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Chasing chub....

Steve Jeffery said:
Despite the title of the thread, I know lots of posts on here are more about centre pins and trotting, so please indulge me for a minute as I share a pic of a roach I caught on the 2nd ever time I used a centrepin. Have always fancied trying one but never have until I picked up a cheap Marco Cortesi recently to try the method. The result today was a lovely days trotting culminating in a 2lb 3 oz PB roach.

Ian (Woods) has whetted my appetite to try similar tactics for barbel when it warms up a bit .....thanks Ian!!

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Well done Steve, glad to have given you some insperation, what a great start to your centrepin reel experience!

Surely that wasn't today 😁.
 
I decided to have have my first but short lived trotting session of 2025 this afternoon.
The river was dropping off, but was still over a meter up so not exactly ideal wading conditions, not that I was planning to wade in a river full of snow melt anyhow lol.
I opted to fish off the bank on a free stretch on the lower parts of the river and I was glad I did as the banks down there are ideal to fish from.
Anyhow, I decided to rove about rather than just plonk myself in one spot to stop myself getting bored. It turned out to be a good decision as I had chub in most spots where I stopped and ran the float through.
I had quite a few fish, nothing huge but some nice fish, here's a few pic's of some of them.....








 
It’s been a lot of years waiting for this
Special day for me.
A good 7 on the float and pin.
Made up for what was turning out to be a tough day.
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Ian Woods said:
Well done Richard, crakin' fish, even more so as it was by design ! 🙌

I'd rather have seen it next to the rod and reel than next to your boat race 😉🤣.
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Yeah I thought about it but The rod was right down the bank and I wasn’t faffing about with it
If I’d been on my own, I wouldn’t of faffed trying to do a self take and you’d of probably got a mat shot laying next to a discorger 😂
 
I had some maggs and defrosted corn left that needed using up so I thought i'd pop out for a quick couple of hours chasing chub this afternoon before the strong winds and heavy rain rock up.
There was no rain forecast for today but as I set off the rain started, I should know better than take any notice of the bbc bullshine 🙄.
Anyhow, as I walked up to the river I noticed right away how coloured it was, so very little visibility which doesn't bode well for a trotted bait.
Surprisingly, even with the pretty dire conditions I was lucky and had a few chub, nothing of any size but they all pulled my string so made the effort of going worthwhile.
Today I used a 11ft hardy marksman supero avon rod and it was so much better than the 12ft free spirit specimen float rod I used a few days ago.
A couple of pic's from the afternoon...



 
Ian Woods said:
how coloured it was, so very little visibility which doesn't bode well for a trotted bait.
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I actually find the total opposite down this way regarding coloured water.

I love it when the river has got some colour on as I tend to catch more and definitely bigger chub. I tend to get away with a lot less finesse in the tackle too.

These crafty nene chub have been around the block many times and in clear or semi clear water they can be really rig shy and you have to scale everything down to pull the wool over them.

White maggots in coloured water that’s pushing through usually fools them much easier I’ve found. Some of my best days chubbing especially regarding the bigger stamp of fish have been on a chocolate coloured river.
 
If truth be known I really wanted to catch a barbel on the float today, but with the river temp being 4 degrees that was a long shot!
However, I did manage to catch over 30 chub, but unfortunately they were only small at a guesstimate of a pound and a half to two pounds. I was stood out in the river also and my feet at this very moment are hurting with cold, that can't be good for you surely 🙄.
I used one of our very own Richard Isaics original floats and it was excellent, highly visible and great to cast.
This little chub was the first one I caught and I only took the picture because i'd forgotton my disgorger and I had to go back to shore to get it. Also, Richards float deserved a picture anyhow....
 
With the river temp being 4 degrees I certainely wasn't going to wade today. I had a long walk to an out the way spot where I was able to fish a deeper channel down the inside bank.... turned out to be well worth the walk!
I had a chub first trot through, and then quite a few other chub followed it. It wasn't very long before some barbel rocked up and I was enjoying catching a mixture of the two species. I had no large fish but some very decent ones and they all fought hard putting a nice bend in the specimen acolyte float rod.
I would be lying if I said how many chub I caught because I forgot to keep a tally of them after 12. I didn't catch anything like as many barbel but I took a picture of them all, bar one little squeeker lol.
It was easy to take pic's because I was on the bank, so here are the ones I took....

















 
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