Warwickshire Avon - Full Moons and Furunculoids

Angling is one of the few pastimes in which you can leave home all day, all night, even a whole weekend, for an unspecified destination and no questions asked. So you may as well make the most of it with a spot of nightfishing. The right gear is essential. A sturdy and waterproof skew-whiff Bivi's, big enough for four. Groundsheet, Scotch, gin, vodka, mixers. Ghetto blaster. Mistress Maria and Boris the mongrel. That's it: all the essentials.

Get to the waterside as dusk is falling. Pitch skew-whiff bivi, lay groundsheet. Blow up airbed, arrange sleeping bag. Arrange scotch, gin, vodka, mixers and ghetto blaster near to hand. Arrange Mistress Maria likewise. Bait? Fishing tackle? What do you think this is? Some kind of foolish outing? No, nightfishing, this is. Fishing tackle! What next? Now, where were we? Scotch, gin, vodka, mixers.

Don't despair. 'Bottoms up'. There will be the odd genuine nightfisher about. Crouched shivering over his rod, eyes fixed on the bite indicator or on the luminous float; spartan tent behind him holding nothing but a sleeping bag (single), packet of butties and thermos of Bovril. Give him a treat. Let the ghetto blaster liven up the night with some good old dose of repetitive beats, a spot of deep house followed by the techno.

When she's got enough gin and vodka down her, having gone steady on the mixers, she might fancy a jog along the bank; hurdling the genuine nightfisher's rods when she can see them; falling flat on her shock absorbers when she can't. After that, the pair of you might fancy a spot of skinnydipping, just the thing for sobering up and wiggling toes and brushing the fins of any meandering chevin and patrolling barbel. That or a game of football, I've certainly seen that before !! !!! 

Anyway the genuine nightfishers, being the selfish and mean- minded spoilsports that they are, might attempt to cut short the skinnydipping by casting a few pike spoons in your general direction. Or perhaps take more drastic action such as burning your tent down. Make the most of the warmth from the blaze: as you left your clothes in there, you'll finish up with your ardour decidedly cooled.

That could be a problem next morning. Arriving home and having to explain to the wife. The tent going up in flames? Sheer accident. Could happen to anybody. But how come you're starkers? And why is that pike wobbler dangling from your bum?

The above a not uncommon occurrence if you're a member of the BAA (Birmingham Angling Association) 😜, it goes with the territory, but thankfully for this session in to dark I'd be up at the upper reaches of one of my syndicate stretches. 

As per usual I'll travel light, rock up at dusk and fish an hour and a bit in to dark, where I know I'll be on ones tod with no one in earshot. 

I'd not fished this area in to dusk and beyond so I wondered if I was missing a trick. The weather is mild and the water temperature half decent so would a winter barbel be biting ?

Now a slight change of tactics for this trip, you see rather than a large chunk of meat I'd have a Hot Fish boilie on a short hair, a plug of pungent paste in the lead and some meat and pellet freebies in a PVA bag. 

I eagerly got to the river and set ones stall out  and was happy to report within 10 minutes the first pull happened, obviously  a chub but at least some fish were moving.

Then the full moon appeared right in-front of my face telling me what the heck are you doing. You see if I look back on my blog I have never done any good whatsoever when there is one. 

And the moon was right again because apart from chub pulls and also crayfish nibbles I think the barbel didn't show before I left an hour and a half in to dark. Even that thick cover I thought the barbel may well be taking sanctuary under might have been another one of my red herrings. A blank !!!!. Before the light went the water clarity and colour looked perfect for chub, I know what I'm doing tomorrow, now where is that bread I wonder. 

River Blythe - Fun Police and Futurology

Sadly getting back to work and the daily grind came round quicker than I thought, even though I maximised my fishing time I was looking for that next fishing fix like any angler does. I was in the office at Mira in Nuneaton and would be seeing my mum afterwards (half an hour drive) to check in on her when I suddenly had a rare brain wave.  

You see there is a freebee section of the Blythe not a millions miles away that I did fish many moons ago if I recall, where it was more of a reccy after one time blogger Bazal Peck fished in from time to time. 

I blanked that time if I recall but arriving just before dusk could I winkle out a fish before I had to get back to one family commitments ?

I suppose it was another reconnaissance trip to be honest but armed with my Avon quiver rod, some liquidised bread for the feeder and some bread for the hook, could I winkle out a Blythe Chub before ones mother was on the blower to wonder where the heck I was.

She has always one to clock watch, I don't know why but it came be very frustrating sometimes as I pride myself on punctuation and it's very one sided lets put it that way, but if I'm 10 minutes late my ears are already burning.

 

But 'time and tide wait for no man', got to do what I have to do to keep oneself sane !!!

Time and tide wait for no man. Time will never wait for anyone. No matter if it is a good time in your life, or if you are going through a bad phase, time flies.  It won’t wait for you, despite anything! Everything has to happen according to its own clock. Many a time, we neglect the flowing time and we think that it is going just like that! Time has to flow, and it will! You cannot help it anyway.

The only thing that you can do is to make sure that you take an opportunity that remains folded in each and every moment that you miss! Hence, you must respect each and every moment that comes into your life, and thus, welcome it with all your gratitude.

The term basically means that just as the waves do not wait for anyone; in the same way, each and every moment has got significance, and it wouldn’t wait for anyone by any chance. This is why it is taught from our early childhood that we should learn to take benefit from each and every moment. Many a time, we waste time and think that it is not a big deal until and unless that moment is already gone and we have no other job to do but to regret. 

As a result, you should behave wisely and make sure that you are capable of taking advantage of each and every opportunity that comes along your way.

Anyway enough of that spiel, better get fishing hadn't I, as I'm expecting a call any minute !!!

I had a trick up my sleeve you see to get some extra pungency to the bread not only was the liquidised bread flavoured with garlic (and cheese) but I'd spray some Fry Light Garlic Oil (£1.75 in B&M) on the hookbait too. Any leg up the potential big Chevin ladder would be needed to just get a bite let alone bank a fish.

A message to Sean before the start of the session a seasoned Blythe angler, he mentioned about the gate at the start of the lane that is locked at a certain time to prevent the 'Doggers' come sundown which apparently is advertised online as a popular spot 'for all sorts of fun'

Naturally as a 50 year old married man I'll be up for some of that if there wasn't fish to catch so I got on with my mission. I managed to get a proper bite within a few minutes of getting the bait out in the bridge pool, but then the next bite was an roach esk really fast pulls and snatches. 

Unmissable really but then as the light was going and about the 8th cast eventually a proper pull round and a fish was on. A blank avoided because this little scamp was on the end on the line, almost a swinger but not quite so at least I got to use the landing net. And that was that, I got on my way before Stan Collymore showed up and asked for directions !!!!, on to the next one !!!

The River Leam (Sorry Arrow) - Baumbach and Baculiforms

I’m not really sure where to start on Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” on Netflix, the film’s first hour, which introduces the apparently but not really surreal setting, the neurotic characters and themes, works much better than the latter half, which feels sped-up, going from one strange moment to the next. Woefully miscast (every single role is off) and sloppily adapted to the point of schizophrenia. 

Massive budget apparently and yet for me and the Wife, it was dull as ditch water 

Now talking of ditch water !!!

Taking a look back at my blog I'd not fished the River Leam for nearly a year probably because the last visit here I blanked and I was not in a rush to go back. It's only a 20 mile drive so 25 minutes or so but I suppose the reality is I have plenty of small rivers closer to me that I've found much more productive. It's a river full of promise though, but more of that later. 

If I lived as close to the river as George Burton and some of the fellow syndicate members I'd be there all the time, because not only have some nice roach been showing >1lb 8oz'ers but some 4lb chub too. For a small river in these predated quarters the roach certainly have my interest. 

Now George has been putting the hard work in, so I'm not exactly going to ask him for a what3words location am I, but I kind of had an idea from the WhatsApp group the area I should be targeting. The river probably wouldn't be in the best of fettle for this session but for the first post of 2023 I wanted to fish a small river.

