A Hard Dace Work

River Avon, Wasperton (Saturday 13th March) - Sean & Brian. 11-30am to 6pm.

In true Scrooge style I'm making no attempt to flower this session up. I hadn't been feeling at my best all week and I finally gave in to a stinking cold over the weekend. With what's left of my my mind now firmly planning the gambling assault on Cheltenham, this will be brief - not least because there isn't anything to make it remotely exciting!

We started off down on the weir section. I'm not sure why I frog marched Brian all the way down there even now. I think I just fancied it because it's an area I always fancy might throw up a big fish - and big fish were clearly Brian's intentions for the day with his baiting approach. Ball it in man!

Anyway, nothing doing after a couple of hours so we decided to make tracks back towards the car park swims for the last few hours. Again it was tough going, but I winkled out a small Roach and Dace and started to get some positive bites on my worm rig on the lead. Nothing was connected with though and then it all petered out again. Brian was blanking but I did witness a definite series of sharp pulls on his Pike gear that sadly didn't develop into a full take.

As the light faded my swim kicked into life and the last half hour was a bite a chuck, albeit not the most positive bites I've ever encountered. I ended up with 5 Roach and 6 Dace, the latter extending the challenge score to a mighty 8 points (for what it's worth at this stage of affairs!). We bumped into Keith (Warwickshire Avon Blog) on leaving the water, so it was finally nice to catch up with a fellow blogger on the bank. I'm sure I'll catch up with everyone else soon enough.

With the rivers out of the way for 3 months, the attention turns to the stillwaters. For me that means a Ryton Tench campaign (and anything else it may care to throw up). The Tench fishing can be hit and miss, but if you catch it right, then the rewards are there. I had several 5lb+ fish last year, but couldn't crack the 6lber. This year....

I also need to get down to Snitterfield a bit earlier in the year too. That one could be key for the Crucian honours!

Thoughts are already turning to the next river season though and we're already talking about possible new venues to compliment the Leamington book. I'm aware of the obvious club books such as Birmingham, Warwick, Stratford (have held them all in the past), but is there anything else out there?

There's obviously a fair bit of the Avon from Rugby down to Stratford, but very little is documented on tinternet it seems. I know of Plough AC (near Ryton), Barford and there seems to be a Stoneleigh based club with waters also covering part of the Sowe. However, I don't know if any of these clubs are actually accessible.

If anyone has any info on club stretches north of Stratford, I'd be interested to hear about them. I realise some clubs probably require strange handshakes and a rolled up trouser leg to get a look in, but it's still nice to know where I'm not welcome!