Who needs all day to catch Barbel? not me! Six clients seen by two something and my last at 4pm prompted me to fill the void, but with what? There was only one thing for it, a spot of Barbel fishing!
With my stalking gear in the van I marched down the river to find the second best maestro of chalkstream Barbel angling, because without Brian I had no bait, camera, terminal tackle barring a hook and 1x AAA shot and most importantly no net and yes I know many who tread these banks don't own one, but I actually give a crap!
Having met up with Brian he mentioned that he had found some feeding Barbel and I cheekily asked him to lead me there so I could plunder the stocks and within four passes through I did just that.
The first was this 6lb 10oz fighting fit winter Barbus and the second individual was around the 3-4lb mark which went back swiftly. What a far cry winter releasing is to the summer, these fish were ready to go immediately where as in the summer most spend 5-10 minutes in the net to get themselves ready for safe release.
I like it like that :)
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| 6.10 |
A couple of days previous I did also manage a short morning targeting a Barbel or a Chub. The conditions were very challenging as temperatures dipped well below freezing and remained that way well into daylight as the thermometer registered -3c at 9am. Not going into too much detail it was not easy so when I finally got a chance at a Barbel I took it.
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| It was so cold it hurt breathing in deep! |
An old warrior of a Barbel which had huge barbules that I thought looked like a moustache!
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| An old warrior of 6.02 |
It was funny that nothing on the river was feeding, including the chub except for that one tight shoal of barbel - just a case of being in the right place at the right time.
ReplyDeleteThat fishing for you sometimes!
DeleteDid you receive the cheque? :)