By Rich Salter 

As I’m sure most of you are aware, June 16th marks the start of the coarse fishing season on rivers, which is an exciting day for many anglers. By happy coincidence, this day also happens to be my birthday, so it makes sense to try and treat myself and do a spot of fishing, preferably on a river.

In 2023, I had exactly that chance, so after finishing my shift at work in the morning, I dashed home and got myself ready to head down to the river Culm, my local river. 

The Culm is a generally shallow, quite fast moving river, more stream like in many places, so it suits the ultralight approach I like to fish with. I generally fish 1g or under here, with chebs or jigheads and micro lures under 1″. This method has proven to be pretty productive for me and opened my eyes to the variety of species that live within the Culm. I’ve personally caught chub, perch, pike, dace, brown trout, salmon parr and minnows and know that plenty more species await in these waters!

My wife, Clair, had arranged a birthday lunch at a local pub around midday, so my plan was to head to the closest stretch in the morning and then venture a little further upstream after our lunch date.

I arrived at my local stretch and excitedly got set up, starting off with a 1g cheb and pink Jackall Tidebeat. As I approached the first spot I’d planned on fishing, I could hear an unfamiliar squeaking sound in a small bush next to the river. I paused to try and see what it was, and slowly moved a bit of foliage aside to discover two bank voles fighting! They were so engrossed in their battle that they didn’t notice me stood over them for a few seconds before they stopped and dashed off in separate directions. I’d never seen bank voles at close quarters before and certainly not in a full on scrap, what a birthday treat!

Once the furry fighters has disappeared into the undergrowth, I finally got started, casting upstream into a long run that often produces some small chub and perch. Having not fished the river for a good few months, it took me a while to get into the swing of things but once I’d adjusted my retrieve to suit, I began to find a few small perch.

As I moved upstream, I saw quite a few other anglers that had made the trip out on opening day. This meant a couple of my favourite swims were unavailable, but there are always spots where an ultralight angler can squeeze a cast in. The small perch continued to keep me occupied, but I was keen to catch a birthday chub, a species that I’ve really enjoyed getting to know since first catching one a couple of years ago. 

I stopped off at a swim that is a little deeper and slower than much of this stretch and is a spot that nearly always produces a fish or 2, unless the local kids have got there for a swim before me! At this point, I’d changed over to a NineSeven Tungsten Micro Tail, which has become a firm favourite for my freshwater fishing over the last year. Bites were quick to come here and yet more perch were landed, until finally, after I must’ve pulled a lure over its head 20 times, a chub snaffled it and although small, provided a bit more fight than I’d been used to so far that morning!

Time was getting on and I had to get back for my lunch date, which was amazing, may I add!

Lunch done, I headed back out. I had a bit of birthday money to spend, so stopped off at my local tackle shop, Culm Valley Angling. I’ve quite fancied trying for chub on surface lures, but never got round to it, so picked up some little surface lures with the hope I’d finally nab one off the top. Shopping trip done, I headed to a stretch a few miles upstream of the morning mark. I’d only fished this stretch a couple of times, but had some decent fishing and had seen plenty of great catches that others had posted on social media.

One species I know are present here, are gudgeon, which is a species I’m yet to catch on a lure. I tried for them on this day, but as per usual, I was out of luck, with no signs of a bite as I dragged and twitched a split shot rig along the bottom of a slower stretch where they’re caught frequently on bait.

I spent a good amount of time throwing my new surface lures around too, but again, had nothing to show and had no real confidence that I was doing the right things in order to warrant any success! 

After admitting defeat, I was almost at the furthest point of this stretch and being fishless so far during my afternoon session, decided to scale back down and at least try and pick out a small perch or even a minnow to beat the mini blank that was fast approaching. Fishing a 3g rated rod, with 1.5lb ester line, a 0.6g cheb with a tiny paddle tail, my mind was very much on the small side of things. 

I was fishing a nice deep pool, the overgrown banks meant I had to fish upstream from the top of the pool and either drop in and let my lure drift down with the current, or cast downstream and hold it up in the flow or work it up the slack water at the sides. I decided to cast downstream and just work the slack on the far side.

First cast, and I felt a gentle pluck as I followed the lure down with the rod tip. I lifted into it and initially thought I’d hit a snag as it didn’t move much! But then it did move, straight off towards the far bank and a submerged tree branch. At this point, I realised I’d hooked something that was going to give me a bit of trouble on the very light setup I was using. I had faith in the rod and reel, but stopping the 1.5lb ester from snapping would be the real challenge I felt! 

I didn’t see the fish for the first couple of minutes, I was really at it’s mercy as it switched between heading for the snags on the far bank, or digging into the bottom in the middle of the pool. All I could do was maintain as much pressure as I could, to try and turn it a little, but when it ran, all I could do was let the drag do it’s work and pray this fish didn’t wrap me round a branch or any other submerged structure.

I eventually began to bring the fish up a little, I at least had a bit of a height advantage from the wall at the top of the pool, so focused on applying as much vertical pressure as I dared, I was going to need to be patient here! The fish came into view and as I suspected, it was a decent sized chub, no monster by many others standards, but certainly a fish to push the gear I was using to the absolute limit! 

The fight continued, with lots of back and forthing, I’d gain some line, then the fish would take it back. I knew that I had to get the fish to the slack water on the near side, but this meant bringing it back across the main current and the weight of this fish made it really difficult! It took time, but I simply maintained pressure and sort of persuaded the fish to swing round a little downstream until it was on my side of the river. 

It was easily the longest battle I’ve had in freshwater, but eventually the fish was in front of me, but several feet below, so I needed my net, which happened to be several feet behind me! This was where I thought I’d lose the fish, as I had to stretch backwards to reach my net, my line wrapped around some foliage in front of me! Somehow though, I managed to unwrap the line and the fish was still on and after a bit of a struggle, it was in the net! 

After taking a few moments to catch my breath, I went to unhook the fish only to see the line had parted in the net, that was lucky! I unhooked the fish before holding it in the water to recover. It did need a minute but then kicked off strongly and swam away to sulk under the bank upstream. 

After that, I felt it was time to begin to head home and make way back upstream. I had a few casts on the way and picked up some more perch and a couple more small chub. But the chub from the pool that took a tiny lure and put up such a memorable fight, was the fish that made this birthday session special.