Afternoon roving

 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 ever doubted it. 7lbs 7oz on the scales another good sized Barbel.

5lbs 2oz.

7lbs 7oz.

 But I did get a very nice surprise later on in the session whilst looking about up river in the form of my first ever river Tench, I was starting to wonder just how many species of fish are in this river system.

4lbs 2oz, I was happier than I looked believe me.

But just enough time for one more fish and it was lucky number 3 and the biggest of the day, saving the best til last and it certaintly was'nt easy to catch as it took about 20 trots through the run to get the bait presentation spot on and when I did, I did'nt need to strike as the fish hit the bait so hard and stormed 30 yards downstream and in the current it was very difficult to get the fish back upstream, so after a few minutes of trying to get it to come upstream and refusing to I had to go downstream to the fish to land it and when I saw the size of it up close I thought I had another double on the business end but after I had weighed it, I knew I did'nt but still a very impressive fish that went 9lbs 5oz, very chuffed indeed and that brought up the magic 50 since October. Great stuff.

Happy ending 9lbs 5oz.