It was worth it

Overnight snow was forecast and the weathergirls got it spot on. Two extremely excited children running around the house woke us up early and they insisted on making a snowman before school. I did the right thing and obliged, after a coffee!
The next delay in my mission to get to the river bank came in the form of a family friend in need of a jump start, luckily he lives in the next village to the stretch of river I had in mind so I loaded the gear and set off on a rescue mission.
When I finally made it water side it had started to rain, heavily-also forecast. Now rain does not bother me but snow melt bothers fish so I cast out knowing that the chance of sport would be now and it would dwindle as the day went on and the river filled up.
Chub were the target, what else in these conditions? and I had a batch of freshly made cheese paste to tempt them with. Simple running rig, 4lb line and size 10 paste hook.
Cheese paste can be a hit and miss bait, Chub love it if it stays on the hook but the bites can be lightning fast and missable. I missed a few before finally connecting and a slow, dogged determined fight ensued. I was sitting atop a steep bank with the main part of the flow directly below meaning that when I got the fish to the net it wasn't easy to guide it in, I managed at the second attempt. As I peeked into the net I could see an old warrior of a Chub, it had been round the block several times but it was a big fish. I let her recover while I sorted out the scales. My personal best was a 5lb 8oz fish caught over twenty years ago from the River Ure in Yorkshire.

Floppy haired teenager catches big Chub

I never thought I would beat that mark with a fish from the Warwickshire Avon. I have caught plenty of 'fours' and some small 'fives' but I was elated when the scales pulled down to 5lb 12oz. I was cold, wet through but couldn't care less, new pb.

It would have been a 'six' in it's heyday but that was definitely some time ago!
Nothing more came from the swim so I went for a wander to warm up more than anything else. I tried several more swims without success, the snow melt was killing sport and to make it worse the sun came out to melt some more.

I fished on but only because it was a lovely change to have the sun on my back but the pb Chub remained the only fish caught today.