Long Day, But Worth It......

..... in the end.

 But before we get to the end I'll start with the beginning, naturally. The plan today was to track down a Barbel and doing this by my much loved tactic that counts for a large percentage of my past seasons, rolling.

 The start of the session didn't go to plan and I was pestered by the Chub with three coming to the net with the largest going 3lb 9oz but although they weren't my target it was good fun, I headed off upstream to a couple of swims I know Barbel do frequent but after a couple of hours of searching I hadn't caught my target species but I did hook a Brown Trout whilst rolling roughly 3lbs but unfortunately when it jumped I didn't keep the tension and it came off.

A smaller one about 2lbs.

The biggest of the day at 3.9.

 As my time on the river drew to a close I carried on rolling just hoping I would find a Barbel that was feeding and in the last swim that I fished, on the first roll my antique cane rod slammed towards the river as a fish stormed off, the first five seconds of the fight it was evident I had finally hooked a Barbel, too long since my last encounter and what a fight it was too, for a fish around the 5 -5 1/2 bracket it fought very well and it used every bit of water available to it, five minutes of tussling she finally tired out and I slipped the net under it, a big sigh of relief breathed.

Although it's not a lump it fought very well, 5lbs 9oz.

The second one on the second cast. 4lb 1oz.

 But in typical fashion after waiting all day for one and the previous few weeks, next cast out my rod slammed over again, in exactly the same fashion but this Barbel charged off upstream so fast my centre pin shrilled as the line got stripped from it, a very fast fish against the current to, I just held on amazed at the power that these guys possess and it was only a small one, but it's stamina or lack of showed as it was in the net with in two minutes, the old rod performed very well and it passed the test.

Some wildlife seen about on my journey's.