Filling In the Time.

 

 Fishing of late has taken bit of a back seat recently owing to my constant hectic work schedule, so in this episode of James' Angling Adventures we re-cap on the highlights of how my season has gone so far and I have to be honest given how little fishing I've done the rewards have been pretty good! Work as always gets the blame for curtailing my angling but also when faced with a little bit of time to go fishing I find myself too tired to get myself going and get the car loaded and set off. I don't know if that's normal or if I'm just getting lazy as I ticked past my 37th birthday last Monday.

Where I was sat there is currently 4.4m underwater.

 The Spring kicked off in fine style with a hat-trick of Bream on my first trip with fish registering 11.13, 13.7 and a new personal best of 15lb 10oz which to my amazement came after a pretty tame indication but the fight for a Bream was awesome. Link to session here --- Dream Bream Trip

 The subsequent visits for Bream either ended in blanks or scratched around for bites but did get one more decent trip in before they began to spawn. Link to session here --- Another Good Bream Trip.

 Once the Bream spawned my attentions turned to the start of the season that wasn't far away and amazingly on my first trip for Rudd once the season opened I managed to achieve a milestone that I had been longing to reach in 8 years of angling on the Fenland waterways, that milestone was a 3lb+ Rudd which was achieved by the finest of margins! Link to session here --- Dream Rudd Start

 Once I had achieved that my desire to get back on the Fens waned somewhat but with the rivers now open Barbel would soon be on the agenda but it did take me quite a while to resume my 40 Rivers Challenge and after a few sessions flitting around the country my long wait for a R.Nene double ended in fine fashion as a beauty weighing 12lb 8oz slipped into the net after a tense battle amongst the pads. --- Link to session here --- Nene Double Delight!

Bottoms Up!!

 The very next day with little time to bask in my success on the Nene I managed to do the unthinkable and caught a brute off the R.Soar just 24hrs later, like London Buses....my journey home was one of pure joy. Link to session here --- Soar'ing High!

Kentish Stour Stealth.

 A week later I went back to the R.Wye in search of a double and get myself up to 27 completed rivers but with a decent effort applied I was not fortunate to do so, three weeks later I went back with renewed vigour and after a total of 168hrs spent over 10 trips I at long last got the fish I had been searching for but only made the cut by a gnats whisker! but that was all I needed, I felt I had deserved that fish absolutely! Link to session here --- Wye Wonder.

 And since that trip to the Wye / reccy on the Teme I haven't wet a line, over two weeks ago... anyone who thinks being self-employed means you'll be able to have more time off don't get it twisted, you'll end up doing more, the money is too good to turn down and you'll find yourself busier than ever before.

Northern end of Windermere.

 Anyway that's my fault :), I hope you enjoy this little catch-up and hopefully we can catch a fish of our dreams and pray the rains ease up so the rivers will be more accessible than they were last few winters.

Teme Tiger Recon - Part 1

 

 Following on from my big result on the R.Wye and only 36 miles from the R.Teme it seemed to be the logical next step, at 7am I was cruising up the M50 bound for a date with a Teme Tiger, a Barbel from here is reputed to fight harder than any other Barbel in the country, that was a reputation I wanted to test. Having seen the Teme for the first time I was keen to get started and I was warned about the banks and they weren't wrong, steep, very slippery ( mainly owing to the recent floods that were running off when I got there, possibly 7ft had already dropped away with possibly another 3ft or so to come off ), it made fishing difficult as there wasn't many pegs to target as they were very unsafe, but I got to work on the ones I could. 

 The swims looked perfect where I could fish, but there really wasn't much to talk about during the daylight hours as I didn't have a touch and darkness didn't bring much else barring a couple of Chub, the one below and a slightly better one of 3lb or so was all I had, the rods were pretty quiet and around 11pm I decided to call it a night and headed home, I will return when conditions are good again.

River Wye Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 AT. LONG. LAST.

 This part of the challenge was always going to be a difficult owing to the amount of Barbel and indeed Chub present. I have spent over the course of 10 trips (including this trip) 168 hours of angling with 62 Barbel caught, the 62nd being the one I was after, everything in between has been enjoyable and testing in equal measure. 

A wonderful part of the world, what a vista.

 Learning a river that was in flood 9 trips out of 10 had presented a challenge in itself but with my experience increasing with every trip I never once felt out of my depth and conversely enjoyed the fact it wasn't a gimme.

 The river had been up to a shade under 4m and I was keeping an eye on the river as I only had 2-3days available, fortunately for me my planned days were forecast to be bathed in sunshine, not ideal for Barbel but at least I wasn't going to get wet, so with the level at 1.98m when I arrived I felt like a couple of Barbel would be possible. However...the Chub were ravenous and made fishing difficult, every spot I dropped in the Chub made themselves known, missing many but landed 26 Chub with the best possibly a 5-pounder which went unweighed, that said it wasn't all Chub as 3 Barbel also got in on the act, all three were around the 5-6lb bracket which were great fun in the pacy water off the slacks.

 Once dusk had come and gone I thought the best time had gone so I decided to drop a handful of small boilees and pellet in a swim next to where I was cooking dinner and let that rest whilst I filled my face. The plan for the night was to give it until midnight - 1am and then grab some sleep and arise around 6am to get back on it.

 A few hours passed by with the odd knock on both rods but put it solely down to debris coming downstream, around 2240 I got a steady pull round on my downstream rod which grabbed my attention momentarily, I thought it was more rubbish collecting on the line but with a 2oz lead on in the margins I hoped it wouldn't move out of position, I began to sit back down when it pulled round a little more forcefully by which point I felt it was now dragged out of position, I picked up the rod and lifted it up and BANG! the rod slapped round, that gentle pull round and hold twice must have been now what I was latched into and it felt like a big fish straight away, very slow and deliberate in the flow I knew it was a good fish so I played it sensibly and within 3-4mins I caught glimpse of it and was very confident it was the double I sought! 

 Soon enough the fish slowly tired and slipped over the cord of my net, it surely had to be the fish I desired, it looked a double! 

River No: 27 ✅ Get in there!!!!

 Once I had set up my camera, tripod, laid out the mat and got the scales and sling set I lifted her out and felt like a double all day long, on the scales it was a lot closer than I thought it would be, she settled on 10lb 2oz but weighed her again just to confirm and actually settled on 10lb 1oz the second time around, so I went with the lower of the two weights, but it didn't matter, it was my WYE DOUBLE!!! 

Excellent !!!!

 The cheesy grin told you all you needed to know, plenty of effort 290mile round trips, enduring very cold nights, long periods without a touch last winter, this was my reward for the efforts pumped in, Barbel  number 62 was the magic fish.

Cheers all.

Leaving for the last time. Diolch Afon Gwy.