Summer/Autumn barbel campaign (part 1)

My close season was very quiet compared to last years and was mainly spent working on the house. A new gravel pit was recced with thoughts of targeting the supposedly non existent eels in there, but being a pike rod short and struggling for time I only managed two early spring tench sessions.

Both sessions were hard work in less than ideal conditions, both during a cold snap with bitter northerlies blowing. This pit is choked with low lying weed and is definitely a challenge to present a bait, small method feeders seemed the best option and I managed my only tench on one during these sessions.

An early spring gravel pit tench (5.02lb) which looks like it has had an encounter with an otter

With the new season approaching barbel were the only species I was thinking about. Plenty of time was spent sorting gear, preparing bait and planning sessions for the upcoming months. I didn’t really need to spend much time thinking about targets for the campaign, trips to the Trent would be spent trying to beat my overall p.b, the majority of my sessions would be spent locally, aiming for my first double from this river. A few sessions on local(ish) rivers would be used as a change of scene, exploring new venues and trying to get my first barbel from a new river.

Unable to get a midnight start on the 16th I headed out late evening on opening day, as usual these first sessions are a struggle with very little interest and plenty of otter activity. My second outing a few days later saw a couple of decent chub landed but a large barbel lost due to a loop knot failure!

I always check my rigs and mainline, before and during sessions so was at a loss at how the line broke. The fluoro hooklength snapped about half an inch below the figure of eight loop knot, which was inside an anti tangle sleeve. A real kick in the balls as it was a good fish, possibly a double, it took a few days to get over that lost fish as fish of that size don’t come around too often on this river.

Next time out I managed my first of the season, nothing of size but a fine looking fish and a bit of a confidence booster. A few decent chub made for a good session.

After that first barbel was landed I started catching fairly regularly, not as many or as often as last season but definitely a larger average size this season.

8.07lb

7.02lb

5.07lb, a new river best

5.04lb

A good start to the season with barbel approaching 9lb and lots of good chub including a new river best of 5.07lb and plenty over the 5lb mark.

A nice looking fish during one of my rare daytime sessions

One of two 5lb plus chub on this session

8.06lb

The decent run continued during July, again less fish than last year, but generally of a greater size. A different feeding approach than previous seasons has no doubt helped attract barbel of a larger size, the chub have responded as well, catches of 5lb plus fish becoming the norm.

My last session in July and a visit to a forgotten peg, very overgrown and seemingly overlooked by everyone else this season. Only the one take during the session but a cracking fish which had me in the marginal reeds a few times before reluctantly going into the net.

I punched the air as I looked into the net, certain that I had caught my first double from this river, but the scales didn’t make it that far round and stopped short at 9.10lb! Obviously I rested the fish, re-zeroed the avons and weighed the fish again, 9.10lb. A new river best but a slight feeling of disappointment as I was sure this was the double I have been searching for.

After catching that new river best I decided on a change of scenery for my next session and headed to a new stretch of a river that I’ve only barbel fished once before. In the past this river used to be fairly productive but as with most waters round here has been heavily impacted by the otters/mink.

The river was in great condition fining down after a recent flood, still carrying a few foot, but it looked great. This fishing was hard with lots of weed making its way downstream and despite carrying only a few feet of extra water I needed 5oz + to hold bottom for anything more than 10 minutes.

I was surprised when the upstream rod screamed off, even more surprised when it was a barbel.

A first from a difficult river, hopefully more will follow in the future

The barbel only went 6.05lb but I wasn’t bothered, my first from this river and the fish was immaculate somehow avoiding the many otters this river supports.

I also had another take, but the hook pulled after 30 seconds. Despite the fish feeling heavier I wasn't too disappointed as I was still elated with that first fish.

This post updates the blog to the beginning of August, I'm planning on posting part 2 at the end of September. I am also planning a post about bait, methods and tactics I've been using this season. I've also been using a couple of new rods, which I am very pleased with so will try and post something about those as well.

It's been a while

Six months have past since my last update, family and work commitments leaving little spare time for fishing, never mind blogging.
I'll use this first post back to review 2016 and then bring the blog upto date over the next few posts.

2016 wasn't my greatest years fishing, poor conditions on my local rivers at the start of the year, a struggle on both my eel and tench campaigns and then a period of losing almost every pike I hooked.

Eel and tench sessions
I started targetting both species in April, quite early in the year this far north. However I managed a 2lb 8oz eel on my first session but blanked on the first attempt for tench.
I had planned to commit every session until autumn trying to achieve my target of a 4lb plus eel and 50lb of tench. I stayed on track fishing days for tench and nights for eels until the 16th of June when the lure of running water tempted me from the still waters. A few hard going barbel sessions later and I was on the eel trail again.
I fished a couple of new waters for the eels with varying success, one of the waters is very close to home and produced eels on both occasions I fished there so I'll try again there next season.

