A short 2 hr session on the H.Avon
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 time I was feeding with The Hookbaits Companies Big squid bait. Darren had rolled some smaller dumbbells for me and they just arrived before I left home to travel down. So armed with these I threw a few out onto the shallow river together with a few pellets and watched in amazement as a good few big chub came up onto the shallow water. There were some good sized chub in the shoal.
I left them to it for a while while I wandered to look at another swim where I had seen some barbel. This time though they were reluctant to come out. So after 15 minutes waiting I gave up and wandered back to the chub. It was fantastic to see them still feeding. My rigs were much the same as previous ones where it’s 6ft of fluorocarbon hooklink with a size 12 hook and 2 pellets super glued to the hair and a mesh bag of dumbbells. Casting this out is a nightmare however I’ve developed an underarm loop of a cast that works really well.
It’s interesting to see the chub scatter when the 5oz hits the river surface however they reappear and get back on the bait within 5 minutes or less. It’s one of the benefits of seeing the chub reactions in the crystal clear waters of the H.Avon. First cast was made and I stood there watching the chub come up over the bait and hook. You can spot when one makes a mistake but doesn’t get hooked as they all bolt away the rod remains motionless. Then when they do they bolt off and one hangs back and twists and turns fighting the rod top. It’s a case of just lifting into the fish.
Well this happened after about 20 minutes and I was on the rod quickly. The chub buried itself in the thick ranunculus weed immediately however with steady pressure on the line and walking downstream I’m able to pull the fish down through the weed. There are two sets of weed to go through before reaching open water where the fight is normally over by then. And it’s down here where you keep the landing net. It looked a big chub and at 5lbs 15oz it was too.
So for a short session I couldn’t complain at all about catching such a wonderful fish. After all the commotion I was so surprised to see the chub still feeding once more. There still looked to be some big chub in the shoal. I put out some more dumbbells and pellets to keep them searching. Time was at a premium so I didn’t hesitate to recast again. Once more they scattered as the lead hit the water and repeated the process of returning to feed 5 or so minutes later. There were about 7 chub feeding so my chances were still good to winkle out another.
The rod was motionless for about 30 minutes when it buckled in the rest and bent around alarmingly. The chub had made it into the weed bed quickly and was solid. I applied the procedure of walking downstream keeping a tight line as doing so. I applied a little more pressure and I could feel the rod top nodding which confirmed the chub was on the other end of the line. I little more pressure had it easing it’s way towards the back of the weed where it was less dense. It then found the next weed bed and became stuck again. The process was repeated until the big chub was now in vision and it looked really big. I made sure that it wouldn’t make the weed bed for a 3rd time and bundled it into the net. On lifting it clear of the river it felt huge and looked the part.
On the scales it went 6lbs 13oz and it’s a 6lber I recognised from last or the previous year. A beautiful chub and very deep. I took a few photo’s and was so pleased with the evenings work I didn’t fish again. I did though top the swim back up again with the Big Squid dumbbells, ready for the following visit.
Dinner that evening was a delight, happy days.
