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. 

R.Anker - Pastures New.

 

 After my success on the R.Tame it was time to move on, after slipping back that beauty I retired back to the car and had a good nights sleep, with one of the windows half cracked open I could hear the chorus of Owl chatter as I drifted off. Nice.

 Sunrise came and at the alarm I was already up and tea brewing such was my eagerness to get moving on, with another day of angling ahead I packed away all my wet gear and off I went, goodbye Tame and hello Anker. A totally different river, much more intimate, winding ( Anker from Latin literally translates to winding river ), its the sort of river I love to fish, the whole stealth approach and minimal disturbance is right up my street and within half an hour I was seeing Barbel and Chub, one Barbel possibly around 8lb and another which looked close to that magic 10lb mark. 

 With it being so low and clear I could see the fish easily with my glasses and it was exciting to see my target species so quickly, but given the clarity was it going to be easy to catch them? the short answer was no, the Chub were in a ravenous mood and within a couple of hours I managed 6 to around 4½ pound and given that level of disturbance I had concluded the Barbel had tucked away so I moved on to try find fish elsewhere, I spent the rest of the day dotting around, searching for Barbel but also where it is quite choked with common club rushes in places and decent level of weed the Barbel had a lot of places to hideaway.

 My day was done with a few Chub to show for my efforts but I wasn't disappointed at all, Ade had been with me most of the day so in between catching Chub we chewed the fat before he headed off on his own quest.

 No Barbel came my way and at dusk I headed off home, but it was good fun wandering and see Barbel on my first trip was good to see, I will be back.

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!!

Opening Day Delight.

 

 June 16th is always ringed or highlighted on my calender every year, not even birthdays get that level of note, it was and still is the day I get most excited about fishing, once again on running water and the thought of pootling around the Fens in my boat, stalking R.Thames and R.Lea carp or in this instance getting straight down to business with the 40 Rivers Challenge where I am currently on 30 completed rivers and have been settled on that figure since mid-August 2025!.

 There was to be no annual midnight pilgrimage though, with a job booked in for a friend in the morning I packed my rolling meat gear in the van and set eyes on opening my campaign later that afternoon and once I was done on the job I made the short journey over to the R.Bourne for a short roving session and see if I could find a Barbel, a river that has bare in mind been extraordinarily difficult for me with numerous trips in all manner of conditions undertaken without as much as a sneeze or fart from a Barbel, the frustrating thing is I know they are there, it appears I simply don't have the measure of them.

 That was until Tuesday! First cast, first roll, first fish! But not just a fish, it was a very good Barbel for June and the fight was pretty good until it rolled over the line and the remainder of the fight was a tad unceremonious, but safely into the net it went. My suspicions were it probably wasn't a double and I would be right.

9lb 4oz.

 That fish was only the second Barbel I've coaxed out of the Bourne, it has been hard going, this fish nearly did the business, alas I shall have to continue my efforts on there, I do feel like my efforts on here are surely going to be rewarded in the finest fashion.

 That was indeed the only bite of that short trip and on the 17th I returned to cover more water and indeed try that spot again but I ended up with nada which is more in keeping with the Bourne' treatment of me.

 On the 19th I headed to the Bristol Avon for my first fling on there this season to try and get that river over the line, 9lb 6oz is my current best off there but a double is coming off of that river for me this season either by hook or by crook, I feel once again, I've invested enough time and money into the B.Avon that is due to be kind to me soon, once again its by no means a reflection of my effort if I may say so myself. 

 No Barbel showed up for me, however the Chub sport was pretty epic as I managed twelve Chub to 5lb 2ozs, most of them were between 3.08 and 4.08 which was good summer sport but not my target, touch wood I don't have to make that journey too many more times...

Sessions.

 

 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.

Dad's best at 6.05

R.Blackwater Returns.

 

 Hmmmmmmm......the Blackwater is fast becoming a drain on my brain, god it's been a slog and not sure when its going to offer up that big chest of treasure, hours of moving, feeding (little bits here "n" there and putting a decent bit in when I know I'm coming back within a couple of days) and nothing seems to be working. I know the odd Barbel is still coming off the river but its so infrequent.

 Sunday lunchtime I got back down for another go and did my usual of moving around, 45mins in each spot with just a small PVA bag of six boilies each time, any touches I stay put, unfortunately I am not even getting that, six swims later and 35mins in whilst doing an update on my season so far on the challenge my rod FINALLY zipped off, on it in a flash I was bent into what was certainly a Barbel and it felt great, not a monster but great to have a fish on the other end. 

