This evening I had a couple of hours spare so I thought what better fish to go after than a Barbel, but this was no formality, it has been a tough season so far on the Barbel front but it hasn't only been me so I've taken some solace from that.
All day it had been raining and the river was up around 18 inches, but by the time I got to the river it had dropped to about 6' up but the colour was still in it and there was hardly any debris coming down river, so fishing a ledgered bait would have been possible, so I did. Forty minutes later my rod slammed around in typical Barbel fashion, a three foot twitch to rival all, a great fight ensued for about 6 minutes when a good sized Barbel came to the surface, it was guided straight into the awaiting net, but not before one last dash for freedom.
A good sized Barbel that weighed 8lbs 3ozs, almost fin perfect and in great fighting shape, felt so good to catch, it's been a while since I banked a good fish, I sat down after that and recast, 15 minutes later the rod slammed over, another Barbel on but unfortunately only had it on for a minute or so when it went through a snag on the bottom and bust me up, such a shame it was turning out to be pretty fast session.
But I didn't have wait long again, the Barbel were feeding really well and no wonder why, the conditions were perfect, fish number two was soon the bank and it was a small Barbel but it certainly gave a good account of itself even if it was only between 3-4lbs, after that fish I moved off upstream to another swim, see if I could find another Barbel and 20 minutes in the next swim my rod did the same as previous, the three foot twitch as the fish made off with my bait. The latest of the Barbel went just over 5lb, not bad for a couple hours fishing and as I was releasing that fish the heavens opened up again, it was time to head home, happy day's, 3 Barbel in 3 hours and 1 lost aswell which was around the 7lb mark.
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