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Trotting For Chub - Josh Fisher
Trotting For Chub- Josh Fisher
Although the majority of my angling over the past several years has revolved around moving water I had made the foolish mistake of neglecting one of the most effective methods…trotting, which in the correct conditions can be nothing short of devastating due to the ability in which you can achieve the perfect presentation.
It was last year whilst spending long, bitterly cold days blanking whilst fishing on the river Lea for its very low stock of elusive (yet very large) Chub that I bumped into a good friend of mine, Terry Theobald who is an extremely accomplished float angler that has had a staggering amount of specimen Chub from numerous rivers to a goliath 8lb 1oz!!!
Due to complete inactivity on my behalf, I decided to spend some time with Terry watching him continually spraying maggots followed by trotting through an exceptionally snaggy swim in search of its residence, whilst he explained to me the do's and don’ts of trotting, before watching me for a short while, giving my pointers where possible.
With an exceptionally mild autumn my previous plans of starting my Perch campaign had to be aborted as jigging and presenting other baits on the bottom was simply not possible as the weed was still in abundance everywhere! With time to spare I headed out with Oli Harper from Angling Direct for a morning of practice to build our confidence ready for the coming winter.
On that particular short morning session we took 13 Chub and a fantastic wild Brown Trout, which once hooked tore off down stream violently before turning, leaping manically and running 20 yards upstream of our position! The Trout was certainly a bonus as they are in very low numbers along the stretches I fish, yet just just two weeks later I went on to take another one of 4lb 1oz in an almost identical scenario!
With confidence building I decided to spend a day of the float attempting to beat my previous best number of Chub in a day of 13… this certainly tumbled when I went on to take 30 chub in one of the most manic days fishing I've ever experienced, more often than not taking multiple catches of up to 5 fish from a swim, despite the river running extremely low and clear. The set up couldn't of been simpler, 13ft Hardy Marksman float rod, 4lb Drennan super specialist mono, 3AAA Chubber float and a size 12 Drennan Boilie hook.
On arrival at each swim I would introduce several golfball sized balls of mashed bread, once the last one had disappeared out of site, the rig would follow and then more often than not, the would the bite… well certainly in the first 1-3 trots through.
In order to take full advantage of the Chub being shoaled up, its crucial that once a fish is hooked, you get it out of the swim as quickly as possible so that the remaining fish don’t spook. Providing a soft rod is used its surprising how light you are able to fish, at times I have accidentally hooked Chub whilst trotting for Dace on hook-links as low as 1lb 12oz and hooks of size 20, yet its not an issue landing them as long as you are of a patient nature.
Once I had completed the first stretch of river resulting in 12 Chub by 11am I realised that the potential for a large quantity of fish was more than possible so I headed upstream where I knew I could continue to bag up. At times the Chub were competing so hard, they would even rise to the occasional piece of bread that hadn't quite soaked up enough water to sink. I simply couldn't resist trying to get the 20th Chub of the day off of the surface and within seconds found myself playing yet another fish!
By late afternoon and with 23 chub under my belt the only option was to head downstream a couple of miles to see if 30 chub was possible, a number that I didn't think I'd ever come close to!
With the day drawing in and the light fading fast I managed to drop on to one last obliging shoal, which immediately took me to a total of 29, however I was soon no longer able to see my float against such a dark background. At this point I simply couldn't walk away without reaching the new milestone, so I simply retired my float tackle, nipped a shot onto the line and flicked a piece of crust under a nearside bush which was soon to be devoured by one of the most significant chub I’ve ever had the pleasure of catching, despite it’s humble size of only around 4lb.
I certainly feel that when the time comes to chase those elusive Lea Chub, that trotting with light lines and small hooks is far less daunting, and I will be able to present a bait successfully. I strongly urge anybody who has also neglected such a simple tactic to get down to flowing water and to take full advantage of what can clearly be a devastating, effective and most of all incredibly enjoyable!
The Tackle Box Specimen Float Rods Trotting Reels Drennan Mono Drennan Hooks Trotting Floats