A tough day

It ended up being a tough, daytime assignment on the Warks Avon today. In all honesty, I knew I was a day or so too late as a cooler night together with a misty start were bound to send the temperatures dipping slightly. But having a family means that you take your chances when they are presented and the sunshine that appeared mid-morning certainly made for a pleasant stay on the riverbank.

One for the Christmas card

The river itself was dropping and had that milky colour to it but with a temperature reading of 8.5°C, I was still mildly optimistic. A meat rod was cast downstream with the upstream rod baited with boilie. It wasn't long before the latter showed signs of fishy activity. The culprits were almost certainly Chub and none of them would commit themselves enough to make a mistake. I tried another spot, slightly downstream, but this also proved fruitless so I settled back in to the original swim and decided to sit it out. My boredom was relieved when a robin decided to pay me a visit. It's always fascinating how tame they can be in return for a bit of food. At one stage it sat on my wellington boot as we shared lunch. I had also been tidying my rig wallet and and the robin was almost fooled by the hooklink carrying fake maggots. After 3 hours of inactivity, something had to change. I decided that f the robin could be fooled then perhaps a fish would follow suit. So on went a 6" length of flouro complete with three hair rigged fake maggots. I wasn't fishing maggots but anything was worth a try.


Within minutes, the upstream rod was nodding and a 2lb Chub was banked. After struggling for hours, it was a relief to prevent a blank. The rod was recast and low and behold, another bite resulted almost instantly. This time, the fight was slightly different so I wasn't too surprised when a small Bream appeared, again around 2lb. However this flurry of activity ended almost as soon as it started and with me having to pack up at 3.30pm (always difficult when it often signals the best time), I called it a day.