Wasting precious time.

Towards the end of the week news had reached my ever listening ears that some decent barbel had come out of the wasperton top meadow, the site of my last disastrous barbel session, so I manned up and made the decision to give it an early morning look half with barbel in mind and the dace point as a good back up.

I chose to fish a totally overgrown willow swim thinking that the barbel would be keeping well out of the gin clear open water during the day. After setting up well back from the bank I snuck into position and plopped a spicy chunk of special sausage under the thick willow.

Needless to say I never got a sniff from anything bigger than a overzealous dace, though an angler who I had spoken to as I arrived managed to bag a small barbel of around 4-5lb from the next fish able swim down. So they were in there somewhere.

After four hours of keeping low watching a motionless rod tip I opted to make a move down stream with Rob who had turned up a short while ago. Again the clear weedy Avon looked barren as the kosher section of the Auschwitz cafeteria. So we jumped in the cars and moved down to the mid section of the wasperton stretch.

What a waste of time this turned out to be! I really should have known better than to bother going down into this area. For some reason these deep slow areas of the Avon around here, though they look resplendent in there summer finery, are absolutely useless during the daylight hours. I suspect it is due to most of the resident fishing feeling rather nervous in the gin clear water filled with hungry predators wishing to eat them.

Anyway this was the sum total of nearly six hours of fishing on Sunday morning.

One tiny chulet!

As I drove home disappointed I was pretty pissed off with myself to be honest. At the moment I have developed a real sense of urgency regarding the challenge, as time is running out for some species still left to catch; once the summer months are gone these particular points will be out of reach, so spending time chasing fish or points that will still be attainable two months away in the autumn is a serious waste of precious summertime.

Chances taken always pay off.

Never being one to miss an opportunity to get out for a last minute session my ears pricked up like an elf when Jacky told me she was going out for drinks in Leamington with some work colleagues on Wednesday night. Being the absolute gent I am I kindly offered to drop her off and pick her up albeit with a short fishing trip down the river in between.

It seemed the perfect chance to investigate a long held theory of mine that the bottom field at wasperton should hold some big perch. My original plan was to fish opposite the weir right at the very end of the stretch but upon arriving found it was bank to bank cabbages across the bottom of the river so instead settled next to an large overhanging willow upstream.

I didn't wet a line till eight and the first hour proved fruitless. But trying to be positive I slowly trickled in small balls of riddled mole hill and chopped worm interspersed with tiny Asda smart price peeled prawns.

With only one 2oz perch to show for my efforts I suspected it may not get any better. That was until the sun dropped below the hill on the far bank, and then it went berserk. From nine till ten the rod tip wasn't still for a moment. The next perch that took my lob worm was a pretty ten ounce minter.

After this as correctly predicted by Keith the text clairvoyant, a thick set near 6lb bream snaffled my bait.

I did manage to winkle out a few more perch as the evening drew in and the best of the bunch was this 1lb fish that lead me a merry dance under the willow.

Before I had to go the perch disapeared and some small chub moved in. Two heavily prawn filled one pound examples both decided that a tasty lobworm would be the perfect way to top off their supper of shellfish which both regurgitated once on the bank.

Every fish I caught in this impromptu session was in absolutely perfect condition and after the little success with the perch I feel sure there has to be a few two pound fish or even three's and dare I even say it four's...