Location: River Mole Leatherhead Surrey Date: 10th of October 2012
Stopped off at The Cheam Angling Centre on the way down the A24 and picked up some maggots, casters, hemp and lobworms.
Initially I intended to fish the same spots as I did the week before however there were no parking spots nearby, somI Carried on down the Dorking Road, B2450 and at the roundabout did a right on to Young street, A246, as I passed over the river I saw a sign on the left for a Car Park, so, pulled in and there were a few other vehicles parked here, so though this should be good..
Saw a path and sign and headed in it's direction down towards the The River Mole, on arriving I was a little disappointed at how full and coloured the Mole still was despite over 36hours of no rain, ah well! Decided to head off left in the direction back towards Leatherhead, walked for about 200m when I came to a gate and a promising looking swim. Dumped my stuff of here and investigated the next headed 100m or so, but none of the other spots looked as promising, so headed back. The river was looking pretty full and there seemed to be a lot of fallen trees in the river, which actually helped me to narrow down my swim search.
I'd already set up both rods one with a simple leger / maggot swimfeeder set up and the other with a balsa stick float taking 3BB. Already set up with 5lb hooklenghts.
First cast with swimfeeder and maggot on a 18 hook and I caught a small 6 oz chub.
Then strangely nothing for about 40 minutes. I regularly topped up the swim feeder with maggots, casting back in every 8-10 minutes whilst introducing some Sweetcorn. I had a little go with the float rod and made the infamous mistake of not pluming the depth, eventually I did and was amazed to find that it was 12ft deep in from of me! So that pretty much ruled out float fishing here for me.
So decided to set up another leger rod, As I was about to do this I got a little bite on the other rod. On striking I initially thought this is only a small fish but then it decided to virtually do what it wanted and I quickly realised this was a good fish. First thought was Carp but the way it was shaking its head I though not. Next thought was this is a pike, that had probably grabbed hold a minnow or small fish that i'd hooked but failed to recognise. Yeah or a massive eel, to big to be anything else!
I managed to get it to the surface for a quick look and wow! It was a huge Chub, and looking at it, not that I'd ever see a 8lb chub in the flesh so to speak, I though this is over 8 lb, adrenaline was now flowing and so I backed off from playing it too hard, which sometimes can be a bad mistake, but I did to want to loose this! However I was pleased to be playing this in the recently learnt 12 feet of water. After 5 minutes or so, I scooped it out with the landing net as it went for the overhanging backside vegetation beneath me and struggled to pull it up the steep bank.
It was hooked firmly in the corner of the mouth. I quickly weighed it and it just went passed 7lb, 7lb 2oz to be exact and what a beauty, fin and scale perfect! As luck would have it two elderly lady walkers passed by and I got them to take several shots of me holding it. But as you can see from this picture she left a bit of her thumb in the way!
Posted 12 October 2012
New Personal best Chub by several pounds, amazing!
Carried on fishing obviously and aside from a nice Perch, a Roach, a few very small chub and the usual minnows, I caught nothing else apart from an American Red Signal Crayfish. I have since learnt that anglers have been requested to kill these as the population is booming in the River Mole. Sorry..........! However I couldn't help but think these are probably why this chub got so big!
Additional it is worth pointing on that in this swim there are snags everywhere and there was really only one spot you could cast too to avoid getting snagged. I lost numerous hooklengths and a swimfeeder and several legers to boot.
Great day though and a fish of a life time! And I'm pretty sure that the River Mole will and probably does hold even bigger Chub. May have to come back soon.
I have marked the spot on the map below
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October 3rd - River Mole - Leatherhead Decided to try out the River Mole in Leatherhead, Surrey, My dad used to live here about 9 years ago and I remember catching a 5lb+ Chub here on a plug, and also getting snapped off by some big fish more times than I dare to remember and lot's of pesky small fish and minnows.
Transport
Driving two main routes from central London, straight through on the A24 which is best avoided at all times of the day especially rush hour.
Or the slightly quicker route on the A3 and onto the A243.
Trains you can get direct ones out of Victoria and Waterloo east quite a regular service.
Nearest Tackle Shop
Cheam Angling Centre, 705 London Road, Sutton, SM3 9DL, 0208 330 4787
Opens at 0830 hrs, Friendly and a very well stocked shop with all your regular baits and more.
Fishing Location
Leatherhead, Just off the Dorking road, B2450, Thorncroft Drive, on the corner here before the bridge there is access across the field on a public footpath to the river.
Spent 40 minutes trying to find somewhere close by to park. You need to get here before 0900 hrs if you are to grab a spot nearby.
Due to the very wet weather we have been having for what seems like the whole of the summer, the river Mole was very stained and was running about half a metre higher than normal, well I say normal it has been pretty much flooded for most of the summer.
Anyway, arriving at the river my plan was, I had come lightly equipped for stalking, was to prebait half a dozen swims with pellets and sweet corn in the hope to tempt some specimen sized chub.
Well that was the plan! As the river was still slightly flooded and the water very murky I decided to feed areas of slack water, where fish would be sitting out of the main flow to conserve energy.
After feeding 6 swims I went back to the first initial swim that I had fed, which was a particular favourite as I had lost several large fish here about 5 years ago.
Unfortunately I ended up spending to much time here, for several reasons, one was hope, two I knew from previous experience that this swim held big fish and thirdly snags, debris and the flow was hampering presentation. It was also very difficult distinguishing bites from the debris hitting the line and what were almost certainly small fish, a few of which I hooked and were no bigger than my palm.
I tried a further three swims and experienced exactly the same problem, eventually at swim No.4 I tried something that I would not do normally. The set up was a fixed leger rig to a 5 inch hook link and used the lightest leger weight which would hold the bottom out of the main flow. I figured that this would help with debris and give more more positive bite indication. Bait was a single grain of Sweetcorn on a size 16 hook.
After about 20 minutes I hooked into a small chub of about 6 oz which offered me some hope of more and larger fish. 20 minutes later I was now thinking of moving to my next pre-bait end swim when the tip moved round only about 2 inches or so. I struck and immediately thought this is a decent chub, but as it fought I was beginning to think this is either a record breaker or something else. After about 5 minutes I managed to get it close enough to the surface to get any kind of look, to be amazed to see that it was in fact a mirror carp. it was at this point I realised how many snags were in this swim and the fish made an attempt to get into all of them. Nearly Ten minutes later I just squeezed the Mirror Carp into my stalking landing net.
An amazing fish from a part of the river Mole that is less than 5 metres wide.
Posted 12 October 2012
Worst part - no one around to take a photo of me holding the beauty!
Read a few blogs and there are rumors but yet to find any evidence of Carp over 30lb with one blogger suggesting the river Mole holds 40lb Carp, Really.........
Several months ago I had a lovely near blank of a day down at the lovely Hampton Court where the River Mole Feeds into the Thames and there were at least a dozen Carp anglers down there with their bivvies.
I have marked on the map below the pot the Capr was caught
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