Conrad's Barbel Fishing Blog

I do not name the barbel venues that I fish out of respect for my fellow anglers and venue rules. Please do not ask for specific information regarding barbel venues, then I will not have to refuse.

You may have also noticed that species other than barbel keep appearing here. That's because I have no control over the weather and I like trotting and fly fishing.

I had a word with Geoff ‘GCB’ about my lack of success on the Ouse and asked his opinion of where I should have a go.  Geoff knows his onions about the Yorkshire rivers and so I set off after work on Friday eager to find the peg. After walking almost the whole stretch I found the peg – guess what? It was the same peg that I was in the previous Wednesday.  The river was pretty low, even lower than it had been but me and Ricky settled in for a longish session.

The swim screams barbel to be honest, just after a bend with a deep channel near the bank running under a long row of willows. Bottom rod in this channel – top rod mid river in the boating channel.  PVA bag of pellets and pellet or boilie on the hook and left in for an hour at a time. The evening was pleasant but there was a chill in the air as the cloud cover vanished leaving an impressive star strewn sky. Not too many meteors this time of year, the summer random meteors that are not associated with recognised meteor showers are diminishing now and there are no major showers now until the Geminids in December. I like meteor showers so I know a bit about em.

So the rod tips remained motionless all evening and we packed up at 12:30 or so. As we walked back up to the van we saw an amazing celestial sight. The most blood red moon rise I have ever witnessed. It was simply stunning – was there a partial eclipse? I really wished that I had the camera equipment to catch this – it was very dark red indeed. By the time we had walked up from the river, loaded the van and demisted the windscreens the moon was a more orange colour. It’s not often you see anything like that.

So once again the Ouse defeated me. Should I keep at it or wait for a good flood? One thing is for sure I won’t be giving up!

Conrad

On Wednesday evening after work I went on a river near my place of work. I have yet to catch a barbel from the river and this was my second visit. I approached from the opposite bank to my last trip which allowed me to see more of the stretch. Like a coward I went for the weir pool this time, oh I fished the weir pool last time too come to think of it.

Anyhow first things first.

Wednesday was a hot day, in fact it was positively roasting when I got there at about 5:30pm, however the night before it got pretty cold so I took a couple of extra layers with me. It was about an 800 yard yomp across some industrial wasteland to the top of the stretch but I wanted to have a good look round. About 150 yards above the bottom of the stretch there are some very interesting looking swims with deep water at the right pace and plenty of far bank cover. The river is quite narrow here so it is easy to introduce the hook bait with the minimum of disturbance so I quite fancied it. However it was a nice day and there were several pleasure anglers on this part of the stretch – it’s nearer to the car park and there are nice comfy platforms to fish from. The distance between the platforms is very generous so actually it’s not too bad – I will try them when the weather is more ‘off putting’ I think.

I came to a huge willow tree that went practically right across the river and so I thought that the swim above would be an excellent vantage point from which to fish. So did the only barbel angler on the whole stretch, a lad a bit younger than me who was just setting up and clearly knew what he was doing. He also knew the river well and once he realised I was marginally above numpty level he was quite forthcoming, telling which of the lower pegs were good at different water levels. He fished the river regularly and had some good success, he was not prone to exaggeration and seemed to know his onions. I will honour his advice by not sharing it with anyone

I went up the ‘manicured’ part of the stretch until the 8ft high balsam won out and I was forced to return to the rough tundra to progress upstream. Despite having very little tackle (not an invitation for any wry comments from the likes of Dave Burr) and wearing only a tee shirt,  my fly fishing vest and a pair of jeans I was getting rather hot and bothered. By the time I got to the weir I was lathered!

I realised that the weir pool was MUCH bigger than I remembered and immediately wished that I had brought the 2 Torrixes (Torri?) instead of the little 9ft wand which I had fitted with isotopes after my Tuesday night experience. There was evidence of a certain type of angler in the 2 weir pool swims. The sort that use bits of trees as rod rests and leaves carrier bags with writing in a language that I don’t understand. The fact that they had left the carrier bags was encouraging in a way.The bottom part of the stretch is well bailiffed and day tickets must be bought so I guess the poachers walk up there hoping to avoid the wrath of the bailiff who has zero tolerance of such things by all accounts.

I fished well across the river above a willow that had an obvious gulley running above it cut by the current on the bend just below the weir. I was getting knocks and twitches from chub almost immediately but nothing materialised. I left the bait in place for an hour at a time and on a couple of occasions snagged up on bits of tree. Generally I could tell when this had happened by the lack of attention from chub, there must have been hundreds of what I would class as large twigs littering the bottom just off the main flow.

Dusk fell and I was sharing the bank with bats n rats, the insect life also got somewhat more bothersome until the sun went well below the horizon and it got bloody cold. I wished at that point that I was wearing thermal underwear but walking in thermals in the daytime heat was out of the question. Funny time of year – but I quite like it all the same.

I fished from 6:30pm until 10:30pm and blanked. It was not a wasted journey though as I found a few other good looking swims and got some local knowledge which is invaluable.

I’ll be back!

Conrad

Decided to go for a few hours last night on a local river. It was a last minute decision so it was dark when I arrived at the river at 9pm. There was considerably more weed growth and cover than last time I had been there and so I fished where there was some cover and very little evidence of other anglers. I picked a swim well up the stretch and got out the little 9 foot Bob Gill wonder wand. A short rod really seems to help me get the bait under the overhanging branches, presumably because of the lower trajectory from the 9ft rod when underarm casting. I am slowly improving my underarm casting but I’m no Tref West, Tony Rocca or Graham Elliot all of whom really make me feel like hanging my head in shame. Anyhow I dropped in the pva bag really close to a tree where there was a deep gully and an over hanging tree downstream. There are always a few fish under that tree and in this particular swim not too many chub. So given the conditions I was surprised that I had not had any action whatsoever, particularly as the bait had been so well placed. I lifted the lead and dropped it back down – all ok, it’s fine – not snagged. Something is wrong I’m sure, so I left it 10 more minutes then retrieved.  Yes folks my lead was on the bottom but my hook was in a frond of willow just a few inches underwater – what a plonker! Still not much swim disturbance so I repeated the pattern and introduced a handful of pellets upstream. I was more conservative with the cast and fished well in front of the foliage this time and I clearly saw the 2 sets of ripples one from the lead and the other from the pva bag. Once again a small lift – not snagged. So I sat there for 10 minutes touch legering as I have no isotope on the little stalker rod, immediately I could tell that there were fish in the swim, just little tremors and plucks. Wait for the big pull Conrad – I tensed up like a spring for 5 minutes at least, then I decided to light up so put the baitrunner on. Now a Shimano 4000D baitrunner is pretty quiet so while I lit up I heard what sounded like a creaky old bicycle wheel – there is a path used by cyclists nearby and I was thinking that the guy must be mad cycling without a light on. Doh! It was the baitrunner! Shit Shit and double shit! I picked up the rod only to find to my good fortune that the barbel attached to the end had made a run for the middle of the river and was some 15-20 yards downstream on a straight and deep bit of river.  I was obviously engaged in battle at the moment but I still found time to curse my stupidity! I do not use the baitrunner in such situations normally but I am very thankful that I did on this occasion. Obviously the baitrunner is useful when you have to do something else and it this case undoubtedly saved my rod – but in the dark some visual indication is essential. I will be fitting an isotope this afternoon to the rod as I’m having a session tonight for a few hours. The fish, once it realised it was hooked ran me up river stopping to have a few attempts at getting under the tree canopies on the way up, ping ping ping ping twang went the line as it brushed the willow fronds. After about 2 minutes she was in the net and a lovely looking fish. She weighed 11lb 6oz and really made my night, especially after a particularly shitty day! So after the photo the fish was recovered and returned it was about 22:50, home or another swim?

