June 16th and two cracking 6lb chub

It was early in the morning as I drove down the roads to the H.Avon traffic was not particularly busy at 5am, however there are alway some idiots driving in a hurry and over take in dangerous places. The A36 is a single lane road for much of the route to Salisbury and the A338 onward. The best plan is to relax and don’t stress out.

I was looking forward to the start of the season as I had caught a couple of nice chub last year and with the chub spawning late there might just be a bigger one around. The plan was to fish a couple of swims that normally contain some good chub over 6lbs.

I  had been told that the weed growth was still minimal and that the river was very low. Incredible the car park was empty so I had the river to myself, I just couldn’t believe my good fortune. Unloading the car and carrying the gear was a joy rather than the camping style of tench fishing.

I would use my Korum 2 piece river quiver rod with an inline feeder and a 13ft float rod as back up if I was to float fish. The first swim was primed with red maggots and hemp via a bait dropper. I waited there for 30 minutes and not a sign of any chub. I could see small chublets and dace feeding away.

So not happy with this I moved downstream to another swim that held some chub. I could see the odd fish in among the tree branches. So the same baiting process with maggots and hemp was completed and soon enough one or two chub started to feed. There was no hurry to start.

Walking further downstream there were a few other swims that should have held chub however with the low river conditions they were empty. By the time I returned there were 6 chub now feeding in the baited area. In the bright clear skies you could see them clearly.  These were not huge fish however one looked to be about 6lbs which would be a great start if I landed it.

So I put more bait in and started to assemble the swim feeder rig. The hooklink on the blackcap feeder was short at about 3 inches and the weight of the feeder 50g. The hook was a size 20 Drennan super specialist. These hooks are really great hooks and very strong. A couple of reds were put on the hook and out went the rig near to the tree branches. Main line was Drennan Supplex at a 6lb breaking strain.

What I like about the Korum rod is that with a 1oz quiver it’s very soft to absorb the energy from the take however the rod has plenty of backbone to steer the chub from the snags. I liked my first one so much that I bought another.

The next two hours were very frustrating. The chub would come up and not go pass the line or were extremely cautious around the feeder. The sun was getting higher in the sky and they just wouldn’t feed around the feeder.

So plan “B” was to start to catapult out some maggots and see if they would chase them. I did this a few times and they were really chasing around. So I kept firing out maggots, about 10 at a time for 20 minutes while setting up my float tackle. I was going to use a waggler and let the maggots sink through the water as naturally as possible. 6lb main line a 4lb hooklink and size 20 hook was on the other end from me.

There were now about 8 chub chasing the maggots so some serious competition going on. Perfect.

First cast saw the first chub come and grab the maggot. It’s funny as you can see the white lips open and then the float goes under. The strike met with the rod hooped over and a very angry chub headed for the snags, however the clutch that is preset and checked did the trick and it didn’t make them. With little weed in the river it was relatively easy to play it out in midstream. It looked like one of the larger fish so this always gets the heart thumping a little. She was netted a bit further downstream from the fishing position so as not to disturb the other chub.

It wasn’t until she was on the unhooking mat did a realised how large she was. The sling was wetted and weighed then she was on the scales at 5lbs 11oz, s a great start. I slipped her into a sack whilst I sorted out the camera gear. However a mate Dave Robinson had just saw my car parked up. He gave me a quick call and I went up and bought him back to the swim where he did the photo work for me.

He had a quick bite to eat with me and watched the chub feed on the catapulted maggots.

In total I caught 3 chub from the swim before the sun was too high and they didn’t want to play any more. the others were about 4lbs each. As I wandered back up with Dave to the car I spotted a couple of chub in the swim where I had prebaited earlier in the session but they hadn’t turned up.. There was one which must have been 6lbs plus.

So I was to try for these. The sun was very strong by now and it must have been about 1pm. Not ideal fishing conditions however a 6lb chub is not to be sniffed at. So returning to collect my tackle I settled into the new swim and after introducing more hemp and red maggots the chub started to appear. In fact I do time these visits and it was after 7 minutes after introducing the bait that they started to feed. This got shorted and shorter as the day went on. Sometimes with the feeder going into the swim they didn’t vacate it. That’s how preoccupied they were.

Again they were reluctant to go near the feeder. It’s wonderful to see 6lb chub feed in the crystal clear water and it certainly gets the pulse racing. What I was later to realise was in fact the line was 8lb and not 6lb and this was perhaps why they were reluctant to feed near the feeder. I had marked the spool as 6lb however I must have changed the line for early season tench fishing when there is little weed in the lakes. “School boy error”.

The afternoon got warmer and I had forgotten to put sun screen on my face. I wore a long sleeve shirt. I was starting to look like a swan vesta match by this time.

There were 3 fish in there that looked over 6lbs together with 5 or so more.

The chub though didn’t seem to mind and they fed on the freebies. Then for no apparent reason I caught 3 chub one after another. I can’t say there was much competition going on between the chub. Something must have changed not the light levels for sure. Clear blue skies!

Anyhow the first chub was a fine fish of 6lbs 3oz, I kept it in the sack while I set up the photo gear.

Whilst doing this I noticed another big chub feeding on the bait. A quick cast was made and within two minutes the rod tip shot over and another big chub was being played. This was a better fight and I though I had one of the 7lbers.

However alas it was not to be. The chub was 6lbs 4oz and in beautiful condition. This one went into the sack too while I sorted out the camera gear.

So after returning the chub I continued feeding the swim via a bait dropper. The other big chub kept coming into the swim and I thought it possible to catch it.

One more fish came quickly this was a smaller one of about 3lbs.

Then after a further 2 hours a couple more just over 4lbs came to the net. It was nearing 6pm by now and it was getting cooler however my face was bright red “Swan Vesta” man had arrived.

My last cast had the 3rd big chub feeding over the feeder with a couple of other fish, the rod arched over and sure enough the big fish was on, she was powerful and fought hard to get into the trailing willow branches. I tried really hard to steer her away but the hook pulled out as I put on maximum pressure. This can sometimes happen when using small hooks.

So I had 5 chub from this swim and one that I had given up on when first arriving in the morning, so a great result. 8 chub on the first visit is pretty pleasing. Not sure what will happen when the weed starts to grow perhaps the light line approach will need to be changed.

I found this on a branch in one of the swims. Find this and you are near some good chub.