Having only been back from a trip a down further south I popped out for a short session but on this occasion suggested to a colleague at work to come out and give it a go for a new personal best Barbel, the odds considering his PB of 6lb+ were favourable, all we could hope was that they would be playing ball as it's not always case. Charlie was eager to get on the scoreboard and was fishing a couple of hours before I got the chance to get my gear ready as I was still stuck in London.
Having cleared my schedule it made for a clear run straight to the river, a quick phone-call to find out where he had got to was made to find he was roughly where I parked! that was a result as we didn't have to walk back past swims where fish maybe held up, our tactic was to be very mobile and carry minimal tackle and only give each run 5 minutes or so, with two of us the number of swims we could work meant that we stood a good chance, conditions were good and the river carried a little colour, onto the fishing!
The first couple of swims were fished with no joy which meant that we sped up our pace onto the next couple, nothing showing we kept going, as I approached one swim I could see a nice Barbel which I estimated around 8lbs or so, I didn't hesitate getting myself in a casting position, bait out ten foot above it and within seconds the fish lurched up slightly and charged the bait, easy as that !
A sturdy battle ensued for a few minutes before it succumbed to the awaiting net, that's how it's done, 8lb 11oz, good result, but this was more about Charlie catching so I refrained from fishing for the rest of the trip, number one aim was to get the "Carpman" into a position to catch, not fifteen minutes later thats exactly what he did, a trundled bait down a centre track was intercepted by a feisty Barbel of maybe 7lb, a potential PB and so soon, a good fight in the flow put the gear through it's paces and with so much weed to dodge it didn't come as a surprise when his fish went solid in a bank of weed......a short period of time trying to free her the hook pulled and it was over, damn.
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| Recovered and ready to fight another day. |
Oh well, we all lose them, that is for sure. Dusted off and ready to go again we trudged off upstream to find more but uncharacteristically it was hard trying to locate the Barbel, normally I see a couple here and there but nothing, we fished a couple dozen more little holes in the foliage but nothing doing, I have to be honest I was surprised that we didn't get another chance. It will happen!
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