Ribble Chub fishing
Posted: Thursday, January 03, 2008
by Gary Knowles
http://www.trevstackle.com
If you read the angling press regularly could be mistaken for thinking a five pound chub is no longer a big fish. Sixes' now seem commonplace and most weeks someone in the press will be seen holding fish of 7lbs. However if you want to catch fish of this size then you would be best advised to begin your campaign on the Dorset Stour, River Kennet or the Hampshire Avon. If these rivers are unavailable why not try the Upper Great Ouse, on here there is always the chance of a bonus 4lb perch to as you await the dusk feeding spell.
Those of us who fish in the North of England can only dream of the kind of chub fishing that is regularly reported from these southern rivers. Where I live chub weighing over five pounds remains a special fish and a six-pounder considered the fish of a lifetime. But its not just the size of the chub that differ as you progress further north, so to, do the tactics employed by anglers in the pursuit of their quarry.
The majority of my chub fishing now takes place on the River Ribble in Lancashire , a beautiful but harsh and unpredictable venue. Varying from around 25 to 40 yards wide the Ribble is typical of a northern spate river and has generally shallow margins with little or no bankside features. This means that chub rarely frequent the margins unless you have scrambled down a shear wooded bank and this combined with the poor water clarity means that locating chub by sight is usually a non-starter. The type of swims you would expect to target on small rivers, such as overhanging trees, floating rafts and undercut banks simply do not exist, so a whole new approach to fish location needs to be employed when chubbing a big' river.
This however is not as difficult as it would first appear, although large stretches of the river can seem to be featureless this is usually not the case. The riverbed consists almost entirely of rock, boulders and sandstone and this means that rather than being of a consistent nature the river depth can actually vary greatly over a relatively small distance. Once located these sudden changes in the river's contours are consistent fish holding areas and are always worth investigating.
Another type of swim which will produce chub on any river, is the crease and on the Ribble this is no exception. The nature of a crease has been described countless times but put briefly this is an area of water where the rivers current meets at two different speeds forming an invisible line, this line is then referred to as a crease'. It is at this point at the edge of the slower water where fish tend to congregate intercepting morsels of food brought towards them by the faster current. On a small river these are usually caused by a fallen tree or beds of rushes projecting into the river and are easily visible. However on a large river due to the relatively minor changes of speed the crease can be barely discernible and is usually created by a bend in the river, a change of depth or even a series of large underwater boulders or fallen trees. Although sometimes difficult to spot, once located these really are excellent swims and due to the nature of the river the crease can stretch for perhaps 30 yards or more. By beginning fishing at the head of the crease and slowly working your bait downstream with each consecutive cast, multiple catches are possible from this type of swim. Don't start by casting to the extreme, all this will do is pook all the fish inbetween you and ensure the first fish you catch is the last one. Remember, start short and cast progressively longer.
Northern rivers are generally described as spate rivers and simply stated this means that they are extremely susceptible to rain causing the levels to fluctuate wildly, often rising with alarming speed and obviously this causes problems. On many occasions after fishing the Ribble during low water conditions I have returned the following day to find a raging torrent of brown mud, interspersed with tree trunks and dead farm animals. Faced with these conditions the only real option is to go home. I'm forever reading articles from anglers based in Southern England explaining how to find an area of slack water in the margins and then to use whatever amount of lead is necessary to hold bottom. Well, on a lowland river this may be an option but I'm afraid to say no amount of lead will stop a dead cow from dragging in your rod as it hurtled towards the Irish Sea . Go home pour yourself a whisky and watch the football.
During autumn and for mild midwinter periods I tend to target the type of swims that are adjacent to some turbulent water as the temperature ensures chub are much more active. In these conditions bait is almost always breadflake, fished in conjunction with mashed bread introduced through a cage feeder. When adopting this method a swim can be slowly built up to the point where the chub are moving upstream in numbers actively seeking out the particles of bread that are constantly drifting down with the current. When fishing in this way bites are rarely missed as the competitive feeding that has been created ensures that the chub hit the bait aggressively before bolting back downstream.
