The Ribble and an Ex Accy Lad

Sunset on the Ribble (click for bigger picture)

As a young lad I knew very little about legering, this was pre quivertip technology, what legering I did was with a loop in the line and a dough bobbin as a bite indicator, later to be replaced with a washing up bottle top. Strange really as my only rod at that time was a 11ft split cane leger rod and a Mitchell reel. I can’t even remember the model, except that it replaced one of those cheap monkey metal spinning reels. My float fishing technology and skill however was quite good for a young lad who’d learnt everything from reading Mr Crabtree and the Angling Times, which replaced the Dandy and Beano at about the age of thirteen.

Why the Ribble?
In my early thirties I moved up into the Yorkshire Dales, for the superb caving. It was there I took up fly fishing and occasionally fished the river Lune. On the river Lune I initially fished for the very large shoals of quality dace and roach and, much later, after the demise of the dace and the roach, the huge bream. However, I needed to expand my fishing and find somewhere that was more productive than the Lune in high water conditions, as enjoyable as it was pulling out big bream I didn’t want to be a one fish angler. At the time I was fishing with a lad who was an EA bailiff and we talked about winter chub fishing and the river Ribble. I also remember reading one of Gary Knowles’s articles on winter chubbing on the Ribble, so in 2002 I joined the Warrington Angling Association and on the 8th of June met up with Jim at the WAA car park at Balderstones.

Early Days
My reintroduction to the Ribble was a bit of a humbling experience after pulling big river bream out of the river Lune. I had eight blanks in a row on the Ribble, not counting one session where I caught a couple of dace and an eel. But to rub salt in my wounds when I fished with Jim Hinchley and others I had to eat humble pie and smile while they pulled out one or two very nice 5lb plus chub, not to mention one or two nice barbel. Now I’d never seen a chub anywhere near that size before, the biggest I’d ever seen was a 2-pounder from the Calder some 48 years ago, so I was very determined to catch a Ribble 5lb chub come what may and no matter how long it took.

At first I fished more or less the same technique that I fished on the river Lune for the bream, a running paternoster rig, but very quickly learnt that this set up wasn’t suitable on the Ribble. The Ribble was a much more active river and I kept losing feeders like they’d gone out of fashion. I also realised that if I did hook into anything like the size of chub Jim had been landing, the last thing I wanted was a trailing feeder on the end of a paternoster link being dragged across the riverbed. From now on it would be the standard running leger with feeder or bomb. The other thing I learnt was the amount of lead needed to hold the bottom when the river was pulling through.

The big day
After a run of eight blanks you don’t forget the day you started to catch. One very bright frosty Saturday in January 2003, I decide to fish a very large bend on the Ribble. When I arrived there were already two other lads fishing the top end of the bend so I settled in mid bend on the tail end of a classic Mr Crabtree eddy with the intensions of fishing the crease about a third of the way out. Before setting up I popped up the river to have a quick word with the two lads, just to ask if they didn’t mind me fishing just below them. I spent probable a good half hour with then, when I realised they were both from Accy and found them extremely helpful.

John fishing the big bend on the Ribble in low water (click for bigger picture)

At 2 o’ clock in the afternoon I’d caught my first Ribble chub, bang on 2lb and by 7:30pm I’d caught six chub the largest 3lb-14oz. Not very big but a PB nevertheless. Before Jason and Graham, the two Accy lads, called it a day we’d agreed to meet up on the following Saturday at the same spot for another go at the Ribble chub.

Saturday couldn’t come fast enough, but this time I arrived with casters and hemp as well as the usual bread flake, pellet and paste. I set up as the previous Saturday, two quivertip rods, the upstream rod on bread flake fished with liquidised bread in the feeder and the downstream rod on caster fished over a bed of hemp. This time we were fishing a much lower and clearer river but still fishing the now invisible crease of Mr Crabtree’s eddy. Just before mid-day I hit and landed my first chub of the day on double caster, I couldn’t believe my luck – a 5lb-6oz chub, my first Ribble 5-pounder and what a beautiful fish it was. If that had been all I’d caught all day then I would have still been one very happy angler, but it got even better. By the end of the day I’d netted six chub and my first ever grayling. All the chub were over 4lb with two of them over 5lb, the largest was a lovely 5lb 12oz fish. And two PB’s in one day; I was in heaven!

For the rest of the 2001/02 season I met up with the Accy lads and they showed me several other swims on the Ribble, both day ticket and WAA stretches. Most of the time we caught but it didn’t get any better than the day of the six chub. I even caught my first barbel which should have been a memorable occasion in it’s own right, but the whole capture was made much more exciting when another angler who had volunteered to net the fish for me fell in the river. His mate fell about laughing until he realised his mate was sinking up to his waist and was still going down in a very cold river, not to mention the fact that it was also dark and we only had one light between us.

