River Mole Barbel Quest Part I.

  

 Along with my pursuits on the K.Stour I've started to visit the R.Mole in search of my 8th different river double. I must admit upon arrival the first time around I was astounded at how much of the river looked "Barbelly", literally every ten yards looked like it could hold fish, that has given me a dilemma as to where I concentrate my efforts. 

Large overhanging willows just one of the pegs.

 It is as if someone has just created a mile long Barbel swim and as I fished through Tuesday and Thursday afternoon my confidence of catching something was sky high. The river was up quite high but in perfect condition, especially on Thursday. Tuesday didn't result in any action, nevertheless it was invaluable as I got to check depths of certain areas and how weedy they were, along with other useful snippets of info.

 Most spots that I have tried so far have ranged in depth between 4ft and 8ft but more importantly pure clean gravels, in some instances the near-side margins are also undercut which gives me even more confidence that it holds big Barbel. With specimens approaching 13lb and the average fish around the 8/9lb mark I know that a bite could well be my target or very close to what I am after. 

 So when my far margin rod double-tapped and bolted off down stream yesterday evening you could imagine what was whirring in my mind! A big heavy weight hung in the current after a purposeful first run, very Barbel like too which gave me even more hope that after just two previous visits amounting to 5hrs of fishing that I would have achieved my goal. A couple of minutes passed by before I got to take a glimpse at my potential prize and I was very surprised to tell the truth that what was on the other end wasn't a Barbel, but a warrior of a Mirror Carp, not something I was expecting but given the fact its a new ticket for its nice to catch to begin with.

 Plenty of back and forth with the Carp I finally slipped it into the net, not bad for a river Carp.

14lb 5oz Mole Warrior.

 For this campaign I am using the "Hookbait Co's" Big Squid range, it has done me okay so far and this another victim of the new bait, lets hope it trips a few more up too!!!

 Once I released the Carp I continued to head upstream and spend 35-50 mins per swim to hopefully increase my chances of coming across another fish but my efforts unfortunately didn't result in anything further. 

Just one of the many good looking little nooks.

  

 And as I made my way back to the van I heard the distinctive grunting and growling of Badgers....noisy and nosey buggers, however great to see them in good numbers. This was just one of nine I was watching.