You’ve heard about not changing horses in midstream, but what about changing rivers or swims in mid-session? Roger Standen describes the extremes of mobile chub fishing

I hate to think how many miles I have walked in my lifetime searching for chub; it must be thousands, though I admit it is not as many now as it used to be. When you fish a new river it takes some exploring and you always wonder what is around the next bend. It could be that the swims you have walked by are the best ones, but still you carry on, your eyes scanning the surface for signs offish, a deep hole under the bank, or a crease in the currant. A raft of weed clings to fencing with its ends dipping in the water creating a slack on the near bank and a bed of reeds looks enticing on the far bank. Overhanging willows another likely looking spot, but still you search for more until you find you are miles from your starting off point and you haven't even taken your tackle out of the car.

To me this is what chub fishing is all about searching for fish over miles of waterways and taking in all the breathtaking scenery as you do so. There are swims that will always hold chub, but there will be others that never hold chub and some that hold them now and again. Contrary to what most anglers think, chub will travel many miles and take up temporary residence in a swim before, for whatever reason, will move on again.

I know this is so because friends and I have caught the same fish as one of us had landed the previous week, in a completely different stretch of river. Now you could say that it moved because it had been hooked and that may well be so, but on the other hand I have also caught the same chub from the same swim on consecutive days. One friend of mine who broke the local clubs chub record with a fish of 5lb 8oz after years of trying, caught the same fish again a week later about a mile and half away from where he caught it first time round.

Different angle
So a good swim one day will not necessarily be a good one the next, but it is always worth trying a swim from a different angle before giving it up. It is only in recent years that I have learnt the real value of this and it has probably come about because I do not cover so much ground as I use to when I was young. There was a time when I would fish up to four rivers in a day, fishing swims which had produced in the past Two of these rivers were in Sussex and two were in Kent.

Early morning would see me casting upstream under a road bridge where there were usually a few chub laying, hut it was unusual to catch more than one. However, after one fish I would always give it another cast, but no more.

Extreme mobility
If I didn't catch any more I would be back in car and drive about five miles to another river where it was a quick walk across one field to reach a group of willow trees. This is a good swim sometimes, but the best time was the back end of the season. The river was tidal at this point and if the tide was going out then the river would flow and there was more of a chance of catching. A long tide was best and if we had had some heavy rain a day or so previous then so much the better. I would probably fish about three swims around these willows, which would take about an hour and a half by which time the bites would have dried up.

Sometimes I would drive a short distance to a different stretch of the same river where I would fish another three swims. If the fishing was good, or looked as though it may be, I would sometimes fish there for the rest of day, but as often as not, I would be on my way again. This time I would travel in land to a short stretch of free water on the upper reaches of another river, perhaps a distance of about ten miles.

Difficult swim
This is a very short stretch of river and there is only one swim really worth fishing. The high banks make it very difficult and the undergrowth is so bad that it takes me about half an hour at the beginning of the season to smash my way to the river, but once having done so the swim is kept open all season by myself. I stress, by myself, because as far as I am aware nobody else ever fishes it.

It is strange that other anglers do not bother for although I haven't caught anything spectacular from this swim my catches include chub over 3lb, dace to l0oz, roach to I0oz and perch to 2lb loz. There is also the chance of a large sea trout and I believe a much bigger chub. Still that is up them and to be truthful, I am glad I have the swim to myself.

I usually spend about an hour in that swim before I pack up and move to my last river of the day another fifteen miles, or so inland. This particular river generally fishes better late afternoons and I cover it much more extensively fishing six, or seven swims before dark.
Again some of the swims are a bit difficult to approach mainly because of the high hanks and if the banks are wet and slippery, it can be dangerous, I leave what I think is the best swim until last which by a stroke of luck, is also the easiest to fish. Since I may fish a little into darkness it is best to be on the safe side.

Actually I did fall in this swim once, but that was in summer when the water wasn't very deep, I wouldn't like to do it in the winter with the extra depth of water and ail those extra clothes.

Things rarely work out as we plan, but I have learnt never to be despondent for a last minute change of plan can change what could have been a complete disaster, into a good day, or at least one which may do us some good in the future. Not so long ago Peter Craske and myself set out to fish a series of lakes that holds some nice chub and roach, but when we arrived we found they were frozen solid. Instead of going home we fished a nearby river.

