Using my Loaf in Mild December - More Success on the Bread!

I arrived at the river bright and early and opted to spend a light-hearted day fishing for chub on, again, good old faithful bread. The small Thames tributary I fish has various sections, some with more sparser stocks than others, therefore I opted to rove in search of a few bites. I used my bog-standard roving tactic with a little cage feeder with a nice big hook to present a nice fluffy piece of breadflake. The first swim was a nice run with the near bank having decent depth where I flicked my feeder in the margin and mid-flow to cover some bases. It was not long until I received a few taps on the quivertip before having a much better bite which resulted in a nice little chublet to start the day off. I persisted on the run and was rewarded with this lovely looking chub.

Lovely start to the day!

After pulling out of a good fish, this swim went dead which meant it was time to make a move. I roved further downstream and managed another nice looking chub round the 3lb mark from a couple of banker swims, as well as a few more chublets. I then arrived at one of the sections downstream which I know holds some good fish, and with the river carrying extra water and some colour, I knew it was worth a shot. This section is slow and steady and I had a few swims in mind where I saw decent chub in the summer months. I arrived at a swim with many snags upstream which are perfect cover for chub. This particular swim, I saw some good-sized chub skulking around in the summer and knew with the extra water and colour, I was in for a chance of a bite. I flicked the bait upstream into a little gap between the branches of the overhanging tree and had my eyes glued to the rod tip as I knew I was in for a chance of a take. As expected, the response was almost instant and the tip started to bounce aggressively. I struck confidently and was into a good weighted fish which was staying deep and digging away towards the snags in true chub fashion. I saw a good swirl as I started to get the culprit's head up before it dived down again going towards the snags downstream. After cupping the spool, she came up and the way it wallowed on the surface indicated to me that it was a good fish. A huge flank came up and I saw the hook just nicked in the lip as I safely landed her.

Small river chunk!

On closer inspection, as I recognised certain features and marks of this fish, this fish was the fish I had back in Summer at 6-1 on the second day of the season. She was so much more empty this time as you can see at the picture, but at 5-10, it was still a monstrous fish for the waterway I was fishing!

Look at the gob on her!

All in all a great day...

Tight Lines,

Tom

Small River Session Montage

A day out for the Grayling with James Denison

James and I arranged to meet down my way to see if we could get him onto one of the elusive larger grayling which are present on my local river. The current cycle isn't how it has been on some of the prolific years I've had, but the other day I did prick some better fish - James and I agreed that we had to be in it to win it.

We started on a idyllic little stretch where I have seen some very large grayling and perch in the past and we parked ourselves in a nice run with some depth and a nice crease on the far bank. James opted to fish a mix of maggots and caster and I on the other hand, chose some good old faithful sweetcorn to trot down the near bank of the swim. It was not long until James was landing some nice grayling gradually getting larger and I was starting to get onto a few myself. What I have found in cases is that on maggots you will get more bites, but in swims with smaller grayling this can be less selective.

Lovely looking grayling

I managed to get bites at a quicker pace after introducing grains of corn little and often and fishing midstream and on the near bank, which resulted in some lovely looking grayling and a few nuisance trout (which threw themselves readily at both our baits). We also managed to bounce a few better grayling, James bumping one certainly round the 2lb mark which was a shame. Not feeling disheartened by this we wandered off downstream and I hoped some other swims I knew would hopefully throw up something better for James.

Feisty little grayling!

There was a nice pool swim I have found to be prolific over the years and absolutely screams grayling of all sizes. James trotted through the swim a few times and managed a few bites bumping a couple of grayling, one of which was again of very good stamp, really hanging in the current. After a few more trots rotating baits, James had a well earned grayling of a pound or so. The next spot I showed James was where I bumped a good a good grayling on the Friday. After a few trots down James was managing some nice grayling including this beauty at 1-8.

James's best of the day...

All in all, it was a great day meeting James and tackling my local stretches, and at dusk we even managed to sneak in some trotting for roach. It was nice to see the shoals were still about with James managing some stunners to just over a pound at 1-3. Overall a very nice day and look forward to having you down again mate...

Tight Lines,

Tom

Nice way to finish the session...

Roving in Enchanted Surroundings

Fellow blogger Mark Erdwin (Fishing for Memories) and I organised to meet up and fish a small, intimate waterway in search of some elusive chub. Funnily enough, we arrived at the same time and after I quickly rushed to 'One Stop' to grab some bread, we headed for the river. The walk to the river was rather pleasant, dropping into a wood and being greeted by a charming looking stream. My thoughts at this exact moment were that this was certainly my kind of river, and as Mark pointed downstream my eyes were greeted by a lovely basin forming off the shallow gravel. The whole river, as Mark described, screamed fish! We both opted to fish link legers and my choices of bait being lobworms, bread, maggots, waxworms and cheesepaste to be fished on a rotated basis to entice the appetite of the chub. Mark likewise brought lobworms, maggots, cheese paste and bread, therefore it was fair to say we were armed well for whatever mood the chub were going to be in. Mark suggested I covered the areas up to just after the basin, whilst he checked out a nice steady section near a charming wooden bridge. I spent the first hour or so getting my bearings and started the trip by using bread, lobworms and waxworms. Although I didn't have anything (apart from a minnow) to show from my efforts, I came to the conclusion that the better chub could well be acting finicky. On meeting up with Mark on the end of my rove he also had come to this conclusion, managing a chublet and missing a better bite.

When we crossed the wooden bridge, Mark kindly pointed out a very tasty looking swim with a nice snag obstructing the flow and creating a slack, which then runs off into steadier flow with more snags. On Mark's suggestion I flicked the bait into the slack first, before making another cast into the run off of this slack. With a nice, lively lobworm on the end tipped with a couple of white maggots, I flicked the bait and let it trundle in the flow. It was not long until had a few plucks, which led to a steady tease round. I struck and was ready for the hit and hold scenario! The fish gave a very nice scrap before kindly being netted by Mark. It was a pristine chub which would probably scrape over the 2lb mark - a good start!

