Catching chub off the top is one of my favorite methods in these conditions because they often let their guard down, and under the polarised sunglasses you can often see the fish coming out from the cover they are hiding under to intercept the bread.
Now rolling meat is an underused method in my angling armory mainly because the local stretches of river I fish are not really conducive for it, mainly because they are big and wide, often deep and also because the barbel numbers are low.
However a couple of local stretches I do fish though, in the early season often has barbel in residence so before I had get on with some errands post work there was a small window of opportunity to try and winkle out a fish in one of them.
I and others have spotted some as well which helps because at least I'd know it would increase the probability of catching one. There was rain on the way as well so the session dictated itself really as the following day would limit the sight fishing, 2 hours max to catch a fish. Not ideal is it really, but that was my lot sadly !!
When I got to the first swim I spotted some chub tucked away sheltering away from the main flow and they tentatively came out from time to time for a nose. A couple of them looked decent too but they really were not interested whatsoever even when the bait went straight past their noses.
The meat was going through nicely teasing its way past the sunken reeds and streamer weed. I'm sure the fish could see me that was part of the problem because the chub were definitely cagey. Anyway I got on the rove to do the same in each and every likely looking swim.
It helps that is was shallow and most swims elevated but I was running out of time !! There was one swim with a long section of cover over at the far side and I got the meat to roll right under the cover time after time but nought doing. I even saw a chub go from the main river to shelter in the cover but even that fish ignored the meat.
I was running out of time fast !!!
I returned to the first swim where on approach I finally spotted a couple of barbel 👀 I watched for a while and they were only small fish. Maybe 4lb or 5lb at a push, worth catching though but I managed to get the meat to roll nicely up to them but again they ignored it completely. Damn it !!!
These are intimate swims, you can see the fish, the fish can see you and that I'm sure won't help. Excuses at the ready.
But one swim to go that looked a nightmare to fish but over at the far side a section of deeper water with cover over the top and it was much darker...
A perfect first cast and within seconds of the meat going through the swim !BANG! it was grabbed by a fish. I had to bully the fish and thankfully it didn't make inroads into any of the thick escape routes. A chub not the intended barbel but a rather nice chub going 4lb and 9 ounces on the scales.
And that was my lot !!!
Curfew was us sadly but at least I managed a nice fish in the end. I love this sort of sight fishing and rolling meat but to be honest I need to do more of it, and be more stealthy to boot, as I'm sure that didn't help my cause. Anyway I'll give the swim a go where I spotted the barbel one evening next week hopefully, where I'm hoping once the light levels go they will let their guard do.
Oh and I forgot to mention, I put some pellets down in one of the swims and let it rest for a good 45 minutes or so, but only a solitary chub was feeding, only a small'un too. Anyway on to the next one !!!
Such an underused tactic across the country but has its day, admittedly most days for me :) I would never leave home without a tin of meat. Spam is certainly better to static fish as it's more oily and Tulip for example is better to roll, yes its not as oily but it's more of the visual aspect when rolling meat I find grabs the fishes attention, plus Tulip is tougher and stays on longer too.
ReplyDeleteLovely looking runs them too Mick, very nice looking bit of river, the big question is does it hold Barbel? I suspect if it's a tributary of the WA, so I would expect some to be present.