Chub and Brass Monkey's

All the shopping is done, everything is wrapped so I'm ready for Christmas. To have the Wednesday as a day for fishing was planned a few weeks ago the only thing not planned was the 'Brass Monkey' weather. The original plan was to fish for Carp at Ryton using fish baits but a thick layer of ice forced me to scrap that idea, I had thought about Zander on the canal as an alternative plan but they are also frozen solid. The solution was to find some moving water and the Avon near to the Middlemarch Business Park was the chosen stretch, I haven't fished this part of the river for some time so it was nice to be back on a familiar stretch.

It was minus two degree's and I was doubting my sanity when getting ready to go but we're all mad, if we weren't, we wouldn't go fishing. The sun was out and helped along with the thermal layers to give a little warmth as I crunched through the frozen grass to my first swim. The method was simple, a hook on the end of the line with a lump of bread as bait, the same method I have always used along this stretch as I move from swim to swim searching for Chub.

The first fish came within a couple of casts and it was nice to see a good plump Chub on the bank, the last one I saw was the one at Ryton a couple of years ago! I kept moving and trying swims as I made my way through the first field. Most of this stretch has a heavy growth of bull rushes which during the summer months limits where you can fish, however, being winter all but the roots have died back revealing loads of far bank swims.

Casting into these runs along the far bank helped me bank another three fish through the afternoon, most of them having to be bullied over the roots to the waiting landing net.

The final fish of the day was a lovely looking fish of 4lb.