It's been a couple of years since I last visited this big fish mecca and it's been too long really, on Friday I put that right. The plan was made a couple weeks ago and that was to do three days down there.
My approach was to fish the float during the day and have a sleeper rod for Barbel in the margins with a big lump of meat, the issue with this plan was all of this was before I'd seen the river and found out the conditions were actually pretty poor. The colour was very heavy with no more than 3 inches and trotting maggots with that lack of visibility was always going to be hard, arguably the point that was even more challenging was the river 24hrs before I arrived was 11.4c and when I arrived on Friday morning it had slumped to 7.4c! sudden drops in temp, especially that sharp are never good omens for targeting Barbel.
Now I have got all the excuses out of the way as to why I wouldn't or probably shouldn't catch a Barbel I went and did just that, much against the odds. Having persevered with trotting maggots for 4hrs without a bite I opted to switch to two static rods but seeing as I had lumped out a pint or two of maggots I suspected if anything was feeding on them then I might stand a chance of picking it/ them up with it plonked on the deck! 10 white maggots impaled on a short hair and a PVA bag crammed full of white maggots was cast out just behind a dead/dying weed bed and that was the rod that stormed off within 40mins, my hunch paid off this time around and it was a brilliant take and fight in the pacy flow.
 |
| D.Stour 7.13 winter powerhouse. |
My heart understandably was racing as it felt like a decent fish out in the flow, but when it came up out of the murk I could see it wasn't a double but I could not be disappointed, I was just thankful to catch one in the conditions to be fair. Plus as it turned out that was to be my only excitement of the day and in-fact the whole trip, as I had weighed up my options given the fact the river hadn't risen much more than half a degree and the torrential rain gave way to clear starry skies and the temperature plummeted, by 11pm I had had enough and did not fancy my chances on improving on the one fish, I will return soon enough when conditions improve. Just thankful I didn't blank and drove back home and in bed by 1am.
Lesson learned and this 40 Rivers Challenge is all about learning and pitting my whits against not just Barbel, but also the river that I'm tackling and the conditions which during the winter are often touch and go, sometimes the decision to go and fish is one of impatience but given how few my chances have been this season I had to at least try. Maybe next time I will come away with a prize worthy of the efforts put in.
