Lovely Chubbly

Local knowledge is always a valuable thing. Charlie and I have only discovered the stretch of the river Eden that we are targeting very recently. We have found a few good looking chub swims. We have had a little success catching a few fish of around a pound in weight. But had until this week not really discovered a spot that really excited us.

Due to an interesting set of circumstances this has changed dramatically. So has our luck.

It all started last Monday night when my taxi broke down in a very dodgy part of London in the middle of the night. After being towed to my garage I had to sit in a broken taxi until seven thirty in the morning. I was extremely tired and pissed off, as I'm sure you can imagine. So after arriving home after no sleep for nearly twenty four hours, I thought, sod it lets go fishing. As any sane man would.

As we walked towards our usual swims we stopped to chat to another fisherman. He was an extremely friendly and knowledgeable veteran chub and barbel fisherman. Often people are averse to imparting thier knowledge to strangers. I can understand why. But this fella took the time to chat about our tactics and showed us a few good swims we had totally missed. They consisted of fast water running into deep holes, with lots of overhanging cover.

CHUB HEAVEN!!!

We thanked him and set up our gear as quietly as we could, a few yards back from the selected swim. I used a quiver rod with four pound line. At the business end I used nothing more than a size 10 wide gape hook and a fat lob worm. I dropped the wriggler under a tree into a hole and within 20 seconds the rod bent violently and the fight was on. I knew it was a decent chub immediately as it flew straight towards some tree roots almost at my feet. It took no more than twenty seconds to land but what an exciting fight it was. When I got its head to the surface I could see it was a fantastic chub of 3 pounds plus.

I cannot fully describe the feeling of landing a personal best fish, on a river we specifically targeted, after seven trips. But I'm sure anyone who has experienced similar will fully understand. It's fair to say I was walking on air and had a smile as wide as the English Channel.

Having achieved such incredible success our thoughts turned to Charlie. It would round off a perfect day if the boy could also get some of the action. We decided the best course of action would be to rest this particular swim for a while and return after an hour or so. So we fished another likely swim with little success until the light started to fade. We then quietly returned to the tree swim, as we were now calling it, and Charlie dropped a similar rig to me into the same spot. Nothing happened. A few tentative bites followed but nothing as violent as I had experienced. I returned to the cab to get a torch as we had decided to fish into darkness. And lucky we did. The light went completely and I told Charlie he could fish for a few more minutes, but then we would need to go. The nice bloke who had advised us earlier was walking past with his mates, also leaving. Then bang! Charlies rod bent around and he was also into a good fish.

I had been lucky earlier as I could see where the fish was heading and was able to bully it away from snags. But Charlie was fishing in total darkness and had to control the chub by feel alone. I'm very proud to say that after a few minutes he had the fish on the bank. The boy has learned well. It was another great chub, caught in difficult circumstances.

Well done Charlie!

So what had started as a horrible day had turned into an amazing chub session on our favourite river. As a cab driver and a fisherman, I never know what is around the corner, but my job and angling  both teach you to be pragmatic and accept that some days are good and others bad. This was a good day. Who knows what tomorrow may have to offer. But I'll tell you something. I can't wait to find out.