Jump to content
Chris Plumb

Entry posted by Chris Plumb in Coarse Fishing

512 views

 Share

Middle Kennet Estate - Kintbury

0815 - 1745

Cool, overcast with milky sunshine at times. AT 0º - 10ºC. river at normal winter levels - looked in great nick.

35 Chub - with nearly 2doz over 3lb(!) Had 11 over 4lb of which 5 were over 5lb (!). Best 5lb 9oz. 18 Dace some quite chunky ones but nothing particularly noteworthy. 8 Roach - all small apart from one 'netter'. 6 Brownies 2½ - 3½lb - with most at the upper end of that range!

Wow! This has become my annual chub fest - I had 20 in each of the last 2 seasons and 2 doz the season before that. I usually accumulate those sorts of numbers by roving between hotspots, today was different in that I had all bar one from one spot (apart from chublets that kept turning up in my dace swims). As usual it was copious amounts of redcorn that did the trick, feeding little and often AND not recasting for 5mins or so after each fish, resulted in a veritable conveyor belt of big chub! Rested the swim for a couple of hours around midday when I had my lunch and went exploring a new swim based on some intelligence from the river keeper (which produced a more modest chub first cast followed by an acrobatic trout second). I always like to have an hour or so around dusk here fishing the carriers as they can produce big dace (I've had fish of a 1lb in the past) so I was almost thankful when around 1530 I connected with a large trout which got off but not before totally trashing my chubspot. A biteless half an hour confirmed my fears so I was off to try an get some big dace - alas the only 'pounder' that turned up in my dace swims was yet another chub!

Chub 5-09.jpg

Edited by Chris Plumb

 Share

4 Comments

Recommended Comments

Bayleaf the Gardener

Oh dear, Chris - only small dace and roach? But then I didn't know there were as many as 35 chub in the whole river. That must rate as your best sesh of the season...several seasons? Thanks for adding the 'how you did its' for us mortals. 

Link to comment
Chris Plumb

Certainly up there for average size - most of the 4s were over 4½ and it got to the point of only weighing those which looked over 4 so may have missed some 'scrapers'! ? In truth though I was hoping for something even bigger - had a 6-03 from this swim March last year and my PB of 6-07 was caught just upstream of here in 2012 - just couldn't get through the nuisance 5lbers!?

Link to comment
The Flying Tench

Great catch, Chris! One question. I don't imagine you'd normally have that number of chub of that size in one shoal. Many would ledger for big chub, but I think you usually float fish. Is a possible advantage of this approach that by loose feeding you were drawing fish up from some distance below?

Link to comment
Chris Plumb

I'm sure of it. The swim is a long glide on a wide bend - there's probably half a dozen spots you could fish from. I start at the very top and work my way down until I'm opposite the trees in the feature photo. This took all morning and after resting the swim I just fished the bottom of the glide. What was interesting is that the closer I got to the trees - the bigger the fish got!

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We and our partners use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences, repeat visits and to show you personalised advertisements. By clicking “I Agree”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit Cookie Settings to provide a controlled consent.

  I accept