A Sweet Reunification!

After having a car boot slammed on my favourite feeder rod, it certainly delayed doing some of my favourite roving sessions for the chub... After a fair bit of 'googling' and searching on eBay, to my delight, I was lucky enough to acquire another!

I have been in contact with Duncan Charman pretty regularly of late and after pencilling a day, he kindly offered to take me out for a morning after some rather large and elusive chub. With the lack of rain in the South in the last few weeks, I certainly expected the fish to be pretty lethargic. As expected, the river was low and in desperate need of a flush through. Therefore, Duncan and I thought that we should visit the 'banker' areas first, before moving around to cover the stretch. Duncan opted to fish a small cage feeder, whilst I opted to fish the link leger, both using generous helpings of breadflake as our hookbait. On the first swim where I had my highest hopes for a bite, not a single touch was to be had. We then agreed to try an area which is renowned for doing some large residents a little way below. After flicking my bait into a nice little run, it was promising to get a few shimmers on the rod tip pretty instantly. Could it be silver fish or perhaps a wily chub inspecting the bait? I kept my hand close to the rod and within minutes, a jaggedy pull on the tip triggered a strike. I hooked into a good fish which instantly dug deep. In typical chub style it really plodded about and made some quite hairy surges for the snags, but with Duncan kindly on hand with the net, the first fish of the day was landed!

5lb 3oz

It was a great way to christen the new rod and hopefully the first of a few chunky specimens yet! The fish weighed in at a lovely 5lb 3oz, which certainly was a lovely result for my first time out for a while. Duncan quickly took some lovely shots, before I released the chub back to its watery home. Although Duncan had the odd indication on the tip, this was the only fish to be had of the morning. It was great to get back out on flowing water, and I have to thank Duncan now for getting me out again!

Having gotten my motivation back, I headed to another waterway that I knew was also capable of some rather large and elusive culprits. Again, the river in front of me was low and in desperate need of some water. Having rotated a few swims on the link leger, with little to show for my efforts apart from a couple of modest chub, I made my way to a new area. As the mist thickened and the light started to fade, I parked myself in one particular spot which looked perfect for a chub or two. Out of the blue, I suddenly saw some disturbance on the surface with two carp coming into view, cruising near the surface before dropping down towards where my bait was... My quiver tip slowly tweaked in a steady motion, before I hastily decided to strike. The surface erupted and I saw the head of a good common, before getting the feeder rod low and started to play it as my tiny little reel started to sing as line whizzed of the spool. It is fair to say that the fight was pretty sluggish, but with various snags and the common using its body mass to its advantage it was going to take a while to tire. After what felt like many excrutiating minutes, I managed to finally guide the carp into the net, before punching the air with sheer delight!

12lb River Common

The colours on the fish were absolutely stunning and it was such a fantastic way to end what was a very frustrating day on the chub front. At 12lbs on the nose, it was a wonderful result as it is my best river carp so far and what a way to have caught it on the feeder rod! It is undoubtedly one of the nicest looking commons I have ever caught, if not the nicest!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and wish you all a happy new year!

Tight Lines,

Tom