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.