A lovely start to the day!

After walking a few yards downstream, we entered a wood which felt enchanted - no people around and merely the sound of birdsong and the wind, seemingly seldom disturbed. Mark hopped into a very nice looking swim in the wood with a nice overhanging tree in close which caused another nice obstruction, which looked an absolutely lovely holding area. This was proven when Mark started catching a chublet a chuck on his link legered lobworm offering. I was just upstream of him and managed one bite which I missed and as I was getting my stuff together to move, Mark beckoned me over. We both gave the swim a go with me flicking down the channel running adjacent to the bush and Mark flicking it in the slack by the branches. I managed a few better bites on the lobworm during this time, one of which I briefly connected with before the lobworm turned over onto the hook which was unlucky. After this we moved onto another likely looking little section in deeper woodland, with the distant mew of the buzzard and a flash of turquoise filling the air from the resident kingfisher. I managed a few more exquisite chublets, as we roved on, on the lobworm and maggot cocktail with Mark getting some rather tentative bites from an unknown source.

We continued to fish on, leap frogging swims, and as I made my way down to see how Mark was getting on, a lovely looking swim greeted me with a nice overhanging tree and a nice crease formed by the different currents merging. With the river carrying a bit more colour due to the rain, I felt I could get away with a more obtrusive choice of bait, a big lump of breadflake. After feeding some liquidised, I flicked my link leger downstream and let it trundle towards the little crease. Tentative plucks were instant and I connected with what I thought was a chublet, but I realised it was a stunning dace around 8oz or so - a cracking fish! I quickly slipped the fish back and casted slightly more downstream than before, avoiding the branch of the overhanging tree. I had a positive pull on the quivertip before it slowly, but surely pulled round. I struck and connected with a much better fish which really did pull and kick back. After lots of digging towards the cover, a huge smile was on my face as I saw the tell-tale great grey lips come up and a fine flanked chub gracing the net. Mark was only a little way downstream from me and it appeared he had landed a fish too which was over the 2lb mark which he rested in the net. Mark came over to my swim and we gave my chub a little weigh as it was certainly a venue PB and at 3lb 7oz it will not break any records, but for a roving angler on a small river certainly a worthy capture and one which made me a very happy angler indeed!

Mark's best of the session!

A nice fish for the first trip on this little river!

We continued to rove on after this and fish a more static approach on a couple of swims we have primed upstream, but nothing was to show of our efforts henceforth apart from another chub I managed to hook in the swim where I managed the 3-7.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable session and a big thank you goes to Mark for sharing his fantastic groundwork on this new waterway and being great company for another roving session. The beauty of these small waterways is that I feel they are ever-changing and if you seldom fish them you will hardly scrape the surface of what could be lurking in the deeper pools and glides and the proof is in the pudding with Mark's blog where he has managed many big chub on various little waterways...

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Windy Winter Roving in search of Chub

Although taken on a different day, this gives one an idea as to what to expect on this small waterway...

After talking to a good friend, Mark Erdwin, regarding our successes on the rivers this season and as per normal comparing notes, he told me about another great bait he has added to his armoury. It has been proved in his blog post 'Waxing Lyrical' that the waxworm can be a deadly single bait as it is a perfect natural looking grub. Mark rightfully urged me to give them a go, therefore I visited the UK Waxworms website and got myself over 200 waxworms - for a single bait, this is going to go a long way! They are a buoyant bait thus not ideal for baiting up with in the depths of winter, but fished in conjunction with maggots I'm sure would be devastating!

An easy to navigate site and a pleasant purchase!

After the previous weekend being taken up by writing essays about Modern China, coupled with another week at college I certainly felt burnt out! I agree with the statement that going fishing when you're 'not feeling it' is a bad thing as you feel you are going for the sake of it which can make it all feel a waste of time... However, I have felt on certain occasions that pushing myself to go has done me some real good. I opted again to go chub fishing, but on a newer stretch of the Thames Tributary I fish - this section is very narrow, consisting of some nice undercut banks and reedy banks providing perfect cover for elusive chub. This stretch has a sparser head of chub than some of the areas I fish on this particular waterway, and coupled with a crayfish population I am expecting some large residents to be lurking on the deeper bends and pools.

(Again taken on a different day) One of the deeper bends/pools - perfect holding zone!

I woke up at 5am and with chub being on my mind, I wanted at least one back up bait. Bread has done me well this season, so I headed to my local newsagent and promptly picked up a loaf. I arrived back home and after my dad offering to give me a lift (thank you so much!) as opposed to getting on a long bus journey, I packed the car and headed for the river. On arrival at the river, it was carrying a nice green tinge which has served me and many others well when it comes to chub. I opted first of all to try the first swim of the downstream section of the bridge, which is a nice pool that leads into a beautiful gravelly run off. My plan of attack was to fish a swanshot link leger and to have enough shot to barely hold bottom, meaning I could set the bait trundling or let it settle on a static basis. After getting myself sorted in the swim, keeping a low profile, I saw a nice rise under the bridge itself leading into this pool and despite fearing it was an out of season trout, I flicked the link leger upstream and let my double waxworm offering waft in the flow. Taps were instant and after a positive bounce on the tip, I hooked the first fish of the day, a exquisite little chublet - a great sign for this stretch as I know the club committee were concerned about recruitment of chub on this stretch. Following this, I flicked the bait towards the opposite bank's reeds, with all that was to come of this being slow jerks of the tip with no liveliness. The culprits of course were big American Signal Crayfish which I'm pleased to say were dispatched humanely (with my right foot!) After casting to the tail end of the pool and managing a couple of trout, I thought that that was certainly the queue to leave.

