Bourne to Blank.

 

 That late August / early September glut is a distant memory now and used to reassure myself I am actually capable of catching Barbel, ordinarily things do get tougher this time of the year but I am still very happy to try. 

 With the Bourne being one of the last "local" rivers left for me to chalk off I've dropped on there a few times this season, hoping to cross paths with a Barbel which is something I've not seen in over two years of trying, my first and last Barbel came in August 2021 and was on my first attempt, I've since realised that that was a classic case of beginners luck because since then I have drawn a Barbel blank which spans 7 visits over 2 years.

 Last night I hoped that would change. I arrived late afternoon and immediately took a temp reading which settled on 10.2c, for me that is still less than ideal but Barbel will be caught if I could only find them. The river was still up really high, which did mean I could fish it but the flow was so quick it limited my options as to where I could fish, slack water really is hard to find on this river owing to its course, which is quite straight for large sections with a couple sharp bends thrown in for good measure.     

A couple of shots from my previous

 My first swim was a dud, 45min spent in there without a touch but the next swim about 40 yards upstream looked promising as I received a couple of half-hearted touches before the pulling began, nothing savage which suggested an Eel had found my bait, a couple of minutes later that Eel finally came back for the bait and had it away, about a pound n half it wasn't small but not what I was after, it was clear though that something was feeding, I drew a little confidence from that and continued to fish in the remaining slacks.

A typical floodwater bait, big and bold!

 Unfortunately for me that was all I could find, or that's all that found me! Another blank on the Bourne, something that I am expecting everytime I fish it now, that 7lb 8oz Barbel I had over two years seems to be one of just a small handful of fish that call the river home although I do know doubles do come out and seen photographic evidence that they exist with some being resident fish and some transient fish that have entered the river from the Thames when it's in severe flood. 

 I will just have to keep going, the journey there and back isn't terrible and it's a lovely little river to spend some time on, prospecting, hoping something will finally happen!