End of Season Review.

 

 The 2024/25 season was certainly one of the quickest, I can not believe its over already but it was pretty good! 

 Highlights of the season are fewer than I would have hoped for along with only one new personal best set.

 My Spring angling was not easy but topped my Bream campaign with a 15lb 10oz specimen PB, I had a fair few doubles too in the aftermath but the 15lb barrier was always my target. 

 The summer seemed to come and go very quickly but the capture of my first 3lb river Rudd was most certainly the cherry on top, there was a couple of cracking back-ups too but barring that it wasn't until early September that things on the Barbel front kicked off.

 That trip up to the Nene in early September bought an end to a 6 trip drought when a 12lb 8oz torpedo slipped up as darkness fell amongst large swathes of cabbages where I found a gravel run which no doubt is used by the fish as a highway between areas, but the Barbel I had the following evening off the Soar was certainly not expected but sometimes thats how angling goes! 

 To be cradling a 12lb 9oz Soar Barbel was much more than I could have dreamt but as I said the angling universe works in strange ways. Rivers number 25 and 26 had been completed inside 24hrs!

 Next up was the Wye, a river that certainly gives up its fish, just not big ones, early October that all changed, when that rod went over around 10/11pm I knew it was a big fish, yes it only just made the cut but they all count! 10lb 1oz and river number 27 had been completed.

 For the majority of the autumn and winter I was on the tools and only fished a couple times, some nice Grayling were caught and Chub, it wasn't until recently on the Dorset Stour that I finally had another proper result when a day spent hunkered down in foul weather was rewarded, not only was it river number 28 completed but weighing 15lb 6ozs it was the 4th river I have had a 15lb+ Barbel off of, a figure I want to increase over the duration of this challenge as a sub-plot.

 And the STATS are in....

 Sessions - 20

 Blanks - 12

 Barbel Caught - 18

 Doubles - 4

 Mileage - 4120

 Only 20 sessions for Barbel in 9 months, now that is poultry! Next season I shall have to do more! and the majority of that was the Kentish Stour.

The Dying Days.

 

 Well, the lead up to the end of the season didn't go as planned, unfortunately the weather wasn't great but still wanted to try. First off I planned to get myself up to Yorkshire for a go at the Y.Rother, a river I had purchased a ticket for back in the summer but it wasn't until 7th of March that I finally got up there! 

 203 miles of tarmac had to be covered and it was my new vans inaugural journey! sadly my trip ended up with a blank on that river, I arrived at 4pm and fished until 4am but had one little chub wrap and the temps had dropped so much that my confidence had ebbed away and opted to leave there at 0430 and yes there were loads of other options such as the Swale, Idle, Y.Ouse, Y.Derwent, Wharfe and the Aire but the conditions up there were very different to the south, so opted to drive back 203 miles to home, not a wink of sleep for 39 hrs, once in overdrive I can do long spells without kip but I do pay for it later on as when I do get to sleep and finally wake up I suffer with really strong headaches where I sleep so deep.

It's hard industrial past on full show.

Not seen waste as bad as this before, eye opening
amount of plastic littering the trees.

 However, before I did that I drove to a secluded woodland in Kent as I had gotten wind of a very rare "legitimate" small population Large Tortoiseshell butterflies, for me it was one I needed as I look to complete my list, as I ambled around I bumped into Terry Hearn who was also searching for the LT so we had a chat about things fishy and fluttery and after 4hrs of searching we came across what we were looking for "species number 53" was in the bag (not literally), success! Now with the gear in the van and a 20 min drive across the beautiful Kent countryside could I finally get that KS Barbel I so badly want?

YESSSS!!!! Finally got to photograph one, lifer.

 Nope.....of course I didn't....again. But, I did see something else that was mind blowing, 3 Beavers! just 20 metres away from where I was fishing, I couldn't quite believe it. Oh, and I also had a nice chub of 5lb 9oz and 3 Bream to about 4lb.

5.9 Chevvy.

Barbel' friend, shame no Barbel seem to exist here :) 

Beaver dental work

ditto

yikes 😳

 After that on March 12/13th I arranged to take my Dad down to the Dorset Stour as we looked to go for a big end of season Chub and Roach, I knew of areas where they were present so we targeted them, another stroke of misfortune meant that neither of us caught across both days! It was not easy at all, but at least we had a good catch up! 

 Last day of the season was spent with Brian who I knew was in London owing to his hospital commitments, with that I opted to fish super light and went about searching for fish in any nook and cranny they may have been held up in, by the end of it I had landed 10 glistening chalk stream Barbel to 7lb 2oz and Brian managed 10 also to 7lb on the button, it was good fun and a far cry from the rigours of my 40 Rivers Challenge! 

7lb 2oz, best of 10 😜

Who says you can't celebrate a draw!

 Roll on June 16th, we go again!