Myton Road Winter Parking

Warwick County Council have now, as usual at this time of year, closed the Myton Road fields parking. This is to stop the field from being damaged during the wet and wintery weather. Members wishing to fish this stretch have 3 options. One is to park on the entrance to the field in front of the locked gates. If parked carefully there is room for 3-4 cars. Another is to park on Myton Road and go thro one of the openings in the fence and drop your kit off and then park elsewhere and walk back. Or lastly to park around Avon Street and surrounding roads and walk over the green footbridge.

For those members interested the Warwick Winter League. Four rounds draw 8.30, fish 10-3pm. Run as always by Keith Jenner. If you are in need of a partner or wish to book on please Contact Keith on 07813 024685. 22 anglers fished last years event.

News Update for Early November

Some great reports coming in, thanks for that guys and girls. A brilliant 25lb of silvers from Saxon mill to Dave the 'pin'. Also a solid 9lb of roach at myton road. And three large pike to report at 13lb-16lb and a whopping 21lb all from between the bottom of Avon street and the top of Myton road. The Avon Street/ Myton Road stretch is really throwing up some surprises this season with large carp and barbel along side the good roach catches which will only get better as the weather gets colder and the roach move into this stretch.


Some dates for members to be aware of. Stoneleigh AC have just booked several matches at Saxon Mill and Myton road with our club secretary. As members you are all eligible to fish their matches as well as ours (dates in the book) as we have a special arrangement with them. The dates for the matches or dates to avoid if pleasure fishing are ~

1. Sunday Nov 10 Saxon Mill. 
2. Sunday 17th Nov Myton Road. 
3. Saturday December the 7th Saxon Mill. 
4. Sunday jan 19th Saxon Mill. 
5. Saturday feb the 8th. Saxon mill. 
6. Sunday feb 23rd Saxon Mill. 
7. And Sunday march 9th Saxon Mill. 

All draws are 8am fish 9am-2pm £5 all in. Their current turnout for matches is around 5-6. You may of course fish empty pegs on the stretch so long as there is no interference with competitors.

Phil.

No Trouble at the Mill

A session at the Saxon Mill yesterday fishing and shooting pictures for an upcoming Total Coarse Fishing feature, editor, Steve Philips, and myself were faced with tricky choices. Fish the uncomfortable stretches or the more comfortable ones. 

Starting off where dace were likely to be easy to come by in the mill race we were delighted to find that the work carried out by the recent work party has cleared a track all the way to the stile and cut generous pegs all along. This work will not overgrow now that the summer growth has reached peak heights so it's easy access all the way through the rest of the season.

The dace weren't playing ball though and we couldn't buy a bite, so we opted for a couple of roach swims I know of a half mile walk away at the very end of the lower half of the fishery opposite the greyhound track. The nettles were head high but we hacked out a couple of pegs and proceeded to fish.

The fish were eventually found at 9-10 foot depth and once our loose fed hemp and maggots started to work it was a bite a chuck, and soon, a fish a chuck. In an hour or so I amassed a good bag of mixed species, mostly roach and dace, but also a number of late chub attracted upstream by the feed and a single silver bream — a rarity and only the second specimen I have ever caught from the Saxon Mill in five years fishing. The first was from exactly the same swim about five years ago!

The only trouble — fishing at such depths with a fixed waggler wasn't easy. Luckily I had a 14 and Steve a 15 footer. 13 foot rods would have made life very hard indeed!

Tricky or not, I have no doubt that a concentrated five hour session there would have brought a twenty-pound bag or better. 

To access these productive swims turn right at the gate to the arable fields and walk all the way down the trackway to the dog paddle right at the very end. The pegs are just above it but you'll have to find them the hard way if you don't get down there soon!

Jeff

Picture courtesy of Total Coarse Fishing Magazine

Hard Graft at the Mill

The club would like to thank associate members Stoneleigh AC for their bank work efforts at Saxon Mill over the weekend. 

Despite it being the hottest day of the year they made an excellent effort clearing approximately 10 pegs to the left of the footbridge up to the horse field opposite. They intend to return in 2-3 weeks and continue the hard graft. 

Reports from the guys were of fish topping absolutely everywhere and some dark shadows gliding along margins! 

Also a report from two members of roach catches of 5lbs + from the Avon Street stretch.

Phil

Tackle Wreckers and The Black Death at Saxon Mill

Danny Everitt with an Avon eel

It's great to see eels back on the river angler's daily menu after their calamitous decline over the past decade. The Avon is throwing up loads of the wriggly tackle wreckers of late and it seems if you fish meaty baits it's certain that at some point you'll regret it!

From the Saxon Mill new club member Andy 'Pike King' Johnson was 'lucky' enough to get into a right old state with a 2lb eel a fortnight ago on his very first trip to the club's waters, then just the other day and from the same venue Danny Everitt had a real river specimen at two-pounds seven-ounces, which is about average for a landlocked lake dweller but is a pretty damned big eel in a river.