However for consistent chub fishing they key is settled weather and the Ribble, like a lot of spate rivers fishes at its best during the winter months and it is for this reason that I generally only fish here from November onwards. Once a cold spell has set in leaving the river running low and clear the fishing can be tremendous and for what the Ribble lacks in outsize specimens it certainly makes up for with the quantity of chub available. The average size is also good and catches of over a dozen 4lb plus fish on a short evening session are not uncommon. No matter how low the temperature drops the chub will continue to feed and on more than one occasion I have continued to catch steadily with the river partially frozen.
During these prolonged cold spells I adopt an entirely different approach to tackling the chub, one of the main differences being the choice of swim. On its middle reaches the Ribble meanders through heavily wooded valleys and in many areas forms large outside bends where steep wooded embankments continually eroded with floodwater deposit large trees into the river. Some of these spots can be up to 60 yards wide and are almost devoid of flow.
When fishing in these swims, in really cold weather the bites are usually much more gentle affairs, which are frequently missed or fail to develop. This is caused, I'm sure by the fact hat the chub has plenty of time to inspect the bait and frequently picks the bait up on the edge of its lips whilst slowly backing up. At this time of year chub can be tremendously cautious and the slow build up of pressure causes the fish to drop the bait without it ever entering its mouth. To combat this I fish these swims by either touch ledgering or by presenting the bait upstream. When touch ledgering I fish with the bail arm closed holding the rod in my right hand and pointing the tip directly at the bait. In my left hand a loop of line approximately 18" long is lightly held between my thumb and forefinger. By fishing with a heavy lead and a running paternoster line can be slowly paid out to a taking fish, allowing it to engulf the bait fully before any resistance is felt.
In much the same way presenting a bait upstream allows the chub to move off with the bait against a slack line, again offering no resistance to a taking fish. To make this presentation effective it is vital that the correct amount of weight is used and is fished in conjunction with a rig that adopts a fixed paternoster. As a guide, when tightening up after casting you should be able to deflect the tip no more than an inch or so, once past this point the bomb should dislodge easily and ideally quickly re-settle within a few seconds. To achieve this degree of fine tuning I incorporate a snap link on the end of my paternoster link allowing a quick change of lead and also carry a small box of split shot to fine tune the set up.
For hookbait I invariably use a strong smelling cheesepaste and as the freezing temperature slows down the metabolism of the chub I will prebait two or three areas with no more than three or four marble sized free offerings. This is made with equal amounts of blue stilton and frozen pastry mix, I then add some of Rod Hutchinsons pungent smelly cheese' flavouring and some orange food colouring and have recently been having some success by adding a small amount of garlic oil to the mix, it doesn't do any harm to experiment!
Due to the cautious nature of the chub I now use a low diameter fluorocarbon hooklength, however I still use large, wide gaped hooks to allow me to mould large pieces of soft paste around the shank and bend of the hook whilst still leaving the point exposed. My personal preference being for Korum C3's or Kamasan B983
Personally I think fishing a hair for chub is nonsense, but even more so in these conditions. Whether you are fishing to the tip or by touch legering all a hair will do is result in short taps and pulls on the tip. Use a soft bait like breadflake or cheesepaste directly on the hook and you will hit far more chub bites than using even the shortest hair.
Although they can be hard to fish and bites few and far between fishing these big deep pools does usually tend to produce the bigger specimens and as such becomes a favourite haunt of mine during the winter months. Just one or two gentle indications in an evening session can be the norm so when a good fish is banked on a bitterly cold winter's night the feeling of satisfaction is immense.
Although I do admit to being a little jealous of the huge chub reported from the southern rivers the north of England still has a lot to offer in the form of chub fishing. Its rivers can be daunting and are always unpredictable and as such they offer opportunities just as interesting, and perhaps even more challenging, than their more famous southern counterparts.
By Gary Knowles
Experienced fisherman and author of many fishing related how-tos and reviews.
Supported by Trevs Tackle, large UK fishing tackle shop.
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