The River Arrow - Loafs and Logocentrisms

I checked the river levels the evening before and the Arrow a ten minute drive away looked like it would be fishable so in the morning it was out with the John Wilson rod, liquidised bread with garlic and cheese flavouring and bread on the hook.

The river was turbid when I fought through the waterlogged country lanes and I did think if some worms or maggots might have been the better option, but then a bite came quick in this swim which sadly I missed put pay to that theory. 

Bread for chub is such a wonderful bait and they seem to love the stuff whether it's fished hard on the bottom, suspended off it or when floating on the top.

In these strong tea coloured conditions bread is about as visible as a bait can get so small rivers like this where roving from swim to swim bites can often come very quick indeed. Roving is the key to success this isn't a river to chose your peg and set-up station in it.  

So travelling light is the key and move from swim to swim to try and winkle out a fish or two. The water temperature was 6.4 degrees which wasn't as cold as I thought but it's a fair shallow river in the main and I think that helps.

The first chub was a feisty 2 pounder but as the session panned out it was clear the bigger chub that reside here were not up for feeding. This section of the Arrow seems to have a good head of chub and that was also one of the reasons why I headed here because it often is a decent stretch to get a bend in the rod.   

One out of three swims produced bites and like I said bites can come quick when you stumble upon fish in the swim. 

In one of those with a tree to my left and a slightly deeper trough produced two chub within subsequent casts so overall it was a pretty decent session. I reckon 7 or so chub were caught with the biggest just under 3 pound as a guestimate. An enjoyable morning and with only 2 more days of the river season left I'm hoping to cram another couple of sessions in. 

I'm unlikely to renew this ticket for next season even though it's a convenient stretch because I do like to mix my options up year on year.

I do like the Arrow though so I might look in to other stretches where those Arrow barbel could well be hiding. I have caught barbel on the Arrow in the past and although their numbers are dwindling I'm sure there are some big'uns still lurking about I'm sure of it.