A bit of good fortune

[watatoad]

Look's like someone is showing off their rivercraft...well done keep it up

[lutra]

Just to let you all know it's not all hauling in 6lbers like mackeral! Today was a total blank, not a touch. I tried everything and everywhere but nothing worked. Nature's really waking up though, the trees are coming into blossom, the air had that fresh, spring note to it, and the squirrels and rabbits were very bouncy The red kites and buzzards suggest other little scurrying things were also out and about.

Been slow going up here this week. Just 2 chub and a few small bits in 2 trips out.

 

Just spent half an hour shorting out a 1 1/2 of maggots that need using up and I'm now looking out the window at the rain going sideways and thinking should i even bother.

[Anderoo]

Been slow going up here this week. Just 2 chub and a few small bits in 2 trips out.

 

Just spent half an hour shorting out a 1 1/2 of maggots that need using up and I'm now looking out the window at the rain going sideways and thinking should i even bother.

 

Me neither, it looks cold and miserable out there today. Day off I think!

 

There's quite a bit of rain forecast over the next few days, so hopefully the rivers will get a bit more water and colour in them before next weekend. I've recently heard of some very big perch that have come out of a certain bit of the river, so I am very tempted to have a proper go for them on the stretch I've been fishing, just to see if anything happens. I've never had a big perch from the Thames, but then I've never really fished for them. If the drop-shotting rod arrives next week I might give that a go... I lost a genuinely enormous perch from my chub stretch a couple of seasons ago, so I know they're in there somewhere.

[Anderoo]

I've had a cunning plan

 

Thinking about Steve's post, I now really want to try fishing at night for the chub, just to see what happens. I can concentrate on the area where the big fish have come from. In the afternoon and evening I can play about with the drop shotting gear and see if I can find a perch.

 

In fact, by fishing for them after dark, I don't even have to wait for a weekend...

[Steve Burke]

I've had a cunning plan

 

Thinking about Steve's post, I now really want to try fishing at night for the chub, just to see what happens. I can concentrate on the area where the big fish have come from. In the afternoon and evening I can play about with the drop shotting gear and see if I can find a perch.

 

In fact, by fishing for them after dark, I don't even have to wait for a weekend...

 

Now a big perch really would round off your fabulous season!

[Anderoo]

It really would...in fact I'd like to talk to you about perch when I see you in a couple of weeks for the work party, I think I may have stumbled upon something quite amazing! I reckon a 4 is a very reasonable target, and a 5 is actually possible

 

I think that's next season's little project though! The choice for the last few weekends is now either carry on after the chub or make a late start on the perch, and pick it up again next season. I can't decide yet. I have a feeling that Rich's big chub is the biggest I'll see from the stretch and that I've probably had the best of it now. On the other hand, starting from scratch with the perch might just waste the best few weekends of the season, if I get it wrong.

 

It's a bit of a dilemma I could go back and fish the little stream that's been very kind to me for big perch, but I don't really feel like it. I think it would just be ticking a box if I did that, if that makes sense.

 

Four weekends left, one of which I'll be at the work party, and two days of the remaining weekends are already taken up with other things. Time is quickly running out

[Anderoo]

Seems like a good plan...but just make sure you are prepared for he unexpected If one of those Thames Barbel at dusk/dark come a calling it will test you and your tackle to the limit, you can't avoid 'em for ever you know, one day my son, one day

 

Now that would be interesting! Very unlikely though I'm afraid, upper Thames barbel are incredibly rare these days. The EA have done a fair bit of habitat improvement and have restocked with little barbel recently (upstream of me), so maybe in a few years... with luck they will settle in, and recolonise the tributaries again too.

 

I think the chance of a big Thames carp is a lot more likely! Now that would knacker a carefully prepared chub swim

[Anderoo]

I wasn't expecting to fish today but good fortune struck again in the form of a banging Guinness and Jaegermeister hangover for my poor undeserving* girlfriend. So with the day suddenly freed up, I grabbed a couple of hours. It was strange down there today, yesterday after loads of rain it was low and clear, today after a dry night it was very coloured, 2ft up and still rising.

 

I was amazed to see 7 cars in the carpark and even more disheartened to see they were all anglers - people roving about with quivertip rods all over the place! Far from ideal as you need plenty of space for this kind of fishing, and you also need to know who's been where and how much bait has been put in. So after half an hour of trying to ignore them my plan of concentrating on the 'monster section' was soon forgotten, and I moved right down on the other bank to new water.

 

I'm really pleased today as I tried 3 new spots (in fact I doubt anyone has ever fished them, they were very hard to reach) and had a chub from each one All 3 were from a relatively short bit of water below a side stream. When making the bread mash it was surprising how much warmer the water in the side stream was, so I was confident that there would be feeding chub somewhere down there. The water coming from the stream was also a horrible colour, and the productive section was where this dropped out and dispersed (about 75 yards downstream).

 

The first spot was a belter. I'd often looked longingly at it from the other bank, and it looked even better up close! Deep, slow water along the near bank, and then a long tangle of hawthorn branches and brambles that hung over the water by a good rod length. First cast produced a confident bite and a close quarter white knuckle scrap with a heavy fish, which luckily went into the net quite quickly. A very good start from new bit of water, a very well conditioned fish of 5lb 11oz:

 

The next spot didn't look quite as good, the flow and depth were OK but it just seemed to lack that extra little something. So I was quite surprised to get another quick bite there from another heavy fish, which was altogether more of a handful than the first, jamming itself deep under the marginal vegetation several times. Thankfully the hooklength hung on and a huge white mouth popped up to the surface and the fish was drawn over the net. This was a big fish but really should have been bigger - its head was huge but the rest of it didn't seem to match it! I think this fish, caught on a different day, could have been quite serious. Even today it weighed 6lb 1oz:

 

The final spot also had that 'banker' feel to it, nice deep, slow water and overhanging hawthorn branches. I had to wait a bit longer for the bite in this one, and when I struck it was clearly a smaller fish, donking about and trying to get stuck in the brambles. It didn't manage it though, and final fish of the day was landed, a lovely chub of 4lb 6oz.

 

By 5pm I was back at home with a cup of tea. How civilised

 

*totally, properly deserved

Edited March 15, 2011 by Anderoo

[davedave]

Your so lucky when it comes to catching big chub, you always manage to get the big specimens! Well done!

 

What bait/rig was that on?

 

Im thinking of going on the local river tomorrow because i haven't done a good spot of river fishing in months, but i'm low on bait and tackle (a trip to the tackle shop is greatly needed) so i don't know how i'm going to go about it yet!

[Anderoo]

Your so lucky when it comes to catching big chub, you always manage to get the big specimens! Well done!

 

What bait/rig was that on?

 

Im thinking of going on the local river tomorrow because i haven't done a good spot of river fishing in months, but i'm low on bait and tackle (a trip to the tackle shop is greatly needed) so i don't know how i'm going to go about it yet!

 

Thanks Dave, they were all on quivertipped breadflake again, with a link leger (2 SSG as weight, size 6 hook, 6lb line). Fished over mashed bread. Bread is a great bait anyway, but especially when you can't get to the tackle shop!

 

In case you haven't seen it, have a look here for how to fish with bread: http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/coarse-fishing...with-bread.html and here for how to fish for winter chub: http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/coarse-fishing...ub-fishing.html