Arriving back from Suriname during the third week of January
was a definite wake up call, I say ‘wake up’ but in fact it put my fishing on a
definite sleep mode waiting for the temperatures to rise up again to something
like normal. Many years ago I would go
fishing irrelevant of weather, but now I’ve gone soft and like it to at least
be above freezing when I’m on the bank in daytime.
From a time when I did go in freezing conditions.
After about three weeks of this layoff I decided I must go
fishing and so I arranged with a friend to spend three days on the Hampshire
Avon after the monster chub that live there.
It was still quite cold especially in the northerly winds, but enough is
enough and I wrapped up well and arrived at Ringwood about midday on the
10thFeb. I already had a thought as to
where I would start providing the swim was free and as I drove down the nearby
track I looked across the field to see it was indeed available, first part of
the plan in place. For me, winter
fishing for chub is fine tackle, small hooks and either maggot or casters. Cheese, meat and pellets and other baits will
obviously work as well, but I love the feel of a very large chub on tackle that
he could break with a flick of his tail, now that is exciting. My tackle this time is a Drennan Medium
Feeder rod and the usual Mitchell 300 reel loaded with 6lb main line. The large maggot feeder is used with Drennan
ready tied size 18 or 20 Superspade hooks to take either a single or double
maggot.
A smaller feeder than used but still a chub setup.
My swim is typical of the Avon in winter in that it is
racing through on a very fast glide but my saving grace is that of slower water
alongside the rushes on the far bank, with 30gram of extra lead on the 50gram
feeder and the rod held high to keep most of the line out of the faster water I
can just hold. In these conditions the
extra weight does not deter the chub too much, finely balanced against the flow
the slightest pull on the bait will dislodge it and the tip is seen to quiver
as the fish moves downstream with it. With small hooks there is no need to strike,
just pick up and play the fish, no problem in that, except the fish is on the
other side of the raging river and I have got to bring it across on the tiny
hook.
Opening swim on the Avon
I bait dropped both hemp and maggot at regular intervals and
around 5pm I finally got my reward as the tip quivered and I began the heart
stopping fight against a fish that initially was determined to run into the
rushes by his side. Fortunately I could
pull him away or at least hold him in place, if I had been on that bank I would
undoubtedly lost him since there would be little chance of stopping him moving
the few feet to his side. Holding him
making the rushes was the first part of the battle and now as he moved away
from them he was in the extra flow to help his already powerful runs. This is where the Mitchell comes into its own
for me. I have used them for near 50
years and in this situation they become part of my arm, I don’t need to think
when playing a fish on fine tackle and I rely on a backwinding method as I feel
necessary. With most reels if you set
the clutch to cope with the sudden lunges on 2.5lb line you cannot reel against
a powerful run, hence the backwinding method.
It has been over a year since I had seen a very large chub and as this
swam past under the bank in crystal clear water I thought I had a 7lb specimen
on the hook, when I finally landed him the scales showed my error in that it
weighed 6lb-6oz, still very pleasing for the first day.
6lb-6oz Avon Chub
The following day produced just one bite again and this time
it weighed in at exactly 6lb so good average but a definite lack of bites. With a total blank on the last day it confirmed
the local opinion that the fishing was hard at the moment, still with two 6lb
plus fish not too disappointing!
The second 6lb of the trip.
My first river trip for barbel was in fact on the 17th
February and I went to the local Warwickshire Avon with the thought that just
possibly a stray barbel might feed. It
had been very cold for some considerable weeks and now there was a definite
increase in temperatures going 6C or even 7C during the day so worth a chance
trip. An extra bonus was the heavy rain
a couple of days earlier and the river had rising noticeably, I’m a firm
believer the floodwater can beat the cold when looking at whether barbel will
feed or not so here goes.
I had gone onto a section of river that I had not previously
fish and my first choice of swim looked perfect, a large obstruction mid river
gave a big slack below it and fast flow down either side, surely a barbel must
live here. Several casts and one 2lb
chub later I had found the problem, with the river well up it was not so noticeable
but I’m sure a visit in the summer will show either heavy rush beds or cabbage
beds all along the nearside bank and out into the slack area. Each cast had been snagged on roots and a
couple of times I thought I would need to pull for a break before it finally
came clear at the last moment, time for a move.
The next swim was a narrow neck where the river came off a
good size pool, strong flow along the far bank and a far steadier pace from the
nearside bank out to just over half way across.
There was not a crease as such but the difference in the flow rate was noticeable
and I felt hopeful that a fish would lie in the water just off that fast pace
to conserve energy, worth a try anyway!
Tackle was as usual 1.75lb test Drennan Barbel Specialist
with Shimano 5000RE reels loaded with 12lb line, a large swimfeeder to take my
pellet mix and hemp goes down to a 12inch length of 15lb Pro Gold mono to act
as a stiff rig and this is tipped with 6inch of 15lb brain with a size 8
Drennan Continental Carp hook tied with a knotless knot leaving a 0.5inch hair
rig in place. Two or three 10mm Elips
pellets are then superglued onto the hair and all is ready.
My first barbel of 2015.
Fortune favoured my efforts and it was not too long before I
was looking at my first barbel of 2015, a fish of about 7lb that did not fight
all that well in the cold water, perhaps he had only just woke up from his
enforce nap. My next trip on a river the
following week proved far more productive, but I will write that up tomorrow.
