With plenty of new waters to try on my new club book, I went to explore a new stretch of the Stour, which is not too far from home. I took a chub rod and the usual baits in the hope of catching a fish or two. I spent the morning walking the stretch dropping in any areas that I fancied, but after walking most of it without a bite in any of the swims, I packed it in after lunch with the thought of returning later in the week and doing a few swims with the float and maggot.
Ready to trot
After arriving 0n the new stretch, I realised that I had forgotten the butt section of my float rod, so I returned home to fetch it. Instead of returning, I decided to give a more familiar stretch a few hours on the float and maggot before heading back to the new stretch. I sat and pinged maggot for 10 mins, had a hot mug of tea from my flask and after resting the swim for 20 minutes I had my first cast. Nothing on this run through, but I was confident that if I kept feeding and trotting; if there were chub about one would slip up. It didn’t take long before the float buried and the strike was met with the thumping of a fish. Not big, but it was a chub. I gave the swim another twenty minutes without another bite, so I moved a little further downstream in the hope that the shoal may have followed the maggots down the run. The float buried on the second trott, however, this didn’t feel like a chub and after playing it up the swim a grayling was netted. Not big again, but a fish. Sadly, that was the end of the action. It was time to drive downstream and try the new stretch. With just one small grayling on the maggot after giving half a dozen or so swims a try I decided that another move was on the cards, so with the best part of the day still to come I packed in and headed to the usual ‘downstream’ beat.
Settling into a swim and pinging maggot I had few trots before the float sank from view, it was a chub, it was not to be as it did me in some nearside reeds. After retackling, I had another go, this time I was winning the battle, as I hooked another chub, which I played up past the reed bed into open water. I’d seen it wasn’t a bad fish and it was almost ready for the net only for the hook to pull, as I reached down to get the landing net! I carried on putting the float through until dark, but no more bites followed.
It was a week of work before my next couple of short stints. I decided to give the underfished stretch a few hours over a couple of afternoons. Arriving on the stretch I set about baiting a few swims with boilies before giving each one a go. I decided to fish heavier than normal due to a little extra flow on this beat. It was a frustrating session, to say the least. Having a total of three bites all from different swims, which I didn’t connect with and after sitting it out until an hour into dark I packed up fishless and headed home with the plan to do it again the next day.
With storm Doris moving over the U.K it was going to be a windy session! I arrived just before 3 pm and started the process of baiting a few swims, this time adding two new ones to the routine. Having missed a half bite in my second swim, it was time for a change so I took a few inches off the hook link in the hope that may help. With no more bites I made my way back toward the car park, I gave the final swim a try. Having baited the bottom end of this swim at the start of the session I decided to fish above in a swim I had baited the afternoon before where I’d been bitten off by a pike. The wind was now off my back so it was a little more comfortable. Casting out a single hook bait I felt the lead hit the gravel upstream of a bush and with the rod on my knee, I waited. The tip twitched twice as the lead moved and as I struck the rod took on a pleasing bend while a chub tried its best to rid the hook and after the usual chub tussle, it was safely in the landing net. It wasn’t a monster, but I was happy as it had been a struggle over the last few sessions.
A welcome chub 4lb 2oz February 2017
Fish Tales From The Riverbank 