Wye Not.

 

 Yes, Wye not indeed, I can't think of many places that I have fished that look so good whatever the time of year. This time around I didn't have long available. On my way over to the river I swung into the Drennan HQ to pilfer some goodies and chew the fat with Peter and the boys for a couple of hours, always great to hear Peter's stories of an era long before I was conceived! During my time there we also did a product launch video for the new collapsable specimen nets ( 28", 32" & 36" ), these will be available in all good outlets imminently.

 With my time in Oxford up I hit the A40 toward Wales. A quick swing around to Brian's to collect him and we were Wye bound, full of excitement at the prospect of a bumper day we got ourselves ready quickly...however, for me at least things didn't quite happen. I spent the first couple of hours scratching around for a nibble, it really was slow going with the Chub action even being eerily quiet, normally I'm cursing them but I wasn't on this trip.

Mmmm meat!

 Think my first Barbel came around 2-3pm to which a couple more followed but not big enough for weighing and pics but estimated them to be between 5&6lbs. Not bad fighting size and boy did they give it but I wanted something more substantial. Slightly more substantial I got, a couple of hours later I found another pod of Barbel which all weighed over 7lb ( 7.03, 7.10 & 7.15 ), the fish were better but a feeling suddenly came over me that my time on this particular section is coming to an end, as picturesque as it is, safe and secure and night fishing access it ticks all the boxes, I just don't know if I'm going to get that 10lb+ specimen. 

7.15

7.10

Brian latched into a fish that went 9.04

 I think a move is on the cards soon...however I planned to stay the night but as the temperature tumbled toward 4c I thought better of it and kindly Brian's folks allowed me to stay at their place. Cheers!!!

River Soar Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 When I slipped the net under my 12lb 8oz R.Nene Barbel it bought an end to that campaign, immediately my sights were set on a change of scenery to begin another campaign, such is the design of my 40 Rivers Challenge.

 I had a pukka nights kip at my mate Ross' and after a freshen up and cooked breakfast I made the relatively short journey across to the R.Soar, another river I'd never seen, let or lone fished. I had done a bit of research on the Soar over the closed season and two clubs seemed to stand out above the rest, I chose one in particular and planned to fish it when the time came and stick with it.

 An hour or so after leaving Castor I arrived on the Soar to find a wide and slow stretch of river, treelined and navigable, it looked great. I opted to have a walk of all the water available to me first before choosing a swim to settle down in but the conditions were far from ideal with blazing sunshine and 26c, I had a sneaky feeling it was boom or bust from dusk onwards where I planned to stay to around 1 / 2am then make my way home. 

Ratcliffe Power Station.

And a bit closer, our last remaining coal fired power 
station which goes offline end of the month after
56 years of service.

 There were some great looking spots on both the main river and lock backwaters, but given the time of year and the better flow on the backwater that was my main focus, I thought if there were Barbel around they would be there. I know of a few anglers who have plied their trade on the Soar have all suggested the river isn't what it was for a number of reasons, the very same reasons that are hampering many other rivers, something that as a nation should be embarrassed about, the natural world that we are guests in should be respected more, but enough of that little tangent.

Not as toned as I was in my teens and 20's :)
I blame the kids 😝

  I spent most of the afternoon topless in the field laying on my landing mat as I thought my time would better spent adding another coat of suntan! As the clock ticked closer to 7pm and the suns power began to wane and drop closer to the horizon I got loaded up and made my way to where I thought I stood a chance. By 1915 I had both rods out, one rod out on my ever faithful meat and the other rod with a new test bait from Baitworks which myself and a couple of other anglers are trialing and twenty minutes later that rod began to nod and then pull round, my first Soar fish was a.....

...around 5lbs.

 Not what I was after, however one thing I've learned over the years is that Bream and Barbel often feed together, with this crucial piece of info I was happy to endure the constant taps and bangs as the Bream fed around my boilie rod, my meat rod remained dormant, that was until a couple of minutes before 9pm when my meat rod slammed round with no prior indication, I knew immediately what it was and from the off played it quite hard as there was a row of near side fallen willows which may have given me big problems, so I didn't give the chance to do me, a risky tactic but with total faith in my tackle selection I was happy to put more pressure behind it and it worked, soon enough in the torchlight I could make out a large frame, it was certainly the one I was after, my task was now just to get it closer in, enough to scoop it up in the net but she wasn't quite done, two more very strong lunges for an upstream willow were made but I was okay and soon enough I got this view 😮.

no:26!!!!

 There was no doubt at all about its weight, built like a breeze block and not a particularly long fish in truth but it didn't matter.

 

12lbs 9ozs, River Number 26 completed! ✅

 Oh I was one happy chappy, what a 24hrs fishing I had experienced, it was that good when I released her I packed up, drove home and in bed just after midnight, BOSH!!!!

 Next week I am back on the R.Wye for two days and a night, I sure hope that this purple patch continues, that would be bloody epic, I think I deserve at least one more river to be chalked off before New Year given the effort put in so far this season. Not being greedy, promise. 

River Nene Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 Well well well, I wondered if I was ever going to crack this one, there seems to be enough in the river to target but somehow I couldn't manage it. Whether it be luck, timing or whatever I simply could not engineer that moment that mattered most, that was until Thursday evening, I got that bite, that mattered.

