chub on the weir

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malc donaldson

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Back in the summer of 1978,i went as a guest of my best mate to fish some private waters,the water was the River Severn at Holtfleet and it was on the opposite side to the B.A.A. stretch.My friends dad worked at Birmingham Fruit Market and it was widely known that huge hauls of chub were being taken at this venue on cherries and lucky for us we had 4 buckets of over ripe ones for nothing , we got there at 6am to be certain of the peg on the Weir (which was the magic peg) the water was so noisey with the amount gushing over that we had to shout to each other to be heard.The weight of the cherrie on the size 8 hook was heavy enough to cast to where we wanted to ,which was smack in the middle, depth was impossible to find out due to the amount of water coming over but we fixed up with 2ft and threw half a dozen cherries in every 5 mins after 10 mins or so we were getting a chub a throw -we finnished at around 3 pm after running out of bait ,my net was 12 feet in lenth and i couldnt get any more chub in, i counted the fish as i put them back and the total was 106 and all of them were the same size 3lb, we gussed the weight at well over 300lb, my mate had the same quantity -there was a crowd on the opposite bank watching us .We went again 2 weeks later expecting the same and we couldnt get a bite -we were back home at 12-30, we went back a few times after this but never had more than a couple....happy days
 
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Fred Bonney

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Probably all dead, after being squashed in the keepnets!

:O(
 
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Nigel Connor(ACA ,SAA)

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I know the bit of river you mean.They were still catching them on cherries there when we visited Holt Fleet a couple of times in the early eighties on school fishing trips.

Presumably they would work elswhere?

One worry is what would happen to the stone or would the chubs throat teeth crush it?
 
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paul martin 7

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Probably all dead, after being squashed in the keepnets!

:O(

Ray is watching you....


One worry is what would happen to the stone or would the chubs throat teeth crush it?

they would spit it out.
 
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John H Member of THE C.S.G.. & The A.T.

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There used to be an old guy from Leeds way who used to report huge catches of chub to the weeklies,(200-300lb) only problem was those fish were in the same keepnet/s for 36-48 hours.

The only thing it proves is that chub gather in massive shoals at certain times of the year and are 'suckers' for most baits
 
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david bruce 1

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Thank you Malcolm - I enjoyed the story and the thought of using cherries is intrigueing, personally I'd have ate them myself. I presume it was the cherry season in the UK. They were probably seeing a few in the river. This always makes me wonder about unusual and seasonal baits. Just how many do get into the rivers and how many fish do see them? We hear of peas, elderberries etc. as good baits but are they and how locallised and seasonal? Its like slugs do that many actually get into the rivers? Nor sure yet anglers report excellent catches (not me I might add)on them. The maths doesn't seem to add up?

Malcolm I think the keepnet police were prematurely off the mark. I am sure you will be replying to the unfounded accusations.
 
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Fred Bonney

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my net was 12 feet in lenth and i couldnt get any more chub in, i counted the fish as i put them back and the total was 106 and all of them were the same size 3lb, we gussed the weight at well over 300lb,

So David,106 3lb fish, in one net full up, dragged up the bank,flapping on top of 12foot of fish,and then,counted back in, one by one,you don't have to be part of any police force, to see the potential for death, or at the very least serious damage!

Unfounded?
 
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Fred Bonney

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Yep,last Friday.
But,I'm always on the look out for bites!
 
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malc donaldson

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No Fred didnt drag the net up like you say ...couldnt move it hardy -but wearing waders it was easy to take them out while they were still in the water --- when barbel fishing went crazy in the late 70s and big weights were being taken at Hampton Loade most Anglers used one net...2 nets have only been common in the 80s/90s onwards .
 
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Fred Bonney

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Your quite right,of course Malc.
Things have changed a lot in the last 30years.Thankfully.
 
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Paul (Brummie) Williams

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My old man was catching chub on cherries from ironbridge in about 1958........my first days fishing! :)
 
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Chevin

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Sadly whatever we did in the past is always picked up by someone if our actions are not acceptable by today's standards. What we did we did in ignorance but we did realise the error of our ways and we did something to rectify the problems. It is not the anglers of today who brought about the changes, but those of us who, at the time, didn't know any better but who realised that what we were doing was not the correct thing. I killed my first 3lb bream for no other reason that I wanted to take it home to show my family. I didn't feel good about that the next day. I killed my first 100lb+ skate because the Irish boatman wanted it. I thought that it would be eaten, it wasn't it was thrown away, he wanted it so that it could be recorded as a specimen. That was in 1971 and I still feel bad about it. The next big skate I caught at the same venue was returned to the ocean much to the chagrin of the boat owner.

Yes, like many others from my early days in angling I did a lot of things wrong but I take some satisfaction in realising that what I was doing was wrong and doing something about it. I think that anyone jumping in to criticise those of us who who did over thirty years ago things that are not acceptable now should remember that we were the trail blazers who began to set today's standards.
 
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