WHEN THE EASIEST PEG IS ALSO THE BEST
HOW OFTEN do you hear that you shouldn’t just fish in the peg closest to your car, and that making the effort to walk a bit further will pay handsome dividends?
That was precisely why, on my latest outing, I headed to the far end of the river stretch that I was fishing for chub.
Armed with minimal kit and a ball of stinky cheesepaste, I made my way to the very last peg and flicked out a link-legered hookbait towards an overhanging bush on the far bank. Other than the wind buffeting my rod-tip it remainded stationary.
I tried a few other likely looking spots in the swim, including a raft of dying reeds and a few spots along the nearside margin. But despite them all looking like promising chub haunts, they produced nothing.
I repeated this process, working my way back down the stretch and spending around 20 minutes in each swim. The outcome was the same... nothing doing.
With the afternoon rapidly slipping away, I started to contemplate driving to another stretch which I fished last year and always seemed to produce a few fish.
As I made my way back to the car I stood in the swim closest to where I’d parked. It was a bit more sheltered from the wind, and I hadn’t been there long when I spotted something that looked like a fish swirl near the far-bank reeds.
I thought I’d give it a quick try before heading round to the other stretch, as I was concious that the light was rapidly fading.
Within seconds of my cheesepaste landing in the water my tip started tapping as something attacked the bait. After sitting on my hands it eventually pulled round as a small chub made its mistake.
I went on to miss a few bites but had several more to around 3lb. I even managed to have a quick chuck with the lure rod and landed a couple of perch on micro jigs. So next time, maybe I’ll try the closest peg first!