After a two year break from my slug attempts on the river ribble, I got the itch again some months ago. Finding suitable slugs around here was not easy so thoughts were made in a alternative direction. A microwave was scrounge from a friend to live in the garage, suitable chemistry was purchased from the correct suppliers, and a start was made to develop my own strain of slugs. Modelling clay was moulded by hand to resemble a real slug complete with the various textures that a real slug has. Once three clay slugs were sculpted and left to harden, a mould was cast and more chemistry was purchased and the magic commenced.
About 20 soft plastic slugs were cast from the slug mould, some black, some brown, but the brown ones look green to me, but I am colour blind with greens and browns so the are probably brown. A couple of packets of jig head unweighted hook were gathered into the mix and we ended up with a few soft plastic slugs complete with hooks attached just waiting for a visit to the River ribble.
So the alarm was set for 5.30am this morning, and i was setting up on the river Bank by 7am. Rod of choice was a Harvey Torbett fitted with a Mitchell 308 loaded with 6lb line, and a black 4 inch soft plastic slug.
Believe me when I say I was not at all confident than any fish action was going to be forthcoming, but, I had to try as it had been a bit of a process and I thought it deserved a try at least.
I had several casts and slowly turned the mitchells handle as the river took the slug down stream and back across to my bank. I had been watching to slugs action as i reeled in and basically it was just spinning.
And then it happened, a ferocious bite and the Harvey Torbett was bent right over with a very angry chub trying to escape the plastic slug and the 1/0 hook. After a very good fight my OMR medium net was slid under a scale perfect chub of about 4lb to 5lb, I didn't bring any weighing stuff as I didn't think I would catch anything. After the fish was photographed and rested it was slipped back and I moved downriver about 30 yard.
Pretty much the same thing happened again but this time I guess that the fish was probably nearer to the 4lb mark than the 5lb mark.
Both fish were in wonderful condition and were carrying plenty of flesh, and neither looked like they had been caught before, although this was just a guess as the mouths showed no old hook marks.
I tried a few more pegs downstream but had no interest at all but I was as chuffed as you can be with the fish these prototypes had tempted.
I'm in the process of making another couple of clay masters hoping to cut down on the spinning action.
20221022_082201_resize_19.jpg
20221022_084110_resize_42.jpg
Thanks
BB