James' Angling Adventures.

As the coarse fishing season has finished I have been preparing my fly rod for an outing at some point in the near future for some Brown Trout. A pick of the bunch (pheasant tail nymph). A deer hair fly concoction. Hopefully one of these will tickle ones fancy.

 01.03.2012  4lbs 4oz  03.03.2012  3lbs 3oz, 6lbs 8oz  09.03.2012  5lbs 2oz, 7lbs 7oz, 9lbs 5oz  13.03.2012  9lbs 15oz  14.03.2012  7lbs 5oz  Total = 53lbs 1oz  So the total weight of Barbel caught since October 2011, minus the two recaptures, finished at 321 lbs 10 oz, an almighty total and extremely impressed that this sort of total is possible from such a small river.

 Well today marks the end of a very productive fishing season for me and for Barbel one of my best seasons yet, but I did manage to squeeze in one more short session today and to say the least it was an absolute struggle, today saw about another 5 anglers on the bank and with only one fish caught by stu. After 4 hours of fishing and ready to head home I popped back into a swim I saw a Barbel in earlier in the day but it was a very whiley fish and has definately seen a piece of rolled meat as it twice picked it up in full view and spat it out right in front of me, its amazing to see just how quickly they can suck the bait in and blow it out again without getting hooked but third time around I made no mistake in allowing it to test wether it was cosher or not and whack!, I was finally into a Barbel to rescue the day in the last knockings and what a fight it was too, non stop lunges down into the deeper water and coming inside trying to lodge my hook in the debris but I was determined th

 Today it was a case of finding a shoal of fish to get stuck into before the season ends and try to add to my tally and maybe find a big one to sign off with, so I travelled to my chosen beat armed with my centre pin as usual and my light rod and within 5 minutes I had a take and a nice sized Barbel was on but as soon as I hooked it I had a bad feeling as to how well it was hooked, after the first initial run my fears were confirmed as the hook slipped out of its mouth, thus me ending up with no fish on the bank the first hook slip I've had all season.  So after losing that fish and feeling abit gutted, I packed up and moved on up river, by this time 2 hours had elapsed and still no fish on the bank, during the session I had bumped into a couple of other anglers, Stuart and Brian and neither had any joy themselves, so the day really wasn't going to plan, again.  Perseverance is always key to success and fishing is no different, I had moved from my normal beat and headed eve

 Just a short session today not alot of time available to me, so I had to get on and back to my local stretch of the river in search of a Barbel and my day did'nt exactly go to plan and really did struggle abit to find a swim with a fish init, I feel the fish are moving around almost on a daily basis, I started at 2pm and I did'nt hook my first fish until 4pm and I have to admit I was relieved to land it as I thought today just was'nt going to be my day, a 5lbs 2oz Barbel and it fought like stink. As soon as I released that fish I moved off to another swim and instant success, another good Barbel on and again it fought like a madman, just what I enjoy about persuing this species, with my centre pin reel and my light 10 foot trotting rod it is a hell of a lot of fun and really living on the edge sometimes when the Barbel make a dive for freedom as this one did on a few occasions, after a few more dives she was ready to be netted and my day was starting to get better like I

 After finishing work late yesterday and watching the highlights of my beloved Arsenal do over the scousers, I decided that i didn't really want to stay at home so I grabbed a feeder rod and my basic of tackle and headed off to the river for a few hours out in the cold in search of anything that fancied feeding in the moonlight.  So after taking 40 minutes to get there I was eager to get setup quickly and get a bait in the water but unfortunately for about 2 hours that was all I did, moving through about 4 swims in the process, although I was joined by a very vocal Owl which kept me awake it has to be said it was very slow, as I tried so many different baits in each of the swims to no avail and it took me until just before 11pm when I had my first take and it was too quick for me as it came out of the blue and unusually I didn't connect with it but a good sign at least that something was hungry.  With another 20 minutes ensuing after that take I got another take and this t

 On Thursday my dad and I went for a short session down the river mainly to see if James senior could catch a Barbel that have managed to elude him on apparently too many occasions over the last few months, so the days task was for him to catch one and it did not disappoint as after just 5 minutes of fishing, we were into a nice Barbel and a good fighter it was too!. After a few relentlessly powerful runs that could barely be halted the Barbel did give up and the task was complete and a nice spring Barbel was landed and at 7lbs 5oz, the ol' bean was very happy. A picture for his scrap book.  So after that bar of gold was revived and released it was my turn to get one but unfortunately didn't materialize as they must have been spooked by the commotion caused earlier, so we decided to up sticks and move up river but again had no joy in catching anything, but saw a couple of Carp and about 8 Chub to around 5lbs, but as dusk settled in we had moved down and set up in the s