Yorkshire Bound!

 

 This is a trip I have wanted to embark upon for over a month now but the rivers up there have been in the fields for months on and off, for me as a travelling angler I have to have the conditions partially in my favour, no point making the journey if I can not reach the actual river!

 On Thursday ( 12th March ) I drove up fully loaded from home to north Yorkshire as my first port of call was the Y.Ouse and with the target in mind of catching of figure Barbel as most of you have come to expect when I make these journeys. The weather forecast was looking very dicy and with that in mind I still decided to go.

 A nice early start and in under 4hrs I was in the paddock and unloading the gear I needed for the day and before I started fishing I got the eating done first, a couple cups of black Assam tea and 3 egg and bacon rolls were my fuel for the day! Once that was polished off I grabbed my gear and went fishing. During my time on there I was given some local info on roughly where to try and where to ignore, ignore local knowledge at your peril on these missions, they really save so much time and yes, getting a double is never a guarantee as you can imagine but it increases the odds in your favour.

My weapons of choice.

My plot.

 After a couple hours the wind really started to stiffen and the predicted 45-50mph winds were upon me and the rain started to come down heavily as well. I wondered how much impact this would have on the trip. Large trees were coming down across the river including lots of limbs as the strong sustained winds were proving too much for predominantly Oaks and Birches, I was safe where I was with no trees on my bank, but it was uncomfortable and recasting was a challenge as I had to get my PVA bag of robin reds on the hook and out to the river before the rain soaked the bag! 

2mm, 4mm & 8mm robin red pellet, the business.

 I was on the river from 0900 to nearly 1630 before I got my first bite, a typical Barbel bite and the fight didn't disappoint either, a nice looking fish came up out of the channel and continued to battle away in the margins before slipping the net under my first Yorkshire Ouse Barbel, on the scales she went 7lb 9oz and no sooner I got the rod back out I was away again! This time 6lb 13oz was the weight and very quickly I had gone from scratching my head to landing two Barbel, sweet.

7.09

6.13

 Oddly just when I thought with those two quick fish that I'd bought a shoal up to the channel I was fishing it wend dead! I didn't get another Barbel until gone 9pm and the wind and rain was still hammering through, so a quick look and weigh in for the bigger fish ( 7lb 2oz ) the other was around 5lbs. Not long after, 11pm came and it was time to get off the water and find somewhere to recharge for the night!

During the 2nd morning.

The level the day after I left.

 Day 2 was a very different day, I woke up after a fairly decent sleep around 0630 and first thing I did was look at the river levels on my phone and my fears were confirmed, the amount of rain that came down I wasn't surprised to see all the rivers flying up, the Ure, Swale, Wharfe and of course the Ouse, when I was on it on day one the level was 0.9m on the Monkton gauge, by midday it was over 3m and there was a lot more to come through, the area I fished on the Thursday was unfishable on Friday, such a shame. 

 I tried hard to make it work and found the odd fish but nothing again of note, the best of the three was 7lb 5oz, such a shame indeed. A massive effort made, over 500 miles travelled at quite an expense, I wanted at least one double from this trip but it did not happen. Seven Barbel and a Bream on my first attempt I didn't think was too bad. Next season it will have to be.

Chub-Tastic.

 

 The R.Blackwater has been rubbish all season barring a 1 Chub, 1 Bream, 1 Barbel and 1 Carp...it really has been that tough. So imagine my delight when I was finally getting some bites!

 First of the last three trips I had one Chub, 4lb 14oz.

 Second of the three trips I managed three bites and three Chub!, where were these Chub hiding? One of them was a lump too and not far off 6lb! They have been there all season, just not catching them and all of a sudden they switch on. But this wasn't the best trip either and yes, these were actually trips in search of Barbel but they remain totally absent, but the Chub numbers were pretty epic!

 

Beautiful piece of water but very tough!

 My third trip was even better! I opted to feed a few Dynamite Baits " Hot Crab & Krill " boilees in each swim like I have done for months, only half a dozen as I just want to give fish a taster, in the colder temps they don't feed anywhere near as much, so overfeeding them is something I'd want to avoid.

 Forty Five minutes in each peg and with no sign of fish I'd move on, but amazingly in the first spot I got a couple of early indications that fish were present so I stuck it out and was rewarded with a pristine 5lb 14oz chevin, thought it was alot bigger, really thick across the back, a proper crayfish muncher!

 

5lb 14oz

 That peach was followed up pretty quickly by a 4lb 11oz and 4lb 14oz ( not the same fish as the previous trip ), and it wasn't an hour later that the tip started to tap away again in another peg 100m downstream which took some patience before striking the tiniest of pulls, that battle resulted in a fantastic Chub of 5lb 8oz as the light began to fade and about two hours after dark much further downstream I had one last fish which I needed two attempts at, I struck the first bite and only managed fresh air, I got the bait straight back down and within five minutes it was back and this time I sat on my hands and waited for the fish to get cocky, I won! 

Bliss, but chilly. Chub didn't seem to mind!

 When I see the Chub come up in the torchlight it looked huge! so wide across the back once again and honestly thought it was going to cruise past my early season best of 6lb 1oz by some distance, alas she did not! 5lb 12oz was still very pleasing and a super afternoon / evening of fishing, 2x upper 4's and 4x 5lb plus Chub, that will do very nicely. 

5lb 12oz

Leisure Sessions with Dad!

 

 Always nice to get out fishing with my Dad, 73 this May and still keen as mustard to get a bend in the rod, this desire to get out I'm sure is fuelled by their impending move down to Gillingham in Dorset, some cracking fishing down that way available but would be nearly 3hrs each way from me so these types of sessions will be no more which is a shame.

 We opted to rove around on the small river as we usually do, a few trots or rolls in each run and move, very quickly we were both off the mark with fighting fight torpedos in the fast flow which snared free-lined or bounced bread flake into likely areas but its not just Barbel that are present, Carp and Chub also call this river home and came across both on the two recent visits we have had, both coming away with fish on the two outings is always a massive plus.

 All in all great fun!

I'm Back!

 

 I can't believe it's been almost two months since I was last on here! Truth be told I have been out a fair bit so I will hopefully get through it all over the next day or so.

 Since my trip to the Hants Avon we have had biblical amounts of rain and has rendered certain parts of the country totally un-fishable so naturally where I could fish I chose Barbel, primarily the Bristol Avon and Blackwater, neither of which for numerous visits ( 4x Bristol Avon and 5x Blackwater ) gave up any gems which would see me move on to 31 completed rivers on my challenge, alas that by the point of early March had not been achieved.

 I really was struggling, the Bristol Avon was in flood for about 4 months solid and every time it looked to start dropping the south west would be buffeted once again by monsoon rains! 

 During this time I did have some Chub to 4lb 11oz and a few Bream to around 6lbs but of course not my target, catching up on sleep in the car for a few hours before getting back on it was scantly rewarded, seems to be a theme this season. The Blackwater gave me nothing, not even bites.

Fishing at the top of the flood bank..