 A few minutes later a lovely dark BW Barbel was in the net. 7lb exactly on the scales it was a sight for sore eyes, unsurprisingly it was the only bite but my first Barbel off this particular stretch, boy its been hard and on Tuesday I went back down again in less than ideal conditions but still opted to try, but nothing.

 I will of course, like night follows day, I'll be back for another twenty four attempts.....

Hauling.

 

 Last Saturday with the conditions holding up well enough to sneak back out for Barbel I made the effort to go and that turned out to be a good decision, another long drive to Somerset was in order as I revisited the Bristol Avon and really try to make good of the successes of recent trips.

 It was wet, squalid, muddy and quite frankly everything I love about fishing in the autumn, gusts of wind dislodging tonnes of leaves, all I needed was some action. This time around I changed it all up, I decided to move around, single rod on the pin and an isotope on the tip which was keenly watched all night from 6pm when I started all the way through to 6am before heading off home. 

 The clouds broke up around 8pm giving way to lovely dark skies filled with stars, the occasional shooting star and silhouettes of Tawny Owls darting between trees above, but it wasn't just the natural world providing a spectacle, the Barbel put on a show too! The first two hours were quiet but by 2030 things began to happen and my rod slammed around with what would turn out to be the first fish of the night, a nice porky 6lb 10oz fish which was a new best for the river.

 I was really pleased with that fish, a big chunk of dynamite baits "source" meat on a hair fished with a lead just heavy enough to hold bottom which when leaves and other debris would cling to the line would gently dislodge the lead allowing the bait to creep across the bottom in an arc to settle finally beneath a fallen willow in a gravel channel, once that fish was released I just copied the same approach, bait went out in exactly the same position and an hour n half later off it went again!

 It was turning out to be good night! Another 6+ came along, which was followed by 5+ and a small one of around 2lb!  

 Toward midnight I got another good bite and Barbel number 5 was on and felt a lot better than the others that I had previously done battle with and in the torch light it looked like it was a much better fish, could it be a double? It looked like it could be. I started to get a little nervous as it crept into the net because it looked like it was but my nervousness soon gave way to disappointment (to an extent), she settled on 9lb 6oz, a new best for the B.Avon, it lacked length but was really thick across the back and deep, just quite a short fish, but five Barbel off the B.Avon in a night! It was one hell of a night. Or so I thought, as I had the "9" resting up I recast and before I could put the rod down it went again with the centrepin screaming off with a fish that was in the 5lb bracket, crazy! 

Best of six fish overnight.

A 9+ & 5+ brace shot.

 

 Amazing evenings fishing especially for this river which has had a well documented fall from grace in terms of barbel fishing, I certainly found a honey hole as it were, but it was missing one thing....

Back to the Brizzy Avon.

 

 With cooler weather on the way I thought I would try and sneak in a 24hr trip after work on Thursday as I was a day ahead on my work schedule which opened up my Friday, with the trip planned unfortunately it coincided with a very cold night which was very uncomfortable with so little cover. 

 A trip of mud, rain and cold it wasn't pleasant but I was rewarded with a 6lb 4oz Avon Barbel within 40mins of arriving which was the only excitement. A nice fish but 4lb off the target, I will have to revisit soon, I want to get this river chalked off by Christmas. 

A Fitting Finale.

 

 Now, after that difficult spell on the R.Aire and those two Barbel off the R.Wharfe myself and Dad opted to stop by somewhere that given my limited knowledge I felt we would have more success. 

 After a short 40mile drive due south we arrived at our destination, the diminutive R.Idle, this was my second visit to this gem, it was to be my Dad' first and we made a beeline for an area I had done well on on my last trip. As we made our way downstream we saw ample Chub and Pike, but no Barbel which was odd, but when we did get to the peg where I had five to 10lb 3ozs we did see 11 Barbel sat just downstream and it wasn't long before they started to commit to small pellets, but knew that these fish would take a while to get confident enough to push on upstream towards us to be presented a hook bait.

 Over 3hrs we tried to get the fish further upstream to us and knew casting to them would push them away and after three hours we thought what have we got to lose as no fish committed, I cast down towards the fish and they immediately backed off for deeper cover, they did exactly what I thought they would, so we begrudgingly packed up and moved back on upstream. 

 As we made our way up I found Barbel in a couple locations and even though they were feeding they were very skittish and it wasn't until about 5hrs into the trip I finally got two fish feeding, one around 8lb the other a double figure fish from what I could tell, a big broad fish with good length. The bigger of the two fish continued to visit the sandy/gravel crease in front of me more than the slightