Chub Fishing on Lures

Gob of a predator!

Having spoken to my friend Mark Lindsay on various occasions about lure fishing for chub, we planned to venture out on one of our favourite little Southern rivers to have a crack at our grey-lipped opponents. I have caught chub on spinners, dry and wet flies, coupled with small softbaits, but was still yet to tempt one on a little hardbait. Mark, this season has had some great success on little plugs or crankbaits as they are known. Having picked up some little lures myself off the internet after previous discussions with Mark and reading a few pieces about chub on plugs, I was really looking forward to putting this method into practise.

The traffic was pretty horrendous on the way and having battled through it, I was eventually making my way to meet Mark on a nice section of the river which looked a perfect haunt to present the little lures. Mark was his usual confident self and it was not long until he had had a couple of attacks on his little crank bait. The given day was very bright and as expected, the chub were not in any mood to give themselves away for too long. Having wandered down many familiar hunting grounds Mark and I had gotten to know pretty well, one last area gave us a lot of hope to break the deadlock. Mark had managed at least one enquiry on every visit to this certain section. After having a few snatches from smaller chub on a steady run, one particular depression in the stream we knew had to be attacked. After a few casts and another enquiry from a smaller chub, I flicked the lure upstream and it appetisingly 'plopped' into the surface column of the water. With the effects of the ripples forming arcs on the surface, a dark shape emerged with a white vacuum coming into view, engulfing my lure. I tightened into the grey-lipped culprit and it soon made a dash for the snags within the swim. The fight was immense on the light lure tackle, consisting of some great final dashes before slowly guiding the  chub towards Mark who was kindly on hand to net it.

A fine summer chub which was up for hitting the lure!

With the bright sunlight persisting, we did sight a few more larger chub tight into the streamer weed, but it did prove challenging to tempt any interest with the lure. Having only arranged a short session, time was too getting on. As we roved our way back to the car, we had a few chublets, a trout and even a dace to add to our tally. It was certainly clear that these little lures that Mark had introduced me certainly had the tendency to trigger an aggressive response from a fair few species. It was good to have caught up with Mark for the first time in a while, and to have a really enjoyable introduction to fishing lures for chub.

As my mum had a few things to do in the area on the following day, she kindly offered to take me to the river again. Admittedly, I did try my luck, asking to go to another one of my favourite little rivers. After setting the route on the navigator, I was soon walking the banks of the second river. On arrival, it had to be the lowest and weediest I had seen it, but I knew I was still going to be in for a good chance of some perch and chub. I started using a little jig for the perch and was soon catching some exquisite little sergeants (perch) which were like peas in a pod. After seeing some very inviting deeper holes, I could not resist going into the lure box and digging out the same lure I'd had the chub on the day prior. On the first cast I aimed for some overhanging foliage, and it was not long until a good chub came into view and investigated my lure before deciding against it. My excitement levels hit the roof. On my next cast, the lure yet again landed on the surface with a very appetising 'plop' and a smaller chub shot out and hit the lure. It was a stunning fish of a pound or so and certainly a worthy sign that the chub's aggressive instincts were in tact on the given day. Following this, I fished a few spots catching some smaller chub and missing a couple of good fish (some over 4lbs) in a particular pool swim. In the end, the roving approach, keeping casting to minimum, in each spot payed dividends when I managed to connect with a slightly better fish of round the 2lb mark.

A lovely looking little chub on the lure!

I decided on the remainder of the trip to go back to the jigs again and a few more stripy culprits were on hand to add to the session. Overall, it had been a lovely couple of days fishing before having to return to work in the week. Thanks goes to Mark for the introduction to chub on lures!

Tight lines,

Tom

More Perch on the Lures

The tell-tale sergeant stripes!

From my recent blog, I'm sure many of you have gathered that I have slightly got the lure bug! Having picked up a few new lures and jigheads on the internet, I was dying to give them a try in some of the nice swims I had found. I decided on the first trip to go and try a couple of spots that in the past I have sighted some absolute monster perch. On the first stretch, I had a good follow from a good-sized perch, but unfortunately this was the only action that was to be had on the particular section. Having brought worms with me too, I decided on one of the more familiar stretches to try and twitch one in the path of a perch. I imagined with the conditions in front of me this was certainly going to be pretty deadly. Having arrived at a particular swim, I spotted three perch. I attached a split shot on the hooklink, and casted just above them and twitched the worm into their sight. The biggest one which looked a good pound or so started to move for it, but in a millisecond I saw one of the smaller perch push ahead and grab it themselves. It was nice to have managed another pretty perch in these difficult conditions and decided it was time to go home as I had a job induction the following day.

