Billy Boy arrived at 8.00am on the dot to set off for Ribchester and the banks of the River Ribble. The weather conditions were perfect; mild, overcast and it had rained through the night so hopefully there would be a bit of colour in the water, which always helps.

We were looking forward to the day with tactics talk dominating the conversation throughout the journey.
We arrived at the bridge on the Dewhurst stretch of the Ribble at 9.30am the river looked spot on and there were already a few FM lads on there looking for prime spots. Myself and Billy agreed it looked peggy and shallow in places, we needed some deep water, ‘chubby’ looking water.

On arrival at the Black Bull pub car park, we met John Conway who kindly passed on some local knowledge as we walked to the ‘post office’ day ticket stretch. On route, we bumped into Swordesy and his mate who had decided to fish the stretch, after a good look round we decided this stretch looked deep enough and must hold big Chub, that will do us we thought.

Having got our day tickets it was off to the pub for a pint and meet the rest of the lads, there was a good turn out, Baz was in fine form and was also fishing the ‘post office’ stretch with us.

The ‘post office’ stretch was a bit rough and ready and obviously gets fished a lot by the locals from the look of the banks.

Tactics

I had decided to fish two rods, one light feeder up stream with red maggots, Amino Black ground bait, small pellets and dead maggots to a size 14 hook attched to 6lb maxima mainline, starting off with a 3ft tail.

My other rod was set up with a 4oz lead with a hair rigged 14mm Halibut pellet onto a size 10 Fox series 2b hook and small PVA bags.

The light set up was getting knocks all the time and i missed a few bites, but after shortening the tail a few times i had my first fish, a grayling, weighing about a pound. The first Grayling of the year for me!

Happy now i was not going to blank, i got into my rhythm.
After 45mins i was into my first Ribble chub, not a monster but a chub all the same; that’s what we were all here for after all, it was around the pound mark and again it fell to the red maggot feeder combination.

Bill was starting to sweat a bit at this point as he was still on a ‘Berty Blank’ and i had netted twice, so the pressure was on! But as always Bill produced the goods with a Ribble chub, again around the pound mark, followed by a lively Brownie that looked very Sea trout like, again no more than a pound in weight.

I was still getting the odd bite on the maggot but i was getting nothing on the Halibut pellet.
The sun started to set on the Ribble and it soon dropped into darkness, i decided to take the pellet off and try something different. I had some Mexican cheese in my pack up that smelt just fantastic, so i put a chunk on the hair and five more chunks into some PVA and put it right on top of the bed of pellets. I had literally just set my rod and sat back when BANG, a proper bite; I grabbed the rod and lifted into a solid fish. I was gobsmacked to say the least, my first feelings were its a Barbel because it felt hefty but if it was a chub it was a good one!
After a good scrap it was in the net and it was indeed a proper Ribble chub weighing in at 5lb13oz, result!

Bill was quick to get some Mexican Cheese on i can tell you, it was getting on for 6pm now and Bill was getting a few knocks on Bread and shortly after he to was into a nice fish. After carefully playing the fish it was in the net, another Ribble chub weighing in at 4lb.

We had both now caught our desired quarry and it was off to the pub for a well deserved pint and a crack with the lads who were keen to see the photos of the Big Dog. It turned out to be the biggest chub caught on the day and a personal best for me.

Great day, Great to meet you all.

Cant wait for the next one!

Shane

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