Thames Winter Chub – Big Chub – Phil Spinks Specimen Series

Specimen Series – Thames Winter Chub – Big Chub

In this episode Phil heads to the river Thames in the search of BIG chub. Having never fished the Thames before, and facing challenging high water conditions Phil’s chub fishing skills are put to the test. Despite the challenges he faces Phil isn’t long finding some beautiful Thames chub including one or two big fish!

Want to tie the cheese paste ledger rig Phil uses in this episode? Click the link below👇

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Here we go then well good morning and welcome to specimen series and you find me this morning on the river temps which is a first for me I’ve never fished the temps before and the reason I’m here I’m trying to find one or two of the big

Chub that live in this River and I must say First Impressions it’s very different to the chub fishing that I’m used to back at home I’ve actually had some boat traffic going past this morning already and it’s a much bigger River but I’m really excited for the day

Ahead I’m going to keep on my toes work my way along the stretch and hopefully we’ll find one or two of these Big T’s chub nothing happened in that First Swim and being impatient went taret and chub was probably a good thing I find if I’m

Sitting in the right swim a bite will come fairly quickly with with that thought I thought it was time to jump in the next swim and try and find my first temps chub I fished for chub for well over 20 years now and I’m super confident in my

Approach and I didn’t feel the need to change anything when in the river temps it was just a case of leap frogging along the river until I found one of those features that held a fish and I wasn’t long in getting my first Bite this is the third swim of the morning and finally the tip has pulled around see a nice big temped chub on the end so let’s try and get this in the net there we go that’s a proper one that one Well 6B 3 oz are my first ever River temps chub you’ll have to excuse the helicopter noise he’s been doing laps of the river this morning but this makes up for a little bit of a slow start the importance of keeping on the move I moved into swim number three within 5

Minutes the tip pulled round with this absolute Beauty I was absolutely over the moon to catch a 6B chub on my very first bite on the river and thinking that I thought it was well worth another cast in the same swim quite often where there’s one chub there

Might be another one but sadly I didn’t get any more bites this time and with so many great areas to explore on the river I was Keen to Leap Frog along some more and try and find my next chub I’ve dropped down into the next swim on

This nice glide on the inside bank and whilst I’m waiting to see if I get any more bites I’m going to talk a little bit about location when targeting these big chub and as I mentioned this is the first time I’ve ever seen the temps let alone fished it but the simple rules

Apply whatever River I’m fishing there are certain features that the chub really like the obvious one is probably overhanging trees and snags they love to get undercover so fish in your bit of cheese paste or your bread flake as tight to that cover as you dare can

Quite often get you a bite and as well as that probably my favorite feature is what the flow is doing it’s exactly what we’ve got in this swim there’s a nice crease on the inside bank if the river was a little bit lower this would be a

Lovely swim a trot to float through but we’ve had a lot of rain recently there’s quite a bit of color in the river and it is pushing through quite hard so that’s why I’m fishing on the quiver tip you get rafts of stuff build up against the

Trees as well if you can get a bait under those rafts but for me the main two features are the snags and the Creases well this is one of those typical chubby snag swims that I mentioned earlier and there’s a bit of an art when you cast into these snags rather than cast straight at the overhanging tree if you cast your little link ledger past the tree then use the

Flow of the river to help you guide it into the snag so what I mean by that you can cast out gently draw it back and as it guides around in the flow reaches the outside of those branches let it drop down and it will settle under the snag

Perfectly it’s been quite hard today I’m over the moon with that six pounder this morning I’ve definitely missed another bite further up River so I might go back to that swim when I missed it but it is a case of just keep leap frogging along trying all these different swims and

Hopefully I can get one more bite before I head home but other than that I am back on the River tomorrow I’ve got two days here so hopefully there’ll be a few more bites before I have to head Home well no joy here time to get on the move again I think I drop down to a slightly smaller way I put a heavier one on this morning cuz there’s a bit of extra water on the river but I do like to use as little

Weight as I can get away it’s a little bit easier to guide it into them snags and I think the lighter weight settles on the crease exactly where you want it to fish anyhow so think this one’s about 10 g a little Guru flat peir but that’ll sit perfectly out

There fingers crossed this swim is as chubby as it looks I’m going to get on the edge of that bush and see if we can catch another one the problem are I was facing is having never fished the river before all the swims look like they

Could hold a chub so it was a case of covering as much air as I could in the back of my mind I wanted to try that swim again where I’d caught the six pounder I find quite often if you rest a swim after you’ve caught a fish you can

