September already and another chub!

Today is the first day of meteorological autumn. Where did summer go, and what a summer we have had, scorching temperatures and next to no rain. Great for us but not so good for the fish in some areas. Today is also the other bloke's birthday, and we are going to celebrate it on Monday with a session on the river at the bottom of his garden. In preparation for another session on The Medway, we (me and 'er-in-doors) decided to go an have a look at what was in one of our local rivers here in deepest South East London.

For the past week or so, we have been watching and feeding the fish as they patrol the far bank. There were shoals of chublet and a few perch in evidence. Today, as we walked upstream towards the weir, where we caught that chub a week or so back, we were feeding and looking for fish. Plenty of fry and a few sardine-sized fish but nothing worth throwing a baited hook at.

This was Sue a few days ago feeding the fish in our favourite spot

We eventually found all the fish gathered together in the pool just below the shallow weir, a mile or so upstream. The fish came to us, as we were standing there throwing in a few maggots. Although the water is crystal clear. The fish seemed entirely at ease with our presence.

The fish were coming in really close and did not seem to be put off by us

We sat down on the concrete that is here to prevent the banks getting washed away in flood conditions as the weir also restricts the width of the river, speeding its flow. In normal conditions as it is now, that slight restriction just helps to increase the flow slightly and preventing any excess build up of debris.

Using my telescopic rod rigged with a small float, 4lb line and a short 3lb hook length sporting a size 16 hook, impaling one very agitated white maggot, I cast over to the far bank that is lined with pilings. Plop! just a foot or so short of the bank. I hardly had time to congratulate myself on, what for me was a perfect cast, when the reel started screaming, and I had a fish on.

I think this one is even bigger than the one we caught a few weeks ago

I had hooked another decent sized chub. Not overly happy about being tethered to a human on the bank, the fish was testing my cheap rod and reel to its limit. I gently played the fish for a while to tire it and eventually had it in the net. It was indeed one of the bigger fish. In fact, I think it was even bigger than the last one we caught here a couple of weeks ago!

A lady walking her colossal dog was interested to know if we were planning on eating it (the fish that is!) I explained that we were just pleasure fishing and in any case, it is not allowed to take course fish for the pot. Meanwhile, her dog, a St. Bernard, had taken a liking to Sue and her maggots! Luckily both the dog and the owner were pleasant, and she apologised for her dog, who was just a big mass of fur. Dogs often crash through the swim, but the fish seem oblivious to it and just move away, before returning to their former location.

I caught a couple of smaller fish. Both were about this size and put up a good fight on the cheap gear

We fished for an hour or so and caught another couple of smaller chub. Each time we put a fish back, the swim went quiet for about five minutes while the fish all scattered and had a chat about these funny maggots with hooks in them. Soon all was forgotten, and the fish were back, feeding on our free offerings.

The interesting thing for me was the time. This was not early morning or late evening. We had initially intended to go out for a walk. Sue had suggested that we go and feed the fish and I said, at the last minute, that I would take a rod and see if we could catch anything, not expecting to get the line wet. It was lunchtime when we had arrived at the river, a time I would have expected the fish to be less likely to play.

We had debated taking a bite to eat with us, but as it was so late, we thought we would probably not have much luck and be home in plenty of time to eat. As it turned out, we could have stayed there all afternoon. The fish were feeding, and the weather was perfect, not too hot and just sunny enough to be pleasant. It never fails to amaze me just how much fun we can have on our own doorstep here in a very urban setting.

Ralph.