A couple after the heat

 23/07/22

Straight to the river after my last shift of a 60hr week, half a can of Redbull on the way, the other half for the drive home. I was parked up by 23:00hrs and fishing by 23:45hrs. A 2lb chub from the near margin hung itself on the first cast and caused some disturbance so I moved across to the far bank for the next cast. Things were very quiet until just before 01:00hrs when the rod hooped over. 

8.01lb

The fish put up a really dogged fight, I thought that it was the double I'm after from this river but it was some way off. I stuck it out until after first light but didn't get any further interest.

30/07/22

Another flying visit after work. 

I had my gear in the car for 3 days in a row but was finishing a bit too late to be heading to the river. In the past, I was happy going straight from work even if it was just for an hour of fishing but with the ridiculous price of diesel, I now have a self-imposed limit, a minimum of 3hrs fishing.

I was fishing by 22:40hrs and had 2 chub in the first 2 casts, decent fish of roughly 3.5lb & 4.5lb. Again it wasn't until roughly 01:00hrs (a key time so far on this stretch) when I got some interest from a barbel, again another solid fight to get the fish past the mid-river weed beds then a battle to keep it from finding the tree roots in the undercut bank.

A solid fish, I was sure this was a repeat capture but after checking it against previous captures it wasn't. 

9.03lb - my 3rd '9' from this stretch so this season, all different fish

 As the end of my 3 hours approached I started getting some more interest, probably chub but I had to give it another 10 minutes before leaving.... 

Just a small one this time, but every barbel from this river is a worthy capture

2 decent chub and 2 barbel from a difficult river on a short session, very pleased.

A couple before the heat

 13/07/22

A session straight from work, clocking out at 21:58hrs, a quick coffee followed by a 45-minute drive and I was fishing by 23:15hrs. Similar conditions to recent sessions, clear skies, relatively warm, with 5-6ft of moderately fast walking pace water in front of me. A bit of bait was immediately thrown into the margin and towards the far bank willows, which was left undisturbed for a while whilst I set up in the dark.

Chub knocks almost instantly, despite sitting on my hands and ignoring the rod tip for as long as possible I hooked a small (2.5lb) chub, which was a bit of a swim wrecker as I didn't get a touch for almost an hour afterwards. A barbel provided the next action, a really hard unusual fight as the barbel surfaced almost immediately and stayed on the surface for the duration of the battle. 

8.01lb of hard-fighting northern river barbel

I should have headed home straight after that fish as the commotion had almost certainly scared everything in the surrounding area off. However I had one further take as I was about to leave, a 'proper' barbel take, which turned out to be a decent chub of 4.07lb

  15/07/22

Again straight from work and fishing by 23:45hrs, it was my last shift for 3 days so I could stay for as long as I could keep myself awake. Exactly the same approach as my previous sessions (it's working, why change it?!) on this stretch, a couple of balls of soaked pellet/ crushed boilie into areas on the near and far bank, with a single rod, casting in turn to each area, every 30 mins or so.

Without warning the rod hooped round just before 01:00 and a really aggressive fight developed.

Eventually, a nice barbel of 8.11 was landed, however that was it for the night. The only knocks on the rod tip were caused by the odd bat hunting moths which were attracted to the bright isotope. After first light, I recced a few more areas for future sessions and threw all the bait I had with me in as I knew I wouldn't be fishing for a while with the forecasted temperatures looking ridiculous for the UK. 

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!

Two in a row

A short session on the river, on the bank for just after 21:00 and off by 01:00. Similar tactics to last session, both margin and far bank cover lightly baited with boilie and soaked pellet. A 30 minute cast in one area then a cast to the other if no interest. 15 mins after the second cast in the margin the rod flew round. 

2 in a row, good going on this river

A 6lb’er was soon landed, nothing huge but any barbel is a result on this water. An hour or so later, the rod went round, again from the near bank margin.

A 4lb chub this time

I didn’t get near a barbel from this river last session so I’m very pleased with two this early in the season. Hopefully I’ll be out one night after work for a short session.

June barbel ( the hard river)

 A couple of days after the 16th I headed straight to the river after work for a short session, in the hope of trying to locate any remaining barbel in this river. I had half a dozen sessions last season without hooking one, spent a good number of hours in the closed season walking the banks without managing to spot one.

I know barbel fishing on this river is going to be a real struggle but I am determined to catch a double from this water before they no longer exist.

A 3lb chub on my first visit

A larger chub of 4lb 15oz on my second short session

A chub on each of my first sessions, usually I try my best to avoid the chub whilst targeting barbel but there are some very big chub on one of the stretches, so rigs have been adapted to give me a fair chance of catching either species.  

