Hat-trick

 07/07/2022

Another session straight from work, fishing like my previous sessions, a baited area in the margin and one on towards the far bank willows, with alternate casts in each area. My first cast was around 23:00hrs, with very little interest until the rod hopped over at around 01:30hrs. 

9.04lb

At 9.04lb this is my second largest from this river, a very pleasing capture. The fish fought extremely hard and it was a challenge to prevent the fish from making it to some submerged marginal roots. In fact, on checking the rig over before the next cast there was a lot of damage to the mainline. I use 12lb GR60 for most of my barbel fishing and have found it very robust and reliable, it rarely gets damaged so it must have been rubbing on something substantial. A couple of rod lengths of mainline were stripped before my next cast.

 

No interest for the next hour or so, I decided to concentrate on the far bank thinking that the barbel would be heading back toward the snags before first light. 5 minutes after casting another take.

8.11lb

Another 8lb plus fish on the bank, very pleased. This was the first time I have managed more than one barbel in a session from this river. I decided to fish on until 04:00hrs and a few minutes before the rod screamed off again.

The hat-trick fish, around the 7lb mark

A very pleasing session, I've obviously landed on a concentration of fish in this area, no doubt still grouped up post-spawning. I've had 5 barbel in my last 3 sessions, compared to 2 fish from 15 sessions previously. Hopefully, I can continue to stay in contact with the fish until I find that double I'm after!