Another swim on the way back to the van of course.  I found a deep channel in between two lots of bull rushes and adopted exactly the same approach only this time I touch legered the whole time. Never once letting go of the line and boy was it interesting in this swim. Plucks and tugs from chub after 10 minutes which was good because I knew that the bait was in the right place. I am not that experienced at this, sitting on your hands is one thing when a chub is rattling the rod tip but when you can feel the line between your fingers it is a whole different ball game. Eventually the barbel bite came and I will never forget it, a slight tremor and ten such power! I was in again, yippee! This one was much easier because I was on top of it and it was a smaller fish of around 7lb, fantastic!

I learned a fair bit last night, I love touch legering in the dark as the mist forms over a little river. I love that little 9ft stalker rod and I can tell you that the Dave Mason/Tref West method of fishing small rivers is deadly – seems to work almost all the time for me. I do love these little rivers and I love this time of year, you can get 2-3 hours in under the cover of darkness and still get up for work – if you stay local.

After an interlude with a Novice angler on Friday who caught a few barbel it was time to get on with the quest to catch barbel from lots of different rivers, I am now trying the last few rivers of North Yorkshire and let me tell you now – they are rock hard!

I fished the Ouse near York for 7 hours on Sunday and I fished it hard. I took Ricky again because he lives in Wakefield and it’s only a small detour when I’m going North. We had a look at a weirpool first which just did not inspire me for some reason so I went to the same venue that I had visited on Wednesday. The river looked dour and lifeless and I admit that I did not feel that confident. However we selected a swim where the river narrowed and there was a big obvious snag feature. I was pretty sure that there would be some fish there. There was a match on the opposite bank at the top of the stretch and one or two other anglers so we went well downstream out of the way, mind you with the boat traffic who cares! Not keen on pleasure craft infested rivers, it’s fine on the Trent because it is so wide but on the Ouse it make s a big disturbance. Mind you it is a very deep river – much more suited to bream than barbel in my opinion.

So I set my stall out – 10 droppers of pellets and hemp above the snag, left it an hour then introduced a pva bag gently into the 12 foot deep gulley. Ricky put in about 6 feeders and did something similar in the boating channel. There is not much else to say – it got cold, it rained and despite fishing until dark neither of us had a touch.  I was somewhat dejected to say the least. Ricky had a good kip!

I will keep trying but I have to ask myself why I am there – I’m certainly not enjoying it – but I do feel the pull of the challenge.

Conrad

I went to Yorkshire river where I have yet to catch a barbel last night, it was my second visit – my first visit was in my very early barbel fishing days and to be honest I was pretty clueless so in effect it was my first serious attempt.  There was a fair old yomp down to the river 1/2 mile down a track and then across a field but fortunately Ricky had come so I wasn’t overladen with stuff – nor was Ricky I hasten to add. I had the roving bait bag with a bucket, tackle box, leads, my hat, coat, camera and weighing scales and an additional bait bucket and Ricky had the bedchair, bivvy, 3 rod holdalls, 2 pods and a strimmer Well he’s half my age and deserves it! Actually he had the rods and a chair so it was pretty comfortable although we did walk downhill to the river as you might expect. I mentioned that it may be somewhat harder on the way back – especially if we blanked.

We found a nice wide swim where we could both fish on a bend with a sunken tree downstream – this is a big deep river and has plenty of water in it so fish location is not always easy. I thought that the bend and the near bank channel was a potential holding area and that was all I had to offer. We adopted 2 approaches, one down the edge pva bag first and then a few loose fed freebies and a feeder over in the middle. We were banking on the area being a patrol route and so left the baits in for an hour at a time. That meant only 3 casts each.

As dusk approached there was a huge splash – barbel! Was it hell it was a 20lb + pike which wreaked havoc  just above our swim – it was chasing everything that moved and it was a lump of a fish. To be fair it was a good 15 yard above my bait and Ricky’s was probably 20 yards away in 12 feet of water so I’m not sure that it had much impact. In hindsight I should have brought the stalker rod and a few plugs because the fish have surely been mine.

Just before dark I got a few little knocks and then a good pull that took some line off the baitrunner. The bait was immediately dropped so I thought chub! Of course it could have been a bream or even an eel I’ll never know.

The only other action on either rod tip before we packed up at 11:30 pm was the action imparted by bats as they brushed the line. I thought that we fished well and with good discipline so the fish just weren’t there. At this time of year if they are there they tend to be feeding so I conclude that they just were not there – I’m confident that there was nothing wrong with our approach.

I have liked to have enjoyed the tranquillity of being by the river at night but it was as noisy as hell. On the opposite bank there were several hundred Canada geese ‘settling’ in for the night, there were at least 3 barn owls and 2 tawny owls having a contest to be heard above the geese and in the field at the back of us a bull with a bad cough. Sounded like a bloody building site that bull, like some kind of machine malfunctioning – poor fellah didn’t sound well at all.  All in all it was a right bloody cacophony!

So two blanks on the trot – fortunately I’m taking a mate fishing for the first time in his life on Friday evening and I’ll be taking him to the Trent. That should end the run of blanks alright. ‘Blanking on the Trent at this time of year is something of an art form’ to paraphrase a mate of mine.

Conrad

After a poor night’s sleep on Friday I set off to Nottingham to meet Rich Walker – we were to fish the Kennet until darkness and then move to the Loddon. The wild optimist in me thought that I might just catch on both rivers whereas the pragmatic part of me thought that I might catch one out of the Kennet if I was lucky.

I made my way through that bloody tortuous ring road in Nottingham which is mainly 30 mph and a bit of 40 mph and seems to take for ever and got to Richards just after 10 am. We made good time although only saw one red kite which is most unusual for that journey – the Notts forest fans travelling to Reading must have put them off.  We went to the Reading angling centre and got the necessary permits. I bought a RDAA book as I have relatives who have just bought a flat near Maidenhead and hope to get use out of it before the end of the season.

Kennet

We fished a very well known and supposedly heavily fished area but as visitors on short notice we had limited choices. We settled in our swims for about 2:30pm where we would stay until 8:30 pm. The venue was far too busy on a Saturday for roving about.  We both had promising looking swims with trees right across the river, good depth and flow as well as loads of cover. The river was wide enough to fish 2 rods and so I fished one down the edge in front of a raft formed by the tree. I fished this with a small bomb and a pva bag and a cluster of small pellets. This worked on a highly pressured fishery in the Midlands a few weeks previously so I tried it again. I fished 2 x 10 mm pellets and a very tightly packed small feeder right over in the far corner formed by the tree and the far bank. This pocket of water was 8 feet deep and just below a gravel bar with streamer weed.  I was pretty confident that I would get a fish out of there especially as the river was up slightly and carrying a bit of colour.

At about 16:15 the inside rod started to knock – just 1 inch and only twice.  I was on the phone to Tom Herbert who we were meeting later – he was telling me how hard it was to catch on that particular stretch. I decided that I had better concentrate and at 16:20 the 3 foot twitch came. I picked up the rod and held on as the fish was pretty close to a snag, I gained a few feet of line when the fish decided that it really liked the tree and gained the line back so we were back where we started. I was clamped up tight but a sudden lunge actually tore the rod out of my right hand. I was hanging on by the end of the butt – exiting stuff. The fish definitely took me by surprise, it didn’t pull any harder than any other barbel really but I was caught unaware. I grabbed the rod and gave it a good heave ho and the fish came up 4 feet and I was again in charge. I few moments later I had my first Kennet fish in the net. This one was slightly hump backed and had a big gut – must have come from up North

It only weighed 8lb 4 oz but I was delighted with it all the same – river number 16 for me. Once again I learned something else about barbel fishing, I am really enjoying fishing the different venues. It is most satisfying.

