Tuesday 17th January Dorset Stour and some great chub fishing

I was still planning for my campaign to Willow lake in Oxfordshire in search of those gigantic roach that live there. However some feedback was proving that they haven’t started to feed properly just yet.

With the conditions being just spot on for the chub on the Dorset Stour it was here that I decided to head. The summer river flows had been terrible on the Stour making fishing for the chub very difficult so I stayed mainly on the Bristol Avon. The H.Avon hadn’t fair-ed much better.

However with the last high flood water washing most of the debris away things were looking good. Last week I had some great sport with the best fish going 6lbs 9oz however this was on paste at the very last light. What I enjoy more at this time of year is trotting red maggots through the swim on a size 20 hook and 2.5lb line. Very light I know but providing there is little in the way of snags around then things should work out fine.

There had been no rain since last week and my session down there. So things should be good although the river had dropped another 6″ which would mean that the flow would be different in some of the swims. Also there had been 5 days of frost which would have dropped the river temperature and the clarity.

So it was 4.30am when I woke and lay there like a kid dreaming of the chub fishing that would come my way over the next two days. Then  at 4.45am the alarm sounded and bless the other half, she headed downstairs to get breakfast and ensure that the “old man” wouldn’t forget anything. Having the car loaded the previous night helps plus I make a list of duties like getting the maggots from the fishing fridge and other essentials like food money and much else I need.

As I headed through Bath and then towards Warminster on the A36 past the lovely Bristol Avon valley at Claverton life felt sweet. Outside the car though the temperature gauge reads -3c which is not good. As I head off down the Wylye valley the temperature retreats even further to -5c which makes it the coldest day (night) of the year.

As I head through Fordingbridge and Ringwood the temperature rises to -3c and then at Bournmouth it’s a positive balmy -2.5c.

On pulling up at the car park there was one other angler there in his car. Soon I was into the gear and off to the swim I wanted to fish. Some good fish had been coming out over the last few weeks. The chap in the car was soon following me down the drive to the swim. Then as I set my tackle down it dawned on me that we had met before. We chatted about the chub fishing and he had a good few to just over 7lbs in the last week or so. We both knew each others face but couldn’t fit anything together. Then it came to me, we had shared breakfast at Chew in a pike fishing day. Our mutual friend was Andy Cowley.

Terry “Theo” Theobald was his name and we passed even more time chatting away. We wished each other all the best etc. The sun was not even rising just yet as he headed off upstream to his swim and I started to feed mine. Mine was a shallow swim with a big willow on the far bank where the chub held out. It had produced chub to just under 7lbs recently and one that I missed out on last week because someone beat me to it.

The aim was to keep feeding red maggots in every cast to try and draw the chub up from the willow.

My tackle is the same old trusted 15ft Hardy Marksman float rod and 5lb main line with a 3aaa float and a size 20 mocro barbed hook to 2.5lb line. Oh and and two red maggots. The important part here is the size 24 swivel between the main line and hooklink that stops the line from twisting when retrieving the rig at the end of the trot.

I continued to feed the swim whilst tackling up. The swim was only about 2ft deep and with the clarity of the water improving I knew that once the sun came up then things would go quite.

It was really cold as I made the first few trots down the river. Everything was covered in frost and the sky bright blue. The rod rings continually froze up as you retrieved the line and it necessitated dipping the rod in the water to clear before casting out.

My first bite came at 8.40am when I hooked a chub that tried to enter the willow branches. I think though that if you hold the rod down low and even submerge it then the line is unlikely to snag in the branches as they seem to be high in the water. this resulted in a beautiful chub of 3lbs 4oz. No doubt these fish are for the future.

The chub cough up lots of maggots.

Each pult of maggots into the swim was followed by the float trying to fool the chub. One trot at 9am resulted in a pristine conditioned sea trout which was about 1lb in weight. This was followed at 9.10am by a chub of about the same size.

Then at 9.25 I had another bite this time from a very determined chub that didn’t want to play ball at all. It got under the willow branches but with the rod submerged and constant pressure the chub started to yield begrudgingly. Once the chub is in open water it’s all about slowly playing it to the net. I believe it’s like walking a dog on the lead, you give a little then take more back. The chub was soon in the net. It wasn’t a monster but good enough.

So with a good fish in the bag I hoped to add a few more.

At 10 10am I hooked another good chub that fought well in the swift current. This one went 4lbs 3oz.

The last chub of the morning came in at 2lbs 4oz.

I still continued to feed the swim and toward the end of the swim on one trot the float sank where it shouldn’t and I hooked a salmon of about 15lbs or so. It leaped clear of the river as it powered upstream but luckily the hook dropped out.

As the day warmed the fishing didn’t improve I caught one other chub oz 3lbs 9oz, and that was it.

I met and chatted to Chris the fishery Manager, Brian Wilson the bailiff plus Sid the other bailiff plus George who fishes for barbel. The sad part is George, he has only caught 2 barbel this year so far. He isn’t a bad fisherman but there are precious few barbel in that stretch now. Even Sid has only taken 4 barbel this year. Top dog is Alan who has had 10 or so. I’m not mentioning the “O” word, but I saw one first thing in the morning when I arrived chasing fish on the shallows.

Theo caught 6 chub from various swims the best being just over 5lbs, so he headed off back to South Wales.

I continued fishing after dark for a couple of hours but nothing came along to my paste bait.

So it was back to Ringwood a coke and meal in the pub and asleep in the car at 9pm.