Urban River Mission with Mark Lindsay

My friend Mark Lindsay, has been extremely proactive this river season with some absolute quality chub, bream and perch from this tiny little urban river hidden in the suburbs.

Mark has founded a little angling group which is expanding rapidly called Team MAG (Metropolis Angling Group), and clearly conveys, whether it is through Instagram or Facebook, the hidden beauty with fishing urban venues - what he refers to as 'urban gems'. I have this mutual interest with Mark, being intrigued by what can be found in what is assumed to be neglected, forgotten waterways. Although it isn't always for the faint-hearted due to possibly feeling less relaxed and self conscious in these more public areas, it has proven to have rewarded both of us and other anglers who dare to venture.

One of many quality chub Mark has caught from this venue

I woke up early and travelled up a couple of hours to meet Mark. After this long journey due to roadworks and traffic, we got the gear in Mark's car and headed for the river. We were both buzzing with excitement and filled with uncertainty as to what the river was looking like after receiving a fair bit of rain. After weaving through more traffic of the busy city, we parked up and headed for the river. We strolled over to a more tranquil part of the suburb, and greeted by a river which was still clear carrying a nice little tinge of colour. In the first swim Mark informed me there were some big bream living there and he kindly let me try for them. After catapulting maggots in, on Mark's advice, I free-lined maggots with a single shot and within seconds, I had a couple of subtle, but definite taps. I struck and there was a nice swirl on the surface and a broad flank emerged as clear as day. After a good fight on my feeder rod and 6lb line in the flow, the bream was in the net. I looked into the net and it had easily smashed my personal best on a river. At 5lb 8oz, it was a lovely fish and the colours were absolutely stunning. At just an ounce under my PB, I couldn't believe how good a start to the session this was. Mark took some great photos and it was nice to watch the fish swim away in the clear water.

Fine coloured river bream and a lovely way to have caught it!

After losing a couple more bream to hook pulls afterwards, we could see them, but they were clearly more cautious than before. This meant we moved on downstream, continuing to fish maggots free-lined and trundled about to various snags and likely looking areas. Despite seeing some chub skulking about and being tight in the snags, we were unable to tempt them, so we decided to return to this particular section later in the day and explore upstream. After having a good walk about past a busy road, we arrived at a nice section which was predominantly shallow but gravelly, and consisted of some very nice looking deeper holes. After spotting one big bream that spooked, Mark beckoned me over to join him and informed me that in this particular swim, he had seen and caught some nice roach and chub. With the polaroids on I spotted a couple of chub, and keeping a good trickle of maggots going in, they were soon moving about. Mark did manage to prick one but not properly connect with it but after this, the chub did certainly seem to be on guard. After walking a few more yards, we arrived at the end of a bridge where there was a pool formed by the steady current from underneath. Mark informed me that this was a good chub and roach holding area with him having chub to over 4lbs, and spotting some rather large roach. With that in mind, we both tried to start with, free-lining maggots like we had been. Simultaneously, we both were trickling in maggots upstream to endeavour to entice some chub or roach into feeding. After no luck in the earlier parts of the pool, I tried the tail end and started to receive taps. After having a couple of taps, I reeled in and had a sucked maggot - this had roach written all over it. With my hand close to the rod, I waited for some delicate taps and after a minute or so, I had a couple of decisive taps and struck into a lovely little roach.

Lovely little redfin

After releasing this fish just downstream, Mark flicked in his freelined maggot rig and received a good bite instantly. He struck and felt a good weight on the end but unfortunately the hooklink parted. Mark was fearing it was a big roach, but I personally thought it could have easily been a chub by the way it went straight for the cover. I decided at this point to change to a maggot feeder to ensure some more concentrated feed. Attaching a hooklink, I flicked the feeder in pretty much the same spot to where I had the roach. It was not much more than a minute until the tip bounced aggressively and I lifted into a good fish. The flash of silver and the distinctive red fins and the flank of this fish got me and Mark's excitement levels through the roof as we knew this was a half decent roach. After taking it steady on my feeder rod I thankfully managed to guide the fish into the net. It was a very nice, solid river roach, and as we prepared the scales, we were both so excited as it was a fantastic bonus fish and easily one of my best from a river. At 1lb 10oz, it was level with last season's biggest roach and 3oz off my personal best! What a great result for a lovely tiny river in the suburbs!

