Wimpstone - 08.10.12

The Warwickshire Stour contains some decent Chub and the setting and surroundings in many parts is hard to beat, I decided to have a reccy from Wimpstone through to Preston-on-Stour to have a look at the swims and it's potential for my winter chub fishing.

As I was unloading my roving gear a Stratford-Upon-Avon Anglers Association member turned up, there was a planned match on the whole of the Stour but after the recent heavy rain, the match was going to be cancelled. The water was motoring through an chocolate brown, not ideal for a match. After a brief chat I was given some tips about where big chub have been caught and the likely swims and come winter time I'll be trying them out. The early morning mist carpetted the fields and the long grass was sodden, Autumn is mostly definitely here.

I stupidly left my cheese paste in the fridge in the garage and would have been ideal today as underwater visability would have been poor and smelly baits ideal, I made some up a couple of weeks ago and should be just enough for the winter. 250g grated strong cheddar, 250g of danish blue, 400g of shortcrust pastry and with a small bit of green lipped mussel ground bait, garlic powder and some CC Moore's feedstim XP powder which I had left over, make sure the Wife is out, whack all the ingredients into a blender, need and job done, a great chub bait.

With lobworms as bait and a 10ft compact feeder rod I planned to try likely chub swims and if I hadn't a bite within 5 or 10 minutes then I'd move on.

You can see from the pics just how coloured the water was and it really did have some pace on it so it was difficult to keep a static bait, after a few swims without even a nibble I found a nice undercut bank with an overhanging tree and within seconds the rod tip was rattling and the first fish was caught, a small mint condition chublet, surprisingly gave a good account of himself too.

As I moved downstream towards Preston-On-Stour weir I came across this swim, you cannot quite see it in the picture but there was a huge raft that must have been about 20ft in diameter. I drifted a lobworm underneath it and before the lobworm could settle the quiver wrapped round and I was in to a decent Chub, I thought I was on top of it till the last gasp lunge it made it managed to bump the hook, you don't usually get that with Chub as they have such tough mouths, once the hook is in, it stays in. Damn felt like a good fish too. I stayed in the swim but sadly no more takers.

I managed another few chublets, and even this tiny one devoured a huge lobworm. I do like this stretch of the Stour, secluded, quiet and hopefully in the winter it will produce some decent Chub for me. The Avon is still hard to beat for Chub though, so I'll probably alternate between the two rivers. I can be at this stretch within 15 minutes, I'm lucky I've got some much available water so close to home.