A View from the Water's Edge

[The Flying Tench]

Chris, I like the sound of the mobile chub fishing, but what do you do about groundbait when you're fishing this approach with worm? Maybe red maggots in a small feeder? Or simply use a float and cover lots of ground with no feed at all?

[Paulg]

Hi John,

 

Chris is away from net access for a couple of days I think, so I'll respond on his behalf. I've regularily fished with Chris for the last 20 years, and even after all this time, I struggle to match his river catches. His, and mine, roving approach for chub is trotting gear, and a bait-smock full of maggots for loosefeed. Chris does possess a feeder rod, but I've never seen him use it for anything other than carp or barbel!

 

Regards,

Paul

[Chris Plumb]

I'm not sure I've ever bought a feeder even! John, the water in question is one you have access to (SM) . Many folks attack it with the feeder - particularly the famed 'chub hole' - and very succesful they are too. I like watching a float too much and enjoy the freedom of a good wander. It helps that this venue is lightly fished - and there is a LOT of water to explore!

 

 

Chris

[Chris Plumb]

The weather - or rather weather forecasts - have been rather brought into focus this week!

 

Stir Crazy!

 

10/01/04 0930 - 1130

 

I short session born out of sheer frustration! As I sat up in bed watching the weather forecast predicting the end of civilisation for the coming Monday (12th Jan) I could see that the weather outside was perfick - A ‘soft’ winters day. Overcast, drizzly on a gentle southerly breeze. The 12th Jan is my birthday - and I’d booked myself a day on the Upper Kennet as a treat - it looked increasingly less likely I’d be going. It was Jaq, therefore, who practically kicked me out of the house for a short session - to stop me moping around!! The treatment worked! A 2lb chub and a few dace later and I was restored to better spirits!

 

 

Too many Forecasts!

 

16/01/04 0730 - 1730

Paul and I decided on the Sunday night, with the Met Office still predicting destructive winds & torrential rain for the 12th to postpone our trip until the Friday. In the event we both felt a little cheated - no storm came - and we spent the next four days scouring every forecast we could find to see what the 16th had in store. Everyone we read predicted something different!!! And as usual the optimist in me wanted to believe only the best ones! In the end none of them was spot on either. Metcheck coming closest predicting a windy morning (though with 100% cloud cover and drizzle) and the Met. office got the amount of sunshine (lots!) about right.

 

Paul and I had an enjoyable days grayling fishing though we did encounter rather too many rainbow trout for our liking! The two hours of dusk were spent trying to winkle out a big dace or a roach from one of the slower carriers (Where I’ve had more than a little success in previous years!) This time though we struggled (or in Paul’s case struggled NOT to catch Rainbow’s) I did have a couple of heart-stopping moments when a delicate indication of the float resulted in 2 stubborn battles which both ended up with, not the hoped for roach but, a brace of good grayling - the best 1lb 12oz my biggest of the day. I had started the morning with a couple of small dace, both males - already in breeding condition with their scales as rough as sandpaper but we didn’t find their (usually bigger!) female companions!

 

 

Chris

[Chris Plumb]

Latest installment to this blog.....

 

A Different Approach

 

24/1/04 0730 - 1430

 

A change to my usual 'modus operandi'- I actually spent the morning 'pegged out' in one spot. I fished the swim the threw up a 5lb chub back in December hopeful that it might have a bigger brother or sister. I even threw in a packet of sardines from the freezer for a spot of piking.

 

The morning dawned clear and bright but before the sun was on the water I had accounted for a brace of chevins - the biggest a little over 3lb. The next hour could be summed up as 'gudgeon galore' with just the odd small roach and dace to releave the monotony. So it was out with the pike gear though I wasn't hopeful - after all not a single gudgeon was molested on it's way to the bank. I was proved right - in little over an hour I got through 4 sardines - all stripped to the bone by crayfish. :mad:

 

Now bathed in bright sunlight the swim went very quiet so after lunch it was back to my preffered mobile approach and I strolled down to trot the weir pools where I was able to winkled out 3 more chub and half a dozen suicidal brownies.

 

 

Chris

[Chris Plumb]

Under false pretences

 

7/2/04 0915 - 1415

 

I suppose I’m something of a purist at times. Certainly for me, trotting for grayling (with a centre-pin - of course!) is de rigueur. So it was a disapproving stare which greeted Paul when he picked me up at first light and announced that he’d put a feeder rod in his quiver.

We were off to the Upper Hampshire Avon (though we were in fact making for Wiltshire!) in search of grayling. Paul explained, in mitigation, that he had a bucket of mashed bread and planned an hour or two after the huge roach which ‘allegedly’ shared their swims with the grayling on the beat we planned to fish.

As we made for the Little Chef for our breakfast stop confidence was high. We’d both phoned the local tackle shop the day before and had been assured that the river was in good nick, the colour had dropped out and it was fishing well - there was even some decent - and unexpected - perch showing.

Imagine our horror then when we arrived - to find the river in full flood. Not even bank high - it was flowing into the fields in three places on the beat we planned to fish. It was the colour of chocolate and carrying a lot of debris - mainly ranunculus and watercress which the local swans were feasting on. Definitely NOT the conditions conducive to good grayling fishing! If we hadn’t travelled so far we’d have turned back there and then. However we decided to stay and went to the tackle shop to collect bait and tackle the owner on his interpretation of ‘fined down’. Heavy overnight rain was the rather lame excuse (We’d had none at home) but we decided to have a few hours and then take stock of our options.

