winter chubbing in weirpools?

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

Fished a nice weir tonight......I had the choice of swim and picked the wrong one tonight. My mate had 12 barbel and 2 chub whilst I managed the grand total of 1 barbel. Same rigs, same bait etc

 

Location, location, location....and I wasin the wrong place :-(

[fantasticfisherman]

thanks again guys. just out of interest( )wait baits were you using brumagem phil?

[Vagabond]

Some excellent posts here by Steve and Argyll.

 

In winter, not only is there more oxygen dissolved in the colder water, but fish metabolism slows down as temperature decreases, so they use/need less oxygen anyway. Not only fish, the invertebrates are using less also.

 

This site

http://waterontheweb.org/

 

gives, amongst other useful bits of information, the actual oxygen concentrations needed by fish (about 11 parts per million for salmonids, 6 ppm for most coarse fish)

 

What is sobering is that a drop in oxygen levels from 6ppm to 4ppm is enough to put fish in trouble

 

For those that like doing sums, the site gives equations for working out what the dissolved oxygen content is at a particular time and place.

Forward, you spread-sheet whizz kids

 

<small>[ 10. October 2005, 07:44 AM: Message edited by: Vagabond ]</small>

[Peter Sharpe]

I have always found chub to be in exactly the same places in the winter as they are in the summer - even when there is cat ice in the margins. Personally, I always avoid slacks because they rarely hold many fish at all. The "crease" at the edge of the fast water is the place to aim for.

[Steve Burke]

I haven't found the same on my rivers at all, Peter. In normal winter temperatures, yes the crease is excellent then. When there's cat ice, no.

 

Mind you, as I wrote in the article referred to above, the chub aren't far away - often just feet on a small stream. However, the colder the temperature the slower the water I usually find them in.

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

fantasticfisherman.....halibut, halibut and more halibut!

 

Its so accepted where I fish that I dont even bother taking other baits with me these days as they have always underperformed compared to the pellet. Whilst pellets have been a huge step forward in some ways, it has spoilt things a bit IMO as it takes out a bit of the science of trying all sorts of baits to try and get the fish going.

 

I use a nice big drennan oval box feeder which I cut the lid off. I fill this with small pellets and cap it off with some ground up pellet just so I dont lose half of em on the cast and slap a big fat 22mm pellet on a braided hair.

 

Hope this helps.

[fantasticfisherman]

thanks for the bait tip-off does anyone know if halibut pellets work in winter?

[Guest rabbit]

Not quite so well apparently, warmer water is needed to act on the pellets oils. There is another pellet that can be used to better effect I will send info later when I can dig it out, no doubt someone here can supply the answet before me.

[Guest rabbit]

Steve

Thanks for the link to your article, very interesting, it does seem to make sense that in winter larger baits will do better than smaller baits.

 

As far as chub are concerned they will winter over in undercut banks almost exclusivly. I have had a good deal of success with large baits in the margins in winter.

 

What a gift chub are to fishing in that they can be caught both in summer and the coldest winter's day.

[argyll]

'There is another pellet that can be used to better effect'

 

Rabbit, are you thinking of the elips trout pellet. These are my first choice, largely because I've seen how effective they are on both chub and barbel...and I just happen to have 7 kilos of them to get through They're based on salmon oil....doubt if they are 'better' than halibut, but are certainly no worse. I also have ground elips too which can be used as a straight groundbait or worked into a paste. Suppliers are Teme Severn Ltd tel 01384 77756

 

Phil I wouldn't leave home without at least one change bait preferably two. You never can tell what might change a bad day into a good day.

 

[ 10. October 2005, 06:03 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]