I had recently fished both tiny and large rivers so I fancied a bit of middle for diddle medium size piscary, so I popped down to the Avon just to catch whatever came along, although when I say 'popped' it took me two hours courtesy of roadworks for HS2, no doubt that will be a recurring theme over the next few years. I was undaunted though as I was fishing a new stretch of the Warwickshire Avon in the green rolling hills and couldn't wait to get started. I had a pint of maggots, a pint of pellets and a whole heap of excitement and anticipation. Gear wise it was a one rod, rucksack and stool job as usual.
A stool job doesn't sound good does it? Basically I was travelling light with the usual gear.
I started at a spot below a fantastic old fashioned boulder weir, the rumble of water a stark contrast to the ever so silent peace and tranquility of the walk from the car. Naturally I started on maggot happy to catch anything but after a dozen of the world's smallest dace, bleak and minnow I realized this may not be the best approach here.
I could see gudgeon dancing about in the clear water at my feet and there's a wise old native American saying that if you can see the spots on gudgeon flanks then the water is clear enough for pellet to work well. I emptied the maggots out of my bait bib, wiped off all the maize with a towel and tipped in a pint of 4mm and 6mm pellet and banded a 6mm on a size 18 barbless, I was going all in, pellet attack!
Ok I made up that 'wise' saying about the gudgeon but it does usually ring true, however native americans prefer traditional methods and reckon pellet is not apache on other baits.
It was an awkward swim requiring a decent cast of the stick float and a catapult for feeding so I fed out a small pouch of pellet, waited then fed another, I then cast into the flow and the first bite came instantly, often this approach picks out small chub then the roach and larger chub will follow and sometimes barbel if they are about, however you can also get nothing so I was happy with a nice coloured chub to kick things off.
Another almost identical chub followed by another slightly larger, things were looking good and it sure beat catching minnow sized dace.
Then a couple of good chub of around 3lb put a bend in the rod and I had that magic feeling of knowing it's working and every fish would be a netter.
When pellet works it works well and every strike was met with solid resistance. I expected some roach but it was currently all chub, nothing else was getting a look in but I didn't mind, you can't fish rivers and not love chub.
It was a purple patch of a fish almost every trot through and they were getting bigger and at times I thought they were barbel as they ploughed into the middle of the river and held station, I decided to weigh one and it went 4lb 6oz and would probably be a 'five' when it fills out a bit.
I had to stop for a bite to eat as it was quite tiring fishing, but I kept feeding whilst I munched away, the sun came out in patches but the weather had on the whole been perfect at around 19c and cloudy, a little bit of sun wasn't going to ruin things after a good morning. I watched as my gudgeon shoal was joined by the odd tiny chublet and dace in the shallows some of which were attacking the pellets that escaped when loading the catty.
The sun did make fishing harder, illuminating the weed I previously didn't know was there, I knew it would slow things down but I still managed to winkle out another chub, the bonus of the bright weather is it really brings out the colour of the fish.
Usually the roach feed well on pellet in the sun but I had none today, perhaps there was a pike about as a few fish were jumping out there and all the chub seemed to be a good size. During the short sunny spells I chilled out and looked down once more at the gudgeon in the shallows, they were now accompanied by a tiny perch and a few small roach which ghosted through.
When the cloud came back so did the fish although it was typical pellet fishing now with not many bites but when there were the float went under in exactly the same spot each time, just below a small patch of weed where I had to hold the float back to go over it, getting the float in the sweet spot each time was hard in the flow but worth it especially as some of the later fish were in almost perfect condition like this one.
There was still time for the largest fish of the day at 4lb 8oz, a solid fish that really felt heavy in the current and took some playing as a moorhen and it's fluffy black chick decided that was a good time to cross underneath. Once again it was a fish that will fill out a bit more but to catch one this size in such wonderful condition was a real bonus.
I finished the day with 16 good chub, most of which were in really fine condition much like the fishery which was spotless and beautiful, I only fished for five hours and some of that was on maggot and a lot of the time I was taking breaks and soaking up what was a wonderful day, something I've been trying to do more of since starting this blog.
There was the odd comedy cast, but I succeeded in not hooking any of the reeds which was a result as they looked ever so unforgiving. There was also quite a few streaky catapult moments but lets not dwell on those eh! If you have read any of my other posts you'll know my catapult skills are... well lets just say I grew up fishing rivers you can jump across so go figure.
I suppose there must have been 40lb of chub but lets not forget the 4oz of dace too, although that may be pushing it as they really were tiny. How I didn't lose a single chub was more down to good fortune than anything else as quite a few crashed into the reeds, with clutch screaming runs and the rod bent double, only to be coaxed out each time, but sometimes you just get lucky.
I was lucky, not just with the fish, but the scenery and the weather too - Everything was just perfect on The Warwickshire Avon today.