I had to wait some time for my next fish which came at around 7pm on the other rod. I had been leaving my baits in as long as I dared and was just about to re-bait when the rod slammed over, again preceded by a few small plucks on the rod. This fish was a right handful for the first 20 secs, we were in a stalemate situation where the fish was hugging the bottom and I was trying to pull it upstream to no avail. Eventually it came up and again it was in the bag. This fish weighed exactly 9lb but was without a doubt the best looking barbel I have ever caught. The photo is pretty good but cannot possibly do the fish justice – it truly was perfect.

We fished until 8:30 or so when we had to pack up and move to the Loddon where we would meet Tom Herbert for an overnight session.

Loddon story to follow…….

Loddon

We made the 20 minute trip to the Loddon armed with some directions from Tom Herbert who had our guest tickets and we were to meet on the bank.  We found Tom’s van no problem and one phone call and a 350 yard yomp later we found Tom in a secluded swim in a canopy between two trees. The river was small -  not dissimilar from a few of the rivers that I had been fishing lately. My knee had suffered a bit for the yomp, mainly due to the fact that I had a Korum chair with me. Awkward bloody thing to carry that thing. So Tom and Richard went to look for a couple of swims while I watched Tom’s rods. I must say that I was impressed that Tom had the line well pinned to the deck and the rods nice and low – looked the part Tom!

I ended up in a swim with an overhanging willow downstream and some weed directly in front, I had to spend a few minutes dropping the lead to find the clear patches of gravel but it did not prove too difficult. I fished a bolilie supplemented with a pva bag and then loose fed on top and left the baits alone for 3 hours. I checked the baits only once throughout the night and despite struggling to stay awake I managed – just about but I was feeling rough. This turned out to be a full blown cold that wiped me out for 3 days but I did not know that at the time.

I think that there were 8 anglers who fished the stretch over night and none of them had so much as a tiny twitch all night. I take my hat off to the Loddon regulars, it is a tough venue. However I feel challenged by my experience and will just have to return.

It was a pleasure to see Tom again and thanks for the help mate – I’ll come and bother you again soon if you’ll have me.

I still feel a bit shitty after the virus/cold/man flu but I am going to have a go tonight, again somewhere new but much closer to home – hopefully it will blast the cobwebs off and make me feel human again. I understand that it is a 1/2 mile walk down to the river……………great!

My wife is away in London at a huge event at the O2, she is part of  the team in charge of decorating some of the reception areas, so I’m home alone until Monday. I decided to take Wednesday afternoon off to complete the ‘little North Yorkshire river’ challenge should it be necessary. I caught one Tuesday night so I decided to go to the Teme for the first time.

The Teme valley might be one of the most beautiful places on earth as far as my sensibilities go. It’s lush, green, sparsely populated and has proper undulating hills and loads of wildlife. There is an abundance of Buzzards rather like the Wye valley, as well as plenty of other wildlife -  I enjoyed the drive there immensely.

I arrived at about 3pm and had a walk around the fishery – I picked out 4 or possibly 5 swims. I watched a few fish and the way that they respond to pellets, I would describe the response as immediate. When you throw pellets near them they bolt, go downstream 10 yards and then immediately move up and start feeding in earnest. This does not happen when you introduce a lead and hook, that splosh and thud as the lead hits the bottom – they leave and don’t come back for a long while.  Armed with this knowledge and new observation I tried something a bit different, well different for me at least. I introduced the hookbait and pva bag first and picked swims where I did not have to cast as such, just lowered the bait in to minimise the thud of the lead hitting the  bottom. I then loose fed a handful of pellets over the top, just above a feature to draw the fish out and over the baited area where my hook bait lay in wait. It didn’t work! Well not at first at least. The first two raft swims did not seem to have any fish in them. So I tried some deep gulleys with no obvious cover, just deep water and repeated the same method. The result was immediate, within 5 minutes I got my first Teme barbel – only about 7lb but very lovely indeed – that’s UK river number 15!

As soon as I returned the fish I moved to another swim with a deep gulley and gave it 20 minutes, nothing doing so I lifted the lead and 6 bloody barbel bolted out of the gulley where my hookbait was – bugger! I should have left it a bit longer.

I had to be off the fishery by dark so fished from 4 until 8:30 pm and then set off back to the van. I ended up with 3 barbel, all about the same size,all wonderfully lean hard fighting fish.  On this day all the fish came out of the deeper holes and not from under or near features. It was really nice to catch a few fish in the bright sunlight, it was a lovely warm day and very pleasant indeed. I also had a good walk again which is doing me good.

There was one swim that I caught from that was easy to get down but not so easy to get out of! The slightest bit of rain and I’d have been stuffed, requiring a farmer and an engine hoist to extract me. Definitely a river for the mountain goat and not the rotund from up North!

I shall return to the Teme soon, definitely my kind of fishing. I bet it’s interesting when it’s in flood – bit dangerous though.

Taking the opportunity of being able to please myself I shall be invading the South of England this weekend and hopefully fishing 2 more rivers for the first time. Counting the number of rivers is much more fun than counting the number of barbel caught – so much more rewarding fishing different venues. All subtly different on the day and I am learning lots as I go.

Looking forward to the weekend.

Conrad

On my mobile contacts list the 5th Dan on the list is Dan Birkett who is a very splendid chap indeed and knows his onions about North Yorkshire rivers. I sent him a pretty desperate email on Tuesday morning asking him which stretch I should go on. He told me of a place that required a bit of work to get to the bank but there are a good head of fish, roving approach best. OK then I’ll try there, I’m into this roving approach when my knee is co-operating. I needed a Machete for this one and didn’t have one so I rang Ricky who has lots of dodgy contacts

I said to Ricky

‘Do you want to come along? No lolloping mind – it’s stealthy stuff this one, even more than last night.’

‘Do I get to use the Machete?’

‘Yes, you can be the Sherpa – there are some Himalayan items that I need you to take care of.’

‘Thought Sherpas were a shit van.’

‘Ricky?’

‘What?’

‘Shaddap!’

We arrived at 7:30 pm  then found a hint of a path down the side of a field. Approximately 40 yards from the river it started; a sea of purple flowers ejaculating every time the wind blows – that would get on your nerves after a while I should think! I must also mention the field, it is by far the most uneven ground I have ever walked on, I think that it was peat and was comprised of loads of little tussocks of springy grass with ankle damaging channels in between them. The grass made these channels undetectable until you trod on one, hard going stuff!

Ricky went off with the Machete to see if he could find the river bank , he found it eventually then on the way back he disturbed a male pheasant by nearly treading on it. It flew up only inches in front of his face it that clumsy ‘ball of  feathers’ way that a pheasant does when taking off and made an almighty racket. Ricky was ‘surprised’ by the bird’s ungainly flight – in fact he absolutely shit himself and swore like ballyhoo. He  then proceeded to swear at me because quite honestly I laughed so much I nearly wet myself!

