Old School Chub

I visited my club controlled section of of the River Tees at Low Dinsdale last night and found it low and clear, well I say clear but the Tees always has a peaty tinge to it. I approached it using a link ledger set up with cubes of luncheon meat as bait. The beauty of link ledger is that its easy and quick to add or remove weight. I'm no expert on fishing for chub but I'd like to think I can at least deal with the basics.
My first swim was a favourite of mine of previous trips but I failed to get a single bite other than an occasional knock or twitch on the tip.
 My next swim was alongside some bankside snags and earned me a savage take and a 3 1/2lb chub in the net. My last swim was a lot more open and and I was able to swing the rig onto the edge of a crease in the flow where the gravel sloped steeply into the deeper and faster channel and it wasn't long before a 4lb 5oz chub slid into net after a spirited fight.

Both fish were hollow, presumably after spawning, and by the winter would hopefully have filled out a bit. I'm looking forward to returning with my float rod and a bucket of bread.

New Season

Well June 16th has come and gone and the season has finally opened on the rivers again. I'm heading to the middle stretch of the River Tees tomorrow after work armed with my quiver tip rod and a tin of luncheon meat. Wish me luck.

Blast from the Past

I was back at my favourite local water on Tuesday night, I'd been the previous week and pulled the hook on a decent fish late on during an evening session. For the last few seasons I've been playing fish on the clutch with the anti-reverse engaged but after last week I decided to go back to backwinding with a fish on.
Last night I returned and fished a rod down each margin and keeping the line slack, runs develop into screaming takes with no prior warning but with no snags to worry about and fishing reasonably close the lack of indication didn't concern me.
A small stock fish around 5lb kicked the session off before a big mirror picked up the bait and led my on a strong surging fight. I quickly disengaged the anti-reverse and felt like I'd gone back to my younger days. I eventually slipped the net under a 17lb 8oz mirror with a tail like a paddle which on further investigation I discovered I'd landed 18 months ago at pretty much the same weight.

17lb 8oz

Question of Distance

With no real prospect of fishing this week I took my beach rod down onto the beach (well where else would you take it) for a spot of casting practice. I only expected to be out for an hour but it turned into to 3 hours. I set up my Vercelli Besta with a Vega Squadra 75, 60lb braid attached directly to a 6oz plain lead.
After a few practice casts I was hitting 110 to 120yds on every cast using a simple off the ground cast. It would be interesting to see how much this would be reduced when a rig was attached.
I switched styles to an Easy Cast (starting on the ground), it takes some time to get used to the style but I was soon easily hitting 100yds. I think its worthy of extra practice but I'd need to be regularly reaching 150yds to make it a worthwhile proposition due to not being able to wade out those extra few yards and the the trickyness of keeping the bait in the clip.
Before I lost  the light I switched to my second option which is a shallower spool of 30lb braid with a 70lb shock leader. Straight away the casting felt smoother and longer although the the distances didn't improve dramatically. I was reaching 120 to 125yds on most casts and felt there was more to be gained.

Slow Start For Carp

I returned to my favourite local water for my first carp trip of the year, the weather was just about to break and rain was forecast.  I returned to the reliable tactics from last year and fished a rod down each margin. Reminiscent of last years start to the season I blanked while everyone else seemed to be catching.
Ah well its only the start.

First Perch Trip

I took my light lure rod to my favourite local water for a chuck about. I spent a bit of time talking to my mate Kev who I only ever see at the the reservoir. I tried jig heads and drop shoting but all to no avail. I had a couple of takes but these were from fish not much bigger tan the lures.
Despite my lack of success it was nice to be out on the bank again.

If it can Go Wrong .....

Its a funny time of year for me, the winter cod season has finished, the summer sea season hasn't really gotten started yet and the freshwater calender is just kicking off. With different things going on in my life away from the important pursuit of fishing I feel a bit like I'm spinning my wheels.
I grabbed the opportunity to get on to the beach at Marske on Tuesday evening, recent storms have scoured out a deep hole with steep sloping shingle and it was this area I was keen on targeting. Due to one of those things going on in my life I missed high tide by an hour (things to go wrong #1)so the hole was already emptying by the time I arrived and got chucked in. I was using frozen black lugworm and squid due to none of the local tackle shops having any fresh ragworm (things to go wrong #2). I had prepared to 2 rigs so I could bait one and fish one at the same time thus maximising my time. On my second cast the 60lb leader parted and I lost my second rig (things to go wrong #3). Why the leader parted I'm not quite sure.
Despite a couple of tentative bites nothing developed into anything significant but that did give me time to admire the sunset, I tried to get a photo with my phone camera but the battery died so hence no photos (things to go wrong #4).
I fished on still holding out hope for a fish well into the dark but it soon became apparent that at the bottom of the big spring tide I was only fishing into a few feet of water.
So... lessons to be learnt are numerous but on the plus side the head torch with changeable battery packs worked like a dream.