The next swim that took my fancy was after the stunning shallow gravel run, leading into a deeper and steady run which led to my next favoured swim, a fine bend with an undercut. I gingerly picked my feet up like a chicken on the soft ground and settled just above the beginning of this deeper bend. I put on three waxworms onto my size 10 and flicked the bait midstream and trundled it, upside-down trotting style towards the undercut. I left the bait to do its job, waft and waver in the current, whilst I sat frozen like a heron with my eyes fixed on the rod tip. After a few minutes past me by, I saw the tip jerk positively followed by a nice, swift pull round. I pulled into the fish and felt a positive kick on the end. As I casted from quite far upstream I kept tight to the fish, and made my way downstream towards it. Having it get its head down towards the undercut snags coupled with the reeds was inevitable on this narrow section, but cupping the spool and applying positive pressure in this hit and hold scenario I gradually worked the fish upstream, letting my forgiving feeder rod do the work, and after some fantastic bursts of energy by the bank on a beautiful under-the-rodtip fight, a stunning golden flank graced the surface and shortly after the fish was mine! Even though the fish was not massive, on this narrow section, the fight was fantastic, reminding me why I love these tiny little rivers. At 3lb 7oz it was my biggest fish for the section which was an absolutely lovely result and in such fine condition with a beautiful golden flank, I was one happy angler!

3lb 7oz falling for the triple waxworm offering!

After watching the fish strongly swim off and disappear into the depths upstream, I gave the swim a few more casts. What came of this though was more crayfish, therefore I knew this was the hint to move on. I fished a few more trusted swims on the stretch where I have sighted chub in the past, with no joy apart from more crayfish! I also tried new swims, chopping and changing with the liquidised bread feeder, but no more fish were to come of the efforts apart from a single trout. I think the key to success on this small, intimate stretch is of course stealth, but baiting a few swims prior to fishing them and letting them settle before fishing could well pay off in terms of numbers of chub. However, I was very happy indeed I managed to give the waxworms a try, and even happier I manage to induce some bites on this naturalistic bait - particularly from the largest chub of the day!

I did carry on fishing, going downstream onto more familiar ground with my friend David coming to join me. In hindsight, I really do wish I managed to find some lobworms, as well as getting up to a shop that sells maggots, as the fish were very suspicious with the bread on my banker swims and the waxworms, despite being able to withstand minnows to a large extent, could not handle the plentiful dace in this section. After managing a few gate-crashing trout and a single dace, with the wind driving me crazy and the fact that it was getting quite cold to stand around and the fact I had to prepare for an exam the following day, I felt that it was the right time to pack up and head for home on the bus with David.

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Roving on some Newer Areas with Mark Lindsay

Love the anticipation in new chub swims: the outcome unknown!

On the previous evening I packed a multitude of baits to target chub on one of Mark and myself's favourite little rivers. I set out to fish with my feeder rod and a nice light reel making a fine matching setup for the roving and holding the rod in tight swims. I brought liquidised bread to fish in the feeder, as well as some maggots which I had left over from an aborted plan the previous week. After taking a while to find a swim we liked the look of, we settled down in a nice pool which had a nice run off into a darker sheltered section with a nice weed raft which certainly looked good for a bite. Mark opted to start to work the top of the swim with maggots and his stick float gear and was landing plentiful dace after working the swim with maggots. I quickly set up a simple feeder set up with merely a float stop on the line (for an adjustable tail) and flicked it to the weed raft area. As expected, I knew if indication was to come it would come quick, and this was no exception with a few finicky taps becoming an a slow accelerating pull round on the tip. After a confident strike, I knew I had a chub of some description on and after a nice fight, it was in the net. It was a nice conditioned little chub to start the session off with nice bold colours.

Nice encouraging start, a decent conditioned little chub

After this fish, it was obvious the swim had gone dead and with Mark's dace catch rate becoming slower, we moved slightly upstream of this area. This swim, Mark certainly knew held fish and where I had missed a good bite in the past. After missing one slow bite from an unknown source, I suddenly saw a Ghost Carp move into view in my near margin as I was putting more liquidised bread in the feeder. Despite lowering my bread flake offering in its path, it was far from interested as to neither inspect yet alone touch the bait. After a while I saw a fair few carp emerge in group and go on a regular patrol route together. Mark who had been slightly upstream had scaled up with a different reel and we both lowered in static baits into hopefully the path of a carp. After a fair while of watching the fish going over the areas where our bait was, it was clear they had no intention of getting their heads down, therefore Mark and I decided enough was enough and next time to try baiting up for them first prior to fishing.

Mark checking his worm!

After this, we decided then to try an area where we have both caught some half decent chub. Mark opted to fish a nice shallow run off or a nice slacker pool where he had managed some nice chub, dace and the predictable trout on this chalkstream. I opted to choose one of my banker swims slightly upstream of Mark, sticking with my feeder approach. It was not long until I had a good tap before the tip just flew round. I struck and was into another nice little chub. (Sadly due to a focus failure I won't be using a screen grab).

Waiting for the tip to go!

We realised time was getting on and we were both hungry, therefore we headed back for Mark's car to retrieve our food, as well as Mark realising he now had to pack up and leave for home. He kindly emptied the remainder of his maggots into my bait box and drove me to a section of this river down the road that I have grown to know quite well. I had plenty of maggots and caster left from an aborted plan last week, so I headed into the first banker swim I had discovered when I first this venue - I see this swim as part of the birth of my love of river fishing! I casted in my maggot feeder opting to fish 2 white maggots and a red on a size 14 and it wasn't long until I had a tap on the feeder and a missed bite. The bite was pretty electrifying and bouncy, with me reeling in some seriously sucked back maggots, therefore I expected it to be a dace which had gotten away it. I casted in again in pretty much the same area and waited. After receiving one delicate tap, a few seconds later the tip slowly flew round. I lifted into a good fish and I was one hundred percent sure as soon as I saw my line moving for the snags on the far side of the swim, that I was into a nice chub. After holding the fish and gradually pulling it upstream away from harm's way, a couple more lunges of desperation in its bid for freedom,  and then it was mine!

One of the better chub of the day!

I took the time to take this nice picture (above) and promptly released the fish upstream. It was a nice long chub in nice condition. After this, I decided to put the camera away, as I felt like just relaxing as I had got a picture to put up on my weekly update. The final result was 4 chub and a few nice dace to around 8oz. No surprise for this stretch, but not having done much maggot feeder fishing on rivers for chub, I went home a very happy angler knowing that I had a few stunning chub and bonus dace!

