Chub Session To Remember and My Simple Feeder Set Up

A warm welcome to this midweek blog update i hope i find you all well and you nets wet.  Well the session below happened last Wednesday and ever since that session I have been dying to write the blog update for it, it really was one of those sessions where everything came right with the conditions and a plan paying dividends so lets get on with the fishing.

Chub Session To Remember and My Simple Feeder Set Up

The Rain had battered down quite heavily at times during Tuesday morning and into the afternoon and gazing out of the windows in work i knew that our trip the following evening to the tiny River Bollin was in serious jeopardy given the fact its quite a small river and from what we have witnessed on previous visits, a river where even local showers can see a rise in river levels.

Thankfully the rain stopped during the afternoon on the Tuesday and for once the weatherman was right as only a few small showers arrived later that day and into Wednesday, certainly not enough to make a difference as it barely wet the tarmac on our street.   Going into work on Wednesday i knew in only had to suffer in work till 3pm before i was homeward bound to the River and the freedom it offers, it certainly makes work go faster knowing you will be on the banks in a few hours.

We have done a few trips now to the Private Stretch of the River Bollin we have been allowed to fish and during these trips we have found pockets of dace and chub all along its length and for such a small river i feel we had done really well catching both the numbers and quality of fish we have been catching but there is one swim that stands out.  The swim i mention is a lot deeper than the surrounding areas and has plenty of cover for the fish so it offers all day round sport but more importantly both myself and my uncle have had 3 chub at least during our time visiting this swim and on the last occasion i dropped in for the last hour and had three chub to add to the 3 my uncle had caught fishing it during the morning so my plan was to go all out in the deeper part of the swim with a hope of catching a decent haul of chub in the one visit.

There was one piece of tackle i loaded into the car that will come as a shock to regular readers as it is an item of tackle not really featured on my blog and that is the Feeder Rod.  Before i was taught how to fish a stick the feeder was the only way i really fished a river so i am quite a confident and competent feeder angler but have just fallen away from it with the thrill of seeing a float going under doing it for me.

My Setup For the Session Ahead:

Float Set up:

Rod: 13ft Korum Kinetics Float rod

Reel- Shimano loaded with 4lb line

Float: 4 number 4 Wire Stem Stick Float

Hooklength: 2lb 1oz Bayer Perlon To size 18 Kamasan Animal Hook.

Feeder Set Up

Rod: 12ft Puddle Chucker With 1.5oz Tip

Reel: Shimano Baitrunner with 7lb line

Hooklength: 6lb Krystonite Fluorocarbon to size 16 Kamasan Animal Hook

In Fridays Blog i covered this weeks Pondip Coarse box and some of the tackle in those boxes are already being used in my angling such as the Krystonite Flurocarbon, Feeder and Float stops and although these items come in a box they get you thinking out side of that box as well with new ways of working and using items of tackle a different way than their intended use  Below is my Simple River Feeder  Set up.

Set up comfortably in the swim with my basket in the water allowing me to be able to dot my float right down i began feeding the slower inner line on the swim with hemp and maggot and also fed corn and maggot along the deeper line to fish a feeder later on.  As always on the river bites where instant on maggot from dace, minnows and gudgeon and in the first hour fishing i probably had around 3lb of fish in my keep net.  The second hour saw the big fish move in and the first was this lovely roach below, a perfect example of the species and a pleasure to catch from a river.  At 1lb 3oz it was certainly the fish of the session even with what was to come.

My heart thumping from the roach capture and my head racing at the thought of the possibility this specimen was not alone i began to run the float through again and right on the hemp the float buried, my hands shaking i struck and the best fish of the session was followed by the smallest in a dace who was dwarfed by the maggot it had eaten.  The next few 10 minutes the swim was thick with chub as in two casts i landed the two chub below and also lost one fish in a snag and had a hook pull at the net on another, crazy fishing and they were having it.

chub 1

chub 2

I never like losing fish even is it is only a size 18 hook and some thin line that a fish like a chub will have no problem in removing so i put the float rod down and grabbed the feeder and there and then made the decision i would stick on the feeder for the remainder of the session.

The small feeder loaded with hemp and maggot with maggot as a hook bait was cast into the deeper run and within seconds the tip wrapped round a unmissable bite for most but for me being so rusty on the feeder i managed to miss, i had not pricked the fish so i hoped they had not spooked.

Back in with the feeder and hand on rod i waited for the wrap round and sure enough within a few seconds i was bent into a hard fighting chub that knew exactly where the snag was the previous one had done me on but this time i knew in the 7lb line i had the power to hold and steer the fish away from the snags and into the middle and what a sight it was as through the dark water came a flank if bronze and big white clean lips and that memorable last dive for freedom as the drag gives way before teasing the fish back up to the surface to be netted.

chub 3

Over the next 30 mins to 1 hour i can only describe the fishing as dream fishing and certainly chub fishing like i have never experienced as this small river showed what potential it has as I landed 4 more chub and also missed quite a few bites.  I am sure the fact i was able to get the fish out of the deep flow and upstream was a factor in not really disrupting the swim.  Fantastic fishing and 3 hours fishing like i have never experienced.

chub 4

chub 5

chub 6

chub 7

The session nearly at and end as the light closed in i was very conscious of the time and getting some nice pictures for the blog and i was relieved to see my uncle appear packed up at the back of my swim.  He also had been busy with plenty of dace and also 7 chub himself.  As is the way though his phone camera had conked on him and being so far apart there was no way of him getting a message to me to come down to take a picture.

The silver fish released i kept the chub behind in the keep net to get a picture and thankfully they all played ball and in just a few seconds i had my pictures for the blog and the fish were released into their watery home.

Well that concludes this mid week blgo update i hope this again goes to prove the potential this water has and also a little insight into a part of my angling i don't do too often in feeder fishing.

Keep an eye out for the main update going live this weekend where i travel to the river dee and find the dace hungry.

Till next time

Tight lines

Danny