do without. It's caught me plenty of chub over the years.

Those fish were caught in an hour from the first bite but I was scratching around for another couple of hours without much return, so I decided to call the session early, pop down the WBAS water just dwon the road for a once over and then head back home in to the warmth. 

Warwickshire Avon - Polymelia and Polyphloisboisterous

Winter has certainly kicked in big time now with the next couple of weeks going to be very cold indeed. I didn't think about a dedicate Pike fishing session but I think I will wait till its getting even colder than it was for today.

Pike floats out, a stove on the go with some bacon sizzling in the cold winter air, something every angler can relate to. 

So yes for this short session in to dusk and beyond chub were the target species and yet again the stretch of convenience was chosen to try and winkle one or two out.

This season though they have deficiently thinned out where this was usually a banker area for me and produced one five pounder to get that monkey off my back and then several more.  

What hasn't helped is that a recent cutting back and removal of some mature trees has meant this diminutive stretch that is feature and cover filled, has now been given a number one but who ? well God only knows.

Now canoeists are not meant to navigate up this stretch and signs are there to warn them that which ever fork they take when heading upstream, they will have to negotiate a weir, and depending on when that is, that can be a dangerous route with extra water on. 

Now I've fished this place probably since the blogs conception and over the years spotted the odd one or two and yet this year, I need an extra hand to count how many I've seen.

The willow that used to provide cover to those chub, no more, the barbel cover, hacked back, and various swims have had branches removed to make navigation easier. The water is back to clear again now (how quick did that happen 🤯) so any cover removed could potentially be a chub sanctuary squandered. 

Roving is the key on this sort of stretch but what I didn't expect was swim after swim after swim not even a nibble.

Even my banker swim where when the light goes the chub can often be found nothing and, those slacks ideal for dropping some cheesepaste in to again biteless. Very odd indeed for this stretch, I suspect the water temperature is going to plummet over the next coming days but still, the chub didn't show whatsoever.

Still it was nice to be out and with Sunday morning an option to try again, albeit somewhere else, I'm sure it won't talk long to catch another chub, heck what else can you rely on in these testing conditions.

I might well switch back to bread though, I was amazed just how little colour is left in the river, and bread just seems to work especially when wafting around suspended off the bottom via a link ledger. 

So a blank, oh well, cannot win all the time !!

Warwickshire Avon - Abnormal Gaits and Aboulomania

The Xmas works do kicked off with a queue of people lined up to drink the Vodka poured in to the ice sculpture, which when fed neat from the top subsequently appeared at the end of a 8mm receptacle. Being older and wiser pacing yourself is the key to this sort of event, where the drinks were paid for and the food inevitably late.

The wobbling for the drunken few started quite early even before the 'DJ' decided to belt out his wedding party playlist and the dancefloor started to fill with those that love that kind of drudgery. 

Heck one Grey Goose gurgler had to be 'shown out' by the security staff with a couple of hours to go, bet he woke with a sore head 😀

For obvious reasons I wasn't quite in the mood for a proper party but I made the effort to go and even got in to character by dressing up as a Peaky Blinder which was the theme as was the Gadbsy dress code for the ladies. 

Now at one stage I had a premonition where a little like when Moses parted the Red Sea parted to allow the Israelites through, I with record box in hand moved the crowd out the way, shoved the knob twirler from his embarrassment and gave the crowd what they really wanted. 

But the fact is, I'm fast becoming the minority in many areas of my life work being one of them, the music well, yeah an old raver might as well be in the archives of YouTube. 

A 50 year old white male with grey hair even when a flat cap is donned stands out like a beacon among the generation Z'ers. But there is a reason I haven't been out of work since I started >30 years ago and as the years tick by, that experience counts for quite a lot, I just get on with the job, no over the shoulder watching needed for me, I'll give you a shout when I've completed the job.

Now a job I've still not completed yet, and that's to catch a 6lb Warwickshire Avon Chub. The weather is cold and getting colder and now is the time to try and catch one of those bigger chub, that a little like me have seen it all so can be tricky to tempt. 

But they have their weaknesses that's for sure and one of those is a large moving visual bait that not only can provoke their predatory instinct but also their hunger pangs. Large pieces of bread especially in this clearing water fished under a buoyant float can often tempt the most wary of chub.

Nic had been updating me on a session he was having at a local stretch to him and I wanted in on the act too. In-fact this session played out similar to his albeit it took me a good while longer to find the fish.

The first fish caught was a mint 3lber and another two of his mates followed him in to the landing net. Probably from the same school year because they were of similar stamp. Great condition though and so nice to see, just a shame about half the size on what I'm really after. 

I had a couple more moves but the fish were getting smaller catching a few more chublets at the end of a long run. The bread was doing the trick yet again though, is there a better bait in these conditions ? answers on a postcard please. !!!

With the sun starting to set I had the ledger rod in the car so I prebaited a couple of swims with bread mash and fished them in to dusk and half an hour beyond.

Perfect looking chub swims as well, both with cover and littered with snags. Sadly all I had to show for it was another chublet that launched itself out of the water with some impressive gymnastic prowess.

And that was my lot. Fellow syndicate member Dave has given me an area to try for the bigger fish so I might give that a go Sunday morning. I thought I was getting somewhere with the bigger chub but I seem to be going backwards for some reason. Oh well, I'm sure a decent one will show up soon enough if I keep on ticking the sessions off.