Staffordshire Tame Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

32.....

 .....Well, what can I say that hasn't already been said, my first ever visit to the S.Tame, the Trent' biggest contributor was a blazing success, but my day / journey didn't start there.

 My alarm went off at 0330 for an early start as I had some filming planned which was time sensitive, so decided to head to the R.Severn to do that filming, the river temp measured 19.8c late morning which is not too bad but the bright sunshine had me wondering if we were going to get a bite, not ideal conditions but we gave it a go.

 I was joined by Richy from Drennan and we got to business early doors with the bits we needed to do, we just needed a Barbel to have a feed, unfortunately we did not muster more than a solitary Bream which was a shame, 170 miles - nearly 3hrs of driving. It was a good catch up with Rich and we were also joined by the bailiff of the Barbel Society' water at Pixham Ferry, Steven, who I had met for the first time in person but we have spoken online for a couple years and has followed my Barbel Challenge for probably longer than that. 

 After deciding to call it a day around 3pm I already had my sights set on my next stop, that being the Staffordshire Tame, only an hour away from the Severn it was a nice short (42 mile) drive where I detoured slightly via Sutton Coldfield to pick up a permit for a different river, then onward to meet Barbel and Midland expert, Ade Busby.

 Ade knows a fair bit when it comes to the midland rivers and has caught some special fish off the S.Tame and Anker ( which will feature later on). When I arrived at the gates I was greeted by Ade and then the club secretary to which he quipped, "good luck on the Barbel, it's going to take you a while", a challenge set is always a challenge accepted. Upon parking up and walking the river with Ade a couple of areas certainly stood out to me, especially those areas that had good flow with some near side or far side cover, it looks like it should hold plenty of Barbel, but I am reliably informed it is by no means easy and holds a very low stock of Barbel in places.

Nice pace up and down the river, makes a change.

Pretty clear!

Brevvie before getting set for the evening.

 After Ade and I had chatted for a while he headed off for tea and set about making mine with the view to starting around an hour before sunset. Whilst my scran was cooking I had a quick walk up and downstream with a bag of boilees ( 15mm Dynamite Baits - hot crab "n" krill ) where I launched in around two handfuls per spot, four spots primed I went back to munch my dinner.

Almost crayfish proof, good stuff.

 After that was taken care of I plonked myself into swim one at the bottom of the section and spent two hours in there trying to pick up a fish in between the constant crayfish trouble, even with hard hooker 22mm boilee on the hair I was still getting bothered. After 2 hours I moved, in hindsight I should have gone sooner, where Crayfish are very active often means there are little or no fish feeding. So I opted to walk all the way down to the bottom boundary which was quite a wander, but it would prove to be a brilliant decision. I listened to the Callum Simpson victory over Troy Williamson and around ten minutes after the fight I had a sudden lurch on my new Acolyte Barbel rod and the centre-pin ripped off, no way this was another small chub, this fish was in a hurry. 

 Just two minutes into the fight she buried her head into a snag and it all went solid, I knew it was a Barbel simply from the take but didn't know how big and did not want to take any chances, with the micro-barb size 10 hook I opted to just ease off the tension where I hoped she would back off downstream on her own volition, after a tense minute of so I could feel the tension begin to reapply as she began to back off and for the first time in what felt like an eternity I was back in direct contact with the fish and from that point on she played out in the deeper fast flowing water in front of me for a couple more minutes before gliding into the net first time. This fish could be the one I thought and soon enough it was confirmed it most certainly was the one.

Staffordshire Tame, 10lb 6oz!!!

 That smile couldn't be much bigger, given how tough some rivers have proven to be this one took all of 3hrs to achieve, quite incredible really when all things are considered, but luck has to play a major part in angling and this time it did, fishing sometimes has mysterious ways of working. River number 32...

...COMPLETED and down to just 8 rivers and my challenge is finished, yes I know there is a way to go yet, but it is all falling into place.

 Whilst I had the Barbel resting up in the net I gave Ade a quick call and was somewhat blown away I had achieved it so quickly, once I had finished on the phone I was happy the Barbel was ready to saunter off back to obscurity, this is a river that does not give up its Barbel easily, Bristol Avon and Blackwater take note!!