 I started my journey on the Nene back in the 2021/22 season where I got off to a flyer with an 8.7 Barbel on my first visit, I thought it was only a matter of time that summer before I got another Barbel with the hope it would be over 10lb. Fast forward 3 whole years, 6 trips spanning nearly 100 hours, it turned out to be a river that would be a thorn in my side.

 On Thursday morning I had a leisurely drive up to Peterborough and opted to cover similar ground that I have over the previous years. I started by rolling meat to try and find fish amongst the enormous amounts of weed that is present, so many places for them to hide. For the first couple of hours all I could muster was a few Chub to 3lb. As I worked my way down I also fed a handful of pellet and broken boilies into areas that I liked with the view to turn to static fishing and spend 30/40 mins per swim. Soon enough I found myself dropping into to those pegs as the rolling meat offered no more action, unfortunately nor did the static fishing which I gave a good crack. So I opted to change venue again and head upstream.

 Met by a couple mates we made bit of a social of it and the plan was to fish up until kicking off time which was around 2130. During the evening I was plagued by small Chub and constant knocks on both boilie and meat, often the meat getting whittled off which was frustrating. As the sun had dipped beyond the horizon the regularity of knocks and taps eased off and around 2000 I had a bang on the meat rod out of nowhere and had my suspicions that it was a Barbel coming into investigate it. 

 Ten minutes after that I decided to bring it in and check my meat was on, to which it was, just whittled down a little by the hoards of hungry little mouths but big enough for me to be happy with flinging it back out. An accurate cast once again got the bait and lead onto a nice clear gravel patch amongst a sea of cabbages. Around 2045, BANG!!! The rod slammed round violently and I was on it in a flash and that still didn't enable me to keep the Barbel out of the cabbages! she was straight in there and immediately could feel the fish getting more and more solid which gave me nightmares, no way was I going to let this one go! I used all my experience to keep this fish from really doing me in.

 I walked through the thick marginal vegetation downstream and got some side-strain on the fish to try and bring its head out the cabbages backward, I released tension and put it back on and slowly but surely over 6/7min period my perseverance paid off as she slowly but surely became heavier and heavier on the rod and knew I almost had her out and then the line pinged a final couple of times and she was out, with that she realised she was out and no sooner had I got her out she ploughed, unavoidably straight into another set of cabbages to which I had to do the same all over again as I could feel less and less of the fish on the rod and it was only very faint vibrations through the line which told me she was still on, honestly this fight was incredible as it was a war of attrition, this fish had met its match and more. Many get lost in the cabbages but I was not going to become one of that negative statistic, once again I got below it and put more side-strain to again, slowly work it out, this time around she had used up a lot of her strength on the last bid for freedom and now I was winning a bit faster and within a minute or so she had come free and heading toward the net which I cocked up three times, I couldn't work out in the torch light where the fish was in relation to the cord of the net, thankfully I didn't knock it off and third time around she was at last in the net, this time I had finally caught and landed a River Nene double figure Barbel! 

Blooooody BINGO!

 I was in dreamland and after a pretty awful season for Barbel so far I had finally landed a double Barbel, my first since mid-February when I managed to catch an Itchen monster. This fish was not that big but an extremely pleasing 12lb 8ozs, the smile on my face told you all you needed to know about this capture. I had finally done it and shared the moment with one of the bailiffs Ulvis and my good mate Ross it was a great way to end my Nene campaign for a double figure specimen.

River no:25 - R.Nene - 12.08 Complete ✅

 7 Trips, 107 Hours, blazing sun, torrential rain and lightning, I've been through it all there but the conclusion of my campaign could not have been sweeter and with that I packed up and went to the pub for a pint and cigar!

I'm Still Alive.

 

 Well, I honestly can't say I have had a less satisfying start to a season than this one, barring my successes with that massive Rudd brace on the 17th of June it has been terrible. Now I know that would for many anglers make their season and it was a great accomplishment for me given my attempts to catch a 3lb Fenland Rudd.

 But, over the past three seasons of the 40 Rivers Challenge I have made good use of the warmer conditions and successfully chalked off a few rivers before the cooler weather inevitably makes things slightly more tricky. Now I may have covered this in previous posts this season but the unseasonably and longer cold spring had certainly put the kybosh on a fast start and subsequent visits to the Nene, Wye, Bourne and most recently a return to the Wharfe and a debut visit to the Aire also ended up with big fat 0 in the Barbel caught column ( doubles that is ). 

 On rivers I have little knowledge of, I get it that the slow starts will likely happen as I gather information and fish areas to locate Barbel, nevertheless I have fished rivers and areas I am quite familiar with - with equally poor results. I can only hope as the nights draw in a little and the Barbel finally drag themselves out of their comas that results improve. I have a few plans afoot and hope one or two of them come good as my target to reach 30 rivers completed by March 14th 2025. If I don't reach 27/28 rivers completed by New Years I think my target will be in tatters, that said I am in no rush to finish this challenge and it happens when it happens...that said I am an impatient git at times :) 

 Below are a couple of images from my venture across the Pennines as I holiday'd up in the Lake District with the family, a full day away North Yorkshire was a nice little treat with the rods.

 

A flooded R.Wharfe.

The Aire in Leeds.

Ditto, upstream from the weir.