02/07/2016 - A Few Chub From My Local River

My Chub Swim

I arrived on the banks of the River Ribble around 0900hrs to find the river with about two and a half feet of extra water, visibility was around 6”, not the best for using a fly for salmon and sea trout, but I reckon it was good for chub if I could find them, after a brew I walked downstream about half a mile before I found what I thought could be a good swim from past experience I reckon I had six to seven feet of water, I then spent ten minutes feeding in pieces of Lone Angler Ocean Pride. Back at the car I put together my Chevin 11’6” soft Avon chub rod, it might be a good few years old but it’s perfect in my opinion for chub, it was matched with a small fixed spool reel with 12lb braided line that a friend in the States found for me, using a Palomar knot I tied on a size 4 barbless hook. In my Lone Angler bait and hemp bucket, I had some Ocean Pride, Cheese paste and a loaf of bread. In the small outside pocket I had a box of hooks, a box with LG shot also various other small items of tackle including a small pair of forceps and unhooking mat.

Upstream of my fishing area I had about twenty feet of fast shallow water that flowed into the quieter slower deeper water downstream of where I sat, it’s where I expected to find the chub, thinking the fish would have used the faster flowing water to clean off after spawning. Having baited the swim with twenty or more bait size pieces of Ocean Pride paste, leaving the swim I walked back to the car where I met fishery owner David so we had a brew and chat about the politics of the day. Forty minutes later I’m back in my swim, after pinching on 2 LG shot 18 inches from the hook I moulded a pigeon eggs size piece of Ocean Pride paste around the hook. With an underhand cast I dropped the baited hook slightly upstream so it would move down the faster water into my baited swim in a natural way, it didn’t travel more than a few feet when the rod hooped over, soon I had a chub about 2lbs in the net which was carried stream and released. In five casts I had three chub of similar size and released upstream. On the next cast I was able to work the bait down the stream into the deeper water by lifting and lowering the rod also giving some line, as the bait settled in the deep water I sat and held the rod for about fifteen twenty minutes before I had a good pull, which resulted in the chub pictured, in the next hour I had two more chub of similar size. For a long time I didn’t have a bite, so changed to cheese paste, still nothing. Changing to bread crust I fished for about half an hour again no interest, it was time for a late lunch. An hour later I’m back in the swim with some sausage sizzle flavoured luncheon meat, baiting with an Oxo size cube, I allowed the bait to move down into the deeper slower water, thirty minutes later the rod was wrenched savagely round, striking I found fresh air, casting out another similar size cube of meat I sat back to watch the rod tip, it was a similar long wait before I had a bite, the rod tip moved an inch, fifteen twenty seconds later I had another savage take again missed. After casting out another cube of meat I sat and tried to work out why I had missed those savage takes but couldn’t come up with a reason. An hour later with no more bites I packed up. When I got back home I had an e-mail from my friend Albert Procter who had been fishing further downstream catching good roach on bread flake flavoured with Lone Angler cheese flavoured topped by a fish weighing 1lb 12 ounces, I was envious having only caught some average size chub, well done Albert.

One of Several Chub

Alberts Top Roach of 1lb 12 ounces

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