Getting Bigger?

Friday 26th October. Due the fact that the temperatures dropped massively at the back end of the week I went for chub as opposed to perch. Upon getting out of the car at 1520 the low temperatures gave me confidence and I just knew the chub would be feeding.

Four pound dead

The first few swims gave nothing, lots of leaves coming down made bait presentation difficult. I watched a jay in the field opposite dossing food into it's little stash which was good, he didn't know I was watching so I thought about legging it over the next day to nick his stuff. 

I dropped into a banker swim about 445 pm, introduced a few handfuls of mashed bread and flicked out a decent sized nob of cheesepaste. Within minutes the tip tapped, tapped again and flew round, the result a clean looking chub of about 2lb.

Not long after the rod nearly flew off the rest and after a hard scrap a decent lump was in the pan, I weighed this one and the scores said a level 4lb.. happy days, only my 4th 4lb'er from the river.

 I gave it a few more casts as the light dropped then right at the death, I'm off again, a near 3lb'er being the result. Three hours, three bites and 3 chub of 2,3 and 4lb... can't complain.

Saturday 27^th October. I returned for another short session on arriving at 4pm. Initially I fished an armchair swim for a while but the light was really bright so I dropped down into an area where the river is more shaded. An hour or so in and a fish of about a pound and a half is in the net, not a lot of action it has to be said and certainly no attention from smaller fish.

Another hour and I hit my second bite, a strong downstream run and it feels like a decent fish. Lots of ploughing around once under the rod tip and up pops a decent fish, into the pan first time, a quick weighing and it's another 4. This one going 4lb 3oz. I gave it another half hour then jibbed it.

4.3

So, two 4 pounders in 2 days, bear in mind I’d only had three four pounders from this stretch in the previous 5 years, 2 of those coming last winter so this was ‘news’. I’ve also had several clean young looking fish up to 3lb 12oz over the summer and autumn whilst perch fishing so it’s fair to say the chub do seem to be getting a bit bigger compared with my first forays onto the river some five years ago when a 3 pounder seemed to be the ceiling.

Sunday 28^th October. I returned again, anything to avoid the Merseyside derby but also hoping for the hat-trick of three four pounders in 3 sessions. This was, sadly, a session too far. Although I did catch four chub up to 3 pound and all of the fish were lovely clean, young looking specimens, the bigger fish, this time eluded me.