What was apparent though was that float fishing would be hopeless. But I’d come to travel light and only had my float rod and Witcher reel. I did have ONE swim-feeder which lives in my float box for just such an occasion though I had to cadge a bank stick off Paul - and stuff a forked twig into it to act as a rod rest!!

I fully expected to blank as we made our ways to different parts of the fishery with the promise to ring each other the instant a fish was caught. Paul though, had chosen well (a slack behind a semi-submerged tree) and within 20 minutes my mobile was ringing to announce the first fish of the day - a small grayling. I struggled, bite-less for an hour, before moving to quieter water. By now Paul had had a couple more grayling. I was just starting to get dispirited (the biting NW wind and hail showers not helping my mood) when I at last got a bite. That transformed my confidence and I fished with renewed concentration and shortly had my first grayling. The next couple of hours we both added to our haul of grayling and ended up with quite respectable totals given the conditions. I managed 11, Paul finished with 7. We both had a brace of pounders and a couple of brownies each. Maybe I won’t be so disapproving of the swim-feeder in future!

 

 

Chris

 

[ 08. February 2004, 07:49 PM: Message edited by: Chris Plumb ]

[Paulg]

As per usual, nice write-up Chris.

 

You forgot to mention the enormous breakfast, which you managed to consume quicker than me eating the middle sized one!

 

You also didn't mention that all your fish came from "my" bit of the river

 

Looking forwards to the next outing!

Paul

[Chris Plumb]

Pah!! - 'Your' bit of river - I was on the opposite bank - and anyways I was just being sociable!

 

 

Chris

[Chris Plumb]

The Eddy

 

14/2/04 0730 - 1100

 

With a month of the season to go the rivers are coming into fine fettle. It’s good to see the Kennet full at last and with little rain over the last week it has fined down nicely. I was heading for one of my favourite flood swims, a large area of slack water where the river eddies behind an old willow tree. A classic Mr Crabtree swim where all manner of species can be found ‘cheek by jowl’, finding sanctuary from the raging torrent that is this part of the river.

I was hoping for a barbel in order to stay on target in catching one in every month of the current season. No barbel showed, but I was expecting chub. And chub is what I got - half a dozen fat stocky fish in prime winter condition all in the 2-3lb bracket.

Such swims often throw up surprises and this one threw up two. The first was the quality of the dace. I had nearly a dozen stonking fish - two of which were worthy of the scales (they were both a shade over 12oz) and all the others, bar one, were around the 6-8oz mark. Fish of the morning though was undoubtedly a big, brassy perch. It looked all of 2lb as I guided it to the net. Perch, though are very easy fish to over-estimate and this one settled the scales at 1lb 14oz. My best of the season,it rounded off a hugely enjoyable session.

 

 

Chris

[Chris Plumb]

Return to the Itchen

 

16/2/04 0815 - 1745

 

“There is an unspeakably beautiful feeling of running over the empty roads of winter in an open chariot that is almost part of you, taut and keen and responsive. It has nothing to do with going fast, it is a wholly sensuous pleasure however modest your speed. You must be well nourished and warmly clad and you must have a feeling for your machine and a feeling for the lovely countryside; and preferably you must have work waiting to be done, for that gives you the mild sense of truancy which adds a special tang to the flavour of the day. And of course it must be a weekday when ‘everyone’ is at work.”

 

Maurice Wiggin, From ‘Umber umber stig id ub your jumper’ - Troubled Waters (1960)

 

The above quote is so wholly appropriate. Maurice was talking of the joys of ‘going’ grayling fishing. He ‘may’ have been heading for the river Paul and I were heading for - The Itchen. Perhaps even the same fishery. Yes - we had gleefully abandoned our desks for the seductive pleasures of this lovely river. Today was also something of a social. First up was breakfast with Mervyn a longstanding angling acquaintance and then on to the fishery where we were due to meet up with Phil and Glenn - angling friends we have made through the internet. (Glenn is better known to this forum as Spindle).

For me, the natural high lasted all day! I got my first slug of endorphin with my very first fish, a 2lb 5oz grayling! This is what we’d come for - it augured well!! However we didn’t have it all our own way. Despite weather and water conditions being neigh on perfect the fish were a bit tackle shy and it was hard fishing at times with fish widely spread out along the fishery. We all bumped as many as we landed and yet we had to keep hook sizes down if you wanted a bite.

By the time we met up for lunch, we had all caught, though only Paul and I had managed 2lber’s. I then made the decision to make the long trek up to the top carrier. I reasoned the remoteness of this stream would have meant less angling pressure. I was also hoping some of the bigger ladies would have moved up into it during the recent floods. None of my angling acquaintances seemed willing to accompany me, though I promised to ring Paul if I started to catch.

It’s always nice when a plan pays off - particularly when you have invested time and effort into it’s execution! The first 4 casts produced 4, 2lb grayling - the biggest a lovely fish of 2lb 7oz, my best of the day. Each fish was followed by a short call to Paul (yes, I was enjoying this!!) but Paul had headed off in the other direction after lunch and never did get to join me!!

The last couple of hours were spent on the lower reaches trotting the deeper water - I’ve never caught a lot here and Paul had switched to bread on the feeder in the hope of a chub. The chub didn’t show up for Paul - but I, seemingly, couldn’t do a thing wrong and had another brace of 2lb grayling, so rounding off a brilliant day with 8 fish in total over this mark. Paul ended up one shy of a half century - though seemed to have the knack of attracting the smaller fish. My final tally was 36, half of which were a pound plus. As usual we fished until it was too dark to see and then it was off to the pub for a celebratory pint and a bite to eat while the rush hour traffic died down. Definitely a day to live in the memory - it certainly beat going to work.

 

Chris