River Wey Double! That's A Wrap!!!

 

 Well, as you can tell from the title I have done it, a River Wey double on only my second trip ever to the river and my first trip to the river for Barbel was over 9 years ago Blog Post when I had a 9lb 2oz Barbel whilst rolling meat at night as the river was up high and pushing. When I arrived yesterday morning I found the river in similar condition as the river was about 1.5ft up and gently dropping throughout the day. 

 This section was a place I had never fished so it was a learning curve and sought out areas that looked like I would find Barbel present. Most areas looked amazing and really was spoilt for choice. I fished one rod in the tighter swims and two rods where the bends would open up, alternating between meat and boilie/paste I hoped to find a feeding fish and as the hours ticked by and pegs were worked I was starting to feel it wasn't going to be my day!

Staggering temp at midday and it went up to 10.7c by 5pm.

   Given the temps I felt confident of a fish and as dusk approached and the rod remained motionless I was already starting to think of where to go next as the section of river I was on doesn't permit night fishing and kicking off time is an hour after, so if it was going to happen then it had to happen soon and as I settled down into the second peg of the day I barely got the chance to tidy the peg when my rod whipped around with such power, the rod came off the rest and belted downstream momentarily before thundering off upstream power that I simply could do nothing with it, it was no power that I think I have ever experienced from a Barbel, it was certainly a big powerful fish and all of a sudden with shaking legs and racing heartbeat the tension was off and the unseen beast was gone, I bought back my rig to find a clean cut about 1 inch above my hook, I was absolutely distraught and threw my rod to the ground in frustration.

The river just looked in such great condition.

 It had been a long tough day and that was not the outcome I needed nor wanted. But being a positive guy I decided to just try above where I lost that fish as I knew there was a nice deep gully around 8ft deep and if there was one in the area others should also be present...I had about 5 minutes to ponder that loss before out of nowhere I got a couple of swift taps on the tip, but instead of the rod recoiling on each occasion the rod would remain held in that position, after the third such action I just lifted the rod and struck, solid weight was then met and the rod tipped thumped as a fish made its way upstream but with the same strength as the first one, the reason for the odd fight was to become apparent when I finally got her in the landing net, although I was seriously thinking she was around 8-9lbs, it was only when I lifted it up was I convinced I had actually landed a double from the river Wey on only my second visit! 

 What a way to heal the wounds of a big lost fish, to go and catch your target, the sense of loss didn't have too long to settle in and glad that was the case and job done with a day and night spare! Bloody result :)  

Stu was on the phone to me whilst I was cursing losing the first and still on the phone when I landed this Quasimodo!

 My first S-bend Barbel for many years and the fight should have told me what it was! 10lb 4oz on the scales, thick as tree trunk and thought it would weigh more but never mind, it got over the line and that meant that I had achieved my thirteenth river of my 40 Rivers Challenge ! I start my new season trying to extract a double from the Kentish Stour and will be scooping out the river and baiting up over the last 3 weeks of the closed season (going all out for this one!) 

This link below is the release of my Wey double.

https://youtu.be/Ub8I9LAOTFI

10.4....over and out.