Pastures New - Same Old Story

Saturday rolled around again and it was time to end the drought. Both Brian and I had a few things to sort out, so it was a delayed start which curtailed the session into an afternoon one only.

I was less than impressed by the tempertature again though - a mere -1C while I was doing the rounds in the morning and it was barely above freezing when we set out. We had hoped to fish one of the local ponds, but the ones near me were frozen up, so it had to be a river.

We headed out to the south side of the city and I suggested taking a look at a section of the Avon near to Middlemarch Business Park. We parked up and took a short walk across the scrub land and found a very fishy looking bend with enough depth to entice us into having a go. It was either that, or 15 mile drive to the usual areas we fish and with time against us, we went for it.

Upstream:



Downstream:


Light feeder / bomb set ups were deployed and even the Pike rods came out for a while. You know where this is going don't you? Yes, we blanked again and in royal fashion. I went on the move for the last hour or so and found another cracking looking run not far from the hotel, but it didn't deliver either.

January has come and gone and I'm stuck on a blank. I thought it only fitting that the blog should be renamed for a while, in honour of this non contact (with fish) pastime I am participating in! I'm still upbeat though and given some better conditions, things will improve I'm sure. On a positive note I'm no further behind than I was at this time last year!

I had a bit of a recce on the Sunday and I've eyed up a couple of interesting new spots on both rivers and ponds. I have a couple of others I want to visit during the week if I can sneak out of work early one day. I'm sure I can blank on them all given the chance!

Business As Usual

River Avon - Alveston.

With Brian busy with business duties, I took on the seemingly fickle Avon on my own this week. It was a bit of a rush job though. I had to be back home by 12-30 to provide a taxi service for Mads, who was having an afternoon meal and booze up with the girls.

I needed to be on the bank shortly after first light to give myself a reasonable shot at it. I was pleased to see my car free of ice when I was loading up just gone 7am. The temperature was 1C when I set off, rose to 2C as I skirted through the city, but dipped back to -1C on arrival at Alveston at 7-45.

I went for the upstream end peg, which is a totally new one for me. Looking upstream:

And downstream:

The peg didn't produce though, despite it looking very fishy with the overhanging features on the near bank. I moved a few pegs downstream to tackle the wider section by a big bend, where I could chuck a feeder into a far bank slack.

I chucked feeder after feeder and I all got as a reward was a single bite that I duly missed. One burst maggot represents some progress I guess!

That's now 3 blanks on the spin, although I've probably only spent 10 hours on the bank across them all. I'm remaining positive though and something has to happen soon (please!).

Things in common

Q - What have I got in common with Coventry City right now?
A - We've both scored blanks in 4 of our last 8 outings!

Yes, another blank at the weekend at College Pool. It turned into a fairly brief session with Brian, which neither of us really enjoyed. The wind was blowing a gale and and it wasn't pleasant.

I'd hoped the Bream might play ball, but it wasn't to be. I dare say if I'd have scratched around in the margins, I might have got off the mark, but I'm trying to avoid desperation tactics at this stage. Another angler was doing just that and had 5 small Roach on pinkies.

Maybe January just isn't my month - I blanked on both January visits last year! The river levels are looking a lot healthier now and for the week ahead and we seem to be promised some very settled weather, if slightly cooler and more normal for the time of year.

I can't recall the last time I had three consecutive blanks, but it's very much on the cards right now. Expect a few expletives in my next post if it happens!

No photos this week - I just couldn't summon up the enthusiasm.

Simple Arithmetic

Coventry Canal, Sutton Stop - Saturday 8th January 2011.

The first session of the year brought about fresh enthusiasm with the onset of the bloggers challenge. At 7-10am, my last moments of beauty sleep were interrupted by the mobile going off. Brian kindly informed me it was chucking it down outside and so the session was put back half an hour or so. Back to sleep for me then!

