Day 6/7 - Chasing Chaps

Date fished 27/6/2020
7am until 3pm

Spoiler alert! 

Today was back to Morton, but this time I brought back up! Ellis was with me, to see if two brains could outwit these chub.
As we set off from the car park we remarked that I deliberately left my polarised sunglasses and Ellis by accident in our cars as we walked to the river.

We waded to our swim, a small stream forming where the main river makes a loop.

We had knowledge of fish caught in this area, so it was a good place to start. We walked along the bank to see crystal clear and quite shallow water. I spotted a fish, chub and it shot away upstream. We tackled up, both with link ledgers with a few swan shot and meat as bait.

There was a bush we were going to cast towards and hope the chub were under it. As I approached the water, I saw more fish shapes. These were no chub, these were barbel or 'chaps' known locally. I hushly called Ellis and he crept over to look. There were 4 of them, quite closely packed in a small depression. I tried to trundle my luncheon meat in their direction but I fluffed it and spooked them off downstream.
"We'll try for them this afternoon" I said to Ellis.
Both of us wishing we had our glasses so we could see and stalk fish easier.

We ledgered for a while and soon the rain came. We sat in the rain and assured each other it was just a shower.
Ellis could bare it no longer and set off to the cars to retrieve both pairs of sunglasses and his umbrella!!

The ledgering was tough, I found that the flow was not right, so I headed downstream armed with maggots to another run we had seen, where I could trot a float. Ellis looking for a different area to stick with the rolling meat approach.
It wasn't long before Ellis called out, he had caught a chub. We didn't weigh it but guessed 3lb, it was a great start!

I went back to my trotting and soon was also into fish. A few small chublets being very welcome.

Ellis called again. Another chub, this one weighing 4lb 4oz, it was another great fish.

As Ellis put his second fish back, he spooked something downstream to where the Barbel were. He saw the puff of silt as the fish swam away. He turned back to his chub fishing. Curiosity soon getting the better of him, he crept up to where he had seen the fish. Sure enough the barbel had returned and he was armed with rolling meat.
He cast up stream and watched the light coloured meat against the darker river bed. He saw a fish turn and he lost sight of the luncheon meat. Seeing his line tighten, he realised a barbel had taken the bait and he was in! He called to me, and by the time I had got there (less than 2 mins) he had landed a fin perfect, amazing Barbel!!
It looked so broad, with a short body.  At 6lb 11oz it was a great fish.
" I thought, why wait until the afternoon to target them" being his comment as we both grinned like kids!!

I went back to my trotting and soon was catching a minnow every trot. I thought I would leave them to it and go see if I could catch a chap too!
It was not always possible to see the fish as the wind created a chop, or the sunlight disappeared or the rain was so heavy that it disturbed the surface. I could not see them, plus we didn't know if they had swam away for good.
We both headed downstream for a change of scenery and to give the barbel time to come back. First cast with rolling meat, in the swim I had been trotting with maggots and I caught my first proper fish. At 2lb 14oz, I was happy!

Ellis went back to the other swim to try for further chub. It's probably making you dizzy reading this, but we did keep going back and forward between the swims. We did alot of walking albeit in a small section of river!

Ellis got snagged and when he waded to free it, he spooked a large shoal of chub. That was all the persuasion I needed. I was soon stood near Ellis and we were fishing the same swim. It's a bit of a blur as to who and when, but we both then caught chub here. I think Ellis caught first, then the heavens opened and we got drenched, then he got snagged again and went to free it again. Whilst in the water close to the chub swim I caught one! Almost so close it nearly went under his legs. He netted it for me where he was and we went back to the bank to gather our minds!

3lb 3oz

3lb 4oz

Moving again, Ellis cast to a new fallen tree and within two seconds had his fourth chub.

4lb 7oz

All the weights were recorded on my scales and I was using them to guage the stamp of these Swale fish. We usually catch 4lb plus, so it was good to get some other fish, lets call them "growers". However, Ellis estimated the weights as I weighed them and was within an ounce on every single one! That's engineers for you!

We lost a bit of tackle today casting or trotting close to snags. We also got caught on other line that had been snagged previously. Ellis waded in and gathered all the old line up so he could dispose of it correctly. We, like all anglers hate getting snagged and leaving line in the water and we always try and remove old line or rubbish if we can.  It really is a picturesque venue and we are lucky to use it.

As the afternoon crept upon us, we tried to stalk the barbel again but found seeing them difficult, or they moved. We crept around the banks as the thunder and lightning started. Heavy rain turned to brilliant sunshine and back again as quickly as Barbel could flee. During a patch of sunshine we decided to call it a day, we had finally dried off and we were nearly out of meat!

As I often say, but today for sure "a great day".
But for today's session I have to agree with the words of Snow Patrol

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough