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Martin James award-winning fisherman consultant,broadcaster,writer





  

27/01/2014 - Good Chub from Rivers Ribble and Wye

Saturday 25th January was a horrid day for fishing gale force wind hail stones heavy rain and a fast rising coloured river with a water temperature of 42 degrees F up two degrees on the previous day. My guest was David Hurst I suggested David fish the Willow Pool swim while I would go upstream and fish Roberts. I suggested David fish bread crust on a short link with just one LG shot with some plasticine wrapped around the weight. Most anglers will tell you that bread baits are useless in rising coloured water don’t you believe it. Other would probably laugh at using a single LG on a high fast flowing river. Again don’t be mistaken. If you were to follow the ideas of many anglers and fished a flat lead or swim feeder you would lose quite a bit of tackle. I told David to fish the quieter water close to the bank, in his three hour session he caught five good chub all 4lb plus, he lost just one set of tackle. Four of his chub were caught on crust the other fish on sausage sizzle paste. I didn’t have a bite.

 

Next day I had David’s son Gavin as a guest, we started off in the Oak Tree swim same tackle set up as his Dad, bait was crust but the river had another foot of water and the river still rising with a drop in the water temperature which was down two degrees f. I told Gavin where to drop the bait, within a minute there were two slight pulls on the rod tip then the tip pulled round the perfect bite. It was missed in dramatic style, we fished on but no further bites. I then took Gavin off to another swim showed him where the scum was flowing slowly around the trunk of a willow tree. I said “Drop your bait in the scum line next to the tree trunk” Ten minutes later Gavin had a chub pushing five pounds another good result, when another anglers told me in the morning “It’s a waste of time fishing today” Half an hour later Gavin had a good pull but missed his second bite of the day. After a brew we moved swims to Roberts but no bites were forthcoming.

 

Today I got this e-mail from Justin Morgan from Newport Wales Hello Martin, I hope you are well. I managed to sneak off up to the Wye for a couple of hours this afternoon. The river was bank high and chocolate brown. I had a look at Weir End and Wilton Bridge but there was no one else about. I fished the spot you suggested along the middle of the field that we spoke about, I managed to winkle out a decent chub 3lb+.I fished a tight spot between two submerged trees that created a nice slack, had it on cheese paste. You were right you can still catch them in these conditions!. Thanks for the help and advice, Justin.

 

 

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