No 2

I'm working nights this weekend so I thought the best way to get back into a night time routine would be to fish Thurday night.

The session was fairly difficult and the temperatures dropped so it wasn't the most enjoyable either. I had two takes and managed to land one barbel, slightly larger than the last one.

I had planned to stay until after first light but a family of otters came through my swim at 02:30 so I decided to pack up and head home.

I'm busy with work next week so I probably won't be on the bank for a while.

First barbel of the season

Another short barbel session on a local river. I was running a bit late so didn't arrive at the river until 20:30, bait in, sort my rods out, cast out, sit back and relax. That was the plan but stupidly I had left all my leads at home, luckily a mate was fishing half a mile upstream, so I went on the scrounge and loaned a few leads.

The chub were on the baits fairly quickly but I was using longer hairs this session and it took nearly an hour for the tip to fly round. A definite barbel, a good fight, not overly long, but it did make it to the weedbeds a couple of times.

A decent start, hopefully the next one I manage to land will be bigger

With the first barbel of the season banked I was hopeful of another, it took another 40 minutes for the tip to go round. This time the fish was a lot more substantial, I struggled to keep control of the fish in this tight peg and unfortunately it made it to a snag. The fish was lost, a shame as it would of easily beaten my p.b.

A quick re-tackle, a bit more bait in and another cast towards the willows, this time it took nearly 2 hours for the to go round, another good fish on. I was determined to keep control and not allow the fish to make to any snags, unfortunately the pressure I was needed to apply was too much and the hook pulled! Gutted, two potential p.b barbel lost on the same session.

I packed up shortly after. I'm hoping to give it another go this week (if time allows), next time I will use a more powerful rod to try and keep control in this tight peg.

Barbel on, barbel off

A short four hour session, one fish lost, one landed. The lost fish was a definite barbel, a screaming run upstream, due to the tight swim I had to fight it hard to keep it from the willows, the  hook pulled after 10 seconds.

Plenty of interest from the  chub, sit on hands time, although I probably should of struck at one of the bites. All the chub interest was on some spicy sausage pellets I was using for the first time.

The fish landed came to the same rod as the lost fish, another screamer. Although the run was short lived,  as soon as I turned the fish I knew something was amiss. I was still hoping for a small barbel but it was a chub of about 3lb.

No more interest after the chub, no fish topping, temp  dropped so I left at 01:00. I'll be back for another go next week.

Back on home turf

It's been over one hundred days since I've fished my local river, well one hundred and eleven days (F*"#ing close season!!)

For my first session of the new season I decided on an early morning stickfloat session on the middle reaches. 14ft Acolyte plus, Abu 506, 3.3lb float fish straight through to a size 18 B520. Four pints of maggots, some caster and a tub of worm for bait. I also took a live baiting outfit.

On the bank for 05:00 but didn't have my first cast until closer to 06:00. Dace a chuck from the off, a decent stamp as well, averaging 3 to 4oz with the occasional one pushing 8oz. I started increasing the feed hoping to draw in the chub and the larger perch but it was still a dace a chuck. I started catching small chub about 4oz average, as many chub as dace now, still a fish a chuck.

Things went quiet so I continued to feed fairly heavily, hoping to draw the fish back. A switch to double red and a decent perch was on, good fight easily over a pound. Struggled for a while so I put a small live bait (2" dace) on, a few trots down and another decent perch, this one over 1.5lbs.

After the perch things went quiet again. nothing on maggot, caster or worm. I was thinking there was a pike in the swim so I put a decent (4") dace on, within a second of the bait touching the water the float buried and line was being taken from a reasonably tight drag. A good pike I thought, I struck still thinking pike, as I was bringing it in I thought I'd lost it, then I thought small jack, get the fish in netting range, a chub! Nothing massive, I guessimated 3.08lb but it only went 3.04lb when I later weighed it.

A live bait caught chub, a first for me.

The chub and dace returned, another 20 or so in the net before they went again. This time it was perch in the swim, hard work catching them though. Chopped worm seemed to be the answer about six chopped worms drip fed into the swim over a few minutes, first run down with a decent section on usually resulted in a fish. Good average size as well most over a pound.

If I lost a perch it took a good 15/20 mins to get another bite, the chub and dace had moved 40yards downstream, so if I needed a bait I just had to let the float drift as far as I could and usually I could get another dace. I lost a few perch and a decent grayling being lazy and trying to hand land them.

I ended up with the one decent chub, 15 perch (10 over 1lb, biggest 1.10lb) and a lot of smaller chub and dace, the odd nicer dace of 6 to 8oz as well. Probably over 25lb in total, not a bad first session back on the river.

Unsure when my next session will be, hopefully early next week, an evening barbel session sounds good.