A lovely closeup of a roach Mark had before I arrived

Big thanks to Mark for coming down and joining me, always an enjoyable chap to fish with. Mark  has had some very impressive captures of late including a cracking Personal Best chub of 6lbs 4oz! You can follow Mark on
Instagram: @chapsout
Facebook: Team MAG
Here's a video of Mark's recent successes!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Urban River Mission with Mark Lindsay

My friend Mark Lindsay, has been extremely proactive this river season with some absolute quality chub, bream and perch from this tiny little urban river hidden in the suburbs.

Mark has founded a little angling group which is expanding rapidly called Team MAG (Metropolis Angling Group), and clearly conveys, whether it is through Instagram or Facebook, the hidden beauty with fishing urban venues - what he refers to as 'urban gems'. I have this mutual interest with Mark, being intrigued by what can be found in what is assumed to be neglected, forgotten waterways. Although it isn't always for the faint-hearted due to possibly feeling less relaxed and self conscious in these more public areas, it has proven to have rewarded both of us and other anglers who dare to venture.

One of many quality chub Mark has caught from this venue

I woke up early and travelled up a couple of hours to meet Mark. After this long journey due to roadworks and traffic, we got the gear in Mark's car and headed for the river. We were both buzzing with excitement and filled with uncertainty as to what the river was looking like after receiving a fair bit of rain. After weaving through more traffic of the busy city, we parked up and headed for the river. We strolled over to a more tranquil part of the suburb, and greeted by a river which was still clear carrying a nice little tinge of colour. In the first swim Mark informed me there were some big bream living there and he kindly let me try for them. After catapulting maggots in, on Mark's advice, I free-lined maggots with a single shot and within seconds, I had a couple of subtle, but definite taps. I struck and there was a nice swirl on the surface and a broad flank emerged as clear as day. After a good fight on my feeder rod and 6lb line in the flow, the bream was in the net. I looked into the net and it had easily smashed my personal best on a river. At 5lb 8oz, it was a lovely fish and the colours were absolutely stunning. At just an ounce under my PB, I couldn't believe how good a start to the session this was. Mark took some great photos and it was nice to watch the fish swim away in the clear water.

Fine coloured river bream and a lovely way to have caught it!

After losing a couple more bream to hook pulls afterwards, we could see them, but they were clearly more cautious than before. This meant we moved on downstream, continuing to fish maggots free-lined and trundled about to various snags and likely looking areas. Despite seeing some chub skulking about and being tight in the snags, we were unable to tempt them, so we decided to return to this particular section later in the day and explore upstream. After having a good walk about past a busy road, we arrived at a nice section which was predominantly shallow but gravelly, and consisted of some very nice looking deeper holes. After spotting one big bream that spooked, Mark beckoned me over to join him and informed me that in this particular swim, he had seen and caught some nice roach and chub. With the polaroids on I spotted a couple of chub, and keeping a good trickle of maggots going in, they were soon moving about. Mark did manage to prick one but not properly connect with it but after this, the chub did certainly seem to be on guard. After walking a few more yards, we arrived at the end of a bridge where there was a pool formed by the steady current from underneath. Mark informed me that this was a good chub and roach holding area with him having chub to over 4lbs, and spotting some rather large roach. With that in mind, we both tried to start with, free-lining maggots like we had been. Simultaneously, we both were trickling in maggots upstream to endeavour to entice some chub or roach into feeding. After no luck in the earlier parts of the pool, I tried the tail end and started to receive taps. After having a couple of taps, I reeled in and had a sucked maggot - this had roach written all over it. With my hand close to the rod, I waited for some delicate taps and after a minute or so, I had a couple of decisive taps and struck into a lovely little roach.

Lovely little redfin

After releasing this fish just downstream, Mark flicked in his freelined maggot rig and received a good bite instantly. He struck and felt a good weight on the end but unfortunately the hooklink parted. Mark was fearing it was a big roach, but I personally thought it could have easily been a chub by the way it went straight for the cover. I decided at this point to change to a maggot feeder to ensure some more concentrated feed. Attaching a hooklink, I flicked the feeder in pretty much the same spot to where I had the roach. It was not much more than a minute until the tip bounced aggressively and I lifted into a good fish. The flash of silver and the distinctive red fins and the flank of this fish got me and Mark's excitement levels through the roof as we knew this was a half decent roach. After taking it steady on my feeder rod I thankfully managed to guide the fish into the net. It was a very nice, solid river roach, and as we prepared the scales, we were both so excited as it was a fantastic bonus fish and easily one of my best from a river. At 1lb 10oz, it was level with last season's biggest roach and 3oz off my personal best! What a great result for a lovely tiny river in the suburbs!

What a bonus, my roach of the season so far!

After this I gave Mark a go on my feeder setup as I was convinced there was a chance of another bite and we were both hoping it more roach would turn up. Here's what happened next in Mark's words:

"Gleefully, I jumped at the chance of a cast or two on Tom's feeder set up and quickly cast back into the same spot I had lost a nice fish earlier on. With a few small taps on the tup over the next few casts that I missed, I felt a third cast could be the lucky one, so I gave my full concentration. A small wobble on the tip was enough indication for me and I lifted into a fish. It zoomed straight towards the main snag in the swim, an old shopping trolley. Monster roach though were quashed quite quickly as it was clear that it was a chub, burrowing hard for every snag in the swim. Tom did the honours with the net and a short yet chunky looking fish was on the bank. A quick removal of the hook revealed another hook and short section of line in his top lip. Tom remarked, "that's the fish you lost earlier on, was pretty sure that wasn't a roach." On inspection of the style of hook of course he was right. The swim then typically died, as the chub had no doubt spooked every other fish from this tiny little area. We moved back to a swim that had beaten us earlier with Tom deciding to put another test to his maggot feeder setup..."

What a fight on the light hooklink!