Caught at Tramps Corner, it took a liking to Mr Everitt's luncheon meat, but was by his account calm and well behaved, even managing a self-take picture of it and that's no easy thing!

But then he hooked a bootlace who destroyed his hooklink...

And then had a bit of cormorant trouble which made the rest of his day nigh on impossible.

We don't like them and they certainly don't like us —the only answer to the 'Black Death' is anglers on the banks so get out there and fish our club's excellent river stretches!

George Allen Trophy — Setting the Bar High

This dace caught by Phil Mattock at the Saxon Mill currently leads the board in the race to win the George Allen Trophy. At 12oz it's a proper specimen fish at 57.14% of the British record for the species and will be quite a tough one to better. However, if it's a hen fish then it might have weighed almost a pound last February which is the fish of a lifetime for even the most dedicated specimen angler because dace of such size are very rare creatures indeed.

Great to see the Saxon Mill fished more often and the tremendous dace fishing it offers pursued by more and more anglers. It is fast becoming one the country's premier dace venues, you know — for sheer numbers caught few venues compare with it and now specimens are showing too.

Tremendous stuff!

Jeff

Flo Huckfield Trophy — The Meritorious Catch Cup

This is the 'Flo Huckfield Trophy' which dates back to 1962! 

It was stopped many years ago but is now being reinstated and what a cracking looking trophy it is — very unusual and old school. 

It will be a little different to other awards as this will be awarded for a catch of merit. Chosen by the club committee at the end of the season. It may be a 3lb roach or a 6oz roach, a 15lb carp, zander or barbel. The story is all important so if its an unusual capture or you endured great hardship to land it all will be considered. We feel this could be a very interesting award going to anyone and for catching almost anything! 

Again, just a photo (ideally with you in it but not essential, in the net/mat with a float next to it or something for scale) and report it to the website or Facebook page with the usual details. 
Best of luck, and get out there!

Phil

George Allen Trophy — The Specimen Hunter Cup

The George Allen trophy is an old specimen cup that the club stopped awarding many, many years ago. 

I'm very pleased to say its been dug out, polished up, and will be awarded to a club member at the end of the season. 

The recipient will have caught the best % of the current British record of any fish! 

All current catches will be displayed on the website. 

All you have to do is catch it — get a photo — then report it to the club website or Facebook page along with where it was caught, the bait, the method and anything else you think may be of interest. 

Best of British!

... now get out there and bag a biggie!!

Phil

Watch Your Step — Vipers in the Grass!

Needless to say you should always have a mobile phone on your person when you go fishing. It's a quite dangerous pastime in many ways especially fishing solo when falling in a swollen river fully-clothed wearing waders or even wellies might well cost you your life. 

There's another danger this time of year though, because adders will be basking in the sun and though they tend to flee pretty quickly it's quite possible to step on them unawares. I came within a yard of one last week whilst fishing way up in the wild upper reaches of the Saxon Mill. It shot off when it heard my footsteps coming through the scrubby grass, but if I'd not seen it in front of me (and I saw it only when it was almost too late) or suddenly sidestepped and trod on it I might have been in deep trouble because my phone had just run out of charge, and though I was fishing with Baz Peck, he was out of earshot and I didn't have a clue where he was.

However, I was wearing wellies and in this case they might have saved me from the bite if I had stepped on it. 

Adder bites can kill in extreme cases, unconsciousness in many, but the bite causes severe swelling of the bitten limb which will quickly swell to twice, even three times its size, and make it impossible to walk your way out of trouble. 

Be warned, I've seen the results first-hand and it's not pretty. It happened to a friend of mine when a teenager. He stepped on it, it bit him, we panicked and ran the half mile back to his house. By the time we got there his jeans had to be cut off him, because his leg had swollen enormously and continued to swell. He was in hospital for a few days and was fine, but it could have killed him...

If it happens, or even if you believe it might have, then immediately phone the emergency services on 999, give them your exact location, stay put and remain calm. 

Do wear wellies and have that phone fully charged. They're quite rare creatures but not so uncommon that they should be ignored as a very real danger especially in open scrubby grassland, which the Saxon Mill has in abundance in certain remote places.

Do heed this advice — the best way to avoid an adder is to watch your step!

But I wasn't watching mine...

Jeff

First of the Summer Evening Matches

Myton road hosted the first of the summer evening matches run by Warwick Portobello AC which was won with 9lb off peg 6, and second with 4lb 8oz.

Phil

Saxon Mill Madness — It's a Jungle Out There! (report by Jeff Hatt)

It was a crazy scheme. Insane really considering what we both suspected we'd find out there in the wilderness. Nevertheless, enthusiasm got the better and us thinking that low, clear water would afford the best chance of spotting fish over clean gravels in country so remote and inaccessible that the populations hardly ever see an angler's bait, off we trotted armed with very little gear, and even less idea...

