SWALE IS SO SWELL FOR MY MATE MATT
...but I’ll need another chance for RiverFest glory
WHEN tickets went on sale for this year’s RiverFest, the first qualifier to sell out was the River Swale, where I qualified for the final last year.
I managed to secure a ticket and along with my friends Matt Maginnis and Tony Birt I drove up to Yorkshire the day before in time for a walk along the stretch with organiser Kevin Weighell.
The river was running clear, but it looked great and we saw loads of fish moving about. The previous week’s club match had seen some very big weights but he wasn’t expecting the same sort of returns on the qualifier after angling pressure throughout the week.
Next morning, Tony drew a peg that no-one fancied, I got one that a few people fancied and Matt got one that several people thought he had a chance from.
You probably read the result in this magazine last week, but in case you missed it, Nottingham’s Clive Fletcher won with 40-12-0 of chub, caught mostly on waggler and 6mm meat. Nick Jose, the youngest competitor in the match, won my zone with 36-4-0 on waggler and bomb with casters and lobworms, and Matt won the bottom zone with 32-1-0 of chub on waggler and caster.
My 14-13-0 was well short of getting through this time, and as the match went on I found myself wanting the river to have a lot more water in it to make the swim move faster.
TACTICS FOR CHUB
As we were a long way from home, we decided to stay over and travel back the next day. I fancied going back on the river and arranged to meet up with Kevin and another regular Swale winner, Paul Kozyra, to discuss tactics on the bank.
After looking at a few swims, the first thing we discussed was tackle. They both agreed with me that you need strong 13ft-14ft float rods to cope with big fish that live in many of the swims. These need to be teamed with lines of 4lb-6lb, with hooks tied direct or to a slightly weaker hooklength.
Paul then revealed a good tip to give anglers the best chance of hooking fish and keeping them away from snags. “The best way to fish for these chub is to keep feeding two or three times every run down, but don’t put your feed into far-bank cover,” he said.
“You need to feed short of the far bank, even back as far as the middle of the river. Once you’ve got them feeding confidently, they will lose their inhibitions and move nearer to you.”
BAIT FOR THE SWALE
What bait did our two Swale regulars take on an average summer match? “I’ve got a reputation for feeding heavily,” confessed Paul.
“If I think the river is going to fish well, I’ll take eight pints of casters plus two or three pints of hemp and the same of maggots.”
Kevin does it differently. “I take four pints of each,” he said. “Often I’ll start by feeding caster and hemp and stay on this for two or three, maybe even four hours.
“Then, if bites are tailing off, I’ll switch to maggots. This can bring a seemingly dead swim back to life and get me a late run of fish.”
Casters, hemp and maggots are the main baits for success on the Swale, but what about other baits, such as pellets for floatfishing?
“I’ve tried fishmeal carp pellets a couple of times and they haven’t worked on here for me,” Kevin said. “I think I need to try them again, though, as it’s a bait I need to develop some confidence in.”
Paul hadn’t tried pellets, but there were two other baits that shouldn’t be ignored. “Bread and lobworms can win matches here,” he said. Big chub love bread, and it can be used with strong gear and big hooks too. It tends to be a very good early season bait on the Swale. Lobworms can work at any time, and Nick Jose caught some of his fish on them yesterday to win his zone.”
I was pleased to see that both anglers use my floats. Small is the order of the day on the Swale and my Shallow Water Sticks and all three models of Speci Wagglers play their part. They went on to put the floats to good use and proved their pedigree on their favourite river by landing some cracking chub.