After this breakthrough with a nice chub finally falling to one of our methods, I thought this tactical switch could easily buy a bite elsewhere. The swim now appeared to have died, most likely due to the disturbance from the feisty chub! As this was the last swim of the section, we headed back downstream and the idea being, gradually working back to the car. We decided to stop back at the spot where Mark and I had fed the cautious chub which were seriously on guard earlier. I casted the feeder and the tip was knocking instantly due to all the autumn rubbish coming downstream. I was deceived as the tip suddenly started to come to life and pull round aggressively. Instinctively I struck and I was into a chub. The fight was incredible on the lighter hooklink and it was unbelievable how many times the chub tried to get me buried under the bank! The fish topped and was absolutely pristine, and I was very happy when we managed to net it as it was yet another chub from a new river - this was my main objective for the day. As we unhooked it, it was unbelievable how many maggots it was spewing out! Mark took a lovely photo and we watched the chub swim back into the water that was getting clearer by the hour.

Fin and scale perfect, lovely young chub!

We now realised time was getting on and we returned to the first section we targeted for both bream and chub and it was coherent that Mark certainly had a good chub in mind. I started off in the swim where I had the bream with no luck, therefore I moved downstream to where Mark had found some big chub and he was trying to gain their confidence by spraying maggots. We go back to Mark for the last part of the session:

"I fancied a sneaky little swim downstream of Tom and started to regularly feed a small handful of maggots into a dark tree-covered area. In my experience, I see it as pointless making a cast in this swim until the chub give themselves away by creeping from the shadows to intercept the grubs midwater. It took a while but finally three good sized chub were willing to feed. I carried on feeding for a further 10 minutes and by this time the chub were competing for the bait, zooming in front of each other. On the first cast the fish didn't appear, I thought possibly that I had moved into the view of the fish. Another feed without my hoo bait did the trick and I nervously flicked my double maggot over the top of the free offerings. Again, the fish had disappeared but just as the maggots moved into the shadow water, I saw a shadow moving over my bait, just as I saw a white mouth chomping my white grubs... A swift strike of carbon and the rod hooped over with the chub powerfully ripping line off of my spool. Four strong runs for the snags were successfully thwarted and as he wallowed in the fast flow, Tom hurriedly grabbed the net and ran over. Once in the net, Tom instantly remarked: "that's a decent size mate, could be close to a PB". A great end to the day and as the light faded further, we weighed a snapped a few pictures of this wonderful chub which was in absolutely lovely condition."

A lovely girthy specimen!

"Sadly he wasn't quite the PB beast, but a solid 5lb 4oz, so I could not be happier. It had been a great day for the both of us and a lovely introduction for Tom on this amazing little river, I'm sure he can't wait to be back again soon."

With this fine specimen of a chub landed at the end of the day, I felt we had pretty much the 'full set' that the river was capable of, bar a couple of predatory species. I was very happy how the day went and really appreciated Mark inviting me to one of his 'urban gems.'

Thank you Mark and look forward to meeting up again soon!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Autumn River Pike Brace

On another kind invite from Clearwater's Ollie Johnson, I could not resist paying another visit to his local waterway after some river pike. After the one that got away last time being easily an upper double, the taste was in my mouth to try and catch a personal best river pike.

We arrived and bumped into Andy Little again, who was catching plentiful quality perch. He informed us that there was a big pike in the top swim, therefore Ollie and I went upstream to investigate. Pike were seen patrolling near a wall settling in the streamer weed close in from time to time. After one missed take, where a small jack dropped Ollie's bait, he very kindly let me have a cast. I flicked the bait very close to the wall and waited. Action was instant with the float bobbing down aggressively before starting to whizz across the water's surface. Just after Ollie informed me the pike was turning the bait in its mouth, I wound down and struck. From this moment the drag started screaming as I tried to cup the spool and slow the surging run, but with the agility and muscle of river pike, this was like a steam train and unable to be slowed easily. This intense battle became nerve racking as the fish swum close to the wall, trying to cut me off on the concrete. I eventually managed to turn the fish's head with some firm pressure and then guide it into the waiting net. I was a very happy angler as this fish was likely to be my personal best river pike. At 11lb 10oz, it was a new PB, which I felt was an overwhelming start to the day as quite frankly, I haven't had too many fights like this!

A welcome double on the first swim!

After this, Ollie and I rotated pike fishing and trotting but nothing more was to be managed apart from the inevitable game fish on this certain river. After photographing a pretty perch for Andy downstream before he had to go, he informed Ollie and I that there were some big pike showing in his swim. After Andy had packed his gear away, he pointed exactly at the crease where I had lost the big pike last time and had the scraper double from.

I flicked my paternoster rig out and waited. It was not long until I received my first take, but my nerves got the better of me this time and I struck early, meaning that the hook pulled out on this fish. After casting a few more times to get it perfect, I again waited and tried not to let my nerves get the better of me this time. I was holding the rod with the line in my fingers, and suddenly felt a bang through the whole of my arm, like an electric shock! This was followed by the float moving slowly before picking up pace and starting to dip under the surface. I gave this fish a few seconds and then wound down. On contact with the fish, the rod absolutely arched over, and all hell broke loose. I knew I was into a better fish with it absolutely rocketing off into the pacy current setting the reel's drag to absolute meltdown! With my adrenaline at critical level, I was shaking and at times losing concentration. With the weight of the fish and this current, the strain I had to put on was a lot more than I'd usually dream of. After one very hairy moment where the fish almost buried me into a nasty snag, I managed to steer the fish and it eventually managed to slide into the waiting net held by Ollie. Ollie and Andy recognised this fish and knew it would easily smash my personal best river pike and give my actual personal best pike a run for its money. After a quick unhooking, we zeroed the sling and weighed the fish. At 18lb 8oz it had equalled my personal best and smashed my river best. Andy kindly did the honours with some really nice photos and we watched the pike swim off resiliently which was very encouraging!

Nice big girl and personal best river pike!

Big thanks goes to Ollie for inviting me again on this beautiful stretch and his photography, as well as Andy with his advice and the nice shots!

