My plan
I arrived at peg 5 about 3:30pm. My plan was as follows: -
- Plumb the depth along the downstream tree using my pole.
- Feed up mid-river with a groundbait of fishmeal, hemp, broken Scopex boilies.
- Feed up under the tree with a mix of liquidised bread, hemp, crushed Scopex boilies and micro meat cubes (2mm-ish).
- Whilst the fish hopefully gain confidence on the loose feed; rove along pegs 1 - 4 with bread to see if there are any Chub feeding.
- Return to peg 5 and fish into the late evening.
Plumbing the depth
I used my pole so that I could check the depth from the bankside right to the end of the tree. I was very surprised to see a fairly constant depth. I was expecting to see some troughs as I had seen on other pegs when walking the banks on a low clear river.
Roving
Peg 1
I took my Chub rod, a few slices of bread and my landing net and started by flicking out a 3 AAA link ledger under the raft of debris under the downstream tree on peg 1. I had forgotten a bankstick to had to hold the rod in my hand. Thankfully the Chub were obliging and I got a bite within 2 minutes on my first put-in. This resulted in a “puppy” Chub of about 1 to 1.5 lb. This came from about halfway along the length of the tree. I then tried further out - toward the end of the tree. Another bite within a minute this time. This felt like a better fish but slipped the hook after a few seconds. I suspected this may have spooked the shoal but tried again where I had caught the first fish. It took a little longer this time and I had to twitch the bait a couple of times but I then managed another “puppy” Chub of a similar size. After that I tried both further out and halfway along the tree but didn’t get any more bites. Still, what a great start to the session - hopefully they were all having it today!
Peg 2
There was an overhanging branch that was about 3 feet about the water. This made it quite tricky to get near the tree that was downtream from the branch. In fact, I got stuck in the branch and lost all of my tackle. So, back to peg 5 to re-tackle up. It had been about 30 minutes since I baited up peg 5 so decided to give it a try. There was nothing happening so tried roving again.
Peg 4
The tree downstream of peg 4 was the upstream tree of peg 5. I had not baited that but thought it worth a try. I tried a few casts but saw no indication of fish.
Peg 3
I do like peg 3 but it has become quite precarious to get down to it. The steps have been washed away by the winter floods. Still, this was ok with just my light roving gear. I dropped in near the downstream bush. Interestingly, there was a noticable back-eddy here as the water started to flow in the oppostite direction. I also noticed that the flow in the main channel seemed stronger here - another thing worth noting for a future session. It wasn’t long before my tip started to twitch then bent around - I struck and missed the bite - arghhh! I did not get any other bites.
Peg 2 again
I tried getting futher under the branch and had nothing on my first cast. On my second I was in the branch again and once more lost all of my terminal tackle. I think I’ll give this a miss in future!
Back on my main peg 5
I fished my Chub rod about halfway out along the tree. There wasn’t much happening - just the occasional very light twitch on bread. Probably small fish. On the mid-river (Barbel) rod, I put on a smaller feeder and fished with Scoped boilies dipped in Scopex gunk. I kept getting light taps but suspect it was fish attacking the feeder. After a while I tried luncheon meat on the hook in case they were Chub that weren’t interested in the boilies. I also tried bread. I did not get any real bites.
It was approaching 8pm so decided to focus both rods near the downstream tree. Chub rod halfway along and Barbel rod at the end of the tree. Both on luncheon meat. It wasn’t long before the Barbel rod started to tap and twitch. Unfortunately none of these turned into proper bites. I tried cubes of meat, cylinders of meat (from a large bread punch), Scopex boilies. I noticed that the Chub seemed to be plucking the meat off the hook. The cylinders of meat were about twice the length of the hook so I guess they grabbed the end in their lips and pulled, staying clear of the hook. So I then tried half a cylinder so that it would be harder to avoid the hook - no bites! I then tried bread and cheese paste. Again I was getting very small twitches on the bread. I did get a decent pull on cheese paste but it was too fast to hit. As it was nearing dark I decided on one last try on luncheon meat. It hadn’t been in for more than a minute when my rod bent right over and my reel started to scream. This was my first Barbel on my new Shimano Stradic reel and I was interested to see how the “fighting” drag system worked with a decent fish. It worked really well and I was able to easily loosen and tighten the drag as the situation demanded. It was a very hard fight with the fish taking lots of line before I could turn it. Eventually I landed a 6lb 9oz Barbel. Unfortunately it was getting dark quickly and the fish had fought hard so I decided against a photograph in favour of getting it back into the water and recovering asap.
So, what have I learned
- Roving around, whilst waiting for evening, is a great way to start the session so I will do more of this. In fact, this was so enjoyable that I fancy a long roving day tomorrow, working my way all the way from peg 1 to just opposite the Corn Dyers.
- On peg 3, the faster flow seemed to be the 1st third of the river so may be worth trying for Barbel there.
- On peg 5, most, it not all, of the interest came from the end of the tree. This was also the case when I fished there last week. So, in future I may fish my Chub rod there whilst also fishing for Barbel mid-river.
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