I had a couple more short trips on the Avon over the last week. One was with a friend of mine Paul. I’ve not fished with him for sometime. He is a member of the syndicate but seldom fishes for chub. His pb was a modest 4lbs 12oz from Throop. Well at the end of our days angling we had increased that weight 3 times to a respectable 5lbs 12oz. So our day had been a success. Paul did capture a truly colourful golden coloured chub and one that looked just like a common carp. I think it went 4lbs 14oz.

I fished for a few short hours each evening and in one particular swim was able to catch some nice looking chub and even a 6lb 10oz beauty from the previous blog.

I arrived a few days later to fish for about 2hrs in the same swim. I baited with some of the The Hookbait Company’s Big Squid. These are small dumbbells. I cast out and set the video camera up to see if I could get some shots of the bite and playing the chub, Well after 45 minutes the rod pulled around a few times as the chub had hooked itself. I lifted the rod and felt a powerful fish on the other end. I pulled the chub away from the overhanging branches into midstream and then moved the video to capture the playing of it. To be fair the fight was not spectacular as there is so much still water right in front of me so the chub can’t use the flow to improve the struggle. When I looked at the fish it looked long in fact very long. I removed the hook quickly and rested it in the landing net whilst I prepared the weighing and camera equipment. On the scales it weighed 6lbs 5oz and the length was 23 inches which is very long.

I’ve had bigger 6lbers that have been 22 inches. So a quick photo and a couple of black marks on the lip and cheek and I slipped her back into the river. All of this meant I had time for a couple more casts close to the willow branches. Alas that was it for the evening and I was back home for 7.30pm and time for dinner.

It’s now 7 chub over 6lbs for the season which is astonishing. I’m normally a bit more subdued in August and September and can often find it a struggle. But lets worry about that when it arrives.

I didn’t fish Saturday as me and Mrs P had a lovely walk around the H.Avon and the New forest. We walked about 25000 steps which works out at about 12 miles. Lovely. Sunday was my last chance of fishing before heading back home. I had chatted to Andy (you should have been here yesterday) […]

Andy (you should have been here yesterday) Cowley was down for the day. I was shopping for the morning and went to see him in the late afternoon. He was fishing a swim with a couple of chub moving up and down quickly. They would stop occasionally and feed. I would give him a running […]

I had a small window of opportunity one evening for a spot of chub fishing. The evening was a warm summer like one with a slight breeze and some high clouds. I had travelled down to Hampshire for the week. I started off in the same swim where I had a few big chub. This […]

July had just arrived and there were some more serious chub to be caught. Some fish had just spawned by the look of their condition around the vent and underbelly. I had thought about using maggots as bait as here didn’t seem to be too many minnows around. So I returned to a swim where […]

In the morning I had walked the entire stretch of beat 2 on Throop on the Dorset Stour and called in to the Avon at lunch time to find a couple of barbel that came up on the bait quickly together with a good few chub. That will do nicely I though as I ate […]

Well I’ve continued with the chub fishing as the barbel just seem reluctant to put in an appearance this year on the H.Avon. My next session on the Avon gave me a big fat blank. The water temperature had dropped 5c so that’s just the excuse I need. I fished a couple of days later […]

The weather had been dry and bright for a fair time but over the last few days it had rained and we had about 2 inches. The pond I’m building is almost full now. Andy had arranged to go catfish fishing while I had thought it would be a good time to head to another […]

The Covid 19 virus had still kept people in lockdown however luckily us anglers were allowed to fish again. Normally Andy (you should have been here yesterday) Cowley and I normally stay at my house in Fordingbridge for the first 4 days of the season. However this year this wasn’t possible because we were not […]