My last session before I had gone away, was with Winky after some small stream Chub. Having not personally landed any during the session I decided that I needed to make amends. The venue we had fished the previous week was well worth a shot, but I really fancied another. This water was a lot shallower, probably about a foot at the extreme deepest part and no more than 3 metres wide. This water actually produced my biggest ever Chub and bag of Chub about seven years ago, but since then, fish of 5lb plus have become exceptionally rare.

Because of the lack of water covering their heads, the fish here are often very spooky, and require serious SAS style stalking tactics. Like the previous session, I began by feeding floating crust and following it downstream. It wasn't long before I saw my first sign of activity, and as soon as I saw a bow wave heading down from up stream towards my free offerings I knew I'd located a couple of fish. As the bow waves closed in on the drifting bread, the freebies disappeared in a positive swirl.

From my position slightly upstream, I attached a decent lump of floating crust, dunked it for extra casting weight and then cast it  downstream about 10 feet away from the patrolling Chub. This had the desired affect and I was soon into my first fish. At about 3lb 8oz, it wasn't massive, but considering the venue and method being used, it was great fun. I continued for a little bit longer down the stream and managed another fish just under 3lb. It was good to be back home!