Anyway we eventually got to the river and something that looked as though it had been a swim of sorts as there was a bit of a clearing. I ensconced myself in there as there was a good flow and a nice far bank tree feature – snaggy but sure to hold a few fish. It was pretty late so I would not be able to rest the swim as long as I liked but out went a few pellets followed by a 1.5 oz bomb, pellet on the hook and a pva bag.  I cast pretty close to the snag and held the rod. Dan had told me that if fish were there the bites would come fairly quickly, I certainly hoped so because to rove on here you would need a whole team of real Sherpas not one lad from Wakefield with a Machete.

At dusk I got the first bite – I lifted the rod smartly but in less than a second the whole lot went solid – I was fishing too close to the snag it seems. The bite was one of the most violent I have ever known – at least at that point it was. About 10:30 I got the second bite, I was fishing much further away from the snag and this bite was amazing – the fish took line off a tightened clutch before I had lifted the rod up. I had the clutch tight and the bait-runner off so for a fish to take line like that on the bite was, to me at least, a new experience. This was not the customary 3 foot twitch but a high velocity take that would have dragged the rod in immediately if I had not had hold of it. I had the fish on for a good 4 or 5 seconds as the fish tore off downstream. Ping – hook- pull! ‘Oh Dear.’ – I said. Mind you there was a scale on the hook so it may well have been foul hooked in the tail or something, hence the fish achieving terminal velocity!

By now I was feeling a bit glum, it felt like I was never going to get a barbel out of this river. Suddenly there was a huge splash as a big barbel came out  and thwacked it’s tail onto the water before disappearing into the inky blackness. It was close enough for me to see that it was a barbel despite it being dark by now.  At 11 pm I got a normal regular run of the mill 3 foot twitch and finally got my barbel – the first on the 9ft stalker rod which is a pokey little number and does the job with great aplomb. The fish was a little over 7 lbs I estimate but was perfectly formed and looked gorgeous to me – river number 14 done.

I was up for work in the morning so we only stayed another 30 minutes before leaving. Nowt but a few chub knocks for Ricky but to be fair his pellet was in a far bank tree for the last hour –

We’ve all done it!

Conrad

Had another go on the little North Yorkshire river last night – this time the car park swim that had produced an 8lber on Saturday. Got there about 7:30 for one reason or another and had Ricky with me, just for company and to show him the stealthy non Trent approach to fishing. I’m sure that he learned a lot as well.

Baited up and left the swim for 40 minutes or so and then introduced the bait and pva bag with a gentle plop. Bullseye! Just above a raft formed under an overhanging tree as close as I dare get. A gentle lift, not snagged – good. So we waited an hour before re-baiting and introducing another PVA bag in exactly the same place. We were quiet and did everything right but an hour after darkness we had not had so much as a knock.

So off we went to the swim that I had 4 chub from on Saturday – this swim holds fish. It has more pace and there has got to be barbel under that tree, I’m tempted to take a photo of it next time I go.

Interestingly my attempts at concealing the swim had failed and someone had flattened down more Balsam and made a much larger space. They had also produced a potential hazard for the unwary by flattening the balsam and grass down facing forward forming a canopy over the water. This canopy was indistinguishable from the bank edge but my memory (unusually) kicked in and I probed around with the bank stick to find the edge. Glad I did because this canopy was about 5 feet wide and under it was 4 feet of pretty fast water. So ‘wellie-full’ avoided I set about fishing – again my dropping in of the hook was exactly where I wanted it and I got comfy. The 6 foot high Balsam made a nice windbreak – it was very cosy and very boring! I started to yawn and with the prospect of work the next day I called it a day at 11:30pm.

I know that I am approaching the venue correctly and I have to say I was disappointed to have the first blank of the season! So I will do more research on this particular river and will not stop until I have caught a barbel from it.

Has anyone guessed which river it is?

Conrad

There are some Yorkshire rivers that I have never fished, so I went to one of them on Saturday. This particular river is a quite small one, suits roving tactics and more importantly suits my newly acquired 9 foot Bob Gill stalker rod. So I was travelling light and had some info on the stretch from my mate Ken Jones – York stick float angler extraordinaire.  He’s no slouch with the barbel either!

It was a fair walk and I walked the entire stretch, settling on 3 swims a long way from the car park.  It was proper jungle warfare, I had to make two of the swims myself through 6 feet high Himalayan Balsam. I am not 6 feet high myself so there is no way anyone would have known I was there were it not for the torrent of expletives every time I put my hand or arms on a bunch of nettles as I hacked my way to the river. I flattened down a nice area next to the river and was glad that I had brought the nine footer!

On these small rivers in the summer I tend to just loose feed a few pellets in the likely looking areas and then leave the swim to rest. I actually got 40 minutes sunbathing time on the flood bank which was very pleasant. The middle swim was my banker swim which I intended to fish when the sun dropped below the far bank trees. I started fishing at about 5:30pm and had no interest and so had another walk and re-baited my other 2 swims and tried to do a bit of fish spotting. I spotted nothing but a shoal of dace

So at 7:30 I gingerly lowered my pellet, 1oz bomb and pva bag next to an overhanging willow with some perfect paced water and a nice deep pool under it. Above the willow was some streamer weed and on the far bank another overhanging tree. The river had narrowed here and I have never been more sure that there would be barbel in residence. At 8 pm the rod tip absolutely slammed round and I picked it up to find nothing there – bloody chub! Oh great, chub impersonating barbel bites – just the ticket.  This was the theme for the next 2 hours, no rattling of the rod tip just 4 more 3 foot twitches resulting in 4 chub which got gradually bigger and culminating in a nice 4.5lb fish that really was a bit of an handful. I can honestly say that these were the hardest fighting chub that I had ever caught -  I liked the stalker rod as well!  I never did go to the 3rd swim I thought I’d save it for another day. I had enjoyed myself and made a couple of swims which I concealed the best I could before I left. How mean is that ? 

There were 2 other anglers there who had picked the car park swims, which were still a 200 yard walk.  They weren’t leaving until 11pm and I asked them how they had gone on on my way back to car. One of them had an 8lb barbel and had lost another – so I am going back tonight after work and I am going to fish the car park swims if I can get on them. I suspect on a Monday night that this won’t be a problem.

Conrad

I have been fishing quite a bit lately but have been too busy to blog much of late so here is a summary.

Friday 6th August

I took my work mate Simon Goddard on the Trent for a few hours Friday and unsurprisingly caught a few barbel. I found a few problems but didn’t realise what was going on until after the fact. You may remember that I had to replace my terminal tackle because I left my bits bag on the banks of a well known Midlands river the previous Tuesday. I have used 20 lb Power Pro (ordered from eBay) for hook lengths for 2 seasons and been very happy with it. In the UK Shimano who now own power pro have seen fit to sell in in kg breaking strains. I figured that 9kg Power Pro would be the same as the US 20lb BS power pro and so bought some to use for hook lengths. Despite being made in the same factory in the USA the 9kg Power Pro has a much lower diameter. I tied a few hook lengths up and immediately thought, that doesn’t feel right. A few things happened that I feel I should mention, I will no doubt have the barbel police going  apoplectic but here goes:

• 3 fish we caught had cuts in the scissors – at the time I did not make the connection but the lower diameter Power Pro was causing this.  I am utterly dismayed that I caused this to happen.
• On two occasions the line escaped from between the small gap in the eye of the hook and the knotless knot actually unravelled.  I used to go through the eye twice after coming back up the hook with braid but for some reason had not done it and I paid the price, see Saturday 7th blog.

So this lower diameter Power Pro definitely damages fishes mouths and should not be used. In fact I have abandoned using Power Pro for hook lengths as a result. I am trying a few ‘kinder’ braids now.