I decided to travel further downstream for my next session, a slower, deeper stretch of river that held a decent head of barbel a decade or so ago. I lightly baited an area on the far bank and one closer in, a rod length or so out. I generally only fish one rod at a time for barbel on the northern rivers, 30 minutes in one spot then try the other for half an hour whilst baiting the first area. 10 minutes after my third cast into the near bank area the rod flew rod, very obviously a barbel! 

 

Just over a pound added to my best from this difficult river - 9lb 9oz

Very pleased to have landed a barbel on my 3rd visit, especially with it being a new river best and less than half a pound from being a double. A massive confidence boost and I know what stretch I'll be heading to next time I am able to get out.

Festive sessions

Back down to earth after my last couple of sessions on the Trent, a quick Xmas eve chub session with my nephew Will and then a few hours barbel fishing on a falling river a few days after Xmas.

I’ve taken Will out about a dozen or so times and we are yet to blank, but I wasn’t so confident this time around as we only had a couple of hours and couldn’t get to my preferred stretch due to the amount of Xmas traffic.

We started getting interest in the second peg and soon had a nice 1.5lb chub in the net.

Will’s largest chub so far

The chub were a little cagey due to an otter also working the stretch and we struggled to connect with another fish.

Waterproof jacket left in car, the world noisiest carrier bag to the rescue

My barbel session was on a river I’ve had a few from this season. I had planned on a chub session but given the mild conditions I couldn’t pass the chance up. The river seemed in perfect condition 2 to 3ft up, falling and still holding a little colour.

3 pegs an hour or so in each, one pull from a chub and that was that.

Probably the last time I’ll have a go for barbel until the end of the season. I’ve got my eye on some local perch fishing, possibly p.b territory, hopefully the river conditions stay reasonable so I can have a few sessions after them.

2021 highlights

Barbel - 14lb 12oz

Bream - 6lb 8oz

Chub - 6lb 7os

Eel - Approx 2lb

Pike - 13lb 6oz

No need for a full yearly review as I hadn’t blogged until the Christmas break. The start of the year was successful for chub increasing my p.b by an ounce but more importantly catching a six pounder from a river I had been trying for one for a couple of years. 

The rest of the year I seemed to be (unintentionally) fishing for barbel, a local river best, first wye double and then 2 hectic Trent sessions resulting in 3 p.b’s to 14.12lb.

Hopefully 2022 will see no covid restrictions and plenty of time on the bank!

Winter barbel (Middle Trent Madness!)

After that last Trent trip temperatures dipped so I changed my focus to perch from my local rivers, 3 trips, 3 different rivers, 3 disappointing sessions. Nothing much to report but I'm planning a few more trips before the season ends so hopefully I can manage a few.

I had been keeping an eye on the weather and river levels daily, hoping a spell of mild weather and kind river conditions would coincide with a night I had free. It wasn't until mid December all of these factors fell into place and I was again heading down the A1 to the upper reaches of the middle Trent.

Levels were up from my last visit, which thankfully I had judged correctly and had brought my 13ft flood water rods with me. I wasn't fishing long distances or using mega heavy leads (no more than 1/3 across and up to 5oz leads) but needed the longer rods to keep as much line out of the water as possible as the debris meant recasting every 20 to 30 mins. Thankfully the barbel didn't mind the debris as I was into a fish after 30 mins. I knew it was a good fish, heavy, holding its position in the increased flow and a bit of an arm workout! 

After a good 5 min fight in the powerful flow the barbel was resting in the landing net, using the heavier rods and larger landing net than my last visit, I didn't realise how big the barbel was until I lifted the net out a few minutes later. A new personal best.

14.07lb 

Another great start with the first fish of the session being another personal best! 

The session continued in a similar manner to the previous visit and I was kept busy over the next few hours with 3 more doubles, 10.07lb, 10.14lb and an 11.13lb.

10.07lb

10.14lb

11.13lb

Madness, 4 doubles in a little more than a few hours fishing. 

The higher water levels meant fishing further up the bank than previous sessions which meant the peg was now narrower due to the trees either side of the peg. I decided to drop down to one rod to make things easier/safer if I got a take in the early hours.

90 minutes later, I was woken by a screaming run, on the rod within a few seconds and again an obviously heavy barbel had taken the bait.

It was a few minutes into the fight that I realised that I had left the headtorch on my bedchair. In the middle of nowhere with no light pollution made for an interesting fight in the pitch black. The barbel stayed deep, fought very hard in the margin and was netted as it was trying to head towards the marginal reeds.

