River Dove - Part 2.

 

 After visiting the Dove a couple weeks back I was pretty keen to get back on the river and try to track down a double figure Barbel, that task ten years ago may have been deemed a simple task but the Dove has had it tough in those intervening years and now a double off here will require some more time, how much time god only knows.

 On Sunday morning I woke up at 4am and out the door by 0420 after loading the car the evening before, I set about breezing through the 180 miles of tarmac that lay ahead and by 0730 I was parked up and got myself ready for what was two days and the night of angling, could I keep my run of midland successes going?

 The first hour was lovely but the following 4-5 hours were a bit squalid as the rain swept across the rolling hills and made the first half the day very wet, through that rain I was rolling meat around the top half of the fishery which equates to around a mile in length, I walked this up and down twice over, just hoping that I could a Barbel. 

 As the day wore on biteless I chopped and changed between methods (rolling meat, static meat fished on a light lead and then setting traps using Dynamite' Hot Crab n Krill boilies). Whatever I did it seemed to not peak the interest of a single fish. Around lunchtime Ade Busby popped up for a reccy, a fishery that he had visited a few years back when the stocks were almost certainly more plentiful, that said we both believe there is the odd big fish floating around, otherwise I would not be there!!

Typical looking areas on the Dove.

 Ade and I had a good walk around the bottom mile of the river that appears to be getting little or no attention and thats the sort of angling I like, not pressured and feel like when you are fishing that the Barbel wherever they are aren't scared to feed / approach baits. Whilst we talked we compared ideas and thoughts of where we could potentially find them and how to approach them, between Ade and I we probably have 60-70 years of experience so I'd feel confident we could work it out, being 3hrs away its a river I want to work out quickly. 

No swims so it was time get amongst it!

 Dusk came and went, as did Ade and my hopes of a dusk bite evaporated, the hours ticked by under the starry sky and as the clock past 2am I called it a night and retreated back to the car for a power nap so I could recharge for day two. 0630 the alarm sounded, breakfast made and two cups of Ceylon tea was my fuel for another marathon day. By 0715 I was on the river and dropping bait in swims I fished on day one and then set about rolling meat once again across the whole 2 mile stretch of river I have access to on the club book.

Mmmmmmmmm......

 The fishery is set in the beautiful rolling hills on the Staffordshire and Derbyshire border and the wildlife is pretty impressive with just about everything buzzing around including my first ever sighting of a Merlin! I was passed a few times by this small bird and immediately recognised it and by the third passing google had confirmed my thoughts, such a pukka little thing and really quick too. 

 Like day one it was very hard to even find fish, around 10am of the first day I did see two nice Chub around the five pound mark but spooked very quickly off my rolled meat, day two I didn't see a single fish and I roved around with polaroids as I usually do but nothing, so by 2pm I gave up on the mobile approach and opted to pick just one peg that I really liked the look of that had the hallmarks of a good Barbel swim and worked it, first of all by offering a dozen loose 15mm boilies and then letting the swim settle for about thirty mins before casting in and within an hour I had a bite that I should never have missed, almost certainly a Chub bite, but failed to connect, more importantly though, not a single crayfish tap which told me all I needed to know, there was feeding fish present.

 My plan to stick it out was not playing out though how I wished, I had a time of 7pm to be off the river in mind as I had to get back to the car, load up and drive 180 miles back home and didn't want to get back too late ( 11pm ). But, just an hour before I was going to jack it in the tip pulled around and the line ticked off the pin at a good rate, I did not hesitate to strike and by the time I did the fish had already gained 10ft on me and had piled through a load of branches in typical Chub style, it had to be, but it felt heavy so if indeed it was a Chub it was a good one and after a minute or so of negotiating the snag the Chub came free and shot off across the flow into the deep water under the willows and did it's best to evade capture, but no no no, that was not going to happen and I got a 2-day blank saver in the net and what a fish it was too.