Simon who is a relative novice caught a few fish and really enjoyed himself.

Saturday 7th August

Hobby and I went on another Midlands river on Saturday evening. We had not caught barbel from this river before but had both fished it once previously on perishingly cold weekend in March. So in our continuing quest to sample the delights of catching barbel from different UK rivers we set off at about 1pm. We had a stop along the way which resulted in us arriving at around 4pm. The stretch was very angler friendly, in fact too angler friendly for my liking. Park at the back of your peg type angler friendly…..mmmmm.

We had been assured by that irrepressible Midlander Carl Salter that there were fish to be had and Carl knows his onions, especially this river. So I set up in a peg that Carl assured me was a ‘banker’ peg and started to prepare my swim. The river had large amounts of weed and was low and clear which can be an advantage. I baited up two areas: – one just under my feet – a clear gravel patch  in 4 feet of water and one 2/3 across a deeper channel just the other side of some streamer weed. I put 5 droppers of mixed pellets on each area and left the swim alone for an hour after which I topped up with 2 more droppers, again leaving the swim to rest. Before the light faded a barbel moved slowly onto the area under my feet but never got down to feeding and drifted out of the swim slowly. There was a very active jack pike under my feet having a great feed on the smaller fish that had moved in on the feed. There were hundreds of fish in that swim including one or two decent sized chub, quite a sight until the sun started to go down.

I made my first cast at 7:30 pm and immediately started to get rattles on the rod tip.  Both rods were fishing the area 2/3 out, the top rod had a string of small pellets (Carl Salter tip) and the bottom rod had a bigger 14mm pellet on it. I had decided not to fish the nearside area until after dark.  When we arrived at 4pm the nearest angler to me was 3 swims away downstream and 6 swims away upstream. Hobby went right down to the bottom meadow where there were no anglers at all, however by 7pm I had an angler 1 swim below me and Hobby had 4 in the bottom meadow. The angler below me was casting every 5 minuets which wound me up no end, he must have put a few kilos of bait in before he started as well. I think that he was using a big feeder with sound of the big splosh – not appropriate for a low clear river with highly pressured fish I wouldn’t have thought – but I could be wrong.

At around 9pm I got a proper bite, like a chub that had hung itself but when I lifted the rod I could soon tell that it was not a chub. It was a barbel that I could still see in the fading light and it went berserk in the shallow water. Usually it’s only the smaller fish that swim around like nutters shaking their heads but this one turned out to be 8lb or so. I didn’t weigh the fish because no sooner had I landed it than my other rod went over and I had another barbel on, bloody hell I thought here we go

However I lost the fish, a hook pull – oh no not a dreaded hook pull. I retrieved my tackle only to see a hooklength minus a hook – bugger – a cut off? No look again Conrad actually the end of the hooklength has a little loop on it where one might put a pellet stop. The knotless knot had unravelled just like on Friday night – bloody buggering skinny Power Pro again.  I returned the fish in the net quickly as I thought that I had a shoal of barbel in full feeding mode but loosing the last fish must have spooked the shoal because I did not get another bite until 10:15 which turned out to be a lovely roach close to 2lb. I did get a photo of it which I will add later. I was very happy to catch a big roach like that, it’s been a while. It was an old brassy fish. At 11:15  I got another barbel on, this time I did suffer a hook pull and I can honestly say that my confidence in my terminal tackle was at an all time low.

We packed up at midnight Hobby had not even had a bite, nor had the splosher below me when we left. I had managed to catch a barbel of 8lb and so should have been happy but my confidence had been severely knocked. The big roach was some compensation however. Still a good week, 3 different rivers in one week and barbel from them all, I have now caught barbel from 13 different UK rivers.

Since then I have got some 12lb Drennan sink braid and some 15lb ESP Sink link which I like. I have also got some of my usual hooks which are Pallatrax  ‘the hook’. Really strong and sharp but a bit too shiny -  I use D7s when the sun is out. I have also started going back through the eye twice again!

I am taking one of my workmates fishing for barbel tonight. When I loaded up the van this morning I decided to check my little bait and bits bag for some reason and boy am I glad I did. My bait and bits bag is a bit like one of those Russian dolls, for contained within are another 2 bits bags, one containing my few small leads for little river fishing and the other containing terminal tackle; hooks, braid, swivels, beads, tulip beads, braid scissors, baiting needle, anti tangle bits etc.  Well that one must be at the top of the bank on the river Severn now, or rather gracing some other happy angler’s rucksack. I have just been to replace it with the essentials -

the cost -

75 bloody buggery shitting arseholing purple headed maggot knobin’  QUID

How much pain do I need this week? It must be the Karma Cops, so sorry Fred

First attempt at embedding video so that I can be totally unoriginal and jump on the band wagon like everyone else.

Conrad

Hooray 1

On a bit of a new venue intrepid explorer bent at the moment so on Monday night after work I was on yet another little river about 60 miles from home. I got there around 7:30 pm with the roving set-up and was really pleasantly surprised at the vista before me. A lovely little river flowing through a meadow with a weir at the top of the stretch and pretty much every type of classic barbel swim in the 500 yards from the top to the bottom. Really pretty and reasonably good access to the banks.

Richard had been before and had arrived a while before me and baited up a few swims, I set down what little tackle I had brought and we walked the stretch, which we had to ourselves. I was finding it difficult to choose where to fish as there were that many likely holding areas. I spotted a few chub and eventually settled on a swim just below a tree with a wide undulating length of streamer weed below me on the near bank. There was good flow here just after a bend and probably 4-6 feet of clear water just beyond the weed. A good supply of oxygen, food and cover – a recipe for barbel I think that you’ll agree.

Richard was just upstream of me in a similar swim with the added advantage of nearside bank trees as well. I suggested that the fish would show rather quickly if they were here. It has been a bit of revelation fishing more and more small rivers during summer time, I have discovered that you can often see the fish if you are cautious and normally a few loose offerings are enough to get things moving. If you don’t hurry to introduce a bait and fish are in residence the bites come within a few minutes. In the summer the fish are feeding freely, particularly at dusk.  The whole point I am trying to make is that if you have no bites after introducing some freebies and resting the swim, chances are there are no barbel in the swim. On the Trent there are so many fish constantly feeding and moving around that it takes a while to get used to the fact that the most ‘barbely’ looking swims do not contain any barbel on many other more traditional barbel rivers. Yes sir us Trent boys have a lot to learn about the small river approach, however learn we do – some of us.

Richard moved downstream perhaps 50 yards or so, another nice swim. Overhanging trees on the far bank, a bit of a raft with a streamer weed enveloped cavity above it. Richard remarked that he had seen a few long dark shapes moving about, I suggested that his rod would wham round in minutes and so it came to pass. It wasn’t long before Rich had a nice 5lb fish in the net, clear water fish always have such vibrant colours don’t they?

I had a similar feature in my swim but it was a tricky underarm cast, I failed by no more than an inch and deposited my pellet in a tree. I got it out only to deposit the whole lot much deeper in a tree on the near bank – bugger! I am getting much better at this underarm lob malarkey but need a shorter rod. Something like a 9ft Bob Gill Harrison  stalker rod would be perfect. After I had remade my rig Rich had not recast into his swim and could still see some dark shapes. Come on he says ‘Drop it in here’. Rich Walker, like Hobby, is a generous sort and drop it in I did, with deadly accuracy this time. A gentle feathered ‘plop’ followed by a 3 foot twitch a few minutes later and an angry barbel was the prize. The fish was fit and sprightly and had 2 serious goes at getting back under the tree on the far bank – I really had to pile the pressure on. It worked and I got the fish into clear water, it’s nice being able to see the fish’s every twist and turn in the clear water. I must say that my new Shimano 4000D is a really nice smooth reel, lovely and light and perfect for this sort of fishing. We photographed the fish which was a lovely looking 6.5 lb’er (guestimate), that is river number 11 for me and a very grateful and happy Conrad was the result.

