Winning tricks

With the rivers low and clear, you need to get clever with your approach

from Kev Weighell

WE’RE still crying out for rain to see British rivers spring into life.

Meanwhile, although the continuing hot spell may be no good for those in search of barbel, roach and bream, there is one fish that will still have a go in low and achingly-clear conditions – the chub.

Greedy and bold one minute and cautious and cagey the next, chub are a real test of angling skills when you can see them in crystal-clear water. But the patient angler who bides his time and fishes the right part of the swim will catch a few in the most Sahara-like weather.

One thing is an absolute must, though, and that’s locating some pace on the water. Find the flow and you’re halfway there to finding the fish, and this is where spate rivers that are naturally fed from mountains and hills can get one over on slower lowland venues. They offer flow when levels are at an all-time low.

North Yorkshire’s River Swale is a typical example, and matches on the Northallerton DACcontrolled section around the village of Scruton are regularly won with chub weights in excess of 50lb.

Of course, not every peg on this Mr Crabtree river will produce, but on the noted swims where the chub are at home, a dozen fish are a reality on the most steaming hot of days.

Match organiser Kev Weighell has fished the Swale come rain, shine, flood and gales for decades and knows full well the moods of this narrow river that twists and turns through the scenic Yorkshire countryside.

When things are low and clear, he falls back on a simple waggler attack coupled with landing the bait as close to the fish-holding willow trees that flank the river as he can.

Kev picks up the story…

PACE IS KING

“It doesn’t matter where you draw, if the river has minimal pace it will be a tough nut to crack. Ideally, the float should go down the swim at a brisk walking pace, as this will give the chub less time to see the hookbait and think about taking it.

“When the flow is a trickle, I think they see the bait and know things aren’t right, so with the weather as it has been all summer we can’t rely on this pace to get bites. Instead, we need to get clever with our fishing.”

FIND COVER

“Swims with no far-bank cover will be very tough, even if there’s several feet of water to play with.

“In clear water, the chub will use any piece of cover to hide under and dart out to pick off feed, so lines of willows or overhanging trees are great pegs to draw – even a single tree can be enough, although I’d always prefer a clump of cover that gives me 20ft or 30ft of water to run the float along. Even then, though, the job isn’t done!”

GET IN CLOSE

“Although chub may swim a long way out from cover to get

at food, my experience tells me that they won’t hang around here waiting for your hookbait to find them. In this instance, you need to land the float as close to the trees as possible and keep it running along this line. The fish will now only need to break cover for a few seconds to find your bait.

“A long rod is essential, and even on a swim that’s only 16m or so wide, a 14ft rod will be a big help. I also feed line off the reel by hand as the float travels down the peg so there’s no chance of it being pulled off course.”

CHANGE THE DEPTHS

“Although you may see a chub and think it is off bottom, the reality is that in 3ft or so of water, it is probably only a few inches off. For this reason, I rarely fish ‘shallow’ unless the fish are boiling on the surface when I feed.

“In actual fact, a lot of the chub I catch on the Swale are taken by presenting the bait well overdepth, and this can be as much as 8ft over in a 3ft deep swim. This slows the bait slightly, but not overly, so it’ll still run through at the right pace.

“More importantly, it puts a lot of line between the hook and the float as the rig goes down the swim and this prevents the chub being spooked by having the waggler directly above them.

“My best bit of advice is to alter the depth you are fishing at if you are not catching!”

THE SESSION

DH Angling man Kev settles into a typical Swale peg with a good line of far-bank willows and a run of around 3ft of water leading into a riffle well down the river.

Casting the waggler tight to the branches and feeding two good pouches of hemp and caster each time, Kev knows that often a few ‘mug’ chub that aren’t on the ball can be caught. Sure enough, 20 minutes in he snares one – but it comes off at the net!

Patience is now the key, and Kev carries on feeding heavily and changing his depths. A few minnows are caught before the

first of half-a-dozen big chub fly out from under the willows, twisting and turning to mop up the loosefeed. None take his hookbait, though, an example of how the lack of pace is giving the fish those few extra seconds to see the bait and work out that it doesn’t look quite right.

Kev isn’t giving up, though, and he puts a few more feet on the rig and drags it down the river. An hour of repeated casting and dragging finally results in a bite and a 4lb fish in the net, joined by a chublet a few casts later.

As the day goes on, the temperature climbs and early cloud gives way to bright sun. The chub are loving it, charging around the peg and filling their boots with hemp and caster!

This is great to see but annoying at the same time, as Kev ends the day not entirely defeated but more annoyed that a few more of what were obviously hungry fish wouldn’t take the bait.

Bold and brassy chub? Not on the Swale. Not until we’ve had some rain anyway!