Chub Fishing on the Cherwell

It's getting towards the end of summer now and before things start getting cold I felt like doing some chub stalking on the move. Travelling light with a 10ft carp feeder rod, landing net, chair (getting on a bit now!) small bucket with my bait and a rod rest. 

I'll was touch ledgering with bread flake, halibut pellets and maybe some luncheon meat if I think things need mixing up. 

Setup:

4lb main line to a standard paternoster rig, 2ssg holding bottom. 

Size 4 Drennan Specimen micro barbed hook

I'll started with a bit of flake pinched on nice and tight round the shank but soft around the point so any strike would be sure to be positive. 

It was getting on for 7am when I'd first cast out and within about 30 seconds the rod tip was bent over nicely, struck into it and bingo! Now, depending on where I fish for chub and what the conditions are, the bites don't always reflect the size of fish that's taken it. I was expecting a nice clunk judging by the 6-8 inch sway in the rod tip, but no such luck this time. This little fella manged to get his lips round my hook bait. 

On we go for the next. I didn't stay in any swim too long so after 20 minutes I was on the move again. The next swim was a good one, having caught chub here before I knew I was in for a shout. I was trying to cast out just under the overhanging tree away to the right of the shot on the far bank

A couple of casts later I landed this

Not massive by any stretch but lovely looking all the same and fought like a fish twice its size. I missed a big bite about 10 minutes after landing this one and very soon after the swim went dead. So off I went again downstream looking for the next good looking spot. A succession of small but lively chub followed

It's late on in September and a few days ago saw the annual explosion of Harvestman (daddy long legs) and many of them were scrambling on the surface of the river. I saw a few being taken off the surface by chub and couldn't help but think I could have done with a fly in my tackle box.............

Anyway, on I went downstream in search of bigger chub and a change of tactics. I swapped the flake for a single halibut pellet on a Korum Quickstop hair rig (paternoster rig remained the same) and first cast under and overhanging willow saw my rod tip swing away to the right 10 inches. After the strike I knew I was into a big one as it made a dive into the roots of the tree. My clutch was a bit slack and I almost lost it in the snags. 5 minutes and a bucket of sweat later saw this beauty in my landing net

6lb 6oz and a PB for me. It had taken a good fight to get it in and a bit of a job getting the hook out as it had guzzled it right down into its throat. Given all this I thought a picture in the landing net would be quicker and kinder so I could get it back in the water. Chuffed to bits I moved on in search of more. 

A few more smaller fish followed including a decent roach but nothing to get the pulse racing as much as the PB so I called it a day at lunchtime and headed for home. 

I think of the sunshine keeps up for the rest of September I might take a fly down there, you never know.............

Preparing my cheese paste hook bait.

Friday 18th October.

I'll be off to fish the River Cherwell on Sunday so tonight I've decided to prepare some hook bait to use that will hopefully encourage the chub to feed. The temperature is beginning to drop outside now and it's this time of year that normally sees chub fishing at its best. 

I'll be making my own cheese paste and this is how I'll make it:

Ingredients;

1 x pack of shortcrust pastry


1 x pack of Red Leicester cheese (approx 200g)

1 x pack of Stilton (approx 200g)

Salt

Method:

Grate the Red Leicester and set aside. Crumble the Stilton as small as you can with your hands and put into a mixing bowl. Take the shortcrust pastry out of the packet and with the Red Leicester, add to the Stilton in the mixing bowl (if you leave it all out of the fridge and allow to reach room temperature it will make the whole process easier). Now it's all in the mixing bowl, add a good pinch of salt and mix together with your hands. Knead it thoroughly for around 5 minutes or so until you have an orangey consistency to your paste. It should look like this:

This is far more than you will need for a single session so you can split this up and freeze what you don't take with you (take any you freeze out of the freezer the night before your next session). I have sectioned mine into four (slightly larger than tennis balls) as I'll probably have a mate joining me on Sunday so will need a little extra. I would say you could probably split your paste into five or six and they should still give you enough for decent length sessions.

The consistency of the paste is fairly soft at the moment but once its cooled in the fridge and a low temperature is maintained on the river bank it will stiffen up and stay on the hook nicely.

Look out for my next blog to see how I get on.........