Rich and I decided to try a few swims further upstream but never had any other action despite fishing into darkness for a couple of  hours. I’ll upload the photo later.

Hooray 2

I had arranged to have the next 2 days off work as we are in the calm before the storm and it suited both me and my boss. From the last week in August for the foreseeable future we have several concurrent big  projects coming. I decided to go to the Middle Severn on Tuesday and the Teme on Wednesday and attempt to get another 2 rivers under my belt. I had a few errands to run in the morning and had a bit of a lie in. I also found that Bob Gill had a ready built 9ft stalker rod for sale on BFW, I snatched his hand off, there are many venues and swims that I fish where I will find that rod to be a positive godsend so I was really pleased to secure it.

I went to Wakefield to pick a pleasantly surprised Ricky up to accompany me. I had phoned (Scuba) Steve Williams for a few pointers which he gladly gave me and we set off early afternoon. We arrived at the river and found it busy as hell, we were fishing for about 4:30pm and unfortunately could not get into the ‘banker’ swim. We would have to draw fish out from some cover below us, this was not going to be easy in the bright conditions with such a low river. The water in front of us looked nice enough and I would expect barbel to feel quite at home during dusk and darkness but that was quite a few hours away. Steve came down to say hello and to tell me of a few swims that held fish if we were not lucky here. I said that I would give it 3 hours and go for a roam with a rod, landing net and bait bucket if I was not successful.  That is what I did but found that every likely looking swim was taken, it was like a bloody match! I also bumped into young Sam off BFW who is a level headed lad in the 2nd year of a 3 year B Eng course in engineering. I waffled at him about the virtues of what he was doing and wished him well before getting back in my original swim next to Ricky. Sam had told me that the fish had switched on at about 8:30 pm the previous day so we should expect something around that time. Sure enough when the swim below Ricky was vacated and he was able to drop his feeder just above the nearside bank tree he got the first fish of the day at 8:40 pm. Now Ricky has a 100% record on new rivers and some of them are not so easy; so far he has caught barbel from the Calder, Wye, Trent, Wharfe and Severn on his first go. I am going to officially drop the tag ‘Ricky the Rookie barbeler’ forthwith. He is not a rookie! His fish was about 4lb so only a little ‘un but it fought really well and was a truly beautiful colour.

I had no luck until the lads above us left the banker swim at 10 pm. It was dark and a truly precarious Severn special – if I fished this river regularly I’d have some climbing spikes and a D clip grafted on surgically. Even in the dark I knew that I’d catch in minutes here – a sunken tree stump just below me in an 8ft deep channel carved out by the nearside flow after a bend. Sure enough after 3 minutes I was rewarded, it was fast water and the heavy fish was headed straight back for the snag where it lived. I won and was rewarded with a lovely fish of 9lb 2oz what a great start. Once the fish was rested and released I dropped the feeder into the same spot and after another very short wait barbel number 2 was in the net. No photos I’m afraid, it was just too much hassle in such a precarious swim in the dark.

Ouch

We were walking back toward the van by around 10:30, two happy anglers. The walk was about 400 yards and quite easy going, I dropped all the tackle off and then suddenly – DISASTER! My bloody knee just gave way, no sign of problems, no idea why, no one event that I can pin point and say ‘ That’s when I did it.’ But it bloody hurt when I attempted to straighten my knee. Ricky came around my side of the van after a while and asked me what I was doing on the floor. ‘Inspecting the f*****g gravel what do you think!’ I may have been a tad harsh! No problem bending it, no problem driving, but walking nah!

Things were no better after the 2 1/4 hour drive back to Wakefield and needless to say my trip to the Teme never happened. I am quite literally hopping mad. Perhaps Bob can convert the stalker rod into a walking stick? I would have preferred hickory but carbon will have to do.

Arghh!

I am going to see how things go over the next week or so and if things don’t improve dramatically I am going to have to have a knee operation. Ironically I had just been saying to Richard on Monday evening how there were no traces of the injury as I hopped over the style carrying all my tackle like a fit bloke. Well maybe it’s just old age this time, it does seem to be a very different injury on the opposite side of my knee this time.

I want to recover and go a barbel stalking ASAP!

Conrad

My 3rd trip with Hobby to the mystery river south of here resulted in me catching a barbel from my 10th UK river and I was well chuffed I can tell you. The trip on Wednesday 28th was not without it’s difficulties though. First problem – Hobby was dressed from head to toe in camou gear and I never saw him again once he got out of the car, I may as well have gone on my own!

Once I got my tracker’s eye trained and I could see Hobby again we walked well down the stretch and baited 3 swims up with a few strategically placed pellets, not too many mind! These swims would be re-visited as dusk fell, I had my eye on one in particular. There was mention of a weir-pool which are usually pretty good when rivers are low and clear due to the increased oxygen levels in the water, lets face it weir-pools are usually pretty good any time, anywhere. I decided that we should have a look at it – however it was a bloody long way even though I was travelling as light as possible; no chair just a quiver with a rod, a landing net , a bank stick and an unhooking mat. I also had a  small Korum bait and bits bag and that was it. Of course I had a few layers of clothes to carry should the rain come, the clouds did look threatening and these add more to the weight than you think. I was following the Ninja across a ploughed field that was rough going when he froze like a statue as a bird flew up from a furrow -  it was a skylark and the Ninja spotted the nest before too long. It contained 2 chicks and an unhatched egg, which judging by the age of the chicks was unlikely to ever hatch. We carefully moved back the foliage and took a photo, that was before we started fishing and I was happy already. Don’t see many skylarks these days and certainly nice to see a few chicks, they thought we were mum and I managed to catch one of the chicks with it’s beak wide open. They are so vulnerable though, I do hope that they survive.

I chose a swim just after a tree at the tailend of the weirpool, it was a bit turbulent for barbel but the slower water lower down was inaccessible. I did see another swim that would be better approached from the other end of the fishery I think, but that’s for another day. So within a few seconds of casting in dink dink wham – a chub of 4lb that managed to get into the tree roots below me but I eventually persuaded it to come out and landed it in the fast water. I had another one a similar size on the second cast and then that was it. I never had another bite for an hour so I had spooked the chub and the barbel were not co-operating. So we made our way all the way back to where we had baited up, looking at a few potential swims on the way back whenever I needed to rest, which was pretty often!

Hobby was mainly here to guest me and also to locate and prepare a few more virgin swims so was not trying that hard to catch, he left all the good swims to me bless him!

I arrived at the swim that I had prebaited and I very stealthily dropped a 1 oz bomb and pellet on a size 8 and stayed back from the bank. I left an unobstructed path down to where I would land the fish should I get one, put the rod in the rest and waited……….about 20 seconds! Wham 3 foot twitch -  barbel on. This was a snaggy swim but the fish headed downstream and into open water on the first run. I guided her between the streamer weed when she tuned and swam straight under a raft, there was nothing much I could do about it even with 30lb power pro. It looked like streamer weed so I was not too worried, however it turned out to be streamer weed growing over the top of a fallen tree trunk. It went pretty solid and I had to wait until the fish helped me pull her free. After that with weed over her eyes it was plain sailing. I thought that she was a really big fish when she was in the water but turned out to be 8lb 11oz -  hard earned and really appreciated nonetheless . I fished a swim above that one for a while but it was work the next day so we packed up at about 10:30 and made our way back to the car park.

