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| Picture Perfect - The Warwickshire Avon |
June 25-28 Having never fished the Warwickshire Avon
despite it being on my doorstep and the banks of the Severn still resembling a
quagmire, I thought I’d take the wife for a midweek 'romantic walk' (read: evening reccy') along the banks of Fladbury Weir.
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| Fladbury Weir |
The beat is characterized by narrow slow
flow through much of it’s length, with overhanging willows and reeds providing
notable features. Fladbury Weir dominates the upper end of the beat, with a
sizeable weirpool and turbulent run-off. Towards the lower end is a
road bridge with some inviting looking rushes emerging from the centre of the
river.
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| Bridges - Chub magnets! |
Starting at Fladbury Weir we gradually made
our way down the full length of the beat, talking briefly to each angler to learn what we could. Two anglers were fishing the weir, one on the pool
and one the run-off. Waders would definitely make fishing either of these pegs
easier. Weirpools always hold fish, but the run-off looked the more inviting of
the two, perfect for trotting a float through.
The next peg downstream is a Y shaped
junction between the river and the lock flow. The river is wider at this point
than most of the beat whilst retaining depth, flow and cover. Another very
fishable peg. Just downstream is the outlet from the mill race. A quick walk
over the footbridge confirmed what I suspected – the unfishable mill race was
stuffed with barbel, no doubt still preoccupied with spawning. Perhaps a dozen
or more fish were gliding in and out of the shadows, a few chub but plenty of
barbel – with one looking to be pushing double figures. We stayed to watch them
for a good half an hour like cats in front of a fish tank. I’ve always enjoyed
watching fish move around waterways and learning their behavior, but there’s
something especially mesmerizing about the way barbel glide up and across a
riverbed and then turn and roll downstream.
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| Dark Shadows.... Barbel and chub in the mill race! |
By the time we got to the bottom end of the
beat a mayfly hatch was in full swing, with hundreds of mayfly hatching,
bouncing on the evening air before coupling up to mate and lay their eggs. It
seems quite a fragile thing, adulthood lasting but a few hours.
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| Mayflies - beautifully intricate |
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| Dancing Alone - the last mayfly in the sky |
With my appetite truly whet, it was only a
few days before I’d negotiated upgrading the romantic riverside walk to a romantic riverside picnic, with the rods! The
river bank is as pretty as any at Fladbury and the weather was fine. On arrival
it was clear just how busy this beat gets. There were half a dozen people on
those first few pegs including as close to the exit of the mill race as
permissible. The pegs up and downstream of the road bridge were also taken. A
good hour was lost as I procrastinated about which swim to target, eventually
deciding to keep as far from the circus as possible with a peg halfway between
the two main features, just downstream of a bend. The steep bank at this
location also fitted the other half’s requirements of a little privacy and
uncompromised sunshine.
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| Happy wife is happy life! |
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| Good times - Summer evenings by the river |
With hindsight, I would have been far
better taking a mobile approach. However, when fishing a river for the first
time I always like to have options and therefore too much tackle to keep on the
move.
A sole chub, by default a pb for the Warwickshire
Avon was the only fish caught after a big thump of a take and a bursting
initial run mimicking a barbel perfectly! It wasn’t a huge surprise given the earlier
sight of barbel backed up into the mill race. There’s clearly plenty of fish on
the stretch though and I’ll look forward to getting back another time once
those fish are back in the main river and firmly on the feed.
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| Stunning - the River Avon at sunset |
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| Sometimes the catching's just not important... |
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| Blank saver! |
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