Last couple of river sessions of 2013

After taking Andrea fishing and catching 9 chub I couldn’t wait to get out on the bank again. I was only going to fish the Bristol Avon and not travelling very far. The weather was still really cold with the temperature way below zero each night and a chilly strong easterly wind blowing.

The river was clearing even further after Monday I guess due to the frosts. By the last day it was gin clear. Nothing of any serious size came out to me. I was using my normal float and maggot approach which saw me land a few chub, but it was hard going as the water temperature was very low and the chub felt like blocks of ice when they came out. This I think stopped them from chasing the maggots too much. Cheese paste accounted for plenty of chub.

A few people ask me how I make my cheese paste. It’s simple 50/50 cheese and frozen pastry. I then add the most important ingredient that really makes the difference. 5 drops of butyric acid to about a 1lb mix, this stinks of smelly cheese. Truly it makes all the difference. The cheese paste consistency is important too, as you will want any strike to pull the hook through and get a hold.

The way I fish this is by using as light lead as possible and a lump of cheese paste about the size of a walnut shell. Chub are very sensitive to resistance when they pick the bait up. In the past I’ve had a good rap on the rod top and then nothing developing and on inspection of the bait there are two lip marks where the chub has picked up the cheese paste felt the rod top and ejected the bait. This occurs on a regular basis when hair and bolt rigging boilies and pellets and eventually the chub makes a mistake.

With winter chubbing when the river is very cold bites are more finicky so you need to connect with as many as you can. So I use and old Fox Duo specialist 0.5lb t/c rod and a quiver tip rod. Perfectly soft tipped for spotting those initial tugs from the chub when they pick up the bait. This is not enough though. What I tend to do is hold the rod on the rod rest and when I see that initial tug from the chub I move the rod towards the fish allowing perhaps another 3ft of slack line. This fools the chub in thing that all is OK as there is little resistance. When the rod tip continues to pull around after a couple of seconds normally the chub has the bait inside the mouth and the strike is meet with a fish hooked. I should warn you here though as if you leave the bite to develop too long then the chub can devour the bait and the throat teeth (pharyngeal) will cut through the line.

So getting back to the story I did quite well hooking plenty of chub but nothing large. Good fun though.

So that’s the river season finished. I’m looking forward though to a spot of more perching before they spawn then it’s tench fishing. I’ll just let you see a few photo’s I took in the last couple of days.

Lots of small chub