Autumn on the Warks Avon

Autumn is always one of my favourite times of the year and like most rivers, the Warwickshire Avon looked splendid on my latest visit. By late morning the hazy sunshine had burned off the early cloud and was now making its way through the ever-thinning branches of the willows that lined the river’s banks. Every so often the stillness was punctuated by a gentle breeze which was greeted with a new deposit of leaves fluttering their way to the water’s surface. I’ve had some memorable fishing trips over the years during autumn but unfortunately, Saturday was not one of them.

The colours of autumn

I had taken the temperature on arrival to find it hovering around 7°C, which showed it had changed little over the past week or so. Buoyed by this I set up a small maggot feeder and decided to also set up a ledger outfit baited with ‘boilie’ to drop downstream in case a Barbel could be tempted to feed. Within about 30 minutes the downstream rod started to indications of typical Chub plucks. I had set the reel to the baitrunner facility since it was not my main attack and finally something started to take line. However, instead of the satisfying resistance and thump on the rod, I was left reeling in my tackle minus a fish. It was obvious to me that a Chub had picked the bait up without the hook and then let go on the strike. I had a few more taps but strangely the maggot approach failed miserably, which was a surprise. Then, the river began to rise slowly and with this, the ‘fishy’ activity died away and apart from a pluck on the maggots there was nothing else left to report.

With my parents visiting later that afternoon, I decided to cut my losses and head back for home defeated. I find it frustrating when I fail to catch but I guess it is part of the game and like a lot of anglers suffering the same fate at least I can say it was just nice to be out on a fine autumnal day enjoying my surroundings. 

There was a lot bird activity today,
including this Great Spotted Woodpecker