small rivers

[Marcus]

i'm fishing a small river on friday, its beween 1ft inplaces and 3ft in other places, the width is about 6ft to 9ft, but there is a small weir pool, there is big chub and rudd, roach, dace ect. can anyone surggest what method to use, i know that pole is good but what rigs, bait anything to help me catch
cheers

[The Runner]

Hope all the rain we've had doesn't spoil things for you.
From your location, would this be the Wid you're fishing? Used to fish quite a few of the open matches on there before the state of the M25 made it too much of a pain to get to from here.
Anyway, whichever river it is, a few things spring to mind. With so little depth and width the fish will spook easily so its often a good idea not to put a float in for a good 20 minutes or so while just keeping up a small trickle of loose feed. This way hopefully a few fish should be feeding confidently by the time you start so as to avoid the "fish first put in, then nothing" that can happen. If you're sure there's a few chub in your swim and you have the confidence to do it, extend the loose feed only period- my "record " for this is just short of two hours (in a five hour match) but was helped by the fact that I could see a dozen or so chub and it was over an hour before they started taking the feed.
On such small waters I'd avoid the pole if possible although where its overgrown it can be the only way to get a bait into the right area (the pole was essential for this reason in a lot of pegs on the Wid. To get the bait right under the cover we often used to fish a little dibber float way overdepth with just a couple of 8s or 10s down the line , let the current drag the bait round and underneath and then just keep pinging a few casters at the float.)
If the waters very shallow , I prefer a very small waggler to the stick, with again very little down the line.2ft 6 to 3ft and over I'd be on the stick but mind the splash when you strike- it can put the fish off very quickly.The best wagglers for the job used to be made by getting a Drennan polywag, and cutting off all but half an inch of the peacock and repainting the new "tip" giving you a float about an inch and a half long taking whatever bulk shot and 2 x 8s.Cant get polywags anymore unfortunately.Any extra flow and I'd be on the stick anyway.
One other trick to keep the fish coming is to only trot half the length of your swim for the first hour at least (if possible) leaving any feeding fish down the swim undisturbed and avoiding bringing hooked fish back through anything feeding further upstream.
All this of course assumes that you're going to fish only one or two swims(as I do- even when pleasure fishing I carry far too much stuff with me to move around!) If not, giving it half an hour in every likely looking swim (with a bomb and a big bait if youre targeting chub) keeps things nice and simple.
Incidentally, on most small rivers I know the weirpools are very rarely as good as you'd expect them to be.
One last thing, as far as possible keep off the skyline....

Have a good day

[waveneyone]

Great reply TheRunner, I can't add anything to that I don't think. Brilliant, if he doesn't catch now then it his fault not yours or he is in the wrong swim. That brings me to the only point I would make. If you are not in a match, then travel light and cover a few swims. If the fish go off, then move swims.

[Oneabung]

The only other thing I would suggest is get your hands on some lobworms and try a whole lobby on the bomb... those chub cant resist them in any conditions but make sure you use a big hook!

[Marcus]

yes it is the wid

[The Runner]

A lovely little river, but unfortunately can't rely on getting there from Uxbridge in an hour or so any more (or more to the point, back in less than 2!)which is broadly our rule of thumb in deciding whether to go. Shame, as Cromptons and Marconi both used to run good matches on it.