 As it cruised into the net it dawned on me this fish was big, a good mid-6+ and actually got a bit excited even though it wasn't my intended target.

First Dove fish, 6lb 6oz Chub! Nice.

 Once I let that pristine Dove Chub go I fished the final hour full of hope of another fish but it didn't come and I even stayed an extra half hour to make sure.

Truly special.

Bourne To Do It.

 

 Anywhere that I chose to fish after that Trent trip was always going to be a tad deflating, the hectic nature of how the session unfolded is something I rarely experience, the feeling of being miles away from a Barbel is how I usually feel. 

 A visit to the River Bourne for an afternoon / evening session the other day was in order, having finished a job not too far away I thought it was probably the best option. I opted to rove around, drop a few boilies in each likely looking area then leaving them to rest as I mooched around looking for a bite.

 First peg like most was super snug and barely any room to swing a cat, hemmed in with expiring Balsam and gnarly brambles and nettle it wasn't the most inviting looking spot to start in but fifteen yards downstream is a nice overhanging bush which looks like a Barbel may call it home.

 An hour later I guessed nothing was home and naffed off to the first baited spot, armed with a 1.75 ABR and pin I lowered my 20mm hard hooker source hookbait down with a PVA of six 15mm pre-soaked boilies into position and sat back, after 40minutes or so I had a knock which caught me by surprise and that kept me alert for the next few minutes when out of nothing the rod tore off and the pin screeched into life! 

 In this equally tight spot the fish gave me the run around from the get-go and even managed to snag me on the surface behind a series of branches which wasn't helpful but after allowing some slack for a few seconds the Barbel drifted back down beyond the branches and then regained full control of the fish where it finished the battle in a spirited manner. This was no double, but it was a Barbel and my second off the river this season too, nice!

A proud 7lb 1oz

 Once I had taken a couple of quick pics and weighed it for my records I slipped it back and got the bait straight back out on the spot, hoping it wasn't dining alone. Unfortunately no more fish appeared, but I was serenaded by Owls in every direction, had a visit from a Hedgehog and the display of two stags warring in the field behind me, which was pretty awesome to see! Fishing eh, box office stuff :) 

Bucking the Tren...t.

 

 In angling, sometimes we are spoilt rotten with what we catch, most of the time we are not. Barbel angling for me over the last few years has been a slog for the most part as most of you know, however on the odd occasion I have come up trumps with some incredible captures of fish I could only dream of.

 This leads me on to this session, sometimes we get spoilt rotten. The Trent needs absolutely no introduction, it is without doubt the best Barbel river in the country, so where better place would there be to do a product film for the new Acolyte Barbel rods in the stepped up sizes of 2lb and 2¼ test curve. 

 I was keen to catch for the cameras after a 180-mile drive up to the river from home, after getting set-up and putting some robin-red pellets out at the range I thought would be suitable ( after leading around I found a drop off into the boat channel ), not even 15 mins had passed before the downstream rod hooped around and a fighting fit 6lb Barbel was in the net. 20 mins later I made that two fish with a nice powerful 7lb+ Barbel making its way to the net out of the depth.

 It was quite the start and not long after the 7lb fish went back the downstream rod hammered round again and the first double of the session came along and it put up a great scrap like the previous two, this one weighing 10lb 3oz.

 Those Trent fish really were good lookers and all fought really hard in the deep water, as the morning progressed I inched my way up to 8 Barbel with others weighing 6lb, 9lb 2oz, 9lb 12oz, 8lb 8oz and 8lb 11oz. Once we got to this point I started to do some of my chatter for the camera and some rig talk / maintenance, then we had some lunch and a natter about life and got the rods back out around 2pm where sport continued to be superb. The cameras and Rich left for an early bath but I opted to stay and abuse the 2lb versions of the rod some more and fish of 9lb 10oz, 10lb 7oz, 13lb 2oz (best of the day), 9lb 7oz and the last coming around 6pm being a distinctive bent backed warhorse. It was a fantastic day and nearly trebled my seasons return on Barbel in just 10hrs and I didn't even rods out for all of that!