We had never fished the water before, but after making a few enquires we found there was free stretch where we could drop in. As you would expect we didn't catch much, just one chub and bream, but it is another water, which may be worth fishing in future.

Water to water
Changing from water to water for whatever reason has often brought results, which I wouldn't have had, if I had continued to flog away at one river when conditions were hopeless. The fact of the matter is that while one river may be out of sorts, conditions on another may be perfect and by being prepared to move from one to another, it is possible to catch when all seemed hopeless on your first choice.

However, while moving from river to river in the same day and perhaps walking miles along a river bank to cover as much water as possible will give you the chance of catching plenty of chub, so will the other extreme. For example fishing the same swim from a different angle will sometimes produce when you have failed to either get a bite, or connect with the bites that you were missing.

Even though you may know the water well you can never really be sure what is happening under the surface, especially if you cannot see the bottom. Your line could be hanging over the edge of a deep hole, over a boulder, branch, or some other obstruction and you may not be getting a direct pull on your strike. It could be that the chub has only sucked the bait to its lips and hasn't actually got it in its mouth.

Change of position
Somewhere, either in one of his books or an article by Tony Miles, I remember reading that if you cannot connect with chub bites fishing downstream to move downstream and cast up will generally bring results. How very true this is, but sometimes it is not possible to fish the same swim from the downstream position and visa versa.

The point is it may not be necessary anyway just a slight change of position may be all that is needed. I remember fishing a swim on the Hampshire Avon, which nearly always produced at least one good chub. If my memory serves me correct every chub a caught from it weighed over 4Ib. On the day in question I was casting downstream with a piece of luncheon meat and within minutes I had a bite with took the rod tip right round, an unmissable bite, except that I did miss it. Thinking I must have struck at the wrong time I made another cast and the same thing happened again. In fact, I lost count of number of bites I had and missed.

It was unusual to get so many bites from that swim and I had never missed more than one, before that particular day. I thought about going downstream and casting up, but I would have needed to have changed my tackle to do that, so instead I moved downstream about ten foot and made a shorter cast to the same position. Within minutes the tip went round and I connected with a chub that weighed 4lb I0oz. Another cast and a similar bite and I caught a second chub of 4lb Iloz. A nice brace and one which I am sure I wouldn't have had had I not moved position. Just why I was able to hit the bites after moving I do not know, but the incidence was not a one off, over the years I have caught lots of fish by changing the direction of cast.

Only recently I was fishing a small river for chub on a day when a strong wind was blowing my rod tip about all over the place, despite keeping it low to the water. Among the wild pulls and tugged as the wind picked up the line, I thought I had a puck from a fish. With my right hand on the rod I didn't takes my eyes off the tip and sure enough it eventually snatched round and was still going when I struck. The result was a missed bite and that was followed by several more all of which I missed.

I moved downstream, though barely more than a metre below to where I was casting. My next cast was slightly upstream and across the river where the weight was just enough to hold bottom. Expecting a drop back I watched the line in the water and sure enough it did drop back, but only a touch before rattling round as the fish speed off upstream, most unusual. Even so I connected and landed a fish around 3lb.

There are many more occasions when I have moved a little in the same swim to catch fish, which I would otherwise have missed. Sometimes I have done it even without having a bite and found there were fish in the swim which were willing to feed after all

So you see my chub fishing is all about moving, sometimes in a car to fish several different waters in a day and sometimes just a few yards to thoroughly search a swim, or to connect with missed bites.

Free fishing facts
None of these stretches of rivers that I am writing about are club waters; in fact they are free fishing, yet I rarely see anyone else fishing them. This is strange because two of them have produced chub over 4lb to myself and one of them chub over 5lb. Of course, I do not broadcast the fact, but it is not difficult to find out what the water hold, after all I did.

I only mention the fact that the fishing is free because many anglers believe you have to pay high prices to fish exclusive stretches of river to catch good fish and that is not necessarily true.

One of these waters runs through the centre of a market town yet many anglers living in the town are completely unaware that the river holds chub. Only recently I was walking back to my car after catching a chub of 4lb when an angler asked me what I had caught. I told him and this man who had lived in the town all his life and had fished the river, wasn't aware it held chub, in fact, I don't think he believed me.

This article was first published in Coarse Angling Today December 2001