An Eight Pound Chub

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Stuart Whiting

Re: An Eight Pound Chub

Post by Stuart Whiting »

Len Arbery wrote:Hello Mike,

Can't recall actually fishing with you at Long Life, (although I'm almost certain you initially alerted me to its potential), but remember those exciting Savay days very well, so, almost 40 years, eh? Time certainly does fly!

Hello Stuart,

No, will not be at this weekend's show.

Am thinking you might like to see this picture of Bob Buteux, along with Pete Cranstoun & myself, taken at the Lands End at the end of January.

Image

Besties,

Len.
Oh that's a shame your not going Len, would liked to introduce myself and have a proper chat about old school and bygone days,

Remember reading all of your Kennet chub fishing sessions etc in some of the monthlies with great interest as from what I can remember you were a fan of touch ledgering,

I've a few of your books aswell, river fishing actually being my favourite :Thumb:

It was Bob buteux that properly showed me how to touch ledger many years back and who a finer angler to learn from :Hat:

From memory I believe you are on the IOW , are you still on the island , I'm in north west Kent and am currently fishing the Medway and Kentish stour along with a few other small tributaries etc for big roach n dace aswell as a few decent chub for good measure :Thumb:

Do you still manage to get out onto the southern rivers much Len, is there any small rivers that you can fish on the island, that's obviously if your still on the island :Hat:

All the best

Stuart

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Len Arbery
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Re: An Eight Pound Chub

Post by Len Arbery »

Hello Mike,

Yes, I remember that particular phone call very well, not least because of the 'earache' She who must be obeyed dished-out! (Remember, no mobile phones way back then.) And still have the resulting pictures, this probably being one:

Image

Hello Stuart,

Touch-legering, as taught me by Bob Buteux & Bill Quinlan, remains my favourite river fishing tactic to this day, and you could not have a better tutor than Bob.

No, I returned with June to the mainland nine-years ago, living in Oakley, Hampshire; between Basingstoke & Winchester. My river fishing, nowadays, being primarily concentrated on 'unknown' stretches of the Thames, & most usually unaccompanied.

Besties,

Len.

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Mike Wilson
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Re: An Eight Pound Chub

Post by Mike Wilson »

Yes Len….one of my favourite B & W shots of the leather about 26 or 27 lbs [from memory] Caught it 3 times best at 32 Lbs. It was also one of the first Rod H had from the lagoon point at Savay. Those were the days pre syndicate, pre hair rig and pre bolt rigs. As you know caught on 2 grains of maize.

Take care

Mike

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: An Eight Pound Chub

Post by Shaun Harrison »

I love that shot it conjures a great memory and one of the last before carping totally changed for the worse. I'm so pleased I got a few years in before 'normal' people started fishing for carp after the hair and bolt revolution.
I hope thar doesn't sound wrong but the carp anglers and spezzi boys up this way were far from normal. All slight eccentrics, bizarre and wonderful - which I like. I mean, I shared bank space with some of the Soar Valley Specimen Group Lol.

Stuart Whiting

Re: An Eight Pound Chub

Post by Stuart Whiting »

Len Arbery wrote:Hello Mike,

Yes, I remember that particular phone call very well, not least because of the 'earache' She who must be obeyed dished-out! (Remember, no mobile phones way back then.) And still have the resulting pictures, this probably being one:

Image

Hello Stuart,

Touch-legering, as taught me by Bob Buteux & Bill Quinlan, remains my favourite river fishing tactic to this day, and you could not have a better tutor than Bob.

No, I returned with June to the mainland nine-years ago, living in Oakley, Hampshire; between Basingstoke & Winchester. My river fishing, nowadays, being primarily concentrated on 'unknown' stretches of the Thames, & most usually unaccompanied.

Besties,

Len.
Hi Len,

In truth Len I learnt from a very young age about concentrating on unknown very rarely fished parts of a river system, I've done this all my life and because of do this I've had some spectacular and special catchies over the years especially regarding huge chub and more importantly large roach, I also nine out of ten fish on me own as a fear of certain parts becoming blown,
I do however enjoy a little social with friends now and again,

It may seem a little selfish to some but in this day and age of good advanced anglers and with the dare I say it high tech gear of today makes fishing much harder in respect through angling pressure.

incidentally I do prefer to stick with the very simple tactics in fishing as I'm still very much old school with a lot of my techniques, I have a belief that if a tactic/ rig ain't broke then why try to fix it :Hat:

The only modern and advanced techniques that I employ today is the use of 14-15ft match rods purely for trotting purposes as most glass rods of this length and that's even if they made em this long would to me be far to unbalanced and a little on the heavy side,
But when it comes to touch ledgering I'd absolutely swear by using very soft tipped rods for sensitivity :Thumb:

All the best

Stuart

Stuart Whiting

Re: An Eight Pound Chub

Post by Stuart Whiting »

Mike Wilson wrote:Yes Len….one of my favourite B & W shots of the leather about 26 or 27 lbs [from memory] Caught it 3 times best at 32 Lbs. It was also one of the first Rod H had from the lagoon point at Savay. Those were the days pre syndicate, pre hair rig and pre bolt rigs. As you know caught on 2 grains of maize.

