I have been out on the banks for a couple trips, two on the Blackwater, another Bristol Avon venture and a local trip to the 'Small River" for some fun and much needed bends in the rod as my challenge this season is proving to be quite lean on the runs front.
The first of the two Blackwater trips yielded a fish in the shape of a nice Chub weighing 5lb 7oz which was pleasing, just not a swashbuckling double figure Barbel...
The second trip resulted in a blank which is more like the Blackwater I know :)
Last Sunday I headed back onto the Bristol Avon in the full knowledge that the river was in full flood and still rising upstream, my spidey-senses were tingling and had to get over there, 150 miles of tarmac were left in my wake before realising I'd left my net at home....C*CK!. So I had to do the responsible thing and wait for the local tackle shop to open and buy myself a net that I already have two of at home...only the second time I've done that, the first being a blank session on the Itchen where I decided that if by some minor miracle I was to catch I was prepared to get with it!
This time around I wasn't going to undertake such tomfoolery, the river was angry and the amount of debris coming down even in the slacks made fishing difficult but I wasn't going to give in and continued fishing in the spots I felt a Barbel may be lying up and waiting for a bit of food to fall in front of it. So another blank.
Then a couple weeks back my van was "due" for a service, the bastard is brand new with delivery mileage only yet after just 7500 miles one was needed. So I put it in and what do you know, it's on the banks of my playground, so I met up with Dad for some Barbel bashing to which we did bash out loads of Barbel, nothing massive but all good fun given the slim pickings this season has thrown up so far. I can only hope the remaining four months are a stark reminder of how good it can be.
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| Dad's best at 6.05 |
