Tails Up Articles

My summer on the Dorset Stour

Richard Trim

Over the last few years the Dorset Stour has become the countries best big chub river, every other week pictures are in anglering press displaying wide eyed piscitores holding fish of dreams. These frequent appearances in print appear to suggest that the Stour is a easy water and 6 and 7lb chub will magically appear at your feet if one was to merely wet a line with its magical water. This is not true, she is a hard river to regularly catch big chub from and at times they seem almost uncatchable. Heavily fished sections like Throop can at times drive chub anglers mad with her tackle shy giants. Equally the almost unfished sections have seemly uncatchable monsters lurking in their depths. I prefer to fish the almost unfished, over grown sections in the hope that I may stumble across an undiscovered monster, a fish of my dreams.

The Dorset Stour is the river that my angling has grown up with, highs and lows have been experiences upon its banks. Like any river you learn how she works and through water craft you can start to understand fish movements. During the summer months so much can be learnt from watching and not fishing. I spend hours sat in trees watching fish, perched up in the branches like a dazed king fisher. My aerial position above the river allows me to observe fish's responses to bait, rigs, my movements etc and helps me to learn how to catch those fish viewed.

Many of the 'swims' I catch from would be ignored by most anglers. I will climb trees, crawl on my belly, wade through mud, swim to positions so that I can fish effectively for fish where they don't expect to be caught. Most of my summer fishing is done early morning, short sessions before work, only 2 to 3 hours in duration. When I arrive on the stretch I walk to the last swim and on the way I throw a handful of chopped boilies into all the places I am expecting to fish on my way back. During a short session I may fish as many as 8 swims spending only 20 minutes in each. If after 20 minutes I have had no indications I move to the next. Both chub and barbel grace my net when I adopt this roving method.

During the close season I make regular trips to the river (where close season access allows) to bait up. Chopped boilies are placed in the key swims to condition the fish so that by the start of the season they know that these are a 'safe' food. A bright bait is ideal for this, something like the pro liver. . They are bright, smelly and chub plus barbel love them. Bright in colour means that they are clearly visible in clear water which makes them ideal for sight fishing a method that I love.

Sight fishing can be a deadly method of fishing, it allows you to view fish's responses so that you can make small changes which can make all the difference to weather that monster picks up your hook bait or just drifts off back to its hiding place. Not all swims will allow its finned inhabitants to be fished for in this way so my end rig must be versatile so it can be changed instantly from swim to swim.

The rig is simple (like me) the hook is tied direct to 12lb X line fluorocarbon which is invisible in water this may sound a bit heavy but in lower breaking strains its abrasion resistance is very poor. Last summer I tested six different main lines and 12lb X line was a clear winner. Whipped to the size 8 hook is a 4lb hair where mounted is either a double 10mm or a single 18mm boilie. Plasticize is used as a weight, green and brown types are mixed together to help camouflage it. The length of line between the hook and the weight can easily be varied depending on the situation. When sight fishing a small piece of white plasticize is place 4 to 6 inches from the hook and the weight piece is set 3 to 6 foot above that. The white plasticize acts as a marker when it moves I know the bait is in the fishes mouth.

There is a swim on one of the lightly fished Christchurch Angling Club sections and from up a tree I can sight fish for very large chub plus the odd barbel. These fish can response to lose feed before the bait has hit the bottom well before the 'taste' of the chopped bollies can reach the fish well down stream. I am able to pick out what fish I want to catch. These chub response to the sound of the bait hitting the water. I've even thrown 8mm pellets into the water as hard as I could and within seconds you can see the chub race upstream towards the baited area. If you place the lose feed into the swim without making a splash by dangling from the tree it takes the chub 5 to 10 minuets to make a move. I was spotted last season up the tree and this swim has started to get pressured, now these fish spook at the lose feed hitting the water.

Some of the swims that I cannot sight fish I roll, the rig is slowly moved down stream, this way I can quietly move the bait into position under weed or overhanging trees. When a fish is hooked the top section of the rod is trusted underwater and heavy pressure is applied to turn the fish up stream. If the overhanging tree's branches extend deep underwater then the fish must be drawn up stream with careful baiting. Other swims I may have to fish a gap in the weed, the rig therefore cannot move so more plasticize is added to the weight. I nearly always hold the rod this way I can feel the bites and also 'sense' what the rig is doing.

This type of fishing requires me to be agile; I must travel light, have a quality bait, have a versatile rig and spend a lot of time just watching. I use a powerful rod with strong line and a good quality centre pin reel all pieces of kit that will not let me down. I love the Dorset Stour and she will always hold an almost supernatural spirit which you can almost see on a misty morning rising from her rippling waters.

Richard Trim