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He is also a very keen angler, having come back to the sport in 1995 following a break of several years. In this regular column he will tell us about his progress as an angler – his thoughts about the sport, what he learns, the fishing trips he makes, the anguish, the humour, in fact everything he experiences as his angling career develops.
Pilgrim’s Progress – read it everyThursday!
The River Drops, The Temperature Drops…Time To Get Out The Chub Gear
In last week’s Pilgrim’s Progress, I wrote about mytwo sessions on the lower Severn and how I took advantage of thedownpour to land a couple of barbel. However, as October gave way toNovember, a dry week saw the river drop back down to normal levels.Not only that, but the temperature dropped as well. As one who planshis trips carefully, this meant one thing – time to get out the chubgear and begin my winter campaign.
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The alternative would be train spotting
Where would we be without this species? Not only are theywidespread, but they will certainly oblige even when the temperatureshave plummeted and frost is the order of the day (and night!). If itwasn’t for chub, winter fishing may not be viable, and we could allbe part-time train spotters from November through February. Nowthere’s a thought!
I’ve been fishing the River Mease a lot during the last couple ofseasons. Although most anglers head for the Staffordshire sections ofthe river, I’ve been fishing the upper reaches in Leicestershire.Those who read Pilgrim’s Progress regularly will haveseen a number of photographs of the river in the area I fish. If Isay you can step across it in most places I am not exaggerating. I’vehad chub to over 4 lb, which might not make the angling weeklies, buttaking into account the water, are really nice fish. However, I wouldlike to catch a ‘5’ from the Upper Mease. Now that would give me realsatisfaction.
Tackle for the river Mease
My tackle for the Mease consists of a 1.25lb TC Avon rod, coupledwith a small Shimano reel. You don’t need baitrunners and big pitreels on a small intimate river. I fish with 4 lb main line andhooklength is generally 4 lb. It may seem a bit high in terms ofbreaking strain, but as a couple of accompanying photographsillustrate, the river where I fish has a lot of extremely overgrownswims. The moment one hooks a chub it goes straight for the labyrinthof roots, debris and bushes that have grown out into the river. Whenfishing a less overgrown swim, I may come down a little in breakingstrain.
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As the overwhelming majority of my winter chub fishing is donewith breadflake and cheese paste I favour the Drennan SuperSpecialist hook. A thick hook like the Super Specialist is ideal formoulding the aforementioned baits around. Hook size is usually a size6 or 8. But I’m not afraid to go much bigger. The mouth of even a 2lb chub is cavernous and more than capable of wolfing down a piece ofbread wrapped around a size 2 hook.
I fish a running leger, using as light a lead as possible, so thatI can tighten up and present a bait in the way that I want to. Onmost occasions this is no more than a 1/4 oz bomb. Casting is not anissue on the Mease, it’s more a case of flicking the bait in the spotwhere you want it.
Baits for the Mease
Fishing with a bait such as maggot inevitably produces a lot ofsmaller fish, but as a specimen hunter I’m prepared to sit it out forthe bigger ones. Quality beats quantity in my book every time. Aspreviously mentioned, my baits are bread and cheese paste, which Ioften alternate between in a session. Last season I started fishingwith a simple paste that has proved very effective on rivers such asthe Mease. It’s also a cheap alternative to using real cheese. Mygood wife, Debby, says that sometimes the fish eat better than us!!!
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The recipe
Ingredients
1 lb Short crust pastry
2 oz White fish meal
10 ml Betaine
10 ml Richworth blue cheese flavour
5 ml Cochineal colouring
10 ml hemp oil
We make the pastry ourselves, although I should perhaps be morespecific and say that Debby makes the pastry! (Make it with less fatthan usual due to the hemp oil). At the time of making the pastry,mix in the fish meal and betaine. The liquid ingredients are mixedseparately and added to the rest of the concoction. It needs tokneeded together well, so that everything is well distributed in theresultant ball of cheese flavour paste, which is ready to use.
Armed with groundbait and ready
Armed with a Fox bait bucket full of groundbait, rod already madeup, and bait prepared, I arrived at the river ready to go, apart frommixing the groundbait with river water. My plan was to bait up twoareas in the first meadow and then head downstream to one of myfavourite swims. As you will see from the accompanying photo, it isvery overgrown. Not only are there overhanging branches andundergrowth, but underneath the water there is a collection of treeroots.
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A perfect chub hole, but one that needs to be fished with absoluteconcentration. The moment a fish is hooked, it heads straight for thesnags. However, I can count the number of fish I’ve lost in thisparticular swim on one hand, yet it has produced fish to over 4 lbfor me. In fact, targeting the upper Mease chub, I would say myaverage fish as a whole is over 2 lb, which taking into account thestretch is a very good average.
Small but perfectly formed and in nice surroundings
On this particular session I caught three chub. Whilst they wereall landing net size, the biggest was only 2-7-8. However, I was backa couple of days later as the river remained low and clear and thetemperature was still down. The second session was more productive,with fish of 2-4-0, 2-13-8 and 3-0-8. There’s still a lot of room forimprovement though, and hopefully the next visits I make to the Measewill produce some bigger fish. I may even make a visit or two to thelower reaches, as it makes its way towards the Trent, as that’s wherethe bigger fish are to be found.
However, I’m happy fishing the upper river. Although the fish maybe smaller, I’m enjoying the tranquillity of the surroundings. Iwatched a covey of partridges on my first visit, in the fieldopposite. I counted at least thirteen birds. Then there was the owlthat suddenly, and without warning, flew right in front of me as Isat motionless at the water’s edge. I’m a great believer in the ethosthat ‘fishing is more than just fishing’.
I think I’ll be returning to Leicestershire a few more times inpursuit of that ‘5’. But either way check out Pilgrim’sProgress over the next few months to see how my chub campaigndevelops. Not to mention my pike, grayling, roach and perch campaign.I really do need to live to be about 1,000, you know, to doeverything I want to in angling. To paraphrase the saying, ‘There arenot enough hours in the day’, as far as my angling is concerned, itshould read ‘There are not enough years in my life’.
Next week chub are still on the menu:‘A tale of two rivers…..Still on the chubtrail’.
The Reverend Stewart R Bloor
Sedgley International Christian Ministries
PO Box 1216, Dudley. DY3 1GW.
Telephone : 01384 – 828033
Web site : www.sicm.org
e-mail : missionscentre@sicm.org
