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A chub on the bank, but a loss that will haunt me.


tomhaggett

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20th Jan - Canalised section of the Kennet

 

So after exploring new beats ended in disaster a couple of days ago, I thought it best to stick to a stretch of river that I knew for today.

 

Visited a canalised section that I used to fish a good few years ago, albeit from the opposite bank. Baited a number of swims with mashed bread and fished them in rotation for 15 minutes each. By the time I reached my final baited swim I hadn't had so much as a touch, and had rather lost confidence, infact I nearly turned round and went home without casting a line in the last plot. I managed to talk myself into having one quick cast in the swim, which was at the start of an area I had been told produced in the winter. A little underarm flick saw the feeder land just in the flow and a bit of careful feathering allowed it to swing round under a very unsubstantial tree on my bank. A couple of minutes later a twitchy bite resulted in a nice chub that went 3.15 on the scales, despite me weighing it three times in disbelief... I was sure it was going to go mid 5's :s.

 

DSC_3911.jpg

 

Happy with the result, I decided to have one more chuck in the swim before going home, not expecting much to happen. The feeder went out perfectly first time and within minutes the line tightened across my finger in a far more positive manner.. if I wasn't holding the rod it would probably have gone in. The resulting strike was met with some serious resistance, that plodded around for a minute or so before taking off 50 yards downstream. I should have realised that it wasn't a chub but couldn't put my finger on what else may have picked up my bit of flake. This thing dragged me all over the river for a good 15 minutes before it came in and flashed a brown flank just under the surface at short range, at that point I was sure I'd hooked a monster of a brownie.... another 5-10 minutes passed and I finally had the fish under the tip and under a bit of control, bearing in mind that I only had a 3.6lb hooklength on. It came up to the surface and rolled just out of netting range revealing itself as a bloody massive, scale perfect linear, exactly like the ones I'd failed to tempt from the neighbouring pits earlier in the season. Another couple of runs and he was done, head up and coming to the net when for no apparent reason the mainline parted.. the fish hung in the water for a couple of seconds as if to mock me before slowly drifting back off to the depths. Needless to say the rod flew into the bushes, the air turned a deep shade of blue and I sloped off home with my tail well and truly between my legs.

 

When home I reminded myself to change Sensor more regularly than every 6 months and spooled up with some fresh stuff ready for my next outing.

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