By 8-30 the rain had gone through and I'd joined up with Brian down the cut. After hearing of Jeff's 15lb+ Pike the other week, the choice of spots was simple - down to the marina entrance. I set up a Pike rod and chucked out a deadbait. I also set up a feeder for a maggot approach, but I don't know why and it didn't last long before I opted for a two pronged Pike attack.

To cut to the chase, neither of us had a sniff and after a few hours we decided to try the opposite side of the road bridge, negotiating the rather chilled out swans on the way.




Things were certainly different along this stretch and large parts of it were still suffering from slabs of ice. Of all the places I fish, I think this one wins the least desirable award - here's a delightful shot of my M6 swim:





Upstream is marginally better looking. Is it me or does the forlorn figure standing by the canal appear to be contemplating throwing himself in! By this time I felt like joining him I think.

We moved from swim to swim and I left a static deadbait out in each, while wobbling a deadbait through on the other rod. I never had the slightest touch all session. Brian wasn't quite as adept as I was at avoiding bites and he did end up with a chunk out of a deadbait. Over a beer that evening it was suggested that the bite marks in the deadbait, might actually have been human teethmarks! Brian firmly denies such slanderous talk.

So, blankety blank to kick the year off. Simple arithmetic: catch bugger all = 0% - simples! No need for spreadsheets. Memo to Keith - next year don't worry about giving me read-write access to the sheet until at least the 3rd week of February!

Not what the doctor ordered, but there's a long old road ahead. Plans are being drawn up for the assault on the challenge, to the point that camping gear is now coming into the equation and I'm also researching Catfish opportunities - something I didn't think I'd be doing! They are closer to home than I'd imagined though.

All Change

My final session of the season was on the Avon with Brian. Initially we had toyed with the idea of a pool, as I'd checked out the river levels before leaving and it was obvious the river would be up a foot or so. However, with stillwaters still struggling to thaw themselves out fully, it had to be a river or nowt.

Alveston was a fairly easy choice for me. There's a long peg (9), that always has a bit of a back eddy, is fairly deep and it's more than big enough for two. Although the river was tanking through a bit, it was still easy to hold bottom with normal leads / feeders in the slacker water on the inside of the main flow.

Things had definitely changed in the week since my last visit. Previously it was almost 10 degrees cooler and crisp and white all round:

This time things were much greyer and the river about a foot higher and with plenty more colour. Landing stages were partially submerged along the whole stretch and the water was lapping over the top of the bank in places.

It became obvious fairly quickly that it was going to be a grueller. We both set up two feeder rods and just decided to sit it out for a few hours. Debris was constantly fouling our lines and optimism was waining.

I pulled in a line that had become fouled, only to find a Gudgeon attached to the hook - along with a pile of debris. Lucky for me, that was my first Gudgeon of the year in Brian's presence, so it stuck another point on the challenge for me!

I then made a switch on the other rod and went for bread flake to complement the liquidised bread I'd been feeding. It eventually paid off when I had a proper bite and I assumed I was into a Chub. I was wrong though and the culprit turned out to be a welcome Bream of 4lb 3oz.

Within 10 minutes I had a take on my maggot rig and this time I was even more convinced I was into a Chub. It was a very dogged fight, but yet again I was wrong and it was a another Bream - this time a much smaller sample of 2lb 9oz.

Nothing else put in an appearance and we called it a day at lunchtime. I was more than happy with a couple of fish to be honest, as I thought a blank was a more likely outcome. The river was clearly dropping during the few hours we were there, so hopefully it will soon be back to a more settled and appetising state.

"You Must Be Mad"...

...Those were the words that were hurled in my direction by one of the locals, as I made my way back to the car. Given that it was -2C when I arrived and had only risen to 0C on leaving, coupled with the fact that I was fishless, I could kind of see their point!

The plan for the day was actually totally different. I'd got a free day and with the weather looking nice and settled (if cold), I fancied using up some old maggots and bread on the river. I'd decided on the Lido as it would be easy to access in the conditions and I quite fancied chucking a couple of feeders out from the sank bank area.

Well it all went belly up at 6-30am when I discovered one of our cats had pebble dashed the front room carpet again. The poor little fella had a case of the runs last week, but seemed to be over it. Not wanting a sick cat over Christmas, I had to cancel my plans and take a trip to Nuneaton, to be relieved of a few quid.

By 9-40am we were back home with a sulking ginger tom, albeit he had the last laugh by leaving a deposit in his box for us! Could have been worse - he could have left it in my slippers!

Anyway, it was too early in the day to write it off, so I decided I'd have a couple of hours of Piking. So it was into the freezer for a supply of Morrisons sprats (a bargain at about 75p for two dozen) and off to the river. I decided on the Alveston stretch rather than Lido.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't bank any fish, but I did hook a Jack. It was on for a few seconds, but slipped off the hook as I bent down to pick up the net. I didn't get any further knocks, but it was just a bonus to be on the bank again. I wasn't the only one fishing - I saw what was either a Mink or an Otter working the far bank late in the session, while the usual Kingfisher put in an appearance too.

Merry Christmas and tight lines to anyone out fishing over the festive period. I'm hoping to get out again myself at least once more before the new year, so maybe there's at least one more fish to be had in this year yet!

A Brief Respite

River Avon, Alveston. 8-45am to 3-30pm.

It was very pleasant to wet a line again in somewhat better conditions than we have seen of late. I did manage to get out briefly since my last post, for a couple of hours Piking on the Avon at Wasperton with Brian. For completeness I'll keep the report simple - we double blanked in royal fashion!

Back to this week's activities and we decided to fish a new part of the stretch. During the summer months the stretch nearest to the Wellesbourne to Stratford road has been off limits due to the uncertainty of the parking. It's a bit precarious trying to park on overgrown grass verges and you were never really certain what lay within them and what damage you might inflict of your vehicle.

Cold weather knocking back the growth, coupled with a bit routine maintenance and suddenly parking spots now opened up before our eyes. The plan is to make the effort next year to take my strimmer down pre-season. It will be time well spent because the walk to the river is just 30 yards, rather than the usual 300 yards.

Although it's only a few hundred yards upstream of the village section, it was nice to tackle a new stretch. It's a short section of maybe 15 pegs with a right angle bend right in the middle of it. Most pegs seemed to have one obvious feature on either the near or far bank and we settled on pegs 4 and 5.

I set up a couple of feeder rods with the intention of using one for bread and the other for maggots, aiming towards a far bank overhanging tree. I also had a stick float set up, to trundle it down the river with a centre pin - something I hadn't done for a while.

The float line produced just a single Dace, but the feeder rods were getting plenty of attention, albeit the bites were very shy. I had two rods on the go, but with the bites being very tricky to hit, I had to scale back to one rod so I could give it my full concentration.

I lost count of the number of missed bites on both bread and maggots and I couldn't crack it no matter what combination I tried. I managed to winkle out a dozen fish during the session - half of them Dace and the other half Roach. They were of no great size - perhaps 5oz being the best fish, which was a Roach that took a piece of bread flake.

Brian wasn't exactly pulling up trees and he had leapfrogged me, having moved from peg 5 to peg 3. He'd had the odd Dace and Roach, but then struck into something better just as he was about to join the land of nod! Wide awake now, he carefully played the fish in without any fuss and it was a nice Chub of 3lb 1oz. He'd recently acquired some new scales courtesy of his birthday, so they have now been christened!

I have to give full honours on the day to Brian - most species, most overall weight and the biggest fish. I don't tend to lose out on all three counts that often on a river, so although today was a long way from a royal blank, it was still an early Christmas stuffing for me!

That said, I totally enjoyed the day and the challenge of trying to get to grips with a new stretch. I'm looking forward to fishing more of it over the next 3 months - weather permitting! The upstream end peg looks like a classic Chub swim, while the slacker water on the inside of the big bend looks nailed on for some Bream. Hopefully I'll prove myself to be right at some point fairly soon!