2003 to 2004 Season
The season started off with a bang. Second time on the river I caught three barbel that included two PB’s 8lb 12oz and 9lb 9oz with the last fish weighing in at 8lb 11oz. Another couple of decent sessions then back to the usual one or two fish per session. The river during the summer months was running very low and I soon learnt that fishing into and beyond dusk gave you the best chance of picking up fish. By August I’d increased my chub PB to 6lb 1oz and in early September my barbel PB to 11lb 8oz.

The rest of the year was a mixed bag with one or two fish per session, the odd day with five or six chub and a liberal scattering of blanks. This seemed to be the pattern with quite a few anglers and the general consensus was the low river levels didn’t help. However, one or two locals with knowledge of the hot spots were getting some extremely large bags of chub with heavy prebaiting, something else to think about for the next season. All in all it was a very enjoyable season with increased chub and barbel PB’s, meeting new friends and just enjoying the very beautiful countryside along with it’s wildlife, not to mention the beautiful sunsets, mink, mice and water rats as occasional night visitors and one very special evening when an otter swam though my swim. And of course I should not forget the two FISHINGmagic ‘Ribble Winter Chub Fish-ins’, which although fished in difficult conditions were very enjoyable.

So what’s the future for an Accy lad on the Ribble?
First and foremost just to enjoy the river and the countryside, which as a young lad was another world to the mill lodges and dirty rivers that ran through industrial Lancashire. There’s still a lot to learn, the phrases ‘Location, Location, Location’ is very true of the Ribble along with catching the river just right. Even when you think you’ve cracked it along comes a whacking great flood and changes everything.

John and his best Ribble barbel at 11lb 8oz (click for bigger picture)

I must keep searching and exploring the river, it’s so easy just to fall into the habit of fishing the same old reliable swims to avoid the blanks. I know peer pressure shouldn’t come into it but I’m human like most anglers and I like to be seen to do well.

I’m into record keeping but I must not fall into the trap of the self-fulfilling prophecy when analysing them. For example; with the low river levels and personal preference, I’ve done a lot of fishing in the evening/dusk and very little fishing early mornings. Therefore it’s not surprising that dusk is the most successful period when I look at my records. Of course this may be true but I have to take other anglers experiences into account along with my own records.

Finally, I may never be able to repay the help and advice given by other Ribble anglers but I can carry on the tradition of being helpful to others like most Lancashire folk are.

Food for thought?
After Trefor West’s talk to the Yorkshire Barbel Society late March 04 it’s given me some food for thought and something new for me to try on the Ribble in the summer.

Trefor’s method of catching barbel is, to say the least, very successful on the rivers he fishes and its simplicity is quite elegant. He explained it this way: -“I catch barbel, I don’t feed them! For example; I first find the fish then proceed to catch them with the minimum of bait and as little disturbance as possible. If you throw in 12 pellets (Trefor now mainly uses hair-rigged trout pellets treated with one of his fish attractors to suit the water condition) this means there are 13 baits in the river, i.e. 13 to 1 chance of a hit. First onto the bait are generally the chub and they take 3 or 4 of the pellets before picking up the hookbait which, after whacking the tip around, they immediately drop once they feel the resistance of the weight. At this point the chub bites are completely ignored. Now we are down to maybe a 9 to 1 chance of a hit. This may happen a couple of times before the chub become wary of the hookbait and take a few more of the free pellets, reducing the odds down to maybe two or three to one chance of a hit when the barbel move in on what are now very favourable odds of a hit.”When asked how this could work when you couldn’t see the fish his logic was: -“Use whatever watercraft you’ve got and assume that the area you fish contains barbel or that your bait will pull any barbel into your swim within 40 metres. If after 15 minutes you’ve not caught move to the next likely swim and try again. If you do catch, move while the swim settles down, no need to sit on your hands doing nothing for there may be a fish in the next swim. Drop back into your other swim after 15 minutes. In an 8 hour session you could have tried 32 swims, probably less if it takes you 10 minutes to move into the next swim quietly and without disturbing any fish which may be around.”

Of course this only works provided the water available to you has areas where the antics of fellow anglers doesn’t frighten off the fish which may be in your swim. On some areas of the Ribble this may be a problem but certainly not on all, even on some of the day ticket waters. If you are prepared to walk then there are some quiet areas. Other areas on the lower Ribble which probably don’t lend themselves to this method of fishing are the very large bends that may have several scent lines at various points across the river. You could, however, fish the inside line followed by the middle and or the far bank line before actually moving.

Another related question regarding feeding: –
Is pre-baiting or heavy feeding on our rivers reducing the chances of catching fish for other anglers, i.e. a well fed fish is unlikely to be caught by the next angler?

Food for thought if you’ll excuse the pun.

To all you lads and lasses fishing the Ribble next season, tight lines from an ex-Accy lad.