9lb 12oz

 I had 14 bites / runs and 14 Barbel, all fought well, mostly in superb condition and made for a wonderful session, the 13lb 2oz specimen of course really topped off a great trip and my first trip to the Trent in nearly 6 years was a stark reminder of why I should fish it more, but just for fun.

10lb 7oz

13lb 2oz (What a beauty )

The two above in one shot as it was a double take!!!

Last of the haul, 11lb 11oz...sweeeet!

Life In The Blackwater.

 

 Only taken a trillion visits to catch another R.Blackwater, this river really is a joy to be beside, the nature present is as good as you could ask to see anywhere in the country, the Barbel however have been really challenging as most of you who regularly follow my ramblings will know. When you do catch they are stunning fish and always pristine, but with the Otters ever present how long will fish like this be around for? 

 A typical trip unfolded where I opted to move around and fished just about every good looking spot I could, most have never yielded a touch but this trip just proved why you should always at least try for 20/30 mins, this beauty wasn't weighed but deserved a mat shot and quipped in my mind how many months will it take to find another.

Stunning Barbel around 4-5lb

 Anyway, I'll take what I can on this ever more difficult river before a double is found and landed. 

Pastures New and Old Foes.

 

 Since the R.Anker had thrown up the greatest of all fish I had already made the decision to sleep for the night before making the journey to the R.Dove which is was once again going to be a first, a river I have long since had designs on fishing but never got there, so with the Anker being around half hour north it is fairly close, having never fished the Dove, it was once again going to be a reccy trip.

 Once I had finally found the river after a call to Ade who has been hugely supportive this last few weeks I set about making the long walk to the top boundary to then have a good look and see what I was faced with.

 After the recent rains the Dove was up a bit and heavily coloured, this I felt for stalking which I had in mind was not ideal so I very quickly decided to take on a static approach and set about fishing each good looking spot for around 45mins and then move. I didn't realise that the Dove had Crayfish and they were everywhere! I could not get away from them, so after 6 swims and a good few hours I walked my gear to the centre of the fishery and then went rolling meat, amazingly within a couple minutes I had a brief follow from a Barbel about 7lb which looked like it was going to take the meat and bailed out at the last moment, the fish then drifted out of sight under a bush and regardless of how hard I tried to get that fish to commit I simply could not manage it. 

 For the rest of the day I moved around and feeding lightly I hoped I would come across a Barbel, unfortunately that did not happen and around 10pm I packed up. 3hrs 50min drive back home, but a blank on the Dove didn't matter a jot, that Anker success was enough to let me forget the rest.

 A few days later I made my way over to the Blackwater to carry on my pursuit of a double which unfortunately was met with the same level of nothingness which I am constantly subjected to on this particular river and two days back I made another trip again with an outside chance to make it happen but all I did was continue to remove Crayfish which I seem to be good at that, but very little else is happening on there, even Carp, Chub and Bream seem to be completely missing. I really do feel like the window on a Blackwater double is closing, the Otters are having a profound effect, even if they aren't eating all the fish their presence is moving stocks around so fast I can't get lucky and find them, not through the want of trying. But one thing that is true is that I will continue to keep trying, I won't give up on there, not just yet.

River Anker Double, That's A Wrap!!!

 

 My season just seems to be going from strength to strength, last seasons total of two completed rivers had been equalled before this incredible result, now...here's how it unfolded.

 Following on from my last visit a couple of weeks ago much has happened, that stuff that falls from the sky (rain) decided to put in an appearance and my god we have needed it, when I arrived on the Anker at around 2pm I could very quickly see that the river was about a foot higher and carrying some colour, stalking fish was now out of the question but felt it would offer feeding fish some additional cover during the daylight hours, I opted for a pellet approach as I so often do on smaller rivers, robin red pellets 4mm, 6mm and 8mm in small golf ball sized PVA bags and 8mm on the hair.

