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Chasing chub....

I was chasing grayling but could only find the one in fast water. Changed to size 10 hook and a bunch of maggots, caught 2 chub in quick succession, one of 4lb that I had to fight a rather large pike for and this beauty being a new wharfe pb for me .
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Ben Marr said:
Hi Jon, let us know how you get on. Been thinking of fishing that fast stretch for a while. Haven't got on the Tone for a few years now.
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So am update after your request. I'm not quiet sure in think this is my 3rd winter of the tone.. Inreality I only get there 2 or 3 time a season. I was told its a winter in my venue due to weed and lack of flow however I now know this not to be true. Another think I hear is how cormorants are present with a pair minimum breeding in the area. They are now seen on the bridges regularly. They landed just above us on the French weird side yesterday morning 🙄😱. I took a friend who's never fished it despite loving Beth local his whole life. We've took it in turns and its started very well with 6 chub coming out of the first swim. Not massive but maybe pushing 2.5lb. Weirdly i only managed one further small chub so ending with 5 fish despite us trying numerous other swims that normally produce fish? 🤔 they other thing which I've never had before was just how snaggy the swims were. I think generally the floods clear the weed and snags out traditional why is spoken of being a winter venue? It was frustrating though as I just couldn't get consistent trotting going. Might well of been fish there but not able to get the baits to then easily or consistently. Ben I hope that helps and isn't too much detail! 🤪 I'm waiting to see what the match results are today it'll be interesting 🤔. Give me a shout if you are going could always hook up. I'll send you a message cheers Jon
 
I popped out this afternoon to do a bit of trotting, the air temp's read 4 degrees on the car thermometer, but felt colder because of some heavy downpours of rain and a nasty northerly wind.
As I walked up to the river it was stationary and just about to start to flow back upstream due to an incoming tide. The water looked horrible, full of silt, and sewage and coverd in what looked like a film of diesel or oil of some kind. I'd forgotton to take a small towel which I usually have hanging over my belt and I use to wipe my hands clean after unhooking a fish or baiting up a hook and also to dry them on when they get wet. Because I couldn't dry my hands and it was raining, it was only a short time before they became wet and aching with cold in the northerly wind...not a nice feeling 😱.
I decided to sack the trotting off with the river being pushed back and rising rapidly and proceeded to do some laying on for at the most, half an hour and then bust off home if no fish materialised in that length of time. I had to fish well overdepth, probably about 4ft in order to lay on properly because the water was now flying back upstream.
I was using a 11ft hardy supero avon rod, an okuma aventa reel and I'd tied a size 12 drennan superspade on direct to 6lb sensor so my set up was nice and sturdy enabling me to bully the fish away from the snags.
I only had to wait 5 minuites before the float did a dance and I struck into a very nice chub. I was lucky to have chosen the swim I had as I caught a few mint chub in less than an hour, but that hour was more than enough for me! It reminded me of Fred J Talyor.... "i'll be really glad when i've had enough of this" 😉. Most of the chub looked to be around the 4lb size and they all refused to give up without a hard fight.

A couple of snaps from the short session....



 
Yes it sounds awful 😖! Such a sad state of affairs on so many rivers up and down the country. The small river I got onto yesterday would appear to be being affected significantly from cormorant predation 😢
 
Jon Kennard said:
Yes it sounds awful 😖! Such a sad state of affairs on so many rivers up and down the country. The small river I got onto yesterday would appear to be being affected significantly from cormorant predation 😢
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Jon. Me again! I hear that figures from the Angling Trust state 60k Cormorants currently with us. Not sure if this is the whole of the UK or just England and Wales. They are a menace but how they can effectively be controlled I don't think anyone knows. I believe they are the biggest reason for the failure of the recovery of Barbel numbers in many rivers. People report the sighting of small Barbel on the Stour and Avon yet they don't appear to be reaching a size to make them relatively Cormorant safe. This suggests to me that the remaining fish are spawning successfully. The problems start afterwards. This is just my own unscientific opinion I should add!
 
