In Search of Monster Chub: A Little Surprise.

 This is actually part four of this seasons quest and my second season of seriously trying to achieve the milestone of a "Seven" pound Chub, I have travelled many miles and pumped in countless hours in the vein hope that I will one day become lucky enough to experience the pure elation of such a big specimen resting in my net.

 However, it isn't just Chub that inhabit these waters, a small head of Barbel also exist amongst the thick weed, location is absolutely everything and with the constant pressures of the Otters it is often difficult to pin the Barbel down. The tactics and bait that I use on the H.Avon and D.Stour are tried and tested Chub and Barbel catching methods I feel ultimately confident in, just a case of right place, right time.

 This particular trip a couple of weeks ago provided me with a tough start, hours of walking, peering through glasses at endless miles of gravel and weed made for exciting fishing, unfortunately I couldn't catch any of the fish seen, a few really big Chub were spotted near a bank of onion reed but these fish were not in a feeding mood at all, so after 9 hours of trying I decided to change tactic and uncharacteristically opted for a static approach, high sun, low and clear river this didn't seem to be a great idea but I had no other options.

 After walking so much with countless swims visited there was a couple of I thought may prove to be successful, good cover, fairly deep and a couple of fish were spotted floating across the gravels prior to my first cast, the wait began.....

A day of pure sunshine, perfect for stalking.

......Over an hour passed without a touch, then my outside rod which was fished tight to the far side sprang into life as did I, the resistance on the other end didn't feel substantial and on 1.75tc tipped rods the fight was fairly short lived, a nice, typically dark Chub slipped into the net, happy days I thought, just a shade over 4lbs, then before I got the chance to do anything with it my other rod slammed over, I was quickly into another fish which turned out to be another Chub of 4.09, things were getting better!

 I thought it was quite amusing that I'd nothing to show for my efforts for 10 hours of fishing then two Chub in as many minutes, I let them both get a breather and photographed the bigger one, then slipped them back, baited up my two rods and got them both out on the spots. I sat back in my chair with a justified grin as my gamble had paid off to sit behind baits and allow any feeding fish to find me rather than chase them, maybe five minutes later my far bank rod went again with another dogged Chub towing me around amongst the thick weed, partly the reason for using stronger rods is to nullify the Chub's antics and snags, with the extra power I often got the upper hand fairly quickly and prevent losing fish to the vast banks of weed which often end up my enemy.

 Weighing just a little more than the last I really thought the game was hotting up, I left the fish in the net to get it's breath back and cast out my rod to the very spot I'd quickly nabbed two Chub off of thinking they were on a feeding frenzy, I kept the bait going in to hopefully keep that frenzy going so I could take full advantage. I rang Brian who was upstream struggling like I was and just let him know that at least 3 Chub on the river were feeding when out the corner of my eye the inside rod went berserk, no precursor, the rod absolutely went for it, it bounced off the rod rest and proceeded water ward, I threw the phone to the floor and grabbed the butt of the rod as the slack clutch didn't even have time to engage such was the ferocity of the take, this was certainly no Chub, as I caught up with it and set the drag properly I got a glimpse of a Barbel's tail out the back of a weed raft which was held up by a horrible looking snag, I feared the worst immediately and could hear the line grating through the sticks and weed, after all the trips I had made and not crossed a Barbel I really wanted to land this.

 With lots of weed causing a problem I couldn't gain anything on it, soon after Brian arrived and he kindly took over net duty so I could concentrate on trying to pull the fish through and then letting the tension go, after doing this for a couple of minutes the Barbel found a hole in the weed and my line cut through most of it, I breathed a huge sigh of relief as it came into the clear water but I still had to tease her up towards where we were perched, with the net handle extended to its maximum Brian shipped it out, mugging it in the process!. Both of us thought it was a double, short but very thick and deep I thought I had nailed it first time around.

 That was a battle I won't forget in a hurry, what a result, now I was very very happy!

9lb 9oz, not quite a double but I was so damn happy !

 The rest of the day passed by without a hint of action, I couldn't have cared less!