stevetheangler

Tuesday, 5th July 2016  and I head back to the Warwickshire Avon in search of a new PB bream – which I fell short of doing by 4oz on the last visit – with hope in my heart.

I headed back to my swim of the previous visit – and I suspect that it had been fished by others since my previous visit as it was far more trampled and the veggies hacked back more than I did.

So I settled down for my session and made my first cast at around 0730 with a different rod to last session – the 11′ 1.75lb TC rod being exchanged for a 12′ feeder rod with quiver tip in order to (a) cope with the marginal vegetation a bit better as the 11′ rod was not quite long enough to extend fully over and on the retrieve sometimes I got caught up when swinging in and (b) have a softer, more sensitive, bite indication method than the tip of the previous rod… And other than the rod change the rest of the tackle and baits were generally as previously used – 8lb mainline straight through to a size 10 hook baited initially with worm/maggot – and initially I fished the same line as the previous visit, casting downstream about 20 yards, just outside, and level with, a large overhanging willow tree using a 25g open end cage feeder packed with my usual feed mix of crumb, particles, pellet and dead maggot mixed to a sticky consistency.

Again, right from the start, using worm for bait, I had plucks and tugs almost every cast but it wasn’t until 0830 that I managed to hook into a fish – an 11oz bream. And 10 minutes later a larger bream of 3lb 4oz graced the net…

… so all was starting to look promising…

However, it was not to be as for the next three hours there was no further action at all – not a single tug, nibble or nudge from anything and even despite trying a change of bait to bread too.

So I decided to try the margins for a while as I had heard that bonus perch are quite possible – and the water depth is still quite appreciable at the very edge (3′-4′ I’d approximate). I slipped off the feeder and replaced it with a small cubic lead of 7g and started hand feeding maggot outs in front and slightly upstream in order that they reach the bottom where I was fishing about 10′-25′ below me… first cast and the tip smashed round but the bite was missed… and so for the next 20-30 mins various plucks and tugs were received on both worm and bunches of maggots and then I hooked into a decent feeling fish only it to snag me on an underwater branch or root and to leave the hook embedded in the snag and I ended having to snap off. I re-tackled to the same set up as I had been using and re-cast … and after 15 minutes without a bite I retrieved the line only for it to snag but this time I was able to recover the tackle intact as the piece of wood into which the hook had caught gave way and I retrieved not only my tackle and the piece of wood but also the hook and ledger stop that I’d lost previously… Next cast, a bite and a small chub of 4oz-6oz came to hand… and then the swim went quiet with no touches for an hour.. until another bite, another chub of similar size to the first and then again a quiet spell during which I put the feeder back on and tried the longer range willow tree stretch again… a few twitches and then quiet… back to the margins with the small lead and another bite and a bream of around 3lb was brought towards the net but the net tangled in the vegetation and whilst trying to free the hook pulled from the fish….

Anyway, after that it went quiet again and I finally reeled ion for the day at 1500 as I needed to get home early’ish and had a longish trip in front of me in which I needed to avoid rush hour traffic as much as possible….

I love this location but it is a long’ish trip but I’m planning to make at least a once-a-month trip there for the future… really need to see the banks in winter with the vegetation died back to see exactly the structure of the ‘solid’ ground which is hidden greatly in foliage currently..

But on Friday – hoping to get out tenching :)