 I'm not sure how much of this made a difference but this is how my approach differed. Initially my hair when I tied it was quite long as I had misjudged the required length and was long enough to accommodate 3x 8mm pellets rather than the 2x I normally use. I fished with this setup for around 3hrs within a bite in a couple of swims so I opted to strip that rig down and tie a similar rig with a shorter hair so the 2x 8mm pellets were butting up against the bend of the hook, this presentation I do prefer more, subtle difference but may have made all the difference.

 Fishing a crease just off the far bank flow I placed my 2oz lead and left it as long as I could to allow any feeding fish the opportunity to find the bait, over the course of a couple of hours I topped the swim up with more pellet as there is a healthy population of silvers and Chub so I couldn't imagine the pellet would have been around long and with that consistent flow of free offerings going in I hoped I would bring something upstream from a very fishy looking near bank cluster of reed and far bank bushes where the water drops away from 4ft to around 7/8ft, the perfect holding area for a Barbel or two.

 During my time there the fishing was halted briefly owing to some really powerful showers which would have made the remainder of my visit very uncomfortable so Ade and I hopped into the car to seek shelter as we could see the storm creeping ever closer across the flatlands, enough time to hot foot it to the car, both times with just seconds to spare! 

Just one of many super looking spots.

 Ade arrived shortly after I arrived and we sat back chatting, thankfully towards the evening the clouds slowly broke up enough so that the threat of rain abated. Around 1910 Ade opted to head off home to grab dinner and no sooner he got half way home my rod gently tapped twice to alert me to the presence of something, then out of nothing the rod tip slammed around violently and the centrepin went into meltdown, the vortex whipped up by whatever had just picked up my bait was huge, the brutal power of this fish saw me simply trying limit the amount of line this fish took, more than 30 metres of line was stripped before I managed to get a modicum of control, my heart was in my mouth because I was praying it was a Barbel and not a Carp, the sheer power was startling.

 Once I had the fish turned and slowly coming upstream I still didn't know what it was, that was until it rolled in front of me, my eyes couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was very big! I've had some very big Barbel in my time but this was pretty special, however I had to remain vigilant as this fish still had plenty more in the tank and for another five minutes or so this fish lunged, wallowed, lunged and wallowed some more, over the cord of the net twice too and back out didn't do my nerves any bloody good at all but on the third time of asking I finally got the reward for my efforts in the confines of my net, it was big! 

 A few minutes later Ade arrived to the sight of me punching the air in jubilation, but how big was she? 

 I didn't unhook her or lift her or anything until Ade arrived as I wanted to rest the fish after such an epic battle, when Ade did get himself ready and I laid out all my kit, set up the camera, wet the sling and mat I was ready, or was I? When I began lifting her up and out of the river it dawned on me this fish was even bigger than I first thought, the depth of it was really impressive for a late-August Barbel.

 When it was laid on the mat we both really got see it all and that was when Ade said to me, "That's a river record fish right there James", I had no reason to think otherwise, it was very big. I lifted the scales with them facing Ade and he read off 17lb 7ozs (included the sling) and I was in shock, of course deducting the weight of the sling (11ozs) off the total she settled on 16lb 12ozs! Indeed a new River Anker record, all recorded and indeed confirmed by Ade this fish is the old record which was set in 2022 at 16lb 6oz. 

 I was simply speechless, these moments in angling come round once in a blue moon and amongst all of that it sets me a new personal best for the species which has been in situ since October 2020! What a way to do it. Simply magical. Once that was done a quick couple of photos were taken and then got in the river to have one last moment before she vanished once again into obscurity, hopefully not for so long this time, a new personal best and a new river record for a river I'd only visited once before, that's what dreams are made of.

New River Anker Record - 16lb 12ozs

Magnificent!

And of course, that is the 33rd river I have had a double figure Barbel from, the target is really and truly in sight.