Piscatorial Quagswagging

...the diary of a specialist angler in around the Warwickshire Avon and its tributaries.

Monday 20 February 2012

River Stour - 20.02.12

Had a quick roving Chub session at the Stour at Honington Bridge, Shipston On Stour. Simple tactics, A size 10 specimen hook tied direct to 6lb Drennan Double strength line with a couple of float stops holding a small length of flourocarbon fitted with a single Preston 3SGG Jumbo locking shot. I've tried small feeders, running rigs using those tiny Guru leads and even lead clips, but for Chub I've had more success using a link ledger rig.


From my previous post I thought I'll try the Jeff Hatt punch bread method, so with a 30mm dia piece, compressed, folded in half and hooked I tried the same swim I fished a few weeks ago.


I've never been that confident fishing with bread, is it still on the hook ? I think the beauty of the bait and rig method is you do as little as possible with it, I always try and underarm cast, watch the bread sink and then sit and wait, avoid tightening the line as much as possible. As shown in Jeff's article the bread swells around the hook keeping it on. Anyway within a minute some knocks of the rod tip and a violent pull I was into a Chub straight away. I use a John Wilson 11ft Avon Quiver and a cracking fight it was too as it tried to get into every snag and undercut. A tad under 4lb, and a lovely fat looking fish.


I released it downstream but the swim was probably disrupted too much. I tried a few more swims, liquidised bread feed and breadflake on the hook but sadly no more fish. Lots of indication on the rod tip but I think the bread was being attacked by the minnows. Started to get a bit windy too so I called it a day.


7 comments:

  1. Great stuff Mick, I've been on tenterhooks since Friday when you posted the note about the cutters!
    Having just taken the plunge and posted my first piece yesterday (yes, yet another Warks blogger!) I am very keen to resurrect a love for the bread punch which stood me well in the past
    This isn't so much bread 'punch' as a bread 'upper cut'..and it certainly works
    Well done
    George

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  2. Nice chub that Mick . How do you get on that stretch of river is it on a club card etc.


    You use the same method as me to fish for them accept I use less weight on my link which helps the bait move around the swim .

    Baz

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  3. Baz It's the Shipston On Stour book, they have 4 miles of the Stour and a pool ( I've not fished ) in Aston Magna, it's a new River to me and only fished it twice but has some promising swims, going to look great in the summer. I only bought one recently so got one for £10.

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  4. Baz beat me to the club question!

    I like the Stour, but haven't fished it for a few years now. The last time was when I held a Stratford AA book and they had sections further downstream at Wimpstone and Preston On Stour. Many years ago they had other sections such as Clifford Chambers, Milcote and Atherstone On Stour.

    Milcote was great fun while they had it briefly - everything from lots of plump Chub, occasional small Barbel and I even had my first river Tench from there. It was a deceptive river though - especially at Preston. For such a little river there were many deep swims down to 13ft if you knew where to look.

    Happy memories, but it could be a frustrating old river just the same. Always very peaceful though, which is my kind of fishing. Good luck with exploring it.

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  5. Thanks Mick I shall be considering it for the new river season ....I wonder if it holds any good roach .....

    Baz

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  6. Great that the bread discs are working for you, Mick. Lovely chub that, and and on the first trial cast with them!

    There's another sharp lesson I learned about bread on the Dorset Stour over the weekend. I'll write up the account of the day soon enough, and it'll be well worth a read for anyone who uses bread regularly...

    Suffice to say I will never make the same mistake I made there, ever again!

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