Earlier in the year I had some beautiful big Dace & Gudgeon, resulting in two pb's of 11oz & 4oz respectively.
I also had a surprise 4lb Chub.
Look up "unknown urban river & two monster pb's" in my previous blogs for all the info, if your interested.
My tactics as you probably will guess for this small fast stream was my favourite centrepin & my Preston 13ft rod.
Used in conjunction with an alloy stick float with a 16 hook & 4lb hooklink. My standard gear for 80% of my river float fishing.
Anyway the river was looking in good nick with a tinge of colour & It looked good for a bite or two.
Plenty of maggots & a small tub of worms were my bait of choice, as before, so I primed the swim with plenty of grubs as I set up.
First cast in this swim can very often produce the best fish of the session so with huge anticipation a swung out my float right into an overhanging tree on the far bank, boll**ks !!!!!!
After the inevitable I hastily retied another hooklink & prayed I hadn't spooked any fish.
Using a 13ft rod in such a small river is a touch cumbersome, but with the fast flowing water close to the bank & the slacker water on the far side I feel that my float presentation will be far better with a longer rod.
So finally first cast made with two maggots, the first hookup follows quickly after with a bite even I couldn't miss.
A short & spirited fight & he's in the net.
I would have bet plenty of wedge this was a good Dace but I was wrong.
A good start but a big fat Dace would be even better I thought.
Second cast surprised even me, with a handful of grubs tossed to the far bank I made my cast as quickly as possible.
The float must have only moved downstream a foot or two & I had a similar take, unmissable.
My strike was met with solid resistance, like I'd hooked the bottom as I have many times before with this shallow & weedy swim.
Then it starting moving upstream & the fight started as this powerful fish realized he was hooked.
Barbel, carp or chub was the question in my mind but as he zoomed off right into a weed bed I saw enough of a blunt head & bronze flank to say it's a chub.
Slow & constant pressure extracted the fish quickly but he still had plenty of fight in him, as he continued upstream.
My rod was powerful enough to get him under control & bring him back downstream but he wasn't done just yet.
Near side snags were his next goal.
I managed to eventually get him & about 4lb of weed into the net.
Parting the weed he was smaller than I expected but still a good'un.
I typically struggled to get another bite in the next few casts, so a change was needed.
I decided to just fed maggots for 5 minutes & thus resting the swim a little.
Next cast It proved to be a good choice as another good chub was hooked, again zooming up stream but I was ready for that old trick this time, but as he neared the net I had the dreaded hook pull, arhhhhh.
For peace of mind I changed to a size 14 & with the swim rested again I recast & away the float went.
Another twisting & turning fight upstream but all was under control soon enough & I got him in the net quickly after.
Following this method of resting the swim worked well as another chub fell to exactly the same tactics & they were peas in a pod all around 3lb
Three fish from the same hatch year for sure
This quick session ended soon after as the swim died a death. Only a small dace entered my net as I called it a day.
A very enjoyable few hours in a great swim & I must remember my keepnet next time as I'm sure some of the fish spooked the rest of the shoal.
I'm sure I could have had a few out on ledgered baits but with feeding the maggots & running a float through the swim definitely helped me to put more fish on the bank.
I never expected in such a shallow swim there could be three or more chub sitting in wait for their next meal & I'll b back soon to find out, that's for sure.
Hopefully the Dace will be back in residence as well.
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