 

14.12 - another p.b on this session

Crazy fishing, 5 barbel, 5 doubles, 2 p.b's

Things went quiet for a few hours, so after some much needed sleep I got up at 05:00 and got both rods back in, hoping for another fish before dawn. I didn't have to wait long for the action to start again.

3 more single figure fish were added before first light. For once I didn't have to rush home early so I decided to slowly pack up whilst my gear was drying, obviously the rods were last to be put away. 

10.00lb - 6th double of the session

A 3lb chub and a 10.00lb barbel were landed whilst the gear was drying.

Another crazy session - 9 barbel (14.12lb, 14.07lb, 11.13lb, 10.14lb, 10.07lb, 10.00lb, 8.08lb, 7lbish, 6lbish) plus a 3lb chub.

Coming from the north east of england, barbel fishing of this quality is alien to me, I 'm more used to scratching around for the odd fish, occasionally having multiple fish in a session and very, very rarely coming across a double.

So barbel fishing of this standard is welcomed and very much appreciated!  

Well earned - The obligatory p.b pint when I got home

Late Autumn Trent Barbel (catch-up part 6)

 A planned social session down to the Trent for a mates birthday, 3 of us stopping for some food and a beer then heading to the middle Trent in search of barbel.

Ben had the best of this session with 7 (maybe 8) barbel to 12lb.

I split my session, between barbel and pike/zander, 3 barbel to 9lb and a modest pike.

The birthday boy had a bit of a nightmare session, forgotten equipment, a barbel blank and a lost rod ! I don’t even think a birthday pint cheered him up !

A week later I was back down with Ben, a short session, turned up as it was getting dark, left at first light, just the one fish this session.

The only interest on a difficult session, far too much debris coming down a river running cold

A week or so later I had the chance for an overnight trip back down to the Trent, more favourable conditions with very mild weather, the river had dropped a bit and most importantly the barbel were on the feed.

A full 35 mins after casting in I was into a good fish, the fish didn’t pull hard, just held its ground in the powerful flow. Eventually it tired and I pulled a new p.b over the net.

12.03lb - a new p.b, a great way to start the session

That first fish was the start of a very memorable session and a very busy night!

11 takes, 9 barbel landed with 6 doubles. (12.03lb, 10.04lb, 9.11lb, 6ish, 11.06lb 10.10lb, 11.09lb, 11.08lb and 6lbish)

On some of my local rivers I fish that’s a seasons worth of barbel and a lifetimes worth of doubles!

Obviously I couldn’t wait for the next trip down the A1……

Local barbel (catch-up part 4)

I have been aiming to catch my first double figure barbel from a specific local river without much success. I've caught them in the past, only a few fish to about 8 and half pounds or so, but this summer I had half a dozen sessions without a barbel take, if I'm honest I didn't even feel close to catching one. 

During these sessions it was either big chub or blank. 

I think I'm a few years late for the barbel on this river, as predation is the heaviest I have ever seen on a river and the numbers of barbel have been decimated.   

I had a couple of visits to another water from where I have had barbel from in the past, again I've had fish up to about 8lb and I'll be looking to get a double from here in the future. 

8.06lb - a few oz added to this river best

I enjoy spending time on this river as the areas I've fished have been productive. Long term I'll also be aiming for a double from this river but I'll be aiming to cross the lower stock rivers off my list first as I fear in a few years time there wont be any point in barbel fishing them. 

 

Wye trip (Covid catch-up part 3)

 A trip to the wye during August, keeping an eye on catch reports during the weeks leading up to our trip and things weren't looking too great. A low river and poor water quality saw people struggling to bank the numbers of fish you expect when heading to this river.

An amazing looking river, well worth the 4hr plus drive

Wye not !! - Wye Valley Butty Bach

The trip was split into 3 sessions, a short evening session close to our accommodation, a full day on a wye & usk stretch then a very short morning session on the accommodation stretch again. Thankfully the river was slightly up on our first session. 

First fish to Ben

10.01lb - My first wye double

We both landed a few barbel each and plenty of chub during the first session.

 Day two, colour and levels had dropped, a harder session but eventually we both landed barbel and loads of chub (30 plus between us).

Around the 8lb mark

A very short morning session before travelling back home, one bite and one fish landed between us.

4.03lb - my best wye chub 

  Not as prolific as our previous visit but catching my first wye double definitely made it a memorable trip. I think my next visit to the wye will be in winter for the pike and chub, which will take some planning as I don't fancy that drive to find the river high and coloured.