Eel round up -

Number sessions - 8
Number of eels caught - 5
Largest eel caught - 2lb 8oz

Another very disappointing attempt for the eels, not enough sessions fished and not enough time spent on the water I think has the most potential for large eels. I'm determined to catch a large eel from a local water and will be trying again this spring/summer.

The first of the season - 2lb 8oz

A two pounder from my local river

Tench round up -
Number of sessions - 6
Largest tench - 2lb 14oz
Total weight - 16lb 7oz

Disaster. Tench fishing in my local area is always a struggle, but I thought 50lb would be achievable. I've found a water which holds plenty of tench, probably not capable of beating my p.b, but they do go over 4lb and are usually a reasonable average size. On both visits I caught tench but struggled to get past the smaller samples, a change of tactics needed if I ever revisit.

The largest of the season, caught during an eel session

Other sessions -

A double figure net of silvers on my only stick float session

Late season mackerel to 1lb 8oz

The only barbel of the season, 8lb 4oz, my best from this river

Start of 2016/17 pike season

A change of job means I am working closer to my local river which makes it a lot easier to fit a quick session after/before work. I started my pike season towards the end of September and started catching fairly regularly.

A brace of early season doubles, good going for this river !

By mid October I was pleased with how my season was going, fish on most sessions and a number of which were doubles. Then I started losing almost every pike I hooked. A fish of 8lb at the net, a good 15lb plus whilst live baiting, an unseen heavy fish and then the biggest pike I've ever hooked.

A fish of easily 25lb was lost for no apparent (at the time) reason, I fought this fish for a good few minutes, a solid and very long river fish, easily capable of stripping 30/40yards of braid at will. But I was winning, heart pounding, fish on the surface a few rod lengths out, easing it towards the net when everything went slack.

That fish was lost on the 1st of November and I can still remember that gut wrenching, kick in the balls feeling after realising the fish was gone. I've been chasing a '20' from this river for years, they are rare fish, this was a special fish.

Trying to get my head around the run of lost fish lead to a closer look at my tackle. The only weakness I could see was my reel, Shimano 6010 GT's. Solid reels but the drag isn't the greatest, fine if you back wind but I don't. The drag on my Shimano's needed a good 'jerk' to engage, then it was fine, I'm convinced that the jerky action of the drag costing me fish. I looked into servicing but was advised that parts are no longer made. Time for a change.

I ordered a pair of Shimano 6000 OC and haven't looked back. Solid reels, a bit bigger and more blingy than I'm used to, but they are a quality bit of kit. The drag is very smooth, no jerky action and I'm glad to say it stopped my loss of fish.

I continued my pursuit for a twenty from my local, often visiting the spot I'd lost the big one from, catching a few upto 13lb 6oz.

The largest and best looking pike of the year

River conditions suffered with some snow melt but I was still catching the odd pike and caught a p.b equalling perch.

2lb 4oz, equal p.b

I also started to get the odd chub on deadbait, always after the light had faded, these went to 4lb 4oz, my best from this river.

A solid chub on dead bait

My final session was a visit to a canal, hard going but good fun, we landed 5 pike between us, all taken on lives fished in the upper layers. Ben caught the lions share but I managed the largest.

Final fish of the year, an urban pike

2016 highlights -

Barbel - 8lb 5oz
Bleak - d.n.w
Bream - approx 12oz
Chub - 4lb 4oz
Dace - approx 6oz
Eel - 2lb 8oz
Grayling - approx 12oz
Perch - 2lb 4oz*
Pike - 13lb 6oz
Tench - 2lb 14oz.

* equals my personal best

Not my greatest year but we can't all be Terry Lampard!

Anyway 2017 has started well, hopefully I can get something up in the next day or two.

A quick catch up

A hectic couple of months has seen my blog entries dry up, I've started a few posts but have never found the time to finish and publish them. Thankfully things are beginning to settle at home and a job change a month or so ago means more spare time for fishing.

I've continued my eel and tench campaigns, however I'm still some distance from achieving my targets but I feel like I'm heading in the right direction

A quick sum up of the last couple of months
Eel sessions -

Only 3 attempts since my last update, on a different water on each occasion, 2 eels landed and 2 lost.

The fish landed went 1lb 12oz and 2lb 4oz.

Whilst fishing a carp water I lost an eel of about 3lb at the net and on my most recent session I lost an eel which felt huge, completely in a different league to any eel I've hooked before, unfortunately it slipped the hook after about 10 seconds and I didn't get to see it.