This one took a liking to a juicy worm!

The following session was a morning session, the day after my induction, and I felt confident having had a few natural-coloured lures arrive, that it was definitely worth another shot on the lures. The beginning of the session proved challenging, but eventually a single perch gave itself away, was there any of those better fish lurking which I had been sighting on sessions prior? On one particular cast I went a bit tighter to the streamer weed and let the lure sink down a bit more. I slowly retrieved the it, covering the past kill zones and out of nowhere a good perch appeared and absolutely devoured my natural-coloured lure. After an initial crazy burst of energy and plenty of sprints, a good perch graced the surface. I nervously reached for my net and managed to safely net it. Although it didn't look much longer than the 1lb 7oz perch I had prior, it's build was on a slightly better level and I knew it was at least creeping towards 2lbs. After quickly putting it on the scales, my face lit up when I saw the dial hovering between 2lbs and 2lb 1oz. It was great to have had a perch of this stamp as it has been years since I've had anything from this waterway of that similar stamp.

A stunning 2 pounder!

I continued the day, managing another smaller perch and disappointingly losing a good pike, which absolutely tore line off my little reel and had my light lure rod buckled over. The day was an overall success though, as I had achieved my little target of a fish around the 2lb stamp. It was certainly encouraging though, as this fish was certainly not the biggest I had seen on my trips so far, so will be nice to get out and target a few more fish of this stamp sometime soon!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Perch Fishing on Lures

Perfect haunt for Predators

After my new lure rod arrived, I was itching to head back out on the river to have another go for some of the stunning perch. After a day or so of bright and humid weather, a more overcast day motivated me to get out, as it was likely the perch would be on the prowl. The areas I had in mind consisted of a couple of darker and deeper patches of water, where I had sighted a fair few perch on a couple of occasions this summer, whilst walking the rivers. I started off in a few familiar swims and tried to get a feel for the new lure rod. I felt that extra precision and finesse in my retrieve and was hopeful that if I spotted a perch, I could agitate it into taking my jig. I opted to try the same micro pattern as my previous session, as they have an immense action through the water. After trying a few likely looking areas, I found myself in the zone which was a lot quieter and shadier, a perfect haunt for predators. After retrieving a few times in the deep hole with one less than decisive grab, I decided to try the near margin. With the aid of a simple flick cast and a nice short rod, I managed to get the lure nice and deep into the cover. As the lure hit the bottom, I slowly started to retrieve, and as I started to put a bit of a twitch from the rod tip into the retrieve, the lure got absolutely devoured. I tightened into the fish and saw that I had a lovely looking perch on. In typical river perch style it gave a great account of itself on the light lure rod.

A vividly coloured chalkstream perch!

It was great to see the perch go back strongly into the crystal clear water, and I knew that it would definitely be worth trying the deeper hole upstream. After working the pool, a nice perch came into view. I flicked my jig into its path and slowly tweaked it into its view. Without hesitation the perch snatched the lure and I was into a slightly better stamped fish. Following a great scrap, another vividly looking perch was in the net. This fish weighed it at 1lb 7oz which was actually bigger than I thought. After watching yet another fine-looking perch swim resiliently back into its watery home, it was time to go home for a spot of lunch.

A vividly coloured River Perch!

I decided a few days later to head out for another attempt at these quite elusive perch. The conditions were, again, nice and overcast and looking good for a perch or two. Several hours were spent this session struggling to tempt them on the lure of choice and finding the right opportunity to present the lure in their path. After a fair bit of pioneering and thinking, I decided to cut my lure down to a smaller size to accommodate for their finicky mood. It did take a while though to get the perfect scenario to present the lure, but once it came, it was quite a bizarre sight to witness. A pack of five perch were lined up and attacking a little eel that was burying its way into the silt. After casting the lure into their path and jigging it to agitate them, with the paddle tail convulsing in an appetising fashion, one eventually decided they had had enough and struck! After another very spirited battle another stunning river perch graced the net.

Stunning colours!

As I decided to work my way back, I decided to squeeze my way into a very dark and shaded swim. I casted the lure down stream and started to work it steadily with the odd twitch. Just as I saw the lure coming into view, I saw another pretty perch following. I slowed the retrieve and had yet another hit! Another spirited scrap followed and a very boldly coloured and proud perch I quickly admired in the water before unhooking her in the water. This one was in great condition and the colours again failed to disappoint.