Tight Lines,

Tom

Testing my new Ultralight: Two Trotting Trips

After not fishing on the previous weekend due to workload for college, I thought the best call for getting out was to try for some of the larger roach on my local river, the Itchen. With various walks after college on the way home past the river, I found a few areas holding some good roach and even spotted a few skimmer bream amongst them!

With my birthday money, I picked up a Drennan 14ft Matchpro Ultralight float rod and was absolutely dying to test it out, along with the Clearwater floats I have been kindly given. I started on a deeper, slower stretch where I had spotted several roach to what I personally reckon are over 2lbs. Unfortunately though, there was still a lot of weed and presenting a bait was not particularly straight forward so I decided to move on downstream.

Lovely rod and my favourite Clearwater Float!

After a few minutes walking I arrived and spotted a good shoal of roach. I fed some mashed bread upstream, and watched as I saw some nice roach taking bits as they crumpled off. After missing one bite, it wasn't long until I was into a fish. The rod was absolutely beautiful with a nice action in it and was feeling in very good contact with the fish. With the right tackle I've come to realise that roach are actually decent fighting fish. This was a lovely fish to christen the rod at around a pound or so in weight I would expect, what I would see as a quality roach. After a few more runs through, as the roach had backed off from this spot, I long trotted the breadflake and picked up a nice grayling coming onto a pound and a half. I moved swim and connected with a very nice roach shortly after feeding another nice pocket of fish. It gave another lovely scrap, flashing its beautiful silver bar as I gently guided it towards my waiting net. After putting this pretty roach on the scales it went 1lb 6oz, which is my second biggest of the river season and a nice result. After this, it was time to go, so I packed up and headed for home.

Can never knock a River Roach!

A couple of days later after a kind invite from a good friend, Simon Daley, we headed to the Dorset Stour with a decent chub or two on our mind. After sorting out tickets etcetera, we headed to one of Simon's favourite chub swims with some cracking features for chub to dart and skulk around. After feeding for a good few minutes, catapulting maggots, Simon ran through and at the bottom of the run, he was into a chub straight away. After a few seconds the hook pulled out, but we were both not feeling disheartened as this was so early on in the day. After sorting out an appropriate float rig for the job for the shallow water on this particular swim, I ran through a few times before the float buried and was into a nice chub. The ultralight had a lovely forgiving action and despite the chub digging away on the end of the line, I managed to slow its run and slowly guide it to the waiting net. This was a nice solid fish of 4lbs or so which was a lovely result and was nice as the first chub on the new rod.

Nice way to put the new rod to some test!

Simon and I continued to feed, and as I was watching Simon's float moving beautifully through the swim, I knew it his float was going to bury at any second and sure enough it did. After what seemed like a very enjoyable battle as I catapulted another dozen or so maggots, another quality chub was in the net. This fish was at least an upper 4 pounder, so another great result.

Another for Simon's impressive album!

After one more hook pull and a few missed bites, the swim was suddenly dominated by minnows as the morning mist cleared. It was rather frustrating though as despite the chub were still coming in and out of the over-hanging tree, it was impossible to wade through the minnows. We decided therefore to venture downstream and try and find some 'virgin' fish.

It wasn't long until Simon spotted a lovely group of fish in the shallows downstream and in no time we had them going on our offerings of maggots. After patience of watching this nail-biting scenario of 5lb plus chub feeding on our maggots and eating a few snacks to try and make time go faster, I had my first run through. Continuing with the feeding pattern, on my third or so run through my float buried. I struck and felt another good chub digging on the end. "Get downstream of it mush" Simon urged, as I ran up the bank trying to keep in good contact. Unfortunately there must have been a weakness in my hook link and therefore it unfortunately parted. Much as I will beat myself up about it sitting on my desk now, it is easily done at the time. After giving the swim a few minutes to rest I fired some more maggots in and it was Simon's turn to run through. After a bit of steady feed and a few runs through, Simon's float buried followed by a firm strike. Not hesitating like me, Simon hurriedly ran down the bank and managed to guide the feisty chub out of the thick weed and after what seemed to be an enjoyable battle of the chub digging away on the end, another nice fish of 4lbs or so was in the net. What I enjoyed about this scenario was it was opportunist fishing and in difficult conditions like what we were met with, it is a very rewarding endeavour.

After going downstream where the next section seemed somewhat even weedier, after getting electrocuted a few times by the electric fence, and sorting out our gear we found a good point to wade in and fish this beautiful run. The sun also came out glistening beautifully on the river, and it certainly was enjoyable to run the float through and we managed a few nice chub between us. After doing some roving around and not finding many more 'trottable' runs, we moved on upstream. It was not long until we saw some big chub, some of which we both reckoned were over 6lbs! After feeding these fish for over 40 minutes they unfortunately disappeared to our sheer disappointment and disapproval as someone waded in on the opposite side right near where they were. We were very disappointed as we refrained from fishing for these fish for a while and it was sabotaged within seconds.

Not feeling disheartened we moved upstream and fished a weirpool where Simon had had some good chub action in the past. We decided, to begin with, to try and catch some perch on minnow livebaits. After catching a few, we let the minnows whirl about on the weir pool and it wasn't long until we started getting takes catching plenty of lovely conditioned little perch.

Pretty Little Perch

Whilst I continued catching a few perch on the live baits, Simon decided to get to work with the maggot feeder. After baiting his swim up effectively, he was starting to get bites instantly from dace and managed many hooking themselves on his feeder rig. After doing lots of chopping and changing with bait variations using imitation and real maggots, his perseverance really showed when he hooked his first chub after battling through MANY dace. After a good fight, although it wasn't the biggest chub in the Stour, it was a very pretty chub, scale and fin perfect. After more dace, Simon's tip walloped round and he was into a much better fish. After getting upstream and guiding it out of the snags downstream, it unfortunately managed to find the concrete of the bridge upstream and cut Simon's hook link off which was certainly wounding for him in the circumstances. We fished into dark on the tip and after missing a couple of bites we decided to head for home as we were both getting tired from the roving about and the early start. Thanks for a great day Simon, look forward to sorting another trip soon!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Birthday Weekend on the Severn

As my birthday was starting to approach, I felt that a weekend away would be a nice experience to make for a memorable 18th. What was on my mind, as I thoroughly enjoyed my experience on the Wye back in summer, was to try and tackle another prolific barbel river. I have wanted to fish the River Severn for many years now and I thought now was as good a time as any to take up my good friend Robert Mitchell's kind offer of fishing round his neck of the woods on the Middle Severn in Shropshire. Robert also very kindly leased his land on the river for the annual YouTube Bloggers Match which this year I was unfortunately unable to attend.