Drop back in there later in the day and get another bite we proper last chance to Lear up dropping Back In The Swim where I had that 6 3 this morning I definitely missed a bike next door a minute ago this is probably going to have to be the last swim but sometimes

This can be a really good time of the day but it’s been fairly challenging this River has been rising all day and the pace is definitely picking up but there’s always a Chance got one last chance Saloon I’ve got to try and keep it out of that tree but wouldn’t it be nice to land this one it’s been a tough day for me today I feel I should have had a couple more I missed a couple of chances but I didn’t miss this

One there we go y well the river temps definitely had me against the ropes today it’s been hard work today and I’ve missed a few chances got slightly frustrated with myself at times but it’s brilliant end on a second fish so really pleased to get this one

We are losing the light now so I’m going to slip this fella back and then we’re back out tomorrow to see if we can find some more go that was we had a lot more rain overnight causing the river to rise even more so

The plan for day two was to try and find some slack water and some creases where these big chub might be holding so the spot I chose a couple of miles further down river had a lovely crease just below a very busy road bridge the crease

Was caused by a nice line of trees on my own bank and looked a good a place as any to start to try and find a few more of those big chub so this morning I’m going to carry on the same as yesterday I’m going to stick with the cheese paste

When the river up and colored in my opinion there isn’t a better bait so I’m quite Keen to cast out this does look a likely looking area so fingers crossed I can get another chub as big as that one Yesterday with even more rain overnight and the river Rising even more I felt the second day might be slightly more challenging but the crease that I’d found behind those bushes looked a great place to start so it was a case of leap frogging along that crease exploring the

Different depths with the link ledger and the cheese paste to try and find those Fish I’ve found in the past when there’s lots of extra water on the river sometimes chub fishing can be very challenging and a combination of that and fish in a venue that I’ve never even fished before I’d be lying if I said my confidence wasn’t weaning slightly I just needed

One bite on that second day to lift my confidence back up and reassure me that the chub are willing to feed in those high water conditions and after leap frogging all the way along that nice looking crease I ended up back at the top of the crease right near the road

Bridge for one last try in that area praying that that Rod tip would pull round Yeah it’s like fishing off lowest off peer there is a chub down there somewhere here he Is well what a massive confidence booster this is with the river being so high I’d fish two or three swims it looked as if I should have got a bite and I starting to wonder whether they’re willing inter feed in this flood water but the answer is yes they are so now I

Know that the chub will definitely find the bait I’ve just got to find the chubs I’m going to slip this fella back I’m have one more cast in this swim cuz there could be some more here otherwise the managed to head to where I fished yesterday where I caught that nice big

Six pounder cuz I missed a couple of bites yesterday and I think there’s chance of another whacker on that spot you mate off you Go as we are about to leave that stretch I received a phone call from Good Friend Martin from red and District angland Association and he seemed to think that the stretch we fished the previous day would be carrying far too much water and told of another spot further down river

That would contain some slack water that was a much better Option to Long feels a bit heavier Chris yeah try and keep it out those trees that’s better Well that took all of about 30 seconds that did in this tight little Hole chubbly there there’s a nice one very nice one big old mouth look at the mouth on him lovely in you get yeah Really well how about that for another Big River temps chub 52 that one and a big thank you to Martin for a bit of local info he recommended we tried this little swim along here there’s some nice slack water under these trees and Well that took all of about 30 seconds to get

That bite so I’m going to slip this F back I’m definitely having another cast in that swim there’s a couple of other spots further up River but maybe there’s hope for another bite here before we get on the move again than you Mate I was Mega impressed with the chub on the river temps they are in such good condition and such thick set fish you can see why this River produces such big chub and I had one more move in mind before it was time to head home and

Being greedy I want to try and catch one more chub before we made that long journey back to Norfolk that’s a good fish that’s a good fish I have got 8B line straight through I think I need it here he comes that was dodgy go he’s fighting this one he’s a nice one I got my long landing net handle yeah he’s In well I’m glad I moved up into this next swim I did make a bit of a mess up when I first moved into here I missed a bite and then I lost the fish I only had it on for a few seconds but that was one

N at the chub on that occasion but I persevered the tip pulled around again and what a beautiful chub this is the chub In this River are in such good condition and they’re really thick set fish so I can’t wait to come back to the temps a massive thank you to Ren and

District angland Association for inviting us over and putting me on to these lovely fish and lastly before I go Merry Christmas to all of you from myself and Chris I hope you get out over the Christmas period and maybe I’ve inspired you to do a little bit of chub fishing this Winter for