My First Soiree on the Banks of the River Wharfe.

 

 One doesn't know how 34 miles can pass by so quickly. I left S.Yorkshire and arrived in W.Yorkshire in a haze, I could not have been prepared for what had just transpired, who turns up at a river they've never seen before, fishes for 2½ hours, catches three Barbel, two of which are of the target size and blitzes the river record? Never heard of it happening before and I for one am pretty sure I'll never experience it again, as I write this (long overdue) entry the gravity of the catch is yet to fully settle in, its obscene.

R.Don - 15lb 4ozs

R.Don - 10lb 5ozs

R.Dearne - 10lb 9ozs

 Angling dreams are certainly made of moments like these and indeed much less. Now the R.Wharfe was playing host to my gigantic golden spherical plums, would she give up one of her treasures like the Dearne and Don had done in the previous 24hrs? 

 Before I was to find out I looked for somewhere comfortable to park up the car and set about grabbing a few hours kip in the motor before embarking on what I hoped would be yet another incredible days fishing. Given my mammoth effort the previous day ( Driving up from my home on the Kent/Surrey border to Barnsley in the early hours of the morning, roving around the Dearne all day before catching my target around 2pm, then I drove to the Don, had a leisurely and enormously rewarding couple of hours before slipping off up to Boston Spa near Wetherby, it had been a graft but I am used to this sort of fishing, real hardcore business. 

 I set my alarm for 6am and awoke wondering had I dreamt that all up. A quick scan of the pics once again was just the tonic to get me fired up and hopefully continue on what is a great spell. I grabbed my day-ticket from the shop and then got lost....half an hour slipped by with me buzzing around in the car trying to find the entrance to the river! After I wasted some more time I finally got my act together and found the wet stuff, what I was met by is a rolling meat wonderland!!!! I knew I would be in my element and so it would prove.

 The river was fairly clear with a reddy/brown tinge to it and within 20 mins I found Barbel, I got straight to work and got my lines on point from the get go, funnily enough the Barbel seemed to know what I was all about and the first two fish I found (both around 6lbs) seemed to spook pretty quickly and never returned. To begin with this seemed to be the way they all behaved, clearly rolling meat is a technique used here quite a bit given their reaction. The first 4hrs slipped by very quickly and had the shot at 8 Barbel by this point without even getting a sniff. 

 Around 2pm I decided to go back to the car, drop off the rolling gear and grabbed my bucket of goodies and the static gear. A change of tactic I hoped would eek out a fish. I wandered a 200 yard section first and put around 6-8 bait droppers of hemp and 6mm pellet in 4 swims which I planned to fish in rotation. My first swim was a very deep undercut bank that screamed fish, lovely gravel bottom with a swift inside line, it had all the hallmarks of a good Barbel holding area. 2hrs later and I gave up. I then decided to shorten my time in the other pegs to an hour as I was slowly running out of time ( kicking off time is around dusk ).

Amazed the rod remained motionless!

 The next two swims looked awesome and know they do hold Barbel from chats I had with friends and fellow anglers met on the day who fish it, but I could not muster a single touch! By 6pm things were looking bleak, I hadn't even snared a Chub!

It looked so good for it too!

 My last ditch attempt at a Barbel was to go back to the peg with the deep undercut bank and put a single bait over the top as I suspected the droppers of bait I put down around 2pm would either still be there or mopped up by fish that should still be in the vicinity. Sunset was fast approaching and by this time I had been in situ for around an hour, I really had gone from feast to famine, but these returns on away days have to be expected. I leant over to grab something out of my bag and out the corner of my eye see the tip bounce enough to get my attention, seconds later I was reaching out for the butt of my rod! Totally savage and typically Barbel-esk I knew I was connected to a Barbel, the deep powerful runs up and down stream played out in front of me without seeing it, possibly five minutes had gone by with me picturing various different sized fish on the other end, was it one of those rare Wharfe doubles that I sought after? or was it one of the great pretenders? When I finally got it close to the net I thought the previous! I muttered to myself "I couldn't could I?".

My first view of the fish.

 Must admit when I peered down the 10ft to the net I really thought I had! A hat trick of double figure Barbel in a little over 29hrs. She had it all, even hoisting her up to the mat the weight felt good! But could she go over 10lbs? 

 This time around she didn't, a very respectable Barbel all the same at 9lb 5ozs that could not be sniffed at, a Wharfe 9+ is a very good Barbel and took that gleefully! A very tough day worked out well in the end and knew I was close to time out too so after I took some lovely photos of my prize I slipped her back home to the depths of the mighty Wharfe and I scarpered!. Another river visited and yes, she wasn't a double and yes I will be back to try again but it was a very successful visit, even if it was challenging. 

 Being flexible in approaches to Barbel can be paramount to success and this scenario certainly highlighted that, never stick to one tactic if it's not working out. Mix it up, they may well be there, just not playing your game! play theirs.

Close, but no cigar this time around!

A superb specimen all the same, I was very happy 
given my effort!

 Once packed up and back at the car I had a dilemma, did I stay and fish the following day or head elsewhere and upon speaking with numerous other anglers during the day it was clear the Wharfe was in fact fishing quite poorly, so I decided against staying and drove down south to the tough R.Loddon which needs no introduction. A couple of hours back south via Donnington KFC was in order where I grabbed a few hours sleep...