Robert's lovely stretch

After packing the car on the night before, I met my dad at the college gates as the plan was to drive up on the Friday. After opting for a fiddly journey with only a couple of hold ups, with the help of my smartphone we eventually arrived after a good solid 3 hours. After quickly having a wholesome meal at the accommodation, the plan was to head straight to the river. With Robert's work finished we thought we'd meet up on the evening to see if we could try and get off the mark with a barbel. By this time it was dark, but as I always say you have to be in it to win it. I met up with Robert at his house where he had kindly picked up for me, some essentials I needed for the Severn. From here we had a nice walk to the stretch, having an enjoyable chat. We arrived at the swim, which was nice to access compared to the dangerous banks of the wye, and even though I could hardly make out the features Robert had explained to me I casted out the feeder for the first time. The tactic Robert showed me was a groundbait feeder (we used 'hemp and hali crush' groundbait) and a nice long fluorocarbon hooklink with a nice bunch of casters glued to the hair. It was a chilly evening compared to how warm it was in the afternoon, but it was certainly nice to have a good chat and learn some new things about barbel fishing. We packed up just before 11pm, and despite on a few casts having crushed casters and some vicious taps, no barbel or chub were to be caught.

The next morning I woke up at 6am and planned to meet Robert at the stretch at 7am. After sorting out some lunch from a local Tesco Express, I arrived just before Robert and admired the beautiful stretch of the Middle Severn before me in the daylight. The stretch consisted of nice bends, a few deeper pools, fast shallow gravelly runs and various far and near bank features.

The River in the dying mist!

When Robert arrived the first plan of attack he proposed was to try one of the methods he uses to trundle baits consisting of a 'DH speci waggler'. We both tried trundling different sizes of meat as well as pellets and despite having a couple of subtle snatches, no fish were to be caught on this method. Although it took a while to get the good control of the waggler, I certainly started to later on improve with my at it. After this we had a nice wholesome breakfast (thanks Robert!) and the next plan of attack was to return to the swim we tried on the previous evening session to see if we could sneak an opportunist barbel on the feeder. A few hours passed with no luck, therefore we tried a scaled down maggot feeder. It wasn't long until bites started to come and we had a few perfectly conditioned dace, as well as a greedy trout! After a few more dace, Robert suggested moving upstream onto the free stretch to ensure that we were covering a sufficient amount of water. After fishing some lovely swims, trying various tactics in desperation for a barbel or chub, it was apparent that the stretch wasn't fishing as well as it could with the high pressure, the temperature drop and coupled with these two factors, the low and clear conditions. As evening started to approach we returned to the swim we fished with the maggot feeder and on the previous evening, as a few evenings prior to this Robert managed 3 very nice barbel so we knew for sure they shouldn't be too far away. I fished feeders into dark, on Robert's suggestion, both on pellets. It wasn't until the last couple of hours left I received a vicious couple of taps and the freespool started to go. I wound down and was into at last a fish that pulled back a bit. It was a nice chub probably not too far away from 4lbs.

A nice consolation

I had another bite just before I had to leave, but unfortunately the chub came off. I walked back to my dad's car feeling absolutely exhausted and a bit beaten up by how hard it had been. Despite this though, it was very enjoyable spending the day with Robert having a good laugh and learning a lot from the methods he showed me during the day.

It was the last morning and I woke up still feeling exhausted from the effort I had put in, and feeling as if luck was not to be in my favour this time. Despite this though, I thought to myself that I needed to get out there to have a chance of getting a birthday barbel. Robert and I planned this time to start on the free stretch, therefore we met at his house and walked down together. After quickly stopping in the tackle shop to get a few bits, we fished the first swim next to the town bridge. It was a lovely looking swim with nice shallow gravels in close where we could wade in our wellies, and a nice slack area in the middle. I quickly got my feeder rod out, and after loading it and putting on a new pellet, on Robert's instruction I flicked it out onto the gravels a rod length out. We got the waggler rod set up again, and after we made sure the depth was correct, it was ready to go for this swim.

Robert reaching into his bag of tricks!

As I was not use to the longer length of line determining the depth, I casted the meat a bit too close to my feeder rod and just as it hit the water and was starting to go past the feeder line to my confusion the feeder rod's free spool started to aggressively go. We both turned around and saw the rod hooped over, "yes, a fish is on there!" Robert shouted as I passed him the waggler rod and pulled into the fish. As soon as I started to apply pressure, I knew from the tell-tale hugging of the bottom and the lunges through the rod that I was connected with a barbel. After taking it nice and steady and gradually tiring it, after one final nerve-racking lunge the fish was ours! Robert and I shook hands, in delight as the ambition for the trip was achieved, a birthday barbel. It was a lovely dark fish and at just over 5lbs, was most, most welcome in these difficult conditions.

The prize, a lovely middle Severn barbel!

Robert took some lovely shots of the fish and it was great to see it absolutely charge out of my hands on release. This proved to be the only fish of the morning, but it was such a great result to have gone to that effort to give it one last go and the reward was sweet!

Off you go!

Big thanks goes to Robert for such an enjoyable weekend, making my birthday treat very special with a birthday barbel, as well as giving up his weekend time whilst he was in the process of moving house and last of all, taking me to such a gorgeous section of river on his land! Check out his Facebook page here, with lots of lovely captures, particularly barbel! May also be worth contacting him regarding information, for those interested in the Severn or catching a barbel for the first time or increasing your tally!

