A Pair of Fives

Today was my final opportunity for a running water session before the season closes for three months so there was no way I would pass it up. My preference would have been to target Barbel but the low overnight temperatures convinced me that Chub would be a safer option so armed with luncheon meat and my favourite Chub bait, cheese paste I fought my way through the fog to a familiar stretch of the Warwickshire Avon.
My preferred trotting method was made impossible in the gloom, the float was just not visible for long enough to make it worthwhile so a change to legering was necessitated.
The first two swims I fished yielded nothing, not even a twitch but the third produced a bite almost instantly, unfortunately I missed it as I was reading a text. Thankfully it didn't take long before I had another opportunity and this time I struck into a fish which screamed off downstream instantly. Initially I thought Barbel but the fight soon became a lot easier and I knew it was Chub. A big open mouth came over the net cord and I could see it was a good fish.
The Warwickshire Avon has a healthy population of Chub and their average weight is definitely on the increase. Having said that a five is still a good fish for this river so I was pleased to start the day with a five pound nine ounce specimen. A long youthful looking fish that definitely one day will be over that magic six pound mark, I really hope to renew acquaintance with it then.

5lb 9oz

Normally when I use cheese paste as bait I mould it around the hook but today I decided to experiment with hair rigging it. The former seems to me to be the better option as a succession of twitches, pulls and missed strikes continued throughout the morning which became frustrating.

Eventually one bite materialised into a hook up and after a vivacious battle I landed a rather sorry looking Chub. This one had been through the mill (possible literally) and had a nasty looking growth on the side of it's gill. It was also very lean and clearly not doing well. I didn't stress it further with a weigh in, just took a quick photo and returned it to the water.

A screaming bait runner signalled a third fish hooked and after a spirited effort I had another fish in the net. Not as long as the first and with a slight hump to its dorsal it was clearly a five due to the big belly it boasted. The scales confirmed my initial thoughts as the went down to 5lb 6oz. I was more than pleased with a brace of fives in the same session, it would have been unheard of only a few years ago.

The sun finally burnt off the mist and with that the action died off too.

Spring is nearly here and I have already started thinking about Tench and other species to target over the next few months, cannot wait.