Excellent again Eddie. Two or three separate alarms usually work for me!
Well written and a man after my own heart. The Throop chub are very addictive.
That first couple of seconds as you strike, not sure if its a fish, snag or weed, just hold the pressure a bit and then........ a couple of nods/thumps - absolutely enthralling!
Although I can rarely get down there over Christmas, I've managed to have three sessions before and after. The latest was last Monday; very mild and overcast, the river was fining down but still with a powerful winter flow and held a fair bit of colour.
One total blank (except for minnows!) but the other two trips were superb late morning/afternoon visits and included five 6's. The other pleasing thing has been quite a number of smaller chub, 2lb/3lb, looking absolutely pristine. A good sign for the future.
I've occasionally thought about the School Bridge area, even parking there twice, but I'm a bit too conservative and tend to head for my personal (and many others!) banker swims at the top or bottom end of Beat Two.
I love trotting for those chub in the powerful flow but prefer a centrepin probably just for the hell of it but it makes sure I'm very patient when playing the fish. You're dead right about line diameter and hook size, it took me a while to believe it a few years ago but now I'm very happy to fish an 18/20/22 to as fine a diameter hooklength I can get away with.
Continual loose feeding is a key, if they're there, they usually can't resist! And yet so many visitors just sit there with a feeder/lead set up and moan they can't catch! I fed four pints on Monday, took about an hour for them to wake up. Ran out of bait at 3:45pm, chub went back from whence they came!
I will definitely have a few more trips before the season ends and maybe, just maybe, might have a look at the middle of Beat Two!