I got myself preoccupied with the bigger rivers, because lets be honest they hold larger fish of the same species but the roach, well they are worth targeting on the Leam and whenever I fish small streams and these diminutive waterways, I always raise a smile, they really are forgotten in modern angling and yet peace, solitude and nature are here in abundance, what's not to like. 

Now the chief changes in the river at this time of the year are absence of weeds, a lower temperature of the water, and, generally, an increase in the volume of water, and therefore an increase in the force of the current. 

The water may also be more coloured than in summer and consider the effects the other circumstances have on the position of fish. 

The fish having now no weed-cover seek the deeper portions of the streams, and are no doubt greatly influenced in this move by the change in the temperature of the water. 

Barbel, carp, gudgeon, and eels now cease to afford any sport to the angler, and bream and tench bite but rarely; but roach, dàce, perch, chub, and pike feed well in suitable weather, and are in prime condition.

If the water has increased much in volume, the difficulty is to find sufficiently quiet swims, for swims which were suitable in summer cannot now be fished on account of the increased force of the current. 

Chub will be in the same swims as in August, except when the stream has become too strong for them; but the other fish shift about a good deal, according to the height and colour of the water. 

If no quiet swims with gravelly or sandy bottoms are to be found, those with a muddy bottom may be tried. As a rule, most coarse fish which bite in winter are caught when rivers are clearing, and it is floods and coloured water which make the greatest difference in the position of the fish. 

Floods drive them into the eddies and quiet corners where they can get out of the great force of the stream, and  where, no doubt, their food collects. Colour in the water has the peculiar effect of bringing fish on to the shallows, and often the thicker the water, the shallower are the swims in which they will be found. 

Two reasons probably bring fish into shallow water when the river is coloured I suppose. First, because in the deeps light cannot reach the bottom, and food cannot be seen; and second, because many varieties of fish prefer shallow to deep water when they can safely come into such places without being seen by man and their other enemies. 

It must not, however, be supposed that there are no fish in deep, coloured water. Many are caught during floods in deep swims, but a much larger proportion of fish are found in shallow water in such circumstances. The best hours for fishing in the winter are from eleven to three I've found, but a good deal depends on the temperature of the air, the fish feeding best during the more genial portion of the day. 

I have, however, at the close of a bad day, known both roach and perch begin to feed voraciously towards sunset when the temperature fell and it began to freeze hard. When rivers rise in flood, and the water spreads over the meadows, the fish flock on to the grass, and feed on the drowned insects and worms. 

At such times it is, as a rule, not much use to go fishing, owing to the great difficulty of finding the quarry in a wide expanse of water; but an angler may unexpectedly stumble on a place where fish are collected together in great numbers, and have good sport.

Take the river Arrow you see, I had planned to go to the Leam to try for a roach but the river after being well up was taking Agggggggggeeeessss to come down.

The Stour as well was over the banks in places so for a small river fix I had the local Alne and Arrow luckily so I chose the Arrow for one's morning exploits. One swim I caught this little scout from was chock full of similar sized chublets. So much so I was getting through the bread rather quickly so had to get moving and to try and find the bigger fish.

It didn't take long to be honest because this stretch for example is very shallow indeed, and despite the river being up who in their right mind will reside in the fast water when the warmer holes and deeper areas will hold the fish.

There was a frost overnight here so that often puts the fish off because they need to get accustomed to the conditions like all cold-blooded poikilothermous vertebrates, but drop some bread on their noggins they are more often than not accommodating. 

Nothing big in this 3 hour session, but the solitude here is well rather nice especially when I had the banks to myself. I caught 5 proper chub and around 10-12 chublets so plenty of bites roving between swims but those larger fish that do reside here didn't make an appearance. 

An enjoyable first session of 2023 though and sadly it's back to work tomorrow, it's gone too fast, but as George says, nothing grows under my feet as I've certainly got out enough over the Christmas break. Will I manage more sessions then 2022 ? highly unlikely but you never know, I do seem to amass them rather quickly I must admit.