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