A pb chub

I fished the River today with the intention of trying for chub and pike. Conditions were mild, and the river was fining down after a recent spate. Ideal really. I set up my drennan avon quiver with it's 3oz tip (owing to the flow) and using 8lb line straight through to a size 10 drennan wide gape, fished with cheesepaste. The fish were there, and indications were forthcoming, but they clearly knew all about cheesepaste and i didnt receive very confident takes. A switch to luncheon meat brought an immediate response, and the tip wrapped round connecting with a chub, which put up a dogged and determined fight. Eventually landed, i felt it was easy a pb, and probably a 5lber. At 4lb 13oz, though slightly dissapointed at not getting a 5, I was still please to be my pb by 5oz.

I also managed a fish of 4lb 3 oz to cheesepaste / bread crust balanced rig, and went home with a smile on my face. There's only a couple of weeks to go until the close season, and i'm going to miss the rivers.

Chub on steak

Despite there still being snow underfoot, the conditions felt milder today. However, the river was still low, cold and clear and I knew it wouldn't be easy. I decided to fish steak on the hook, with mince in the feeder, using a drennan avon rod with 2oz tip, complete with the new drennan FD 4000 reel (cracking piece of kit!) and 5lb line straight through, with the feeder stopped by a couple of grippa stops. This was cast into the flow and allowed to be pushed back in to the nearside bank, underneath some overhanging willows.

FIrst cast and I was soon into a fish of 3lb ish, which gave a good account of itself.

Next cast produced a couple of plucks, followed by a good wrap round and i connected with something substantially heavier than the first. Unfortunately, despite my attempts to keep it out the willow, I couldnt and that was that! Despite getting a couple more pulls, i didnt connect with any more and went home with just the one fish.

Winter is here!

I knew, after last nights snow, that I just had to get out fishing this morning. I also knew i was unlikely to catch, but I just needed to be there! Bizzarre yes, but we anglers are a bit odd at times.

I got to a very cold, low and clear river, and tried a balanced crust / cheesepaste approach, with a light ledger link, with just the one slight pull offered. I tried pike fishing with some lamprey (hoping the blood would leak in the clear water). This provided me with no success either. Suddenly a flotilla of 25-30 cormorants surfaced - they covered the wolewidth of the river and were just making there way downstream, presumably gobbling all the small, cold, docile fish in their wake. One glance at me and they all flew off - they must have been there as the lakes were frozen. This is a problem with rivers up and down the country.

Back to the fishing, and simplistically I blanked, but I left with plenty of cold, snowy memories...