Thanks Hobby! Today we’re off to waste our time on the Yorkshire Derwent, rock hard barbel water but beautiful surroundings so who cares.

Bloody hell I am tired today. For some reason I agreed to take Ricky on the Trent yesterday after a late fishing session Friday night, an even later session in a bar on Saturday and then on the river again last night. Oh we caught a few and I’m sure that Ricky slept like a log content with his first trip of the season and his new PB but me? I’m young in the head and old in the body, so very achingly old. We packed in at midnight which seems reasonable – I do that pretty often midweek and don’t suffer but this time I did.  It is so difficult for me to drive past my exit on the motorway and go another 3 junctions to Wakefield and then back. Got to bed at 2:30 and got up at 7 – I am typing this with one finger and the report that I’m writing at work has slowed down tremendously in the last few hours. Nodding dog is I!

On the job front I can now reveal that my employers have been acquired by a pretty huge multinational – on Friday I had around 50 colleagues and now I have 28000! If you are even remotely interested you can read the press release here:

NXP acquires Jennic

Personally I’m happy about it because they are buying the engineering skills, if I worked in finance, operations and marketing I might be concerned but from my point of view it means new toys, posh software tools and lots of interesting projects and some job security which has been sadly lacking of late. So while I am not too enamoured of the Dutch football team I am much happier with their knowledge of the semiconductor industry. Incidentally they used to be called (Royal) Philips and have been around quite a while.

Next trip Wednesday after work to the scene of two defeats, Hobby is taking me again so I think that it’s fair to say he is on the same mission as me. Bless your generosity Mr Hobkirk you are a gentleman. If he does me again I must remember that he is trying to help.

and finally……………………………………

Rich Walker has taught me another acronym as if I needed any more. It will prove useful on Skype or other internet chatroom type thingies in the coming months.

FOIABAF

Know what it means? Answers on a postcard or leave a comment depending on the floppiness of your hat.

Conrad

I am quite happy today, me and my mate Neil had a very nice time on Friday,  too two old mates fishing together as things should be.

On Saturday I went to my wife’s aunts 60th birthday party in Leigh which is Wiganish, the locals certainly sound like Wiganers. What a good do it was, my wife’s relatives throw great parties. There were 5 generations there (oldest 103, youngest 3 months) and the food was amazing – I may have availed myself of the free bar as well. Proper grub, proper family values (the real kind not the East Enders variety), nice people, great music and a free bar – well need I say more. I have lost my voice trying to shout  over the PA system and had a mildly thick head this morning but this evenings spot of fishing should sort that out.

Other good news from the party is that the wife’s cousin is getting married and has bought a house awfully close to 2 very nice southern streams – so I will shortly have a base from which to launch an invasion.

Right off to load up the van,  my mate Ricky who has been housebound all season dog sitting his poor injured canine friend Billy is now free to come fishing. I’ll take him somewhere interesting as he has been so fed up of late.

Next weekend I’m going to suit myself though and it will involve getting nettled, stung and eaten alive by insects then maybe a few fish.

Conrad

Hobby the Burmese barbeller and ninja of great cunning and stealth and I went back to the scene of my defeat last Friday. This time I would apply the stealthy technique that were so successful a few days ago and was sure to get a barbel. In my mind I feel that catching a barbel is secondary to being there and in the main this is true. However there is something about Hobby that made me feel really determined to get one out this time. We would stay until 11pm as both of us had work early next day, I am a guest on this stretch of river, which is truly lovely. Hobby is giving up his time to help me get a barbel from another river – so get a barbel I would! This was to be my tenth UK river from which I have caught barbel.

I fished in a gap between some undulating streamer weed down the edge in the main flow. Hobby has had a number of barbel from this swim although sadly it looked as though a few others have ‘discovered’ this swim as well.  I droppered in 2 lots of pellets and then left the swim for 40 minutes or so before clambering down the bank with just a bait bucket, landing net and unhooking mat. I like this approach to swims, minimal gear. What I don’t like is the numb bum! Being a tad on the heavy side I do suffer more than the more regular sized person (aka skinny git) and find it uncomfortable without some padding. A chair is out of the question in these sort of swims and even if you cut back the bank the risk of toppling head first into 8 feet of water does not appeal to me in the slightest. I suppose that I will find a happy medium after a bit of experimentation.

So ten minutes pass and then I start to see the dinky dink chub bites, hell of a spot for chub this. Eventually one hung itself and I was forced to land it. A right old dog it was too, somewhere between 4 and 5lb with a beaten up body but a lovely brassy colour. The fish had also been recently attacked by a pike which had bitten a chunk out of it’s anus! Quite a distinctive fish I think that you’ll agree.

Twenty more minutes and yet another chub hung itself – hang on it has a bite out of it’s arse and weighs between 4 and 5lb – yes folks it was the same old battle scarred chub – unbelievable but true.

What follows is a text conversation with a mate that made me chuckle.

Ere I have just caught the shame chub twice

Bully

It’s definitely the same fish, it has a pike bite out of it’s a-hole, unless there is a pike in here with a taste for chub sphincter

You sure that they aren’t chub that Hobby has *****d?

Nah wound is too severe for that………….

5 minutes later……………

Ere do you ever laugh at your own jokes, cos that made I chuckle?

And so it went on.

I did not catch a barbel, but that meek and mild chub interfering b*****d Hobby did! So I have now joined the stretch as I feel that I have something to prove, if only to myself. Someone commented that Hobby has always been a lucky so and so……………………………mmmm he’s lucky quite often isn’t he?

Conrad

Going tonight and taking my mate from school with me to a favourite spot of mine. I know that he will catch a number of barbel and I know that he will be chuffed to bits. I haven’t seen him for many years but we used to go fishing together a lot as teenagers. He left the area and we lost touch, got married etc. We are now both living in the same area again and it will be great to see his face light up, I’m looking forward to a pleasant evening session with an old mate, that’s what fishing is all about.

Being the lazy so and so that I am I had left my roving tackle except for the rod in the van over the weekend so I thought I’d put the rods in this morning just in case I fancied a quick trip. Well I did fancy a quick trip and so headed off to a local river. The conditions were low and clear and I although I hadn’t walked the river this season I hoped the fish would be in the same places as last summer. A quick recce with a bait bucket and the polaroids confirmed this to be the case. I had decided to bait 3 swims and fish them in turn, I figured that I would spend quite a while preparing the swims and watching the fish before laying any traps.

A handful of pellets were introduced to swim number 1 and within 2 or 3 mins a sizeable shoal of chub had appeared in gap in the streamer weed. They were clearly feeding as I saw the tell tale white mouth opening.  I left them to it knowing that the barbel would not be far behind. This swim was at the top of the stretch and would be fished last. Swims 2 and 3 were at the bottom of the stretch and were somewhat closer together than I would like but only the bare minimum of slashing at the undergrowth was required to make the 3rd swim fishable and time was limited so that was to be the plan. Once again some pellets were introduced and I saw a few fishy flashes pretty quickly.

