THE HARD YARDS

 

 

     It's been a dismal start to the year for me. Since my first moderately productive effort with the 'new' bitsa, now named the Jubilee de luxe, I've had four blanks, two on the canal and two on Jubilee. Obviously the combination of hideously cold weather, melting snow and torrential rain provide all the reasons and excuses I could have wished for but they have finally paused. The river has fallen and the temperature risen although the latter not by much. At least the thermometer is showing positive figures at last and with a pint of vacuum packed casters that have been slowly going off in the fridge for a week and a half; it was time to get back on the river.

     The Warwickshire Avon is not and never will be the equal of its Hampshire cousin but it does hold a reasonable head of Dace, a few Roach and plenty of Chub. With the outside chance of a Barbel thrown in, a decent day's sport is always possible but never guaranteed. It can be hard going, but a decent fish can show up at any time and today was a typical hard winter's day. I fished a loaded waggler with 3 sixes bulked down the line and a no 10 a foot from the hook. I keep pushing the float up trot after trot until it drags and then keep knocking 3" off until it runs through nicely. If it drags under once in a while, that's just right.

    I fed a small pouch of casters and one of hemp and tares every third or fourth cast. The casters were in surprisingly good condition considering their age and I just hung one on the bend of a 16 hook. It was over an hour before my first bite but a decent fish bored deep and resisted sullenly all the way to the net. I know they always do but it looked and felt heavier than the 3-5 that the scales suggested. It's the number one reason why I take the suggested weights of any un-weighed Chub with a big pinch of salt. Two hours of careful, thorough fishing later I had another bite and once more a stubborn fish hugged the bottom out in mid-river. Sadly it came adrift halfway back but on the very next cast, while I was still cursing my luck I had my third and final bite of the morning. This one felt heavier and looked even bigger but still the scales were not impressed and grudgingly offered me 3-6. I took it gladly enough; those fish were hard-earned and very satisfying. Three bites in 5 hours is pretty standard for me these days.

     In my head I see shoals of fish vying for every cloud of bait I put in but the truth is we are often just waiting for a fish or two to come through the swim. When it happens, all the stars have to align, the bait must be close enough for them to see if nothing else, the float must show the bite and the strike must drive the hook home. How many pass through our swims ten feet to left or right or while we are re-baiting we will never know. Those fish don't necessarily clear the feed either. There is a good clip in George's Chub film of a one taking just one of half a dozen pieces of bread on the bottom and never returning for the rest. If he had been fishing, at 6-1 against, those would not have been great odds. I guess that the only solution is perseverance and maybe not putting too much feed in during the cold weather. My preferred option with big baits, if I feed at all, is to feed regularly but with insignificant groundbaits that attract but don't feed; liquidised bread for example. It's not the same with particles as a single caster does not stand out in the same way as a knob of cheese or a piece of flake, so I rely on the current to constantly sweep the swim clean and unlike most anglers I try not to have my hookbait going through the swim in a cloud of free offerings; just after they have gone through and while the fish are maybe looking for another seems a more sensible option and it worked today.