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