A bit of good fortune

[Steve Burke]

Congratulations (again!) Andrew! It's obviously not luck but skilful angling.

[Anderoo]

Congratulations (again!) Andrew! It's obviously not luck but skilful angling.

 

Thanks Steve, you'll be horrified to learn that today was absolutely PERFECT for perch fishing - but I can't tear myself away from the chub

[Steve Burke]

Thanks Steve, you'll be horrified to learn that today was absolutely PERFECT for perch fishing - but I can't tear myself away from the chub

 

 

Excuses, excuses! Just admit that you were fishing for perch and you fluked yet another of those incredibly easy 6lb+ chub!

[Anderoo]

Excuses, excuses! Just admit that you were fishing for perch and you fluked yet another of those incredibly easy 6lb+ chub!

 

Never!

 

[Anderoo]

Looks like I squeezed that little session in just in time, this morning the river is even higher and the colour of hot chocolate!

 

I've noticed a definite pattern with these fish that I'd like some opinions on from other chubbers. I'm becoming more and more surprised that (as far as I can tell, and I'm pretty certain) I have had no recaptures. I have also had a maximum of 2 of the bigger fish from each spot fished. So that could mean one of two things:

 

1. They are much more transient than I thought, and do actually travel large distances

2. They learn quickly, and even though I might pick the right spot on the day, they are too sharp to fall for the same trick twice

 

If it's 1, concentrating on any particular bit of water is a waste of time, I need to cover a lot more water and keep fishing new spots. If it's 2, a change of bait or tactics might start things moving again.

 

Every time I try new water in decent conditions, I catch them. Fishing formerly productive spots turns up very little.

 

Is this normal? What do people think?

[Tigger]

1. They are much more transient than I thought, and do actually travel large distances

2. They learn quickly, and even though I might pick the right spot on the day, they are too sharp to fall for the same trick twice

 

If it's 1, concentrating on any particular bit of water is a waste of time, I need to cover a lot more water and keep fishing new spots. If it's 2, a change of bait or tactics might start things moving again.

 

Every time I try new water in decent conditions, I catch them. Fishing formerly productive spots turns up very little.

 

Is this normal? What do people think?

 

 

1. They do move around alot and I think they can cover a fair ammount of distance in a short time. I've actually watched small shoals of them roaving up/down the river in the past.

 

2. I don't think they learn quick (they're only fish brains). I've had lots of recaptures.

 

The spots where you get your good catches regularly are obviously good hold up spots for the fish so when fish are moochin about they'll settle in those spots for a spell before moving on and then the next chub that are patrolling the water to pass that spot will most likely hold there for a spell and the pattern just continues until the river/floods change the structure of the bed and ruins the holding spot.

[Nicholas S]

Great catch again Anderoo, well done! N

[Anderoo]

Cheers Nicholas

 

I guess it's an easy thing to test - I just need to fish the formerly productive spots with a different bait that I know the chub will like. If I catch them, they were there all along and have grown wary of the bread. If I don't, they're elsewhere.

[Steve Burke]

I guess it's an easy thing to test - I just need to fish the formerly productive spots with a different bait that I know the chub will like. If I catch them, they were there all along and have grown wary of the bread. If I don't, they're elsewhere.

 

You beat me to it!

 

Assuming you find that it's not the bait then it's almost certainly going to be a question of location, or possibly of time of day/night.

 

Each river, and each stretch of river, is different, but I'm with Tigger.

 

Streamier sections tend to have a lot more swims that the chub like, and also a lot more shoal chub but of a lower average size with the odd biggie thrown in. These shoal fish tend to be resident or semi-resident in their home swim throughout the winter. Additionally though there are roamers, and these are often bigger fish.

 

From what you've said about your stretch I'd guess that there's a number of holding areas but relatively few chub, hence the high number of six pounders. This is likely to mean that a given holding area may be unoccupied for quite some time, possibly days. There may or may not be a regular patrol route and with so few fish this might take some time to establish.

 

So I'd be inclined to continue baiting up a number of swims, both new and established, and visiting them all in turn.

 

It'd also be useful to find new swims, so a thorough plumbing/feature finding session may be worthwhile before next winter.

 

Please don't let me give you the impression that I know all the answers though, on this or indeed any other topic, as I certainly don't. Yes, experience does help, but as I said at the beginning every water is different, and I've very little experience of crayfish-infested waters.

 

And you haven't exactly done badly yourself up to now!

[Anderoo]

From what you've said about your stretch I'd guess that there's a number of holding areas but relatively few chub, hence the high number of six pounders. This is likely to mean that a given holding area may be unoccupied for quite some time, possibly days. There may or may not be a regular patrol route and with so few fish this might take some time to establish.

 

I think that's right Steve. The holding areas (bits of water where a fish or two feel comfortable) move about all the time depending on flow, colour, light intensity and temperature, and are often empty even in good conditions. I know this because I've fished such spots for the first time in good conditions, and if a chub is there in those circumstances they try to pull your rod in within 5 minutes!

 

Maybe it is as simple as previously productive spots, for whatever reason (time of year?), have simply been empty for several weeks?

 

By the way there are very few streamy sections, only really in the weirpools. The rest of the river is pretty uniform. Instead, it seems that it's the more overgrown and snaggy sections that hold the greater number of chub of a lower average size. The bigger fish seem to hang out in water that is deep, slow and quite boring - ideally with very steep/sheer banks that drop straight into deep water (btw the only thing I've leaned about the big perch so far is that they also really like these features).

 

One thing I did wonder about at this time of year, is does the annual movement of predators (including big pike) towards their spawning grounds act to shift the chub from previously favoured areas?

 

I suppose I have the following options:

1. Try a new bait in old spots

2. Try fishing at night in the same way as before

3. Keep finding new areas and fishing new water

 

(I already have a couple of totally new stretches in mind for some closed season exploration - one is interesting because access is very difficult and so hopefully no-one bothers, and the other looks so boring I don't think anyone fishes it! Just the place for a monster!)

Edited February 21, 2011 by Anderoo