Nene Drought.

 

 I had high hopes for my first proper outing of the season for Barbel. Thursday's trip up is my seventh visit and to be honest I felt I should have chalked it off by now but thats not the way angling works and this challenge has highlighted that time and time again. I'm doing the right things just not getting the fortune that I've been afforded elsewhere.

 After work on Thursday I made the 120mile journey north, battling the endless queues for Dartford tunnel and hold-ups on the M11 and A14, a 2hr 10min trip took over 3hrs, doesn't everyone realise I had fishing to do! How inconsiderate. 

Most of the spots that looked good, real stealth required.

 I had a few ideas as to where to target and opted to start at the end and work my way back up to where the car was parked, I only 4hrs on the Thursday to fish so got to business quickly by sending out my sleeper rod whilst setting up my proper rods. I unpacked both rods and began to line the eyes when out the corner of my eye my sleeper rod jumped up out of the vegetation and was headed for the bloody river! Talk about caught totally off-guard, I dropped my other rod and scrambled down the bank to fetch my rod and hoped what I am certain was a Barbel was still on but it became immediately apparent the hook had not set and this was a timely reminder that anything can happen at anytime!!! 

 I was so pissed with myself not being switched on and not to ruin the rest of the guff I was left to rue that mistake for the next day of angling. A take inside ten minutes and would spend the next 24hrs (minus 6hours that no fishing is allowed) searching for another opportunity, one chance at redemption which simply never came and wasn't through the lack of trying, I covered 10.62miles in 20hrs of fishing, an effort on 4hrs sleep which was broken up by the pain I've been recently suffering with a broken tooth and I've procrastinated in dealing with it and now it's clear with the pain being what it is that I need to do something! 

A healthy brood of Small Torts.

 Yesterday evening I packed up and heading to the car I made the decision call time, the plan was to stay until lunchtime on Saturday but my tooth was just too much to deal with and couldn't focus. I made the 120 mile journey back home with another Nene blank under my belt, I'm kinda hoping this one falls on my next trip or two. Watch this space.

 A little release video and a fighting video of some Chub.

Chub Release  (----- vid 1     Chub Battle  (----- vid 2

 Yes, I blanked for Barbel but did have some cracking Chub into the 3-4lb range and it is a wonderful place to spend time, watching young Red Kites taking flight, Kestrels hunting the fields, the odd Pike drifting around, one of them was pretty big ( Easily mid-double ).

Blackwater Returns.

 

 Throughout my teenage years I spent many thousands of hours targeting Barbel in low gin clear rivers and really hammered home my love for fishing stealthily, so when I do make those journeys back to the Blackwater in search of a double figure Barbel its like going back 20+ years to those days of my well-spent youth.

 Last week I restarted my 40 Rivers Challenge on the diminutive Blackwater in search of a fish a pound bigger than what I have previously managed (9lb 1oz), now I haven't seen anything bigger than that, in fact I have seen very little for that matter, part of that maybe due to the fact in the summer it is heavily choked with ribbon weed and ranunculus so there is plenty of room to hide, but also I am not entirely sure the stocks are vast, in fact I do feel I am searching for isolated pockets of fish across a few miles of river.

 It really is a difficult conundrum to solve as I can't tell most of the time whether I'm in the right place or not! Last Wednesday I spent 12hrs down there, roving around and then static fishing toward the evening in a spot that looked like it should be holding Barbel but I left at nearly 11pm without a touch.

 Fast forward to yesterday. I had a few jobs booked in in the morning and had the roving gear in the motor, so when I finished in West London I shot out to Berkshire to try my hand once again at a Blackwater Barbel, or maybe just a fish! to get the confidence up a little bit. After a nights rain I thought the river would be a poor state but it wasn't too bad and I could still sight fish, but only just as the humidity was soooooooo bad that I couldn't regulate my body temp at times and sweated from pores I didn't even I know I had! So there were times I couldn't see into the water given the glare.

 Now, sometimes the Barbel can give you a little hint as to where they are and when one randomly flashes on a set of narrow gravels the radar kicks into gear very quickly and once I saw one I saw five! Over the next couple of hours I managed to catch two of them both of which were around the 5lb mark and those that I saw remaining on the gravels were of similar size, that double still elusive, I spent a couple more hours wandering around trying to find something a bit bigger but found nothing other than a few Pike, one of which was certainly a double, just hanging off the back of small Chub and Roach.

1st Barbel

2nd Barbel marginally bigger.

 It was great to finally catch another Barbel off the Blackwater but really need to find more prolific grounds, not sure I'm where I need to, or am I in the right place and the bigger fish just aren't showing themselves.. only time will tell.

Jungle warfare Barbel ready to go back.

Barbel Society 2024.

 A few weeks back I had a slot at the annual Barbel Society Show which was held at Notts County Football Ground in the heart of Nottingham on the banks of the mighty Trent. I was asked early in the year if I wanted to take to the stage to waffle on about all things 40 Rivers Challenge.

 Yes, you guys here know all about it but many anglers out there on the banks of the rivers don't even realise that there forty rivers across England, Wales and Scotland that hold Barbel, let or lone double figure specimens! For me it's some of the unknowns or catching specimens from rivers that don't usually produce them or not rivers anglers would typically venture onto to target Barbel of any size.

A section of the seating that would become filled for the talkers.

 In every region there is a big river ( Thames, Trent, Severn, Wye, Ribble, Yorkshire Ouse or Hampshire Avon ) those rivers are quite well spread out and offering vast amounts of water to tackle with good heads of fish throughout of all sizes, so why would anglers target lesser know rivers and areas when "easier angling" is available. That's one of the reasons I really love this journey so far, it has taken me to many different places, from urban settings like the Tame, Wandle and soon to be the Aire to paradises like the Wye, Hants Avon and Wharfe. 

 Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but for me natural settings do it for me but once again, the rough and ready areas need the attention too. These are some of the things I touched on during my talk and for my first effort I think I did okay but I was nervous and was all totally off the cuff, I was supposed to write up some bullet points and expand upon those, but went out for curry and beers instead :) 

 My challenge has just restarted with a visit to the Blackwater which I will touch on shortly.

 I hope you enjoy the video, 37 mins of your life you won't get back but it's possibly better than the drivel on TV nowadays.... I hope you enjoy and possibly find something of benefit.

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Barbel Society "My Chat". 

Summer Barbel on the Pin.

 

 After a busy day at work I had two options once I'd finished with my last client, either go home or have a go for a Barbel or two on the way home. With the thick cloud overhead and cooler temps over the last couple days I opted for the latter and glad I did.

Real jungle warfare, great conditions for stalking.

 Three quarters of a loaf to use I opted to fish dead simple, a size 8 ESP cryogen hook and a single AAA shot when needed and trundled the flake to fish I could see or in runs I expected Barbel to be and was not disappointed. 2hrs later I had ended my short visit with five Barbel with the best weighing 8lb 11oz and in fantastic condition, the others were between the 3-5lb mark, all gave great scraps on the light gear.

Chalkstream Barbel at their finest.

 That was fun and a nice little teaser on local pastures before I restart my Barbel Challenge as I look to chalk off river number 25. The Kentish Stour or Arun will hopefully get a bit of attention soon once the weather becomes favourable and time becomes available.