Take care

Mike
Now that is lovely looking leather, l luv old pics like this, I've had a look at Lens face book page and there's some very special pics on there and also love all of the pics of Bill quinlans stunning pics :Hat:

I used to carp fish a couple of ponds since my early teens and these were Keston ponds, near Biggin hill, Kent, this was my first carp stomping ground as a proper carper,.... glass 11'.6" Conoflex Darenth rods, cardinal 55's, single bank sticks, monkey climbers, original delkim's, rod mat, using free running rigs and chick peas :Thumb:

Proper old school happy days which I dearly miss,

As you know hair rigs only realy came properly on the scene in the early 80's , from memory I think it was Lenny Middleton and Maddocks that eaither came up with or improved apon the idea, using human hair in Kevin's test tank in his living room with Lenny,
Gosh how things have changed :fingertap:

Stuart

Stuart Whiting

Re: An Eight Pound Chub

Post by Stuart Whiting »

Mike Wilson wrote:My thoughts on Chub

I love chub fishing especially at the back end of the season. Over the past 50 years or so I’ve caught thousands. The fishing in the 60’s and 70’s on the Upper Thames was superb for quantity with the bulk around 3lbs. Bait was mainly 2”squares of crust. My results improved and I started catching a lot of bigger fish on both the Kennet and the Thame when I changed to using (white claw) crayfish. At the time I was mainly fishing for carp at a lake called Savay. Having caught a hell of a lot of 20lb and 30lb fish I packed up serious carp fishing in 1981; which you can read about elsewhere. From then to date I concentrate on other species, but mainly chub and it’s interesting to see how the fish and methods of catching them have changed. I have no idea how many 6’s I’ve caught, but it’s a lot; mainly from the Thames and its’ tributaries, including the Kennet as well as the Avon and Stour.

Some of the older anglers amongst us may remember an article I wrote in the late 70’s entitled The Baiting Pyramid. [Google it on Barbel Fishing World or find it in Rod Hutchinson Book – The Carp Strikes Back and other books and magazines]. Now this is where I get controversial again ……. Whilst I still use a similar principle, now, instead of maize as bait, I use the humble maggot!!

With a few exceptions, all my ‘big’ chub were caught on a single red maggot and 2lb or 3lb line. Sometimes a 3” hook length on the Avon and Stour and up to 18” hook length on the Thames etc., where they can sometimes appear a bit ultra spooky.

I look for a slack swim close to the bank at least 2’ deep - no matter how small it is. However, I do prefer a much bigger area as it likely to hold a larger quantity of fish. Where I can, I put just a quarter pint or so of red maggots with a dropper into the swim. If not, then I use an un-baited block end feeder to put out maggots, whilst I sort myself out. Bites are generally very short pulls of ½” to 1”. I recast if, after ten minutes of having had a pull, nothing happens. It’s very important to check your maggot each time you reel in to see if they have been ‘sucked’. Sucked maggots are generally caused by dace, small roach or minnows. If the maggot looks as though the tip has been ‘nipped’ or more importantly ‘stretched’ then in my experience this suggests (big) chub. I use 20,18 or sometimes 16 size hooks and never strike. I just pick up the rod and the chub moving off sets the hook. If possible, when playing them, don’t be in a rush to bring them close to the bank. I’ve lost a few big 7’s and a very big 8 when a fish found that single reed or twig close in … they seem to be experts at finding a snag! Care and thought is required with such fine tackle/hooks. Watching match anglers catching 3lb chub on 11/2” line taught me a lot. Staying calm is the key.

Just a point, don’t ground bait with anything except maggots; above all don’t lay down a bed of hemp. A big barbel takes a time landing and can screw up the swim for further chub.

Constant trouble from dace, minnows etc. requires the use of a rubber maggot. Oh, and don’t bother to fish ‘boiling’ water. Yes… you may catch the odd chub but I’ve never had a big one.

Due to activity of ‘small’ fish these tactics are only used doing the winter months when water temperatures fall below 45F.

These are, of course, just my views, which may not correspond with your own, but I hope they may provide food for thought.

