20/08/2026 - From Tench to Chub

A good chub

                From Tench To Chub

This summer I have done most of my angling in Sussex, float fishing for Tench, also roving for carp with floating crust or flake. All my fishing has been done with cane rods and centre pin reels, just keeping it simple, but enjoyable.

I was quite fortunate on most days, as regards the weather, often, I would fish early morning or evenings, when the weather was overcast, it often lasted until around lunch time.

All I had to do then with the sun overhead, is change my swim to one that was sheltered by trees such as Oak, Beech, Alder and Hazel, even better still if the swim had some large patches of water lilies, often with Reedmace and Bur-reed, there is a plentiful supply of Pond skaters, Water beetles, Swan mussels also the underside of the lily leaves are often snail eggs or the adult snails.

The water I had chosen for my Tench fishing was I thought ideal, lots of large, lilies either pink, white, or an occasional yellow lilies, the bottom was soft mud with a thick layer of rotting leaves and other vegetation, an ideal place for blood worms, of which there were plenty. The Moorhens were an interesting fixture to keep me amused as they guided their young chicks in search of food.

The Tench fishing proved very interesting, as reference baits, the top bait was without doubt mussel followed by a small section of squid, I often fished two rods, one baited with mussel, the other baited with either worm, bread flake, crust or sweetcorn.

Fishing with these latter four baits, the mussel out fished them on an average of three to one. I also found I had to fish the bait some distance from the lilies, otherwise the fish were immediately in the lilies, then it was often a tough struggle to get the fish free of the lilies, often the fish got free of the barbless hook.

Carp Off the top

I had a very good session fishing for carp with my two friends Paul and his brother Michael, both experience match anglers, they were certainly fine company, Paul and Michael either fished floating pellets or used a wafter hook bait, which was entirely new to me. I chose the first swim from the car park, where I was told by another member, I was wasting my time, but as I had fished the same swim last year, I was more than happy to fish it again.

My tackle consisted of an 11foot cane rod , in fact it's a cut down 14-foot Sharps salmon fly rod from the 1950's, with a new set of guides it's made a perfect carp fishing rod, I matched it with a centre pin reel 4 1/2" x 1" holding 10lb breaking strain line to which I attached a size 4 barbless hook. My bait was a freshly baked large loaf. After getting settled in, I catapulted a few bits of crust tight to the far bank reeds, then sat back to see what would happen.

I suppose ten minutes had passed when a carp nudged a bit of bread, at the same time a moorhen picked up a bit of bread then paddled across to where there were three chicks, best described as black balls of fluff.

Soon the carp cleared up two bits of bread in slurping takes. It was time to make a cast. In a three hours session I had 14 good fish, all on bread, the best was a common estimated around 15lbs. What amazed me was the stupidity of some anglers, as I was playing the best fish of my session, when another angler turned up to ask, "What's that noise"

I said, "What noise" he then said, "Oh it's your reel" he then asked what I'd caught, "I said a carp",

"What bait you got" I said "Bread" it then it got daft, when said "carp don't eat bread, you have to use a boilie," I could not believe what I was hearing. I was then accused of being a secret carp fisher. He then wanted to know what flavour of boilie I was using. when I said bread. He went off muttering something. I had a few more trips after carp and Tench. Then it was time to move on to other venues and other fish.

Chub From The Fast Water

Since switching my attention to either fly fishing for trout, or going in search of chub the rivers have slowly deteriorated, as the level and flow rates dropped so there was a major increase in algae and slimy green weed, no insects were hatching as the bed of the rivers had a blanket of algae and weed. Occasionally there were small areas of clean gravel caused by a small area fast water, also in the big weir pools there were areas of gravel And the odd small growth of water crowfoot.

Free lined Meat A Success

My target was to fish any small area where there was some streamy water, often about two feet of water, but if it had over hanging bushes or trees, often with snags close by, I felt there was a chance of a fish' My tackle consisted of an Avon action rod fixed spool or centre pin reel, with 10lb breaking strain line with a size 4 barbless hook. I needed the strong tackle, so if I should hook a fish, I could lug it out of the way from the danger of sunken snags.

Over a few week I covered several miles of waterways, often pushing my way through head high nettles,  balsam and brambles. My usual bait was a large piece of luncheon meat, often as big as a match box. Often casting upstream a few yards then watching the bait as it trundled down towards me, then down stream. The results were outstanding. I had  more than my share of chub between two and three pounds but also four chub of five pounds plus, the best at 5lbs 9 ounces. I did have one disastrous moment when I was fishing a deep fast pool when the rod was wrenched from my hand, it disappeared like a javelin. Eventually my angling come to a full stop as the conditions were not suitable for angling

carp on crust

Back to the News List