Quad-Hike

Today i headed for a little river with sole purpose of getting a quad of species on lures. I have had trout and jacks from this little river along with the odd perch before but all though Ive seen the chub I've not managed to tempt one yet. The chub are super weary and they just ignore lures.

I wanted to try a new stretch of river that i thought would lend itself more to chub, perch and pike and knew there would always be the odd trout about so wasn't worried about finding one of those.

Well my quest for a quad nearly got off to a great start when i popped my head over a wall of nettles to see a shoal of small chub mixed in with an odd one of 1-2lb I cast beyond them but as the small spinner i was using passed them, they all spooked! One of them did have a quick nip at the spinner though and i was just about to strike when it spat it out and fled.
It was only early days so carried on down stream, a found a nice pool and expected chub to be there but it was full of small perch, I caught a few then moved on to find some other species.

 

 

Moving on downstream further and changing lures regularly finally got me a take from a decent trout, it jumped a couple of times before the lure pulled out! I knew I'd find more trout so wasn't too concerned about loosing that one although it would have been nice.

 

I did allot of hiking through really tall grass which was like running through water, it was really energy zapping and i was finding myself out of breath, luckily though it wasn't effecting my hay fever thanks to the tablet i took before setting off. I didn't really find many more fish for an hour or so but most of that was hiking looking for spots to fish with deeper pools.

I was walking along the edge of the reeds when i saw a fish spook out from under the reeds, it flew under the other bank, it looked like a trout. I cast along side the vegetation with a small crank and out it shot taking the lure, It was a pike of a few lbs, sadly as i was unhooking it, it had a tantrum and went back into the water before i could get a photo. I could still count it but i wasn't going to count it unless i got a photo. Hopefully I'd find another along the way, that could have been three species already but i was still only on a perch.

 

I found a deeper hole and noticed a few chub right down at the bottom only a pound or so but they would do. I put a 1" kopyto on and flicked it out, after a few retrieves a fish took the kopyto, Bugger another perch and it spooked the chub, that would have blown my chances at one of them.

 

 

By now i had gone as far as i had planned to go and fished all the spots where i could have expected a pike or chub, so i headed back upstream in hope of a trout at least. I cam to a nice narrow run that had overhanging bank vegetation, i must have missed this spot coming down so thought it looked good for a pike. A flick along the bank and slowly retrieving the lure saw a bulge appear behind it followed by a vicious take, was this a pike.... well no, but it was a trout and a half decent one too. i had to balance my camera on a stick for a photo as there wasn't anywhere else to position it.

 

 

By now i wasn't much hopeful of doing the quad and the hay fever was starting to set in, despite having more time to fish I wasn't really feeling it so thought I'd head back and fish along the way and call it a day. I was now into pretty much trout type water and wasn't expecting any pike but still thought a chub could appear. I waded upstream casting in front of me as i went, nothing much doing really when out of know where i got a take. it felt small so was hopeful of a chub but really expecting a small trout. Surprise, surprise, it was a small pike, that's 3 species now, all i need is a chub for the quadruple!

 

 

I was nearly back at the car now and running out of water all though i did pick up one more trout.

 

It came down to the last pool, i saw a few small chublets swim past me, could i do it, right at the last minute? I cast a few different lures with nothing showing before i thought about it more. The chub were very easily spooked even by the sight of lures so i looked through my waistcoat pockets and found a pack of 1.75" twintails in a kind of clear smoke colour, i thought they looked really natural and could probably pass as tiny craws or something. I rigged one up and had a cast around with it but again nothing was interested, just as i thought it was all over i got a take out of the blue from something small, expecting a perch i got excited when i saw a flash of silver then grabbed the net when i saw it was a small chublet! this wasn't going to get away from me and i was terrified of loosing or dropping it before a photo was taken. My luck held out and i got a quick snap which completed my quadruple...great stuff... I was chuffed to bits with that after setting out to do one despite not many fish all together and nothing of any size other than the trout.