A modest days fishing (Video 99)

Carry on with your mud pies

Yesterday lunchtime having taken stock of the river levels of the local waterways it was apparent that my angling choices ranged from high but not bad, right to the extremes of coco pops turns the river chocolatey. Me being me of course opted for the latter option, always a good helping of the bloody minded at times and yesterday was not going to break that pattern.

Getting down to the river it was as I expected, over the banks in places but looked like it had finally peaked, a gravy meets rusty tea colour to it, not the most ideal chub hunting conditions and it was evident that visual and smelly baits would be the way to go, thankfully I had brought the krill cheese paste and some bread with me.

It was a beautiful afternoon, sunshine interspersed with showers and a light breeze. The first few swims were a mixture of slacks and flotsam pockets, good skulking zones. Not a touch was to be had on bread, so a change was made to cheese paste. Within a few minutes the rod tip twitched and was followed by a bite with more conviction, I was soon playing what felt a nice fish and one that put the extra flow to very good use, ten seconds later and the hook pulled, I was annoyed with myself as I had perhaps given more side strain than I would have liked but had very little choice given the snags and debris.

A few mumbled curses later and a move of swims was on the cards, moving upstream I found a marginal area where the river over the years has scoured away the bank, having seen chub laying up along here in summertime I thought it would be worth a trot through with the link ledger. It didn't disappoint and I had my first couple of chub of the new year the larger a fish of 2lb not huge but given the conditions I was buoyed and hopeful that one of the better fish might put in a showing. Near to this area is a swim that at times is choked with too much detritus, however given the recent rain a lot of this had been flushed through, leaving a few planks of wood and other junk in its place but with enough room to run a bait under for any unsuspecting chub. A few small lumps of cheese paste were introduced and these were soon joined by the hook bait. Twenty minutes had passed when I received a confident bite and I was given a good scrap by a better stamp of chevin, a fish that made repeated headstrong sprints for the sunken debris.

4.2

I was suitably cheerful with this fish and could have gone home happy, but as you can see from the first photo I decided to fish on into evening in hope of picking up one of the waterways 5 or 6lb fish. Just into evening the rain picked up and changed from light showers to heavy downpours, the swim I was in was a bit of a mud pie to say the least and having somehow conceived to lose one more chub to a hook pull I decided it was time to pack up and head home. Sliding my way out of the swim and back to one of the adjacent paths I somehow managed a combination of tumble, forward roll and head first slide into a ditch that I had not seen, thankfully as I fell I dropped my rod at the top and it was fine, but I was left covered in mud, battered and brambled in the ditch. A check of myself and other belongings found that all was fine and that it had been a good thing that I had not landed on my back. An hour later and an undignified figure that looked akin to a muddy Yeti made its way slowly to the waiting car, mum exclaimed "my god it must have been very muddy today Mark", biting my tongue I nodded silently, there is never a dull moment I can certainly say that.

Small river chub fishing

Do you ever pass by a water that others ignore? Overgrown and forgotten, cars rumbling by as it cuts its way underneath old road bridges and alongside weed choked footpaths, from tiny trickles with weed choked pools, to brooks and small rivers that cut through urban sprawls. There is many a tale waiting to be told, each one holding a surprise or two in their depths, just waiting to make your reel clutch sing, they provide excellent opportunity all year round for stalking chub in summer or winter.

I really do enjoy fishing the smaller tributaries, brooks and feeder streams, in many ways they are places time has forgotten, usually ignored by other anglers, disregarded as unworthy of their attention. Keeping proceedings simple and staying mobile is the name of the game, rod equipped with a small cage feeder or link ledger, landing net and a small rucksack is all you need to begin this minimalist and most enjoyable styles of fishing. Hunting out likely features such as weed rafts, bankside cover, deeper pools, undercut banks and structures such as bridges, all perfect places for chub to skulk around.

Bait need be no more complex than a loaf of bread, cheese paste, worms from your garden compost or maggots, fishing each spot with little or no groundbait, lest you spook your quarry.
I do fish a wide variety of baits when targeting chevin, what baits I use can vary a lot and are also dependent on the time of year.

During winter I favour cheese paste, maggots and lob worms and I have two cheese paste recipes that I use. One actually contains no cheese and I call it my "quick mix",this is perfect for when there is no cheese in the house and uses the following ingredients.

Removing all the crust from the bread and adding 1ml of Richworth Cheese and half a level teaspoon of the Richworth Active xtracts blue cheese and garlic, I then knead the ingredients together whilst adding a small amount of water, until I am left with a nice smooth ball of paste.

It is important to make sure that the paste is thick enough to stay on the hook, but also soft enough to allow the hook to penetrate and pull through the paste when striking fish. This recipe can be made in just a few minutes and you can be out fishing more or less straight away.

My other recipe is very similar and replaces the liquid cheese and blue cheese and garlic additives with the following.

Blue cheese, and shortcrust pastry, mixed until you get a completely smooth and well balanced paste. Once again you want a firm paste, but one that you can still pull the hook through when striking into a fish. Remember in cold water conditions the paste will harden more when it enters the water. For such reasons I always make sure the tip of the hook is well exposed and the paste is only moulded around the hook shank. You can of course use any cheese, Camembert and Brie both work very well and provide a good scent trail for the chub to pick up on.

My fishing rig consists of a low resistance Nine Bream Kwik change run ring, a simple but effective run ring, enabling a fast switch of feeder or weight, so that I can change straight back to link ledger too, these have over the years become an integral part of my fishing and allow a very low resistance presentation for wary fish, beneath this I use an Enterprise Tackle protect-a bead both these components are then slid over the swivel which connects the hook link and main line.

The anti tangle tubing helps to push the hook link away from the feeder or link ledger, minimizing tangles. As can also be seen in the picture above, the cage feeder is filled with a mixture of bread which has been chopped down in a food processor, to this mixture I add a tiny amount of krill powder, this leaks off a very strong, fermented shrimp scent trail which the fish absolutely adore, but at the same time does not over feed them.

 

Most of my fishing for chub is done using a roving style, fishing in such a manner you are a lot less constrained into fishing only certain areas due to the amount of tackle you are carrying and as such you will feel the urge to wander somewhat more as you fatigue a lot less, learning a lot more about the water you are targeting in doing so and being able to seek out fish holding areas. Believe me the rewards are there and tools such as Google earth can come in very handy in finding hidden waterways.

Come winter and when sport is perhaps not so forthcoming on larger waterways due to flooding (2012 springs to mind),  smaller streams can be excellent, the fish remain in an amiable mood and quite willing to feed, providing some excellent winter sport, many is the time I have had a mornings roving, on a snow covered small stream or river and been pleasantly rewarded with a fish or two, where had I perhaps targeted the Thames in spate conditions, results would have been quite different.

So the next time you pass by what might look like just a ditch, perhaps narrow enough to jump across, or a weed choked small river, don't treat it with disregard, stop and take a look, because chances are you will be rather pleasantly surprised with what you may find.