Ivel Challenge.

I continue my quest for an Ivel 'six', which despite concerted efforts and reasonable results continues to elude me.

An Ivel 5lber that hasn't been eaten by an Otter, Cormorant or any other nasty beastie!!
Martin

The Ivel can be a bit of a head banger at times mate. I only fished it for a year and caught all my big fish in September/October but no doubt that they there all year round for the taking, with many people preferring to target the barbel.

So to sum it up from the 15th September to 2nd October 2010, I did three sessions altogether catching eight fish -

3lb
2 x 3lb 8oz
3lb 12oz
4lb
5lb 2oz
5lb 10oz
6lb

These were all caught on boilies and bolt rigs (grabs tin hat and runs for cover before Nairny throttles me! ). Before that I was using standard link leger tactics and tried all kinds of baits but couldn't raise many bites. In fact my 6lber which still remains my personal best to this day was caught on my first cast, with a new rig, and with a new bait I'd never used before, in a new swim that a lot of people walked past. It could well be that the chub were not used to bait being presented to them in this style that helped me catch so many but the difference in catch rate was amazing. In the summer avoid luncheon meat/spam at all costs. It did nothing but spook every fish in the river! I know that in the winter, maggot feeder is favoured by many of the locals. I caught all mine from the free stretch at Biggleswade, but early season was a nightmare due to all the bivvied up barbel fanatics down there all night and day. In the end they got fed up with catching nothing and moved on.

The article I wrote here at the time goes a little more in depth -
http://www.fishingmagic.com/features/articles/howto/14987-big_chub_boilies.html

Hope this helps.

Pete