6lbs 13oz chub

I spoke to Andy (you should have been here yesterday) Cowley on Thursday afternoon and we decided to try a maggot approach to catch chub as the barbel were making it very difficult for most people on the river. I arranged to get a gallon of reds and pick him up at 6am in the morning.

We arrived and walked to our respective swims. Mine was where I had the 6lbs 15oz chub early in the season, Andy moved down and located some chub under a far side willow. There looked to be plenty under there.

First for me I bait dropped about half a pint of hemp near some willow branches and about the same of red maggots. I then went for a walk to see if I could see any barbel as the visibility into the river was great. I saw one double figure barbel where I saw the previous year so that’s another worth targeting. I also went down to see Andy who was catching dace and small chub from his swim but had just moved down to the one where there seemed to be plenty. He was playing a fish when I arrived. Only a small 4lber.

H.Avon in summer

I returned back up to the swim I had baited and found nothing on the bait at all. Fishing for an hour all I caught were minnows, grayling an dace. Now this happened to me last year and I had to give the swim up until autumn. Although I have a sneaky feeling that float fishing now there would do the trick.

So returning to see Andy and moaning about the none existence of chub in my swim he gave me the rod for a trot through while he fired some maggots out. I think it was the second trot through the float buried and I was playing a chub not too large. I then made a massive error by letting it go into a weed bed in mid stream. There it hung itself into the weed. I pulled but nothing moved Andy pulled and something moved and that was it he netted the fish for me. it was about 4lbs.

He baited a swim just up from his position and said that there were some chub in there and suggested I fish it. I went back up and put in some more bait plus I baited a couple of swims below him where some barbel had been showing. I collected all my tackle and moved down to fish the one where Andy had baited. There were 3 chub coming up feeding then leaving. So I put a 6ft hooklink on and cast the weight into the weed bed allowing the line to drop under the weed where the chub were feeding. I had a couple of taps on the line so at least they were there.

Then the rod trembled and shot around as I had hooked something. It wasn’t a spectacular fight on the barbel gear I had, however it did pull back. I netted it quickly and I could see Andy looking. Returning the fish to the river in the landing net allowing it to rest it gave Andy time to come up and help. My first reactions were that it was a high 5 or low 6lber. Then Andy said it was much larger. So out came the scales the sling was 7oz. In went the chub and I showed Andy the dial and he said 7lbs 4oz which meant the chub was 6lbs 13oz. So bloody close again to that 7lber.

Stunning 6lbs 13oz chub

I was over the moon with another 6lb chub. The chub was very empty so will be much larger later in the year. A big 7lber we think.

So I wandered back downstream to look for the barbel which just didn’t put in an appearance. Andy was catch chub after chub with one or two 5lbers thrown in for good measure. These are great fish to catch on the light float tackle.

big chub for Andy

Andy continued to catch on the float and at a steady pace. I may have got the weights wrong on these but they are all over 5lbs. The largest 5lbs 14oz.

Yet another 5lber for Andy

Another 5 lber for Andy

We decided to move on for the afternoon to another stretch to see if we could see any barbel. Andy reached 10 form that swim which was a very decent result. We moved to the other area. I put some feed in a couple of places however nothing showed in my first spot after 2 hrs of fishing.

Andy was catching some good dace and the odd grayling so it was fine. I wandered off to the other baited area to find a couple of chub and a small barbel there. This was after 2 hrs in the first swim!

Waiting for them to leave I baited again and they showed me who was boss by not returning. I love the Avon but sometimes it can be kind others bloody difficult.

Andy finished with 12 chub and plenty of dace and grayling, for me I had one bite that was all and one fish. Andy said though what a fish. Of course he had kindly let me fish the swim so I owe you Andy big time.