An Afternoon Stick Float Fishing

[WayneX2]

Yesterday I had a free afternoon and a pint of maggots left over from a session from earlier in the week so decided to take it easy. I fished off of the downstream side of a road bridge, legs dangling off the side, just 30 yards from my car with just a rod, landing net, plummet, disgorger and a bait box for company hoping to catch a few roach and dace.

 

While I'd never fished here before I had walked along it in summer and seen large numbers of silverfish with some decent sized roach and the odd chub. Indeed while I was looking off of the upstream side of the bridge the water exploded with small fish jumping, trying to escape an unseen predator. Although I knew there were plenty of fish above the bridge I decided to fish the downstream side even though the water was deeper and I couldn't spot any fish. This was because it would be easier to fish because of a strong wind.

 

Throwing a few maggots in at my feet and then placing my float in with them and letting line peel off the reel as the current took the float away, the first 3 trots down were fruitless. On the 4th trot down the float disappeared 20-25 yards downstream which was met with a swift strike and the rod hooped right over. While I struggled to close the bailarm while holding the line tight (I still haven't found the best was to do this) I was thinking 'Please be a roach, please be a roach, please be a roach' as this was obviously a decent fish. I started making line on it and the fish was staying deep. It was at this point I remembered that I hadn't adjusted the drag since I last used the reel (for pike fishing!) so quickly flicked the anti-reverse switch.

 

By now I still hadn't seen it and still didn't know what it was, although I'd narrowed it down to a very big perch or a decent chub. We battled for a few minutes until I got the fish close in when I caught a glimpse of it. It was a chub. Now I had it close in I was faced with new danger. To the left were some dead reed stems and some nasty looking roots, to the right were 3 solitary reed stems and under me was the bridge itself. Being a chub he of course made a dash to try and snag me in all of those areas. Luckily I managed to keep him out and guided him towards the surface ready for netting. This presented me another problem. I hadn't bothered extending my landing net handle due to not expecting anything big and because of my close proximity to the road I wanted to keep everything neat and tidy and out of the way. Somehow I managed to extend the net one handed and started bring the chub towards it which was difficult in itself. With his mouth open trying to pull him against the flow wasn't easy but finally he was in the net!

 

Just as I was landing it a guy walking along the road stopped and said thats 'a biggun' to which I replied, 'its enormous'. I lifted the net up and asked the guy to hold my rod for me to which he replied those magic words 'its all right, I'm an angler myself'. On hearing this I asked if he wouldn't mind holding the chub in the net while I ran back to my car to get my unhooking mat, scales and camera.

 

When we placed it on the mat and had a look at it it looked massive. It was thick across the back and very deep. When I tried to get my hand around the back of his head to lift him slightly to unhook him I couldn't. By this point I'm fairly sure I was talking incoherently. On the scales the needle went past 3, then 4, then 5 and settled on 5lb 9oz! I couldn't believe it, a new personal best by 1lb 3oz. After a quick photo I put him back and he slunk away under the bridge to sulk.

 

 

5lb 9oz, not bad for 3lb mainline, 2lb 8oz hook length and a single maggot on a size 18 hook.

 

Special thanks go to the guy with expert timing, without him I wouldn't have been able to weigh it or photograph it.

 

I spent another 30 mins in that swim with no bites so decided to fish the other side of the bridge. For the next 90 minutes I had a bite nearly every cast resulting in either an inch long minnow, a dace or a roach. None of which were over 3 inches and it was great fun and really reminded me that I haven't done enough fishing like that this season.

 

I was a lucky boy yesterday with everything going right, I'm not looking forward to the session that turns out to be the opposite...

[carphead100]

Nice one!!! Always good to hear when people break their PB's.

 

Tight Lines,

 

Dan.

[Anderoo]

Wow, what a chub! Well done mate, that's a belter, great story too. You did well on the light gear

[Dick Dastardly]

Great stuff Wayne! Snatched sessions like that are so much fun.

[Guest tigger]

Great stuff Wayne! Snatched sessions like that are so much fun.

 

 

As you say Budgie the spare of the muinuite sessions are good fun and often turn out the best. Maybe it's co's you don't expect it.

 

Well done Wayne

[Jigotai]

What a beauty! Well done Wayne.

[Anderoo]

That's the kind of chub I've been failing to catch all year Wayne, you had to go and make it look easy didn't you