6th March Throop and fishing with Steve

I fished with Steve and his mate Bob during the summer/autumn on the Wye where we caught a few barbel and chub. Steve asked if I could help with catching a few chub from the Stour at Throop. Trotting was his preferred method and how could I refuse some help as it’s one of the best ways of catching chub in the winter when the river is running clear.

So we meet at 6.45am on a wonderful dull day with the sky full of clouds which would suit our needs perfectly. Steve had a gallon of red maggots ready to tempt them into feeding.

Our first choice of swims is perfect for trotting and it hasn’t let me down before. Steve trotted using my 15ft Hardy rod and found it perfect for presenting and controlling the float and bait. Quickly he hooked a couple of chub that he didn’t bully and lead them upstream towards the waiting net. Each time though the fish slipped the hook. It’s always a balance between small hooks and river flow and inevitably some do drop off. Steve was really unlucky.

As the morning wore on he hooked two more, one got into a snag in the near bank. The last one did the hooklink for some strange reason. The Drennan hooks and hooklinks have never let me down before. I don’t think it was the material, perhaps it was due to a nick in the line as when you use 3lb hooklinks then any knots etc are tested to the limits.

So I went for a walk and found another swim that took my fancy and one where I had caught lots of good chub before. Soon we were over in the swim pulting out plenty of maggots. You need to pult these out every minute or so and about 10 yds upstream so that they fall into the deeper part of the swim where the chub are to be found. Unfortunately this act upset a guy on the opposite bank about 60 yds upstream who thought that we were interfering with his fishing. Why I’m unsure as to fish where we were casting would have meant that he was fishing at 80 yds. He went off in a right old huff!

Personally I don’t like confrontation and found it very unpleasant and Steve and I both agreed it was unreasonable to think we were interfering with his fishing. But hey ho!

Steve wasn’t complaining though as soon he was playing a chub, only for the hook to pull again. It’s really unlucky as he is doing nothing wrong. The maggots were kept going in and soon enough Steve hooked and played a beautiful chub of 4lbs 1oz I think it was.

 

 

It was a perfect chub and mighty handsome.

After what seemed a few minutes Steve was into another chub this time it fought really well in the current and had Steve being really cautious. After some minutes in the fast flow Steve guided it over the waiting net. This time the chub was 4lbs 9oz and a new pb for Steve.

A great result for Steve and I enjoy every moment when someone gets a new pb as it’s another milestone in a persons journey of catching monsters.

The maggots were kept feeding as we continued to fish.

The cloud cover was staying consistent and wind speed minimal making for a very enjoyable day. Steve lost one more fish where it came into a slack close to where we would land them. The hooklink again broke this time it was easy to see that the chub (about 4lbs) must have got close to one of the boulders in the slacker water and pinged the line against one!

All was not lost as Steve soon hooked another chub that fought like a demon and I was thinking 5lbs plus. Steve did an excellent job in playing it, with the reel clutch ticking nicely as the fish fought in the current.

As he bought it over the net I thought 5lbs. Subsequent weighing indicated a weight of 4lbs 12oz. Another new pb for Steve.

We continued to fish for another hour or so and decided to move downstream to a swim where Steve could waded in chest waders and trot a long run.

The run was about 40 yds long with shallow water of about 3-4ft deep.

 

 

Steve feed the swim with every trot down through and it took about an hour before his float dipped under and he was playing a chub. This time he had adopted to use his Drennan 12ft 9in tench rod. The rod was certainly able to control the chub. He was gingerly playing the chub up towards him. The strong flow doesn’t help, but you mustn’t put too much pressure on the fish as the hook can pull out.

He did a brilliant job and soon the chub was in the net.

Steve continued to trot for another 2 hours and was rewarded with a zero return which surprised me. However the disgruntled angler had been fishing opposite and had caught 3 chub so perhaps it wasn’t such a surprise that the chub were not coming out in any numbers.

Soon enough it was time to go. Steve had a great day beating his pb 3 times, and as he said next year he will fish it and get the 5lber and perhaps bigger.

I fished the next day after it raining most of the night. Not heavy rain but persistent. In 6 hrs of fishing I didn’t get one bite. Others were having the same result. What had changed overnight?

They did come on the feed later in the day a mate Theo had a 6lb plus chub and one of 7lbs 4oz, so perhaps I should have stayed rather than head for home.

I fear that this is the last time this season that I’ll fish Throop, lets hope next year the weather god’s are a little kinder.