What a bonus, my roach of the season so far!

After this I gave Mark a go on my feeder setup as I was convinced there was a chance of another bite and we were both hoping it more roach would turn up. Here's what happened next in Mark's words:

"Gleefully, I jumped at the chance of a cast or two on Tom's feeder set up and quickly cast back into the same spot I had lost a nice fish earlier on. With a few small taps on the tup over the next few casts that I missed, I felt a third cast could be the lucky one, so I gave my full concentration. A small wobble on the tip was enough indication for me and I lifted into a fish. It zoomed straight towards the main snag in the swim, an old shopping trolley. Monster roach though were quashed quite quickly as it was clear that it was a chub, burrowing hard for every snag in the swim. Tom did the honours with the net and a short yet chunky looking fish was on the bank. A quick removal of the hook revealed another hook and short section of line in his top lip. Tom remarked, "that's the fish you lost earlier on, was pretty sure that wasn't a roach." On inspection of the style of hook of course he was right. The swim then typically died, as the chub had no doubt spooked every other fish from this tiny little area. We moved back to a swim that had beaten us earlier with Tom deciding to put another test to his maggot feeder setup..."

What a fight on the light hooklink!

After this breakthrough with a nice chub finally falling to one of our methods, I thought this tactical switch could easily buy a bite elsewhere. The swim now appeared to have died, most likely due to the disturbance from the feisty chub! As this was the last swim of the section, we headed back downstream and the idea being, gradually working back to the car. We decided to stop back at the spot where Mark and I had fed the cautious chub which were seriously on guard earlier. I casted the feeder and the tip was knocking instantly due to all the autumn rubbish coming downstream. I was deceived as the tip suddenly started to come to life and pull round aggressively. Instinctively I struck and I was into a chub. The fight was incredible on the lighter hooklink and it was unbelievable how many times the chub tried to get me buried under the bank! The fish topped and was absolutely pristine, and I was very happy when we managed to net it as it was yet another chub from a new river - this was my main objective for the day. As we unhooked it, it was unbelievable how many maggots it was spewing out! Mark took a lovely photo and we watched the chub swim back into the water that was getting clearer by the hour.

Fin and scale perfect, lovely young chub!

We now realised time was getting on and we returned to the first section we targeted for both bream and chub and it was coherent that Mark certainly had a good chub in mind. I started off in the swim where I had the bream with no luck, therefore I moved downstream to where Mark had found some big chub and he was trying to gain their confidence by spraying maggots. We go back to Mark for the last part of the session:

"I fancied a sneaky little swim downstream of Tom and started to regularly feed a small handful of maggots into a dark tree-covered area. In my experience, I see it as pointless making a cast in this swim until the chub give themselves away by creeping from the shadows to intercept the grubs midwater. It took a while but finally three good sized chub were willing to feed. I carried on feeding for a further 10 minutes and by this time the chub were competing for the bait, zooming in front of each other. On the first cast the fish didn't appear, I thought possibly that I had moved into the view of the fish. Another feed without my hoo bait did the trick and I nervously flicked my double maggot over the top of the free offerings. Again, the fish had disappeared but just as the maggots moved into the shadow water, I saw a shadow moving over my bait, just as I saw a white mouth chomping my white grubs... A swift strike of carbon and the rod hooped over with the chub powerfully ripping line off of my spool. Four strong runs for the snags were successfully thwarted and as he wallowed in the fast flow, Tom hurriedly grabbed the net and ran over. Once in the net, Tom instantly remarked: "that's a decent size mate, could be close to a PB". A great end to the day and as the light faded further, we weighed a snapped a few pictures of this wonderful chub which was in absolutely lovely condition."

A lovely girthy specimen!

"Sadly he wasn't quite the PB beast, but a solid 5lb 4oz, so I could not be happier. It had been a great day for the both of us and a lovely introduction for Tom on this amazing little river, I'm sure he can't wait to be back again soon."

With this fine specimen of a chub landed at the end of the day, I felt we had pretty much the 'full set' that the river was capable of, bar a couple of predatory species. I was very happy how the day went and really appreciated Mark inviting me to one of his 'urban gems.'

Thank you Mark and look forward to meeting up again soon!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous