Venue – River Loddon, Stanford End.
Controlling club – Farnham Angling
Club.
When I revert to
having to use bread with chub my target it means only one thing and
that is, it’s tough out there.
Arriving at the
river at 8am I find the car park empty and one look at the river
tells me that I have made a sensible decision as its really low and
clear with a tinge of green to it, however it feels strange as
usually I emply this tactic when its really cold, yet today it’s a
comfortable seven degrees at dawn.
Putting my finger
on exactly why the last six weeks has been probably the worst in my
angling history is difficult but I blame the long cold spring and the
short hot summer we had. Although some species of trees have dropped
their leaves in the last couple of weeks others are still green and
this slow drop into our lakes and rivers just isn’t conducive to
catching as the rotting of these just sours the water and makes
presenting a bait efficiently almost impossible at times. Its not
just the trees that are causing a problem, it’s the weed as well as
just take a look at the image taken which shows patches of weed still
in the middle of the river. This should have gone weeks ago, yet its
still giving the fish areas to hide within and you can bet that below
this there is still an abundance of natural food. All in all not
great, yet things can only get better and I’m hoping for a really
cold winter then an early warm spring which should get things back to
normal.
Travelling light
is essential if you want to cover as much ground as possible, so all
I take is one rod a landing net along with a rucksack containing the
essentials such as camera, scales & sling, bait, tackle box plus
a couple of banksticks (rarely used). Having fished the stretch for
years I have a couple of swims that I initially want to try as its
always good to give the banker swims a go as this more often than not
produces a couple of fish and sets the day up. This may mean walking
far further than most as my best swims are rarely together, often
being many hundreds of yards apart but fishing these before anyone
else is the key to getting results. If you fish a swim after someone
else then expect it to be ten times harder, in fact I rarely bother.
Another area that
many an angler needs to work on is the way they approach a swim as
dropping all your gear right next to the river then waving the rod
around as you set up as well as sending your shadow across the water
will only spell disaster. I like to place my kit well back from the
river bank, then take just what’s needed into the swim, often
crawling in on all fours. I will have my rod in my right hand with
the feeder loaded and flake already on the hook along with landing
net in my left. The less movement made the more fish you will catch
and attention also needs to be paid to the sound of how the feeder
hits the surface. In fact their shouldn’t be any sound at all. With
the feeder held in my left hand I just swing this out, almost laying
it on the surface, then watch as the line fizzes across the surface
then stops. This is when I click the bail arm, settle down and watch
the rod tip. In some swim a bankstick, sometimes two will be needed,
yet I always try to avoid using these and hold my rod, pointing the
tip towards where I have positioned the bait and keeping it as still
as possible.
To be honest, more
often than not if there are chub in the swim the bite will come
within a couple of minutes so its no hardship to hold the rod and
stay still especially as after ten minutes I will be moving on. If I
get small pulls from cagey chub then I will pull six inches of line
of the reel and hold this between my fingers and when the next pull
comes give the fish this line, if the bite is still their after
giving this out then hit it!
Anyway enough
about what to expect and do and back to the session. Creeping into
the first swim I notice bread crumb pressed into the mud. Obviously
it’s not just me that’s finding it tough and a sure sign that the
swim was fished the night before, probably after dark as this would
have been eaten by the birds during daylight. Swinging the rig out it
land quietly, settles on the bottom and I take up a position just
like a heron stalking its prey. Small pulls are forthcoming yet even
after giving these some line the strikable bite fails to come so I
move to my second best swim. This swim is far bigger and allows to
casts to be made, one to the head of the pool where the water rushes
in, and the other to the tail of the pool where it shallows up. The
top produces nothing yet as soon as the feeder hits bottom at the
rear of the pool the rod taps and pulls round yet on striking I
instantly know that the fish has been fouled hooked and a chub around
3lb comes in backwards. I’m off the mark so to speak but not in the
way I wanted so continue to drop a bait in another five swims before
the next bite comes. Again the bite comes within seconds and on
striking I know I’m into a much better fish. The swim is narrow and
fast and all I can do is slowly ease the chub upstream. I’m using
six pound Gardner HydoFlo line straight through, a Fox barbel rod
fitted with a 2oz tip and a size 6 barbless Nash Fang Gaper hook
easily capable of extracting whatever chub I hook, yet in the fast
current if too much pressure is applied then there is always the
chance of pulling the hook. Eventually a good chub slides into the
net, not a monster but weighing 4lb 12oz it’s a result, especially
after the spell I’ve been having. I try another two swims without
any signs before a couple of anglers arrive, time to move on to
another stretch, yet as I look downstream I can see an angler on the
far bank and not wanting to cover covered ground decide to head to
the Blackwater, a river far easier, yet the chub average smaller.
It’s a long
story but in brief I never made it to the river as my van broke down
again so instead of the intended eight hour session had to settle for
just three, yet still ample time to get the rod bending.
A couple of
important areas to pay attention to are the size of the feeder used.
Basically use the smallest and lightest you can get away with. I
usually use a tiny 10gram Drennan cage feeder filled with liquidised
bread and when you get a bite strike as you need to set the hook.
Im sure I will
have to return with this approach later in the year, hopefully not
because of a bad run of form but more in the hope of keeping a run
going, yet this will certainly coincide with artic conditions as, the
colder it is the better this tactic is.
See you next week,
hopefully with a monster roach!
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