Mike
Hi mike,

Very interesting piece here, although I've used bread in various forms from popped up crust to flake etc for numerous amount of years I honestly have to say that I've also probably had more big chub on light tackle tactics and maggot than any other tactics and bait,

However I'm a little different in my approach is that although I do similar in a bait and wait approach at the start I'm very very observant and always try to keep myself concealed behind any bank side cover as much as possible,

I personally like to fish swims where I've got a bit of a high bank but can get to the waters edge with ease and still have a bit of cover around me, the idea behind this is because my ideal way of fishing is fishing the stick float or wagler in slower currents and always prefer to stand whilst I'm trotting a float through the swim, with me at the wasters edge and a bit of a high bank with some cover I'm now well below the skyline.

Obviously not all rivers and swims that I fish won't have these higher bank features but I do try to utilise this facility when and wherever I possibly can :Thumb:

In fact one of me club waters that I'll soon be fishing is the complete opposite of what I just mentionedi but I luv the water because it's a very clean man water way that has a chalk filter bed the same as any other chalk stream and I'm a sucker for chalk stream fishing but the other main aspect of this water that although I'm close to the water with no high bank and no vegetation cover the water course is perfect and ideal for long trotting :dance2:

This particular water pictured below is not so much for the chub but is one of me roach waters.

Image Image

I much prefer to use red maggots as my ideal conditions to fish would be overcast days if poss and to me when chub see the maggots falling through the water column the red maggots act as a silhouette against the white sky :Thumb:

Incidentally I've also had much better big roach catches on red maggot aswell :eyebrow:

I've often found that with a bit of forethought, patience and perseverance that there ain't many big chub that will ignore maggots if presented In the right way,
The hardest part of the equation is to get em feeding confidently just so momentarily for a few seconds one or two loose and forget the fear factor and slip up :fish:

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Mike Wilson
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Re: An Eight Pound Chub

Post by Mike Wilson »

Nice looking stretch of water Stuart. Ideal for the float.
Interesting, I started using red maggots some 25 years ago as I found on the Hants Avon the minnows were on whites instantly whereas if I used reds in a feeder [in the weed] I would have a better chance of a bait lasting longer. I wasn't fishing then for chub but barbel.
Interesting also that in the 60's and early 70's chub just loved bread and big chunks of crust [all Upper Thames above Oxford] These days I don't get so many takes, sometimes none at all. Suspect they are just not there. As they only live for 15 to 20 years a few bad recruitment years could show a decline. Perhaps thats one of the reasons we see a few very big chub and also barbel. As we know you don't have to go back many years to find a 14 lb barbel was enormous, these days they appear quite common. Likewise with chub over 7, a fish of a lifetime.
Take care

Mike

Stuart Whiting

Re: An Eight Pound Chub

Post by Stuart Whiting »

Mike Wilson wrote:Nice looking stretch of water Stuart. Ideal for the float.
Interesting, I started using red maggots some 25 years ago as I found on the Hants Avon the minnows were on whites instantly whereas if I used reds in a feeder [in the weed] I would have a better chance of a bait lasting longer. I wasn't fishing then for chub but barbel.
Interesting also that in the 60's and early 70's chub just loved bread and big chunks of crust [all Upper Thames above Oxford] These days I don't get so many takes, sometimes none at all. Suspect they are just not there. As they only live for 15 to 20 years a few bad recruitment years could show a decline. Perhaps thats one of the reasons we see a few very big chub and also barbel. As we know you don't have to go back many years to find a 14 lb barbel was enormous, these days they appear quite common. Likewise with chub over 7, a fish of a lifetime.
Take care

Mike
Hi there Mike ,

Yes I absolutely agree that a few years ago a 14lb barbel were what dreams were made of and now look the fish have topped over 20lb, yes I was also a self confessed barbel addict a few years back, most of the big barbel at the time were from the likes of kickels farm and the well known Adams mill on the Ouse, Trevor Johnson did offer me the opportunity to become a syndicate member but for £250.00 for fish that were dying off with old age and not forgetting the seriousness of the otter devistation I dropped out at the last minute and I'm now glad that I did because now over the last few years all of those known big fish are all gone and the stretch of water since then went back to £35.00 odd normal season ticket on the Milton Keynes club :eyebrow:

The only fish in there now worth catching are the odd few 6-7lb chub

Incidentally Mike some of the very large chub on the river lea system are probably in excess of 25 + years, fish of near 8lb and above, I've personally witnessed at least 4 different 8lb fish within the years that I've fished the Lea,
The river has also smashed the British record twice that I know of and within about 2 miles of one another,

Neil Stephens also rocked the record for a 3 rd time with a 9lb fish and literally just 1-2oz short of the record.

I'd dearly luv to fish some of the Thames upper reaches for the chub but these days it's just that little to far for me to get to without half of the day being taken up through traveling as I don't drive and normally travel by high speed trains and traveling light :Hat:

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