17/08/2018 - An Hour Of Fun With Chub
In had nine similar chub like this one
An Hour Of Fun With Chub
It was around 0600 hrs when I arrived on the bank of the River Ribble, despite a strong gusting wind with rain conditions looked good, the river had dropped about two feet over night, but thankfully there was still some colour in the water, my approach would be to fish free lined luncheon meat and bread flake, if those two baits didn’t work I would switch to legered breadcrust. Today I chose to fish with my Abbey Avon an 80th birthday present from Colin and Sarah Culley, which had been refurbished by Lee Price of Cane & Able. It was probably in a better condition today than when it was originally made as we now have far better varnishes and finishing techniques especially with the skills of Cane & Able. I matched the rod with a Mitchell 300 from the 1950’s with a roller bale are fitted by engineer and angler Len Arbery, the spool was loaded with 6lb Gamma line which I have found ideal for many conditions that I meet at the waterside, I then attached a size 6 barbless hook rather than my usual but slightly heavier size 4 hook, hoping the fish wouldn’t notice the weight of the hook, many anglers say “I am far to fussy” I don’t think so I am trying to deceive a wild creature in its own domain. I then catapulted out three pieces of meat, then sat back resting the swim for fifteen minutes, while I was doing so I watched a salmon downstream swirl on the surface, several trout could be seen and during that short space of time a kingfisher flew up and down river several times, no doubt collecting food from its favourite pool than going back to feed a youngster or youngsters.
Baiting with a cube of meat I made a cast so the baited hook dropped under the far bank beech trees, I doubt if the bait had descended in the water more that two feet before I felt a fish take the bait. Soon I was hooked up to a hard fighting chub that really did give a good display of its power, but eventually the balanced tackle gave me my reward as a nice chub was enveloped in the folds of my landing net. “That’s a good fish” I remarked to myself, I quickly weighed the fish at 4 lb 10 ounces then shot a picture before releasing the fish well upstream. During my session I made a total of nine casts catching eight more chub similar to the first, all on meat and most of them on the drop. After an hour with my right hip causing me a lot of pain and no more action, I packed up and returned home feeling very happy with my result, hopefully more of the same tomorrow.
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