Also thanks goes to my dad for driving me about and coming along with me!

Tight Lines,
Tom

Clearwater Chubber Floats and Opportunistic Piking!

My friend Ollie Johnson has just launched a new company called 'Clearwater' and has brought out some very good quality, robust floats. He has also kindly given me some to try out and have tested them on my local river with my favourite float so far has been the wire stemmed avon style float which is perfect in the larger sizes for controlling a bait in a turbulent swim.

Nice visible tip for fishing at some distance

On this particular session Ollie kindly invited me to one of his local bits of river and in the first swim he had located some nice chub up in the water skulking about, as well as some good specimen-sized roach gliding on the clean gravel run. We also noticed some nice dace about. The swim was a steady glide formed by a snag with a confluence coming in at the rear end. As Ollie was fishing at distance he chose one of the Clearwater Chubber Floats and opted to fish maggots on a size 18. After spraying maggots for a good 15-20 minutes Ollie casted out, but by this point we noticed some dark shapes emerging that were not there before which were some good-sized pike.

Trotting into the slack to begin with

The roach, chub and dace were now nowhere to be seen, therefore Ollie wandered downstream, just below the crease and fished at some distance on a quite shallow, gravelly run and instantly was catching some nice dace. The float was standing out beautifully and you could clearly see that Ollie had good control due to its buoyancy. After giving it a good forty five minutes, Ollie managed a few more dace and grayling but the larger fish that were located had clearly cruised off and noticing some nice pike in the swim, Ollie kindly offered me a shot in catching one. As we were sorting out the gear, Andy Little, who is a good friend of Ollie's, came over and had a chat with us before he headed upstream to target some perch, which was certainly a nice surprise!

Hooked a dace!

After catching a small dace livebait, I flicked it out into the crease on a paternoster, on Ollie's instruction, and waited. Within 10 minutes, if that, I saw a pike come and seize my bait. I didn't decide to give it too long and wound down to the fish, it was nice Jack pike but on one of the first head shakes he managed to slip the hook. Amazed by the instant action, and with a bait still on the hook, I made the same cast again. The second take came very quickly and this time I let the fish run a bit as it was only on a single treble trace.

About to wind down into the pike!

After a few seconds as the fish moved to the back end of the crease to the shallow water, I wound down and was into a better fish. Although it wasn't fighting particularly hard it was a big dead weight and after pulling it through the weeds and seeing it emerge, it was certainly an upper double and at one final thrash by the net it managed to shake the hook out, I could not believe it. I was rather disappointed as this was certainly a much better fish and would have smashed my personal best river pike, but not feeling disheartened we got the float rod out to try and catch another livebait.

The one that got away!

The first chuck resulted in a minnow which was certainly a good size for a perch livebait and certainly one we couldn't waste. After chucking the bait and letting it settle under the in the near bank slacker area, the float was gone in seconds and Ollie struck into a lovely little vividly coloured perch. Although the fish was not going to break any records, it gave a great little scrap.

Hooked a perch!

After this Ollie had a phone call from Andy. He was telling us of a big pike (around mid-20) upstream which had been attacking the perch he'd been hooking. Without hesitating we headed straight up there! On arrival at the swim Ollie sticked on another small livebait, exactly where Andy had said the pike was attacking the perch he hooked. We were hoping the pike was going to make another appearance at some point but we were slightly unsure as it had certainly taken a fair few perch off Andy's line.

Whilst we waited for a take, Ollie got his float rod out again and attempted to catch some roach, but all that could tempted was large trout which not only caused a disturbance, but were much more obliging than the roach we were after, therefore probably driving them away. After watching Andy continuously bagging beautifully conditioned perch, Ollie and I opted to also give it a go and after catching a few livebaits we trotted them to likely looking areas and where we could see the perch and takes were instantaneous!

One of a number of quality perch for Andy

The chubber floats were fantastic for this, as they are not dragged by the minnow livebait on the end so the takes would be easy to detect. Another advantage is that you could literally let the float control the livebait by casting out and letting the current sweep the bait wherever it would and the it would perfectly settle in the slacks on this particular swim where a number of perch are lurking and patrolling, leading to savage takes!

Beautiful vividly coloured perch for Ollie

After a few more thoroughly enjoyable hours catching plenty of perch and having a nice social with both Andy and Ollie, we decided to head back to the swim where I had lost the pike. Unfortunately the bigger pike in this swim did not make an appearance but I'm sure that's one of a number of pike on this stretch which has either Ollie or Andy's name on it!

The light's starting to go, prime roach time!

Ollie brought down his trotting gear and fished below me and managed a few nice quality little roach, dace and grayling, but the question was where had the bigger ones disappeared off to. After catching another livebait, I flicked the paternoster to the same place. After 15 minutes or so, I had another take where this time the pike sat on the bait, but after giving it a bit of time, I wound down and struck into another nice fish which certainly gave me quite a battle - managing to successfully weed me a couple of times and shake its head like mad when it came towards the bank, we thankfully managed to get the this one in the back of the net. Although it wasn't massive, it was a nice result as I had managed to lose quite a few, and the markings were absolutely stunning on this fish.

After a quick photograph and release it wasn't long until another livebait was caught which I quickly hooked up as a last ditch effort, and flicked it back into the same spot - this one was on the money. The float absolutely sailed away instantly. I gave the fish a few moments to spin the bait in its mouth and run with it, then I wound down and set the hook. This fish stayed nice and deep and taking it steady I slowly guided it to the bank, by which time the fish had really woken up and starting thrashing in the shallows and charging off at speed tearing line off the reel. Hoping the hook would stay proud, I gave the fish some stick and Ollie kindly netted it for me. A quick unhooking was to follow and it weighed in at just a double at 10lbs on the nose - not massive for many's books, but my second river double which I was really made up about. It was also in good shape and again, had stunning colouration.

By the time I got the fish back, I realised it was time to pack up as my mum had arrived, but it was a fantastic session and a big thanks goes to Ollie for taking me to the stretch and showing me a spot with a few nice pike lurking about!

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Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous