salokcinnodrog Posted June 22, 2012 Report Share Posted June 22, 2012 This week was spent with Big Dave hunting chub on the local river. We were planning on keeping it very simple, 5lb mainline with a 5lb hooklink, and a hook knotlees knotted on with whatever bait was required, be it slug, luncheon meat, sweetcorn or even dog biscuit Monday started off alright for me, first cast and first swim produced a 2lb chub on a floating freelined dog biscuit. A couple of swims later, and a another chub of around the same weight was landed the same way. Dave however managed lots of swear words as casts under overhanging branches or trees seemed to go astray and he lost a few hooks and broken hooklinks. However he eventually put that right and managed a chub of 2lb 2oz. Tuesday was another floater fishing day, so we wandered along a few stretches of the river, but eventually went back to the swims from the previous day where we each doubled our total fish each to the same weights, even though we could see bigger, they were just staying out of reach. I think we swapped swims, so where I had fished Dave managed a chuck, and where he fished I took a cast. I did however make a rather smart alec comment on one of his casts about it being an excremental cast, exactly as the second a 2lb fish took the bait. Wednesday we decided to have a look at another stretch of river, but saw nothing bigger, so again headed back to the first day stretch. Again I managed another 2 chub around the same weights, but had had my eye on a spot that may produce a bigger fish or 2, but Dave was having another 'mare, so I pushed, and I mean pushed him into the spot with the advice just to lower a dog biscuit in. This spot was a bit of a jungle, full of nettles and a tree that he had to navigate by pushing the rod over the branches. The first drift down and the biscuit was ignored, so I told him to cast just a slight bit further out. As it drifted under a bush an almighty swirl as his dog biscuit was taken resulted in a rather awkward scrap as a fish decided that it didn't want to be landed in a hurry, a battle scarred spawned out chub of 4lb8oz Thursday was a blank as we wandered another section of river looking for fish, and decided that we ought to leave the upstream stretch alone to give the fish a chance to settle. Friday we headed back up to the top swims. We'd changed things slightly by adding a controller on the hooklink/mainline join, just to slow the hookbait down slightly and trot the biscuit down better as the current was causing a bit of grief. My 3rd cast produced another 2lb chub and Daves first cast produced a 3lb chub. I then wandered into Dave's "Excrement" swim and flicked a few biscuits in to trot down on their own and then a couple of minuted later followed it up with a lovely cast that just went along the current line 3/4's of the way across the river. Again the biscuit got taken, only the fight seemed a bit heavier from the fish we had landed from the swim earlier in the week. Eventually it was netted and was my turn to be smiling on a 4lb1oz chub. A short stocky fish but very bulky across the shoulders and a large gut for the size of it. It must have been munching on loads of dog biscuits all week, just avoiding most of them with hooks in! I think between us we managed 11 chub, topped by those 2 4lb+ fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chillfactor Posted June 23, 2012 Report Share Posted June 23, 2012 I enjoy chub/barbel fishing nice write up Nick which river do you fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Posted June 23, 2012 Report Share Posted June 23, 2012 nice one. cant believe i hardly ever fish rivers now yet 12 years ago i could never see myself fishing lakes lol. i need to get on the rivers soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobleyn Posted June 23, 2012 Report Share Posted June 23, 2012 Good on yer nick. Glad you've found a fishable river! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzyakadrew Posted June 23, 2012 Report Share Posted June 23, 2012 Nice little write up Nick I used to be obsessed with Monster Chub fishing on the Ouzel and it puts a smile on my face reading about your exploits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted June 23, 2012 Report Share Posted June 23, 2012 sounds like you had a good crack nick! river fishing can be hard work but very ewarding in the end! trust me, i like what you did about keeping it simple to, many anglers on river fish carp like rigs when there's simply no need. Give a big glugged halibut pellet a try mate, you might get bothered by the odd barbel which aint to bad a thing! Even the small chub will gollop a 20mm pellet down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossmc Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 I never heard of floater fishing for chub, but it sounds good. Its got fly rod, imitation dog biscuit written all over it! lol How would you feed the swim, little and often? whats the method to this madness, are they hair rigged or soft hookers? cheers for any advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salokcinnodrog Posted June 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 I never heard of floater fishing for chub, but it sounds good. Its got fly rod, imitation dog biscuit written all over it! lol How would you feed the swim, little and often? whats the method to this madness, are they hair rigged or soft hookers? cheers for any advice. Uni knot loop at the end of the hooklink with Bakers Complete (big square) or Meaty Chunk put on hair, and then hook knotless knotted on. We were using hooklinks a metre long in case we needed to add the controller on as the current was a bit stronger. Hooklink was joined to mainline with a long tag end that was "double looped", so the controller could be "loop to loop" through the top eye. That mainline/hooklink join tag end I also use to add shot onto if I ever need to fish a bottom bait. Most swims it was a few biscuits allowed to drift down the current then a cast following the last taken biscuit in that line of the current, although there were a couple of swims where it took up to 10minutes to get the fish comfortably taking biscuits before casting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossmc Posted June 27, 2012 Report Share Posted June 27, 2012 cheers salok, im assuming that this is a tactic for when the rivers running clear or will they take in water thats dropping from floods thats coloured? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobleyn Posted June 27, 2012 Report Share Posted June 27, 2012 Hot temps and high pressure is usually best for taking them off the top. You can usually spot them topping and picking midges and larvae off the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salokcinnodrog Posted July 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 Managed another 3 chub this week in an afternoon trip. All mine came on floating dog biscuits, while a mate had his 3 on luncheon meat. Nothing big, but playing chub to 3lb from a bridge is rather amusing. My mate was standing on the bank with the net so I had to lead the fish to the net. I was having the day where things kept going wrong, a couple of miscasts and hook ending up in a tree, and one swim where I managed to mess up my chances by sounding like a bull in a china shop when I caught myself up on brambles and fell into a tree One of Bruces fish he rolled his piece of meat down the current and it was taken just as he was about to reel in. I had to wade out through a rush bed to grab the fish as I couldn't net it through the rushes, but it was a fun day fishing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted July 21, 2012 Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 well done nick! dont worry mate, my river is'nt in condition for chub on the surface, its more like big lead/feeder's on the bottom for barbel. River fishing is hard work when you have sessions like that im afraid but when there on the feed and your doing the right things it can be incredible fishing at times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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