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Barbed wire & no stingers – small river chubbing part II.

19 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by The tuesday swim in General fishing

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Tags

anglers, Association, avon, birmingham, chub, fishing, Hardy, mease, richard, river, walker

It goes like this…got woken up; “daddy can I go and see nana?” “yes, go on then” I mumble. I go downstairs, boil kettle, find cup, clatter, spoon, rattle coffee packet, pour…flick through newspaper, celebrities, celebrities, celebrities, war, fear, sport; put paper down, slurp. Find car keys, phone, charger lead, bait, rod and bag. Car door clunks, press ‘engine on’, radio 4 starts up, Saturday morning live, more people banter on, “I’m this, I did that,” more views, more pop culture. Satnav kicks in, “turn left”, “go straight ahead”, light flashes, diesel low, refuel, more bleeps, find wallet, enter kiosk, banging house FM, choose shite sandwich, more bleeps, pay, go. Satnav pillow talk kicks in again, M42, turn off, road narrows, see church in distance, my bearings found, satnav off, radio off, window down, turn corner, river flows, coloured but fining down, pull up, switch off engine, open door, step out, calm, peace, just me, no one, stillness, an antidote…perhaps this is why I go fishing?

Last summer I went small river chubing on the River Mease and wrote about it here, it was hot, the stingers were high but the chub were obliging. Six months on, and spring still a few weeks away I have returned, I wanted to see the river in it winter dress, and hopefully seek out a greedy winter chub.

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The trees were  magnificent, bare open branches silhouetted on a battleship sky, on the horizon – a hint of blue, the water is coloured but not chocolate, days before the river had flooded the fields but now the river was once again contained. After trotting a float for a while I set up my 10′ avon with a quiver and walked the river dropping a swimfeeder  into some deep holes. I am still unfamiliar with the river Mease but eventually after an hour a chub came to the net.

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Barbed wire, stingers, flies & heat – summer river chubbing

18 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by The tuesday swim in General fishing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

anglers, Association, birmingham, chub, float, mease, Netherseal, river, small, stick, stream

The first signs of a heatwave hit England on Sunday and I was in the West Midlands seeking to winkle out a chub from the river Mease, a tiny meandering river that can be fished on a Birmingham Anglers Association day ticket. The Mease flows past the village of Netherseal that sits in classic open english countryside just half an hours drive from Central Birmingham.
NethersealI fancied a break from my current search for large river Lea carp, the Lea sadly contains very few chub in it’s lower reaches and I felt that I needed to be re-introduced since my last chance meeting on the Kennet last winter. My approach of trotting with a heavy chubber float, keeping the bread flake low in the water took me on a good mile long walk along its meandering course, the water was low and I saw no sign of a chub despite my stealthy approach of keeping low, pushing back the stingers and opening up small gaps in the undergrowth to expose tiny swims. With no luck I started to turn back and fish the swims that I had previously baited with bread and maggots, finally I saw  a chub dart up and take a maggot, despite the sun getting hotter and brighter I knew there was a chance of a fish.

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fishing_bagThe BAA do a great job in providing access over the barbed wire fences that follow the meanders of the river Mease but once over the fence you are right up to your neck in stingers, luckily stinging nettles push over quite easily and with a little care you can form an opening by placing your net and fishing bag down to create relatively pain-free platform.  I was now fishing the stick float on a slow drop using a button shirt shot pattern, I continued to trickle in the maggots and soon started to observe the chub darting out unable to contain their hunger for an easy meal. On my second cast I was into a chub of around the 3/4 pound, then another and another, each one getting a little larger.

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Surrounded by stinging nettles and the temperatures increasing the whole experience was becoming quite intense, flies were becoming more persistent as they buzzed around my face, sweat dripped from my brow, there was no place to retreat unless I got back up the bank and over the barbed wire fence, this would have broken my cover and spooked the chub, so I stayed low and continued to fish. For the next hour I caught ten to fifteen chub, the largest no more than a pound and a half, but on a light line and stick float this was fun fishing that reminded me of my summer holidays as a lad fishing on the Sussex Ouse. Finally I dropped a chub amongst the stingers, I had no option but to bury my hand into a clump of nettles and quickly pick it up, the pain was bearable, I was after all fishing and very little could deter me, but as the heat rose further and the flies grew in numbers I finally called it a day.

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A zander at Fazely. (Stizostedion lucioperca).

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in General fishing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

birmingham, canal, coventry, fazely, lucioperca, plugs, spinning, Stizostedion, zander

I have become more of an opportunist angler these days with a young family restricting my fishing time, so last bank holiday weekend was a good example of a few hours spent by water on a short session and on an unknown canal… the Birmingham and Fazely canal.

At present I quite enjoy using short spinning or bait-casting rods with a multiplier and a few lures. I like the simplicity, the roving aspect plus I am a bit of a sucker for a new (or vintage) lure, a habit I  need to keep an eye on! Back in 1984 when I was fourteen I picked up a copy of ‘Tight Lines’ the catalogue published each year by Swedish tackle manufacturer Abu from the counter of Penfolds of Cuckfield my local tackle shop. This little catalogue left a lasting impression on me but like most fishing catalogues of that time I could not afford any of the tackle featured within its pages. But what I didn’t have then I  have since made up for and I now own a small collection of Abu rods and reels from the seventies and eighties perfect for pike, perch and zander.

Abu tight Lines Catalogue 1984

Back to last weekend and the Fazely Canal, Fazely is a small town east of Birmingham which is where the Fazely and Birmingham canal intersects the Coventry canal, a fairly quiet junction with very little towpath or boat traffic, just the occasional dog walker and jogger. Kitted out with my little Milbro bait-caster rod (the main importer of Abu rods in the sixties and seveties) and Ambassadeur reel we set off up the Coventry canal from Fazely in search of pike or zander quite early. After a pleasant two-mile walk we had nothing to show so we returned back down the canal towpath casting every few yards but as the day got brighter and warmer I was only really expecting a young jack.

As we returned back into Fazely and the intersection my luck changed with a sudden burst of energy from just below my feet as a zander hit my Big S plug just under the surface, erupting straight out of the water and making me jump. After a short battle while I single-handedly managed to assemble the landing net, a zander of 4 to 5 lb was carefully netted and returned.
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