It was really enjoyable to have gotten into some lure fishing with thanks going to some good mates for their helpful advice on this discipline within the sport.

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

July 2016 Update: Carp, Tench and Lure Fishing

A fine summer's evening

Last week, I decided to renew one of my Club Tickets to make the most of all the waters within walking distance from my home, and target stillwater species in conditions which are tougher from a river perspective. The species that have been on my mind of late are carp, tench and eels. I have also been contemplating getting into light lure fishing, which was also on the agenda for my local river. For the first outing, I decided to venture down for a short afternoon's session on my local club lakes after some carp and tench. As the light started to fade, and the workers on the peninsula of the lake had stopped strimming, I started to get some takes. The result of this was a few bream and tench, but sadly no carp were around to make an appearance in this duration. I think they key to catching these fish is to introduce some bait, so that the carp can potentially dominate the swim in their, at times, greedy fashion.

A powerful little tench!

On the next session, I set my stalls on another club lake to try and stalk a carp or two out. My choice of bait was a single piece of fluffy bread flake which I was hoping to trigger a couple of fish into slurping in. I arrived at the lake, brimming with enthusiasm as I saw plentiful carp, some of which were bathing and others were slowly cruising. There was also some slurping that was taking place with carp sucking naturals off the Canadian Pond weed. The first swim I chose, I saw a group of fish and a common which looked as if it was up for a helping of flake. After casting just over the fish and teasing the piece of ever-expanding bread towards the fish's path, a few agonising minutes were to follow. The fish carried on taking naturals off the weed and slowly made its way to my bait and paused. The mouth extended and sucked the piece of flake in. I let the fish take the bait and was baffled at the fact that I had managed to strike into thin air! This fish was well into double figures, which was a great shame as it would have been a lovely fish to start with. After missing another fish, cheaply getting away, I found myself right at the corner of the lake which was also thick with weed and a nice group of lilly pads. After drifting my bait to the edge of these pads, a small pair of lips came up and slurped in a medium-sized piece of flake. I struck more positively this time and connected. Despite this being the smallest fish that took my bait, the reward was a lovely dark little mirror.

An enjoyable tussle in the weed!

For the final session, I decided to head out and do some light lure fishing. Having chatted with a mate, Mark Lindsay, about fishing light jigs before, I decided to get myself a light lure rod and some braid for a 1000 sized reel. With the rod having not arrived yet, I decided to dig out a telescopic rod I had found in the garage from a previous holiday. After loading my reel with some light braid for some perch fishing and finding some abrasion-resistant fluorocarbon, I headed to a stretch close to home with some depth. This stretch is very weedy and boggy, but I knew that I was in for a chance of seeing some nice perch and pike in the gaps in the weed to cast to. After fishing a few swims and failing to tempt the perch, despite appetisingly pausing the lure in their field of vision, I headed to a stretch downstream of here. Within a very short amount of time, I had managed a few tiny perch which tend to congregate in this little pool which was certainly a start! Following the fact that I had seen a few little pike in the gaps in the weed and chasing minnows in the silty and stagnant areas, I decided to have a go for a few with my little jig. After getting a few chases, but failing to get a take, I casted the jig in a gap in the weeds which looked a likely area for a pike to be hiding. As the lure started to work, in light-speed a pike came out of nowhere and snatched the lure. The take was amazing through the braid, as you felt the fish crunch into the lure. With a quick strike, I managed to hook the pike comfortably in the scissors and it gave a wonderful little tail-walking scrap.

Maybe one day this will go from a minnow mincer to a duckling worrier!

It's wonderful with these small jigheads how easy it is to quickly unhook the fish and release them back into their watery home. I took a stroll onto a silty and stagnant section nearby and saw this tiny baby pike with a stunning green hue sitting boldly in the silt. With a little flick just over its head and the lure fluttering in its view the lure was absolutely devoured! With an energetic and lashing fight, it was lovely to see another one of these stunning juvenile pike in my hands. The immature markings on juvenile pike are wonderful to feast your eyes on, especially from my local chalkstream. By the time I had managed my third little pike, my lure had been bitten in half, so I felt with my family wanting to have some supper that it was a good idea to go home.

See what I mean about the immature markings?

Thanks for reading and tight lines,

Tom