Chublining
Thanks to talented and convention-busting writers like my occasional fishing buddy Dominic Garnett, the idea of deliberately fishing for coarse fish with a fly rod is slowly seeping out into the public consciousness.
Still, it’s very far from mainstream, so there remains something weirdly subversive about jumping on a train across South London to sight-fish for hefty chub with stealth and beadhead nymphs, as I did last week…
… especially if you’ll then rush home again to change for a Wandle Trust meeting, followed by a glittering evening in Mayfair at the Wild Trout Trust’s annual conservation awards.
If you didn’t know this already, I’m here to tell you there’s nothing like the rush of successive big, aggressive chub suddenly charging out of suspiciously luxuriant weed beds in hot pursuit of your fly. I know where I want to spend much more time away from my desk this autumn and winter.
