No Chub in this swim, just Dace!

Date fished 20/6/2019
1.30 pm till 10.20 pm

Todays after work trip was our first trip to the Swale of the season. After the Tees Pike and Perch, Ellis had been back on the Tees and had a bumper few hours of Perch on drop shot worm. We now fancied some chub on the Swale, and if a Barbel came along, we would take that too!

I will start at the end and work back. Tonight’s trip was a session in 2 halves and the less said about the middle part the better!                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

As the light faded, the swim came alive. Fish were topping, and some large fish splashed about. They were not interested in our bait this time though. Next time, we will be ready.

It being so close to the longest day, it was so light at 10pm, we hardly noticed the time as we were still fishing, no night lights and we could still see the float trotting down towards a bush.  Ellis was having a go with the float rod, just to warm up. Although light, it certainly got cool quickly.

Ellis struck into the millionth minnow of the day, but this did not skip across the top towards him, this fought back.  It quickly dived for the bush, as I had stitched Ellis up and not adjusted the drag on my reel. It promptly got stuck in the bush with the line snagged too. I Bear Grylls style shimmied down the bank, around a tree, and with Ellis passing me the rod on his tip toes leaning towards the river, we managed to free the line, the fish and finally get it in the net! It was a great result, apart from the brush of nettle on my eye ball! 

 

The biggest chub of the session. Us both confirming it was a chub, although Ellis had been catching plenty smaller earlier, with Dace. He just called them all dace! A bit like me with my Roach/Rudd thing.

 

It was not till a few casts before when I was float fishing that I “confirmed” the first chub ( although Ellis had some before for sure). I had also then caught a million minnows in a row as Ellis said “ I can’t believe you have not caught a Dace” as next fish was the Dace, I mean Chub! This is getting confusing now!!! – I caught this, it’s a chub.

 

The swim we ended in, was the swim we started in. Our usual. What we had done in the middle part was take a walk through the cows and try another spot. It has been good to me in the past for floating bread, but tonight, we sat there, rods in the water,  with no real clue as to how and what we were trying to do. River fishing is tough and its fun trying to conquer it.

So, our little walk was uneventful, the highlight being Ellis getting a zap from an electric fence, I am still not convinced it was, but I didn’t put my tongue on it to find out!

 

If you are still following, we are getting towards the start. Our usual start. Our usual swim. Our favourite. Our against all odds, always know, always faithful swim.

Leaving the cars, we picked up our heavily laden buckets of bait, waders, jackets and walked to the river. The grass was high and it looked different from winter. We walked in the direction of our swim and after many hand swaps of the bucket we arrived!

Surprised at the change to our swim, a new island had formed, large trees had grown, it was an incredible change! Ellis suddenly proclaiming “ this is not the swim, we are in the wrong spot!!” – a great start.

 

Finally moving along the river we found our spot, it looked just how we had left it in March. The vegetation had grown, and a slip from Ellis found the right spot. He didn’t quite fall on his bum. Me neither at 22.30 as we walked back to the cars, and I nearly came a cropper into the stream – will leave that there!

 

I set up a feeder and Ellis started on the float. I sat motionless as Ellis fed a line in front of the bushes. Wading out he was able to fish directly a line in front. It was not long before he had his first fish, a trout.

 

As the feed went in, Ellis steadily caught more. Dace (we now know as chub), maybe actually Dace, minnows and a Grayling! It was feeding well, but the big chub did not show. I changed to hair rigged worms, and immediately my rod hooped over, playing the fish I saw it was a good sized trout. At the net, the hook came out, It was not going to be my night!

 

The lack of big chub was still on our minds, a change was “needed” that was why we moved swims. Maybe we should have stayed and continued to feed. We have agreed to do that next time, and not bring any ledgering gear! We will still bring the kitchen sink though.

 

As I wrap this story back round to near the end, it’s now I caught my first fish. After sitting in the first swim for the second time. After the walk, after sitting for a couple of bite less hours, I decided to put on a float. Second trot down, my float buried and a trout was my reward! I should maybe have done this earlier.

 

Before I decided to put on the float, I was sat behind two ledger rods, quietly waiting for a bite.  Out of the corner of my eye ( it had not been nettled yet, remember?), I saw a flash and the real king of fishers darted up from the river and sat  on my rod.  I had always thought those photos of kingfishers sat on fishing rods were fake, but it was true and happening to me right now. I edged forward to get my phone to take that award winning picture, unfortunately my movement scared the bird and it flew off.

You may not believe me, but it happened. I just don’t have the photo proof, you will just have to believe me and believe that the fishing trips I go on are always fun too! – photo proof!