Ian Woods said:
I popped out this afternoon to do a bit of trotting, the air temp's read 4 degrees on the car thermometer, but felt colder because of some heavy downpours of rain and a nasty northerly wind.
As I walked up to the river it was stationary and just about to start to flow back upstream due to an incoming tide. The water looked horrible, full of silt, and sewage and coverd in what looked like a film of diesel or oil of some kind. I'd forgotton to take a small towel which I usually have hanging over my belt and I use to wipe my hands clean after unhooking a fish or baiting up a hook and also to dry them on when they get wet. Because I couldn't dry my hands and it was raining, it was only a short time before they became wet and aching with cold in the northerly wind...not a nice feeling 😱.
I decided to sack the trotting off with the river being pushed back and rising rapidly and proceeded to do some laying on for at the most, half an hour and then bust off home if no fish materialised in that length of time. I had to fish well overdepth, probably about 4ft in order to lay on properly because the water was now flying back upstream.
I was using a 11ft hardy supero avon rod, an okuma aventa reel and I'd tied a size 12 drennan superspade on direct to 6lb sensor so my set up was nice and sturdy enabling me to bully the fish away from the snags.
I only had to wait 5 minuites before the float did a dance and I struck into a very nice chub. I was lucky to have chosen the swim I had as I caught a few mint chub in less than an hour, but that hour was more than enough for me! It reminded me of Fred J Talyor.... "i'll be really glad when i've had enough of this" 😉. Most of the chub looked to be around the 4lb size and they all refused to give up without a hard fight.

A couple of snaps from the short session....



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Lovely fat Chub. 👍
 
Andrew Jackson said:
Jon. Me again! I hear that figures from the Angling Trust state 60k Cormorants currently with us. Not sure if this is the whole of the UK or just England and Wales. They are a menace but how they can effectively be controlled I don't think anyone knows. I believe they are the biggest reason for the failure of the recovery of Barbel numbers in many rivers. People report the sighting of small Barbel on the Stour and Avon yet they don't appear to be reaching a size to make them relatively Cormorant safe. This suggests to me that the remaining fish are spawning successfully. The problems start afterwards. This is just my own unscientific opinion I should add!
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No problems in the conversation all good here 👌. I messaged the club concerned they've applied for a license to cull them however it wasn't granted based off it being a semi urban setting. Which I understand I guess. What gets me is the damage they can cause and inflict very quickly verses how long it takes for the fish numbers to get to that level. Really far from an ideal situation!!! And in my mind at least likely brought on from man's greed with over fishing our seas!! I wrote a letter of petition last week myself about a situation on the South Devon coast where they are trying to pass a ruling to make it OK to essentially commercial fish or give licenses to some commercial fishing within an estuary setting!!! What is man thinking? Living where I do in North Devon bass are my main quarry but the ground are nursery ground for all types of fish fry and juveniles including bass why would this be permitted?! Anyway I'll leave this now for people to follow the chub thread
. Thanks for your patience one and all
 
The whole Salcombe proposal is bizzarre.
Back to Chub, I had a couple of sessions over the weekend and managed a few, best looked near 4 and deserved a weigh and went 3 14, the next best was about 3 4 but a stunning mint fish, about the length of your average 2 and a half pounder but thick and deep.
 
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Andrew Jackson said:
Jon. Me again! I hear that figures from the Angling Trust state 60k Cormorants currently with us. Not sure if this is the whole of the UK or just England and Wales. They are a menace but how they can effectively be controlled I don't think anyone knows. I believe they are the biggest reason for the failure of the recovery of Barbel numbers in many rivers. People report the sighting of small Barbel on the Stour and Avon yet they don't appear to be reaching a size to make them relatively Cormorant safe. This suggests to me that the remaining fish are spawning successfully. The problems start afterwards. This is just my own unscientific opinion I should add!
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Cormorants……birds who visit one local carp fishery are routinely shot I believe!
G.T.
 
Jon Kennard said:
Just needs some chips around it in the second one 😄 to finish the photo. @Ben Marr I saw you posted that lovely chub and photo on the culm group I'm assuming they were from there? A cracking fish from they. That's literally the biggest I've ever caught never got the 4lb ! A solid fish for such a small river though.
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Jon, there are a few 4's in there, but few and far between, I generally only get a handful every winter.
Last winter was dire, didn't get any.
 
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