My plan of attack
I only had a few hours today because I had an appointment at the passport office in Durham in the afternoon. The river had been up and down in the past few days and one of my friends had a great day between high waters where he had a Chub he estimated at 7lb-ish.
So, I would concentrate on lobworms as the water is nicely coloured. Just in case, I made some new batches of cheese paste the night before as this may also be good as it’s smelly so easy to locate in coloured water.
A muddy, early start
I got to the river bank for about 7:30 as it got light just after 7. I decided on peg 6 as it had produced some nice Chub recently. The usual plateau from where you would fish was still underwater. The river was still falling. So, my first job was to clean out the steps and then make a new plateau for my chair and some flat footholds just above the water line so I could get from the steps to my plateau. I had also noticed quite a few mole hills on the path to the river so I stopped off to get some as a way of feeding some chopped worm. Before tackling up I chopped up some worms, mixed with the mole hill soil and threw in a few balls.
2 rods setup
I took my Barbel rod with 10lb line to fish near the downstream bush. One angler had lost 2 Chub near that bush and the 7lb Chub had come from there. Considering the high water, there would also be a few underwater obstructions so I rod with backbone and strong line would allow me to hook and hold. My other rod had 6lb line. I would fish that out on the crease. As previously mentioned, lobworms would be used near the bush. I would use cheese paste out near the crease.
Good early signs
Surprisingly, after about 10 minutes it was the cheese paste rod that produced a bite. However I missed it. After about an hour I pulled in the lobworm having seen a couple of very light taps – there was a small Parch attached, maybe 5 oz.
Cheese paste is a hit
I then put some cheese paste on the Barbel rod instead of lobworm. It hadn’t been in more than a few seconds when it started to twitch and pull lightly. I struck and hooked a nice Chub. It felt like it went over 4lb, perhaps not 5. In the end it was 3lb 13oz:-
I then tried lobworm out near the crease to no effect. I also re-tried lobworm near the bush. Again, nothing. I also tried meat near the bush without any bites.
More Chub
I had a couple of more bites out near the crease and eventually hooked a Chub of about 1.5lb. I had decided to pack up at 12 and at 11:45 I got a good bite on cheese paste near the crease and missed it. I immediately put on more cheese paste and re-cast to the same spot. After a few seconds it went again and this time I hit it and got another Chub of a similar size.
Summary
So, time to go. I wasn’t a bad morning and I just love catching Chub. I was delighted that the cheese paste had produced results, especially considering it hadn’t had time to ripen yet. I now look forward to a full day on the river tomorrow. Here is the result of my morning’s fishing: –
