13 Chub and lost a larger one

I saw a great T shirt and something funny while on holiday recently. It read.

“I came into this world with nothing and I’ve still got most of that now”

The chub fishing for Andy (you should have been here yesterday) Cowley has been good however the bigger fish of 6lbs plus has been eluding him of late, certainly whilst I was away on holiday. Others who are fishing the Avon are finding the same. However they are still there or hiding. I will say that they have been fished for by numerous anglers this year. Perhaps next year it will be quieter.

So I headed off ready to meet Andy last Tuesday with hopes of a big fish or two. It really is great heading through the Bristol Avon then the Wylye followed by the Avon valley’s it gives you plenty of time to churn all sorts of equations and swim selection through your head. To be fair there was a swim that I headed for that I hoped had not been fished for a while. It was a big bend with trees on the other side. It’s produced several 6lb plus chub over the season and my thinking was that it hadn’t been fished recently.

I passed the bridge where I saw Andy’s car parked up I headed on and saw him on the bank walking along. I beeped my horn a couple of times and we gave each other a wave.

Soon I was togged up my clothes and tackle and heading off to the swim. There was some colour in the river, a little more than I wanted however I’m not complaining as I couldn’t get any where near the river last year due to floods.

The swim hadn’t been fished recently by the look of things. So I started catapulting out some red maggots as I tackled up. I was using my Hardy Marksman 15ft rod and 5lb main line. I needed a 7bb float to trot the flow. It’s essential to keep feeding maggots to keep any chub interested and chasing the maggots.

There was little wind so it was easy to present the bait just right. The swim was about 5 ft deep and a nice crease in the flow from a slack area was the targeted place where the chub would lay.

Second trot down or so the float shot under and the rod hooped over as i was playing a large chub. It certainly made use of the fast flow however with few snags I could take my time. It took me down stream some ways, however I know this normally happens and had strategically put my landing net down there. It looked a good fish and as it came towards the net it looked a 5lber.

Sure enough on the scales it went 5lbs 4oz so a great start. I had visions of a great day unfolding. I kept at it for the next 3 hours catching another 2 chub however these were smaller fish of 2lbs or so. Lovely to see different year class fish coming through. Then I had a 13 oz grayling which is about the largest I’ve caught from the river. The wind was increasing now making float control more difficult.

Finally I had to concede defeat and move swims.

I moved to a swim where I’ve had plenty of chub to well over 6lbs in the past. Andy was fishing well downstream from me and was not having much luck. So he was going to pack up and come up my way.

The very first bite I had was from a very strong chub that I just couldn’t control. Normally I manage to steer them clear of the far bank snags however this beast I couldn’t do anything. I had set the clutch so that it gave line before breaking the 4lb 12oz hooklink. However I just couldn’t stop this fish and in the end I had to just hold the spool a little but that was too much as you feel that sickening feeling of the hooklink breaking. This happens so infrequently I was gutted.

 

Just as Andy arrived I was releasing my first chub which was about 3lbs caught on swim feeder red maggots.  I recast and after 5 mins or more the rod hooped over again and there I was playing another one of similar size. So they were in the swim feeding.

Again I had to place the landing net well downstream because the fish really make use of the strong flow.

Andy went on down to one of his favourite swims and started to trot his float through.

I continued to fish and landed 6 more fish and pulled out of one more. Another hazard when fishing in fast water. the best of the bunch was this 5lbs 10 oz chub.

I wandered down to Andy resting my swim for a while and had a chat with him taking a few photo’s of him fishing. He had lost one fish at the near bank which was about 3 lbs then he lost another on the far bank which felt much bigger so he told me.

He was using the normal feeding technique of pult ,trot.pult,trot,pult trot. I think you get the idea.

Soon Andy was into another chub which had his rod really bending as it made good use of the flow.

 

So with Andy having to battle the strong wind he was doing really well. I left him and walked back to my swim.

So having rested the swim I was hoping that the chub would feed once again. I wasn’t wrong as almost straight away I was playing another chub again around the 5lb mark. On the scales she went 4lbs 12oz.

Evening was approaching and I was hoping for more and sure enough they came along and in total I had 10 chub from the swim plus one lost and a hook pull.

There were more in the swim as I packed up they could be seen swirling over the baited area. Andy came up and he I think had 8 chub and this included two 5lbers I think. So no 6lbers for us again.

I was sleeping in the car overnight in Ringwood so after chicken and chips and a can of coke I lay on the bed in the car listening to the football on the radio. Life felt quite good.

After a nights sleep I was up at 6.30 and heading for the Middle Avon again, this time I was going to walk a few new stretches to see what was around. There were a few swims that I liked and eventually decided to fish at the tail of a weir pool thinking that the bigger fish were starting to gather for spawning later in the year.

I fed the swim which was a very short 20 yd trot. I kept feeding as I tackled up. Guest what first trot down under the near bank swim and the float buried and the strike met with solid resistance and a chub was on. With few snags I could play the fish and tire it before netting. It was small at around 3 lbs.

I caught 2 more of similar size within a hour, but no bigger fish showing. With that a friend Paul arrived and I promised to show him around the fishery and then perhaps catch him a pb chub.