Over the stile and into the woods it looked bad. And, it just got worse and worse and worse until we finally exited the woods and made our way into the top meadow where worse became worst. Nettles up to  your neck, cow parsley over your head and at the fertile soil of the river bank a continuous unbroken strip of the tallest, toughest and most impenetrable vegetation of all.

It was why came to be fair. Because we knew no-one else had. Now it was abundantly clear only a madman would...

Roach not yet showing at Hopyards

An impromptu match between some of our match guys at the weekend, again outlined the roach still haven't returned to the Hopyards. 

The roach are very late this year, as this stretch is a summer venue and usually full of them. Maybe in another week or so they will return-let's hope so as it is a great stretch especially for the roach. 

Several Hopyards bream have however decided to show themselves around the 3lb 8oz bracket along with a whopper at 8lb! Not the first in that weight range as a 9lber was caught there several seasons ago. And last season bags of 30lb+ did come out.

Phil

Saxon Mill Work Party

For members information there is a work party planned for Saxon mill on Sunday the 7th July. 

There are eight guys going up from about 8am till around midday. We will have 3 petrol strimmers on the go and scythes. I would normally ask people to help if they wanted to but there are I think, enough on this occasion. But if you do find yourself free, go for it but please dress suitably and take safety glasses. 

The council have assigned a health and safety guy to 'advise' us which has proved very interesting.

Obviously members should avoid fishing between these times so as vital work can take place.

Phil

Great Sport at The Saxon Mill

Just received a great report from a new member from Banbury who took a fantastic 25lb bag of roach and dace from the Saxon Mill. That's a tremendous day's sport from any river. Just goes to show how good our waters really are!

The Saxon Mill stretch is wild in places, so travel light! 

Phil

First Matches of the New Season — A Grueller at Hopyards

A very difficult and trying first match of the season at Hopyards with the roach conspicuous by their absence.

The match was won with 2lb 10oz of perch and bits from peg 16, second 2lb 8oz second from peg 9 and third 2lb 4oz off peg 20.

Also, the first of the summer evening matches ran by Portabello was held on Myton road, and was won with 9lb off peg 6, with second 4lb 8oz, and other good back up weights. 

Hopefully the Hopyards roach will return to their pre-spawning swims for the next fixture!

Full results to follow in the match diary

Phil

AGM —Thanks for Attending

Thanks to everyone who attended last nights AGM at the Dun Cow, Warwick. Overall a very positive night with good reports from all quarters. And a warm welcome to the Stoneleigh AC guys who attended. For those of you that don't know, recently reformed Stoneleigh AC are now affiliate members and will also be fishing our matches.

Phil

Smashing Stuff, by Jeff Hatt

A tough day for myself fishing bread but Phil Mattock fishing caster over groundbait took the place apart when the fish found the table he'd laid for them. He wound up with a mixed bag of crucians, tench, roach, silver bream, perch and a single rudd for 24lb, which is quite a catch!

It was a fish a chuck for Phil but unlike last week when I had similar fortunes, this week I struggled for bites and then a very angry carp broke my float rod after a ding dong battle lasting a good twenty minutes.  Until the break I had no power over it at all and it was running me into the ground. Afterwards the shortened rod gave me back the advantage and it was banked shortly.

Another smashing day at the Reservoir!

The Laurie Sargent Memorial Match at Kingfisher Pool

The recent Laurie Sargent Memorial Match at Kingfisher Pool was attended by a turnout of 15 young anglers.

The match was won by Phil Thorns and £200 was raised for the Farriers Ward at Warwick Hospital.

The presentation was made by Laurie's son, Pete, who had a lovely pewter tankard made for the occasion and presented it along with a few refreshing pints at the Dun Cow, Warwick.

Laurie served the club as secretary and treasurer for 30 years, doing much good in the process.  

A cheque will be presented to the hospital in due course...

Kingfisher Pool

Warwick Racecourse Reservoir — a Little Gem, by Jeff Hatt

Summer is here and the fishing is good. After a long and difficult winter the tench and crucians have woken up and the silvers are biting...

Warwick Racecourse Reservoir was our port of call and we weren't to be disappointed. From the off we caught plenty — Martin concentrating on the bars of gold and myself on its surprising head of genuine silver bream.

Maurice with a typical Ressy crucian

I think our final nets speak for themselves, though Maurice Hopcraft, head bailiff and president of the club assures us that better still are easily possible from this wonderful little gem of a water.

The best catch of silver bream of my entire angling life!

Ten crucians and a single tench. There's not many waters that can
throw such a catch your way

Thanks also to Tony Collet, second in command, who filled us in on the crucial little details and gave pointers as to what was possible in the future. Both Maurice and Tony obviously love this water and know everything there is to know about it.  

Will we be back?

Too right we will. The fishing was just fantastic! 

Tony deep in concentration. Any minute now...!

A Warm Welcome to Stoneleigh AC

A very warm welcome to Stoneleigh AC who have just joined as affiliate members... 

Welcome guys and girls, look forward to seeing you all on the bank! 

Phil