The first trip saw Ryan Hayden and I heading to the banks of the Hampshire Avon in search of some larger chub. The conditions were against us with the sun up high in the sky and the final results were some small chublets, baby barbel and 'bootlace' eels. It's so nice to see a burst of small barbel on the Avon and hopefully these fish will flourish and grow into one of those famous double figure fish!
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| Barbel taken of trotted maggot |
On the same evening I decided to try a local Thames Tributary for the night after the barbel and plonked a couple of rods in subtly with a nice build up of food through the swim with a bait dropper, my choice of hook bait was a Sonubaits Spicy Sausage Oozing Pellet. It would have been such a relaxing night with the gentle trickle of the river and the call of the barn owl, but this was ruined by the numbers of nasty mosquitos. As the light started to prevail, I woke up and watched the barn owl gliding overhead as I started to reorientate myself for where I was! I noticed there was plenty of dew on the ground and knew there was a chance of finding some slugs to try for some of the chub residents. I reeled in both barbel rods knowing after my baits were completely gone that I had been crayed to pieces and perhaps had not put enough food in. It wasn't long until I found some slugs and I was almost instantly into a nice chub, not a monster by any means, but pristine condition!
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| Pristine chub on free-lined slug |
Venturing later in the day to another stretch of this small tributary of the Thames in search of another chance of barbel, I started again with my mind still on chub managing three nice fish, biggest possibly 4lbs or so. Even though I did try for barbel in the afternoon, my swim was gatecrashed by a jack pike, and coupled with the heat levels I felt it was time to call it a day and quit whilst I was ahead...
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| Best chub of the day on free-lined bread |
Thanks for reading and tight lines,
Tom
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