Back on the bank

It's been an interesting couple of weeks which has seen me recovering from an operation. Although it was a simple procedure, the recovery was pretty rough with plenty of pain thrown in. My wife showed willing in looking after the patient but was having none of my 'I think it's worse than child birth claims'.

With a return to work looming, I took the opportunity to make a brief, but overdue visit to the banks of the Warks Avon. Nothing too serious was planned. All I was looking forward to was getting out again having been pretty much confined to the house and any fish would be a welcome bonus.

Simple feeder and ledger tactics coupled with a selection of different baits meant a few fish found their way to the bank. Nothing big but that wasn't the point of this trip.

A small chub

A nice roach

One of two eels. Fast becoming a regular occurrence

However there was an interesting albeit rare occurrence. At one stage I was using a bait dropper to deposit a little extra hemp into the swim. I always attach the dropper on the snap swivel I use for the lead/feeder. This way there's no strain on my hooklink which could occur if you attached it in the traditional way. Obviously this means your bare hook is running free. On the second retrieve, the rod lurched over and a fish was on. I assumed correctly that a pike was the culprit. I've seen them attack bait droppers in the past and assumed I had foul hooked the fish. The pike, which was a couple of pounds in weight, was netted only to show it was hooked fairly in the mouth. I can only assume the dropper alerted the fish and that the hook glistened in the sunshine to make it look attractive to the pike. It was certainly a strange scenario and one I doubt will happen again.

This pike made a surprise appearance

I must admit sport was pretty slow so I took the opportunity to take some photographs of the surrounding wildlife.

Caterpillars of the Peacock butterfly feeding on nettles

A damselfly 

Angling does provide those that take part the rare opportunity to observe nature at its best. In the modern world we live in, it's all too easy to forget what is happening all around us. As far as fishing is concerned, it has been quite a frustrating start to the river season but with my return to full health almost complete, I'll be looking to make up for lost time over the next few months.