River Loddon Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 What can I say! This was one hard earned fish and over the frigging moon to have finally achieved my Loddon double, in fact I just wanted a Barbel, just to prove to myself that a can still catch them. Even when you are getting bites at least you have a sense of confidence that it just might happen, but I didn't have a single bite across "Eight" entire trips and had to wait 13 hours for my bite yesterday.

 Rewind a little back to Wednesday evening, I finished work and had dinner with the mrs and kids, then loaded up before making the 62 mile journey to the banks of what was a real thorn in my side. The Loddon has a reputation for being a very difficult river anyway, but the last 3-4 years catches have tailed off enormously and anglers are blanking for Barbel for entire seasons, I know how that feels!

Ready and waiting.

 With a closed season behind me and enough time elapsed since my last visit here I went with a new sense of hope and oddly I felt that it was going to happen, don't ask me why, sometimes you get that gut feeling and have to act on it. I arrived at the river around dusk and got a march on to the river which is quite a wander, once finally into my first cutout I got the rods out and the plan was to sit and wait with my traps out for a Loddon ghost.

 Not long after the rods went out the rain began to fall and very quickly found myself hunkered down under my brolly ( Drennan Specialist Brolly 50" version ), all I needed was a fish but the hours ticked by and soon enough I had moved, dawn had come and gone with nothing more than the odd Crayfish nibble. 

The first Buff Tip moth I've seen, joining me under the brolly,
along with a bit of subtle advertisement.

 With thick cloud still lingering I crept into swim number five. I got both rods out and sat back, breaking little twigs and flicking them in the river, then out of nowhere I noticed a couple of bangs on the rod tip! It had only took me 9 visits for that, which I thought was a very Barbel looking bite, experience told me to keep myself ready.

 A few minutes later my phone pinged with an email from a client and I was half way through responding when my rod savagely ripped around, there it was! Straightaway I could feel the weight on the end, but she wasn't doing much, slowly heading upstream hugging the bottom, all the hallmarks of a big fish. My impatience was getting the better of me having not seen a fish on this river for over a season! So I wound down hard to get the fish up and a few seconds later the frame of a good fish came up and rolled on the surface before powering off up river then straight down to where I hooked it, it was a bloody Barbel!!!

 Seeing it did my heart rate no favours, now I knew what I could lose! 

 Thankfully there was to be no bitter ending, on the second attempt I slipped the net under the frame of a good Barbel and was not sure if it was a double, upon lifting it out the river it was a lot heavier than it looked and that was the key factor in my 19th river of my challenge being completed! 

I punched the air in celebration and utter relief it has to be said, I got on the phone to Brian whilst she was still in the net recovering from her exertions, GET IN!!!

My River Loddon double - 10lbs 7oz.

  

 A magnificent fish that took a lot of effort to catch, above is a shot of her going back into her world obscurity. I was also smiling, the nettles up my arse were bloody uncomfortable! I am elated more than you could imagine!

 Now that's all done, here are some numbers behind my quest for a Loddon double.

 I embarked on 9 trips (mainly nights between work, across different conditions), spent 102hrs fishing, drove 1116 miles in search for 1 double figure fish, in the end I got ONE bite, ONE fish and it was my target! I had a sneaky feeling if I hooked and landed a Barbel it would be a double, it was just a case of finding a fish. 

That. Will. Do. River number 20, I'm coming for you :)