No choice but to slug it out....

After arriving at one of the deeper swims on the Avon Brook to try and bag myself an early season Barbel it quickly dawned on me I left my bait in the garage, I was pellet-less. Not only that but somewhere between parking my car and the swim, I'd managed to lose my bankstick complete with rod rest too. What a tw*t :). I could have returned home and be back in the swim within half an hour but as it was a short session I needed as much bank-time as possible.Luckily I had about 40 or 50 lobworms and if I used those up there were some big fat black slugs that I spotted on-route.



To be honest if I had to choose one bait to fish for the remaining of my angling days it would be the humble lobworm. A natural bait that every fish seems to love, they have caught me some good fish too, even Barbel. I had to alter my rig to a running set-up but within 10 minutes I was up and fishing. The first chuck and the next 30 after I had Perch, nothing of size but they were in a ravaging feeding mood even taking the worm on the drop. My Perch banker swim further upstream seems to hold the bigger ones that must bully the smaller Perch out the way because I've rarely caught one less than a pound. Here they were certainly here in numbers but they hardly put a bend in the rod.

The last remaining lobworm went on the hook and this time I placed in the margin, that didn't settle long either because the rod properly hooped over and the centrepins ratchet sprung in to life. It was a Chub, nearly 3lb and gave a good account of itself, it had some belly damage but didn't appear to be affected by it.

With the bait tub now baron I retraced my steps and managed to collect half a dozen or so black slugs, for the remaining hour, they would have to do. There were not as fat as I hoped to I put two on the hook and this time placed them under a willow tight against the margin. The rod tip was chattering within 10 mins or so before I received a violent take. A fish was on, it managed to get out in the main flow but was quickly under control despite it's best efforts. Not a huge Chub by Brook standards, a nadger under 4lbs. The last forty minutes another two Chub were banked, only small ones this time, both around 2lb. I left at bat o'clock and unlike the Brazilians and the bad start I really enjoyed the evening.