Three trips to the river

Trying to find time to blog in the summer holidays is proving to be a somewhat difficult task... Still here I am finally grabbing a few minutes to myself to hammer out my musings.

Trip one:

I paid a surprise visit to Ben. The only run between us both came at 10:30pm. I'd landed a Barbel of 8lb 12oz. A record shaker for me, but my current PB of 8lb 15oz stayed intact.

Trip Two :

A new section of river was on the cards for myself and Allan today. We'd started to become a little, how should I say?... Creatures of habit? Comfortable in our pegs? Frightened of trying somewhere different in case we blanked? Yes I'll go with the latter.

So we made way to a new stretch and we were rather excited, though perhaps not too expectant in our new venue.

We were kept waiting right until last light before we caught. I was into a good fish, it was darting all over the place, when disaster... The hook pulled! I was gutted! I'd lost a good un'. I slinked back into my chair a deflated man, in other words I'd gone off to sulk. I'd possibly blown my chance to land a Barbel.

A couple of hours later and Allan was in, he had a fair old bend in the rod, I called that he was about to land his new P.B. I was right. He'd managed to land his first Barbel into double figures. 10lb 5oz a cracking fish that mate. Well done!

Not too long later he was in again. I was rather taken aback by his capture. A 8lb 5oz Bream left us both with our jaws on the floor. Wow! I'd rather catch a double figured Bream than a Barbel any day. I have a feeling one of us may just do that this season.

The Barbel weren't finished with yet. Allan landed a couple more and I had a mad action packed few minutes that saved the day. I was playing my right hand rod when my left hand rod screamed off. Thankfully both fish were landed.

I was also to catch my first ever river Bream, not as big as Al's but another P.B for me. at 6lb 10oz I wasn't for complaining. I was pleased to see this one slip into the net.

Trip Three :

Back to the river, a late start, we haven't had much rain and as such the river was running low, very low in fact. We decided to increase the chance of catching by fishing an area that holds a little more water.

I had a pretty good session, I landed four Barbel in total. No whoppers the biggest was a little under 8 and half pounds. The novelty of photographing catches seems to be wearing off. I only posed with a couple of 8+ fish. I'm still looking for that elusive double. As for Allan, well I was very surprised that he blanked on this trip. Unlucky mate. (Although after your last session, I have one thing to say... GOOD!) :)

Back on the Barbel

6lb 10oz wild river Barbel

10lb 5oz Barbel the first double

Al's 8lb 5oz Bream8lb+ Seem to be catching a few of these

Fishing in the flood

I just can't keep away from the river at the moment. A trip with Ben was organised and we arrived by the river some time after 7 O'clock in the evening.

The river was high and carrying a lot of water, a daunting sight if there ever was one. I had to increase the weight on my rigs to 6oz to hold bottom. There was a lot of debris floating by which kept snagging up on my line. My Barbel rods are only 1.5lb TC and were hardly perfect for the task ahead. Note to self... Take Carp rods as back up in future.

I cast out my right hand rod under my feet. I'd probably cast five times within the space of only half on hour. I gave up on using PVA as it was just being wasted. I trudged up to my day shelter and plonked myself into my chair, folded my arms and proceeded to sulk! I doubted that I was going to catch at all in these conditions.

I'd no sooner sat down and assumed the 'sulking position' when my recently re-cast rod almost bent double such was the voracity of the take. A nice battle ensued and yet another PB Barbel was landed. 8lb 15oz. I'm getting closer and closer to the magical double.

That was the only fish of the night, and was caught on MC Boilie

8lb 15oz

A trip to the river...

Back to the river for myself and Allan today. We headed beck to the same area as the previous week. Our quarry was of course to be Barbel.

We arrived mid afternoon to find the river low and flowing at a slow pace.

I'd craftily made up my PVA bags at home so I was soon set up and fishing.

By 6pm the water had risen by at least a foot, an encouraging sign that we may be in for a good nights fishing - the fish would most definitely move about with some fresh water about the place.

Night fall..

It was just creeping dark, I had been watching a Mink going about it's business I'd just missed a cracking photo opportunity (due to the camera not focusing quickly enough) when I was into my first Barbel of the session. A tremendously violent take that near enough dragged my rod off it's stand gave me a clue that I was into a good fish. As I'm new to the world 0f Barbel fishing almost every fish I catch at the moment is a new PB. Which incidentally I managed to break four times tonight. 7lb 6oz, 8lb 6oz, 8lb 8oz and finally the biggest of the night at 8lb 9oz. I even managed to catch 2 Chub worth weighing. The biggest of them was 4lb 8oz another PB.

It took Allan a little while to get off the mark tonight, at one point I have to confess I feared he may even blank! But thankfully he managed to pull it back, Landing 3 Barbel in total. One of 5lb 9oz, 6lb 4oz and PB Barbel of 7lb. He even beat my new Chub record by landing one at 5lb.

All fish were caught on MC (3) and SGLM (7) baits.

Allan's PB Chub

Al's Record Barbel 7lb

My biggest Barbel so far 8lb 9oz

My record shaking Chub 4lb 8oz

8lb 8oz

River Barbel

It was time for Allan and I to have our first Barbel session of the season. The water was coloured and up a little. But not racing through. The conditions were probably perfect. I'm no expert at judging this water and I confess I have a lot to learn.

There is an air of excitement when trying your hand out a new water and a new species, and I was dying to start fishing.

I fished two rods with Coltswold baits 'The One' as my choice of boilie. After around an hour of fishing my left hand rod bent over and my reel stripped line at a good pace. A Barbel and no mistake had taken one of my baits. The fight was amazing and after one session it's fair to say if you'll excuse the pun that 'I'm hooked'

A few hours later I had another take, this time on the right hand rod and the bait was wrapped in paste. Unmistakeably another Barbel, a bit bigger than the last one and certainly a new PB.


No fish for Allan today, which was a shame as I'd liked him to have experienced the 'Barbel fight'

I'm sure we will be back on there very soon.

A black swan -

I've not come across too many of these in my time

My first Barbel of the season

7lb 2oz P.B Barbel

Night and day Carping

Once again I find myself having to catch up with the blogging. The reason behind the absence isn't down to procrastination I suppose it's more down to the fact that with the late nights I'm returning home far too late to be bothered hammering out my musings on a keyboard.

To the fishing... I've been Carping quite a bit of late. A few day sessions here and there. I also did two nights on a water which produced me one fish, a two toned mirror of 13lb 2oz. Not the best of sessions but a lot better than a blank.