I left swim 2 alone for 1/2 an hour and tackled up with a 2 oz bomb and a backlead, the idea on all these swims was to just lower the terminal tackle into a gap between the weed and to pin the mainline to the deck with the rod tip in the water, no more than a few feet of line was available for the weed to grab hold of. I peered over the edge and right there were 4 or 5 barbel when I returned to the swim. I slid down the bank on my derrière and howled as I nettled my back, bloody horrible green stingy bloody ******* things! Anyhow I slipped on a pva baglet containing 4 pellets and gently lowered my bait into the water and sat well back, 5 seconds later all hell broke loose, I’m surpised that the pva had even melted but I was in! All thoughts of stinging nettles left my mind as the adrenaline kicked in. This fish gave me the run around and I was thoroughly enjoying myself, I eventually netted it, it was all of 5lb but no less lovely for it. I recovered the fish for 10 minutes and it swam strongly away back under the weeds that it normally calls home.

Swim 3 was rather bigger with 3 clear patches and I had scattered the pellets a little more in this swim to see if I could draw them out from various lairs. No chub present but fortunately there were a few barbel and they were really giddy, as soon as I threw a few more pellets in they were slashing at them and flashing a plenty, they were clearly feeding. As soon as I gently introduced my baited hook 2 of them spooked and shot out of the swim and I could no longer see the others so I assumed that they had dropped back downstream under the streamer weed. One of the fish that I assumed bolted was a decent size, a good long fish. After a while I realised that I hadn’t spooked the fish they were just really feisty and kept flashing around the baited area, sometimes travelling a speed. This went on for what seemed like an eternity but was actually only 3 or 4 minutes before once again the rod hooped over and I was in. This was clearly bigger and a lovely slender torpedo of a fish but it was not able to match the 5lb’er from earlier and was soon in the net.  I unhooked the fish then left it to recover as I got the scales and camera prepared. Not a huge fish at 8lb 2oz but very lovely looking so I took a photo, which of course does not do it justice.  Quickly she went back in the water and I had a celebratory cigarette, hopefully one of my last as I am going to make a serious attempt to quit. I see the quit smoking team at the surgery on the 28th of this month.

I trudged my way back to the first swim but it was too dark by now to see if there were any fish present. I assumed there would be but this swim was true jungle warfare. I ended up crouching as I gingerly introduced my bait. Dink dink dink, yes the chub were here. Dink dink wham – oh well it’s a chub and not a very big one, all of a pound perhaps and it had made a right old splash so that was the end of proceedings for me. Light was just fading and I was home for 10:30, what a fantastic and captivating evening of proper fishing, 3 swims – 2 barbel and a chub in 3 hours fishing, not bad at all. I envy those anglers with lots of this sort of fishing around them.  I don’t like to fish this area too much, it’s a bit of a treat and I wouldn’t want it spoiling. Yep that is proper summer barbel fishing alright. Incidentally I was eaten alive by things tonight, there are lumps and bumps and itchy things all over me, how the hell the likes of Jeremy Wade get on I’ll never know. Even in little old Blighty there are plenty of bloodsucking vermin, ‘Jungle Hooks’ are best kept for story books in my opinion.

As and aside I have just got back in touch with my old mate from school Neil Potts. We were in a school band together for a while and used to go fishing as young teenagers. He was telling me that he still uses an old intrepid rimfly that he bought from me in 1978, imagine! So I am going to take him barbel fishing on the Trent on Friday evening then the weekend after we’re off fly fishing.  Neil moved out of the area for a while and we lost touch so I’m well chuffed to be going fishing with him again, it will be very pleasant I’m sure.

Before that I’m going back to where I failed to catch a barbel on Friday courtesy of that very kind individual Hobby. He’ll probably do me Ninja me again, but it’s only the Karma cops getting their own back. I shall be adopting a very similar approach to the one I did tonight only I’ll be poaching his carefully prepared swims. This jungle fishing ain’t comfortable for a lard arse like me I can tell you, but a barbel from a new river is worth the aches and pains. I shall pack up after one fish………….just one………

Conrad

That most gracious mate of mine Hobby took me to the second new river in a week on Friday.  It’s a well known barbel river that flows into the Trent via Derbyshire. I got out of work at 3pm and met him just off  the M1 where we later parked for 30 minutes around Trowell services.  That section of the M1 now has 4 lanes and some posh warning signs over the carriageway. The signs indicated that lane 4 was closed due to an accident so Hobby pulled over into lane 1 and I followed suit. Turns out that actually lane 1 was blocked and not lane 4 after all. So we waited patiently to move while a couple of torrential downpours came through, I counted 5 fire engines, 3 police cars and 2 ambulances. It turned out to be pretty bad, a little white Suzuki did not look too healthy, fortunately I was spared seeing the condition of it’s occupants.

So I followed Hobby down a windy track the top end of which had an entrance to a field where some kind of event was taking place, this event kept me entertained later.  Through a few locked gates to the river which looked absolutely lovely. There were plenty of features, bands of streamer weed, rafts, a nice depth and slightly faster than walking pace. I had never been before but I imagine that there was only a bit of extra water in and the slightest tinge of colour. It was obviously not heavily fished and there were very few swims available.

Hobby, being the kind soul that he is offered me the swim that he’d caught in previously but it looked too precarious for me. I am still quite nervous about the strength of my right knee and so went for a flatter swim further upstream. The pace looked right and I fully expected to catch. Hobby baited up with a bait dropper fairly close in, whereas I elected to loose feed some pellets and fish a pva bag. I got chub taps almost immediately but it was almost an hour before the first one hung itself. It was a nice fish just nudging 5lb so I had not blanked.

After a while and I think my 2nd chub I heard a band in the field really milking Joe Cocker’s version of ‘By with a little help from my friends’, they made it last a whole 10 minutes! The vocalist obviously fancied himself as a bit of a Joe Cocker but alas he wasn’t! The band launched into another song (at last) when this almighty crack ricocheted up the river, I thought Hobby had fallen in and taken a tree with him but it turned out to be his line parting as he attempted to stop an angry barbel getting under a snag. The barbel won on this occasion.

The next event was a dead barbel around 8lb floating down river, we don’t know where it came from, we had seen no other anglers so maybe this one just died of natural causes. It is a sad sight whatever the circumstances.

The next band on were really good, a Who tribute band. They sounded spot on I can recall Pinball Wizard, Substitute, My Generation, Who are you?, Won’t be fooled again, Baba O’ Riley yes the full CSI theme tune suite was there. They had the feel, drums and arpeggios absolutely spot on. I think I’ll find out who they were and go and see them they were that good. I got a bit nostalgic to be honest and for one of those very rare occasions wished I was still gigging – it soon wore off though. It’s funny but I have witnessed a few outdoor festival type gigs when I have been barbel fishing – I don’t mind it much as it’s never particularly loud. The final band were a T-Rex tribute band with a frustrated heavy metal god on guitar. Don’t get me wrong he was an excellent guitarist but it was a bit over the top considering the material. Mind you he may have been having a laugh, I had a mate who used to do tremelo arm dive bombing in the middle of the soul classic ‘Jimmy Mack’ so…………..

Hobby got a fish just before darkness fell and it was a beauty of 10lb 8oz, as seen below. He then packed in fishing after returning the fish, he was content and really wanted me to get one.  He offered me his swim again which I tried for a while but not before baiting mine up – I intended to return later. It was not to be, I failed to catch a barbel just 7 chub, 3 of which were around 5lb so were great fish. Incidentally we didn’t get rained on until the last 30 minutes when I was trying to hang on a bit longer. I didn’t want Hobby to be waiting around and as guest (I was pretty tired as well) I thought it best if we left, it was after all 1:30 am.

I thoroughly enjoyed the venue and the company and will surely return and get my barbel from this river another day soon.

Conrad