Tench sessions -

Just the 2 tench sessions, the first on a mature gravel pit that I have been waiting to fish for a year. The session was a bit of a disappointment, water still a bit cold no sign of any tench but a nice 2lb + perch as consolation prevented the blank.

2.02lb, worm, lift method

The next session was closer to home, I managed a tench first cast but it was only a few ounces. My caster and chopped worm approach was all wrong for thus water as I struggled to get past the perch, a switch to pellet later in the session saw me land a few more tench but the were all small, the largest was just shy of 3lb.

Barbel distractions -

I was planning on waiting until September before fishing the rivers but a chance to fish opening day saw me on the bank on the evening of the 15th awaiting a midnight start. A disappointing session really, a few knocks nothing more. A second session saw a visit to my banker peg, but again another blank. A short barbel session on my local river (barbel blanks are the norm) saw a solitary chub landed. Another visit to the same stretch as opening day, Ben and I both landed our first barbel of the season, both fish were bests for us both from this river.

8lb 14oz for Ben, mine 8lb 4oz

That's things up to date, I'll be focusing on my eel and tench targets during July and August, in fact I'm out tomorrow evening for a few hours tench fishing on a hard water, a probable blank but the water is capable of throwing up some decent fish.

The tench campaign (part 1) - A cold start

The tench campaign started on Sunday morning, a short session on a water that is still relatively new to me having only visited it twice previously. Arriving just before first light I felt the chill in the air and noticed the clear sky whilst unlocking the gate. The night anglers car windscreens had frosted over and a quick check on line confirmed over night temperatures had dropped to 0°C. Immediately I thought it would be a struggle, however whilst having a quick walk around the lake a few fish started topping, mainly bits but also a few decent carp started crashing.

I decided on a peg in a bay on the northern bank of the lake as this seemed to have the most activity. The water is fairly coloured so is relatively weed free so decided to use my lighter tench rods, one with a small method feeder and the second rod with a small in line maggot feeder. Both rods were already setup so it wasn't too much after 06:00 when I had them both in the water. I also setup a third rod to fish the lift method in the margin, this water has a two rod rule so I had to bring in a feeder rod to fish the margin.

This seasons tench setup for weed free waters - 12ft 1.25lb Series 7 avons, Shimano 5010 baitrunners, 6lb Hyper-sensor. A small method feeder (l) and an in line maggot feeder (r)

I was using a korum 'grub' feeder for the first time, I was slightly hesitant when buying these feeders as there are a few scathing on line reviews. Many users complain about the feeders opening up when hitting the water, but I'm pleased to say I suffered no such problems. On the method feeder I was using a micro pellet method mix I had some success with last year. The mix consists of dampened 2mm coarse pellets, a handful of robin red ground bait and a few ground robin red boilies. Hook bait with this mix is a 10mm robin red boilie.

I caught a number of tench last year on robin red and now have a lot of confidence in it as a tench bait, also on the waters where I tried the mix the bream didn't seem as keen to take it. I still caught a few bream on this mix but at the time I was using another mix of pellets and molasses and caught far more bream on this mix.

Top - robin red based mix and molasses based mix.
Bottom - small method feeder

During the session I didn't get any interest on the method rod, as expected I had some interest in maggot rig but probably nothing more than small silvers. I fed maggot and worm in the margin throughout the session, hoping to see some sign of tench but again there wasn't much happening. A blank to start the tench campaign it was a short session when I didn't really expect to catch. A good chance to shake out of the tench gear though, still a few bits to short out, spooling new line and a few bits to get from the tackle shop etc.....

A positive note -  during a quick chat to an old chap he revealed that he caught an eel there the day before, a decent size (2lb10oz) I suspected that eels would be in the water as access is reasonably easy but this was the first time I have heard of one being caught.

My next tench session will be on a water closer to home, full of weed, very low stock but a definite challenge.

Latest pit session

My most recent session the clay pit was on Saturday, again targeting the bream and tench with a third rod out for the eels.

Bream/tench setup - 1.25lb series 7 avon, Shimano 5010, 8lb Hypersensor, 25g method feeder, 6lb sink braid to a size 12 super specialist.

           Bait - pellet based method mix, with different 10mm boilies for each species.

Eel setup - DLST P2, 8010, 50lb powerpro, running rig with homemade ledger stem to 20lb wire trace and a size 10 ESP Raptor T6.

           Bait - worms and squid. Small silvers are impossible to catch on this water.

I decided to move back to the first peg that I had fished on this water. It has a large gravel bar running parallel to the marginal reeds which I was hoping would hold some good tench, one rod would be cast here, the other in open water for the bream.

I bought some squid to try as a change bait for the eels, usually I prefer roach heads, but there seems to be very few small fish in this water, probably due to the large number of cormorants nearby. It took a couple of hours to get some interest in any of the baits offered and it was the squid on the eel rod which was taken first.

Squid caught eel.

The eel wasn't particularly large but up to that point it was a blank saver. An hour passed, nothing was happening so I decided to try and grab an hours sleep. Less than a minute after I laid on the bedchair the alarm from the open water rod sounded. I knew it was a bream straight away and it felt a decent weight but even on this light(ish) gear it didn't put up much of a fight and it was soon netted. Whilst the bream was resting in the landing net the margin rod ripped off, a definite tench take. After a good scrap, in which the tackle was well tested a good tench shared the net with the bream. A possible p.b bream and a good tench in the net, well pleased.

The bream did beat my best by 9oz, with the scales settling at 9lb exactly, the tench went 5lb 7oz.

Rain was forecast for about 10:00 so I had a quick sort out, recast the rods (the eel rod was left on the bank) and decided to try and get some sleep. I was briefly woken at midday when Ben caught a bream of about 4 and 1/2lb, but then I went undisturbed until 16:00 when I had top pack away and get ready for a night shift.

Only 3 fish to my rods this session a p.b bream, a good tench, a nice eel and 5 hours sleep a good session in my eyes!

Exactly 9lb

5lb 7oz

I've been having a lot of trouble with eel runs on this water, probably because the water contains lots of bootlaces. Many unhittable runs, loads of baits whittled down to nothing etc.... I thought squid might work and it did to some extent, but I'm hoping for a bigger eel from this water, which will be difficult as I can't fish beyond 17:00.

Next time I'm at the water I'll try fishing squid or worms on the dyson rig, hopefully the suspended bait will put off the smaller eels and allow the bigger one more time to find the bait.

I'm heading to a day ticket carp water in the morning, I've never fished it before and can't find much info on the place. Hoping for a good day as I'll be heading home soon and won't be fishing anywhere near as much as I am now, but on the plus side I'll be able to fish my local rivers again.

Still on the stillwaters

With the nearest 'proper' river an hours drive away, I'm continuing to fish the stillwaters local to my accommodation.

On Tuesday I was back on the clay pit for my second session, conditions were less than ideal, bright, hot and a flat calm. I knew the session was going to be difficult and I feel I did well to avoid a blank.

After many missed runs I connected with one and landed an eel, nothing massive but a decent start.

Scaling down to a size 10 was need to hook this eel

I also managed a decent hybrid before calling it a day.

Wednesday I headed to the farm pond again, two rods for the carp and one for the eels. I've never seen an eel from this water but I've been told that the odd one comes out.

I was fishing 15mm boilies on a rod tight to some reeds and 10mm's on my second rod, which was placed near the pads. The smaller bait was the first taken and shortly after a  small tench was landed. A couple more tench and a bream of about 4 pound were also caught on this rod.

One of three farm pond tench during the session, the largest getting on for two and a half pounds.

The only take from a carp was on the rod with a 15mm bait on, unfortunately I lost the carp in the reeds.

On Thursday I fished the clay pit again, a different peg this time, similar tactics, again hopeful that the bream and tench would show.

I didn't have to wait long for the first fish, an eel took a worm bait within a few minutes of it being in the water, again nothing of size but a welcome start.

The first fish on the bream/tench gear was a 7lb 4oz bream, caught on a 10mm boilie/method feeder approach.

The second fish was a bit of a surprise and probably had outgrown someones garden pond. An 8lb 8oz grass carp picked up the bait and gave a good account of itself before it was reluctantly netted. Being only the second grass carp I have landed, the first being a pound or so, this was a definite p.b.

Next up was a hybrid of 5lb 4oz, definitely the biggest I have caught, so another p.b. The next two fish were both tench, my new p.b of 6lb 12oz and a male tench of 4lb 14oz. Both fish came to a method mix that I had specifically made for tench.

4lb 14oz male and a new p.b of 6lb 12oz

 The final fish of the session was a bream of over 5 pounds.

(top to bottom) 7lb 14oz, 5lb 4oz, 5lb 4oz, 4lb 14oz and 6lb 12oz)

Although I'm missing the rivers I'm really enjoying fishing for these bream and tench. I'm hoping to fit another session or two on the clay pit before my short term contract is over and then I'll be hitting the rivers again.

P.b Tench

I'm struggling for time to post updates from my most recent sessions, but as I have 2 minutes spare I thought I would share my new p.b tench.

A new best - caught from a mature clay pit, on a boilie/method feeder approach.

I also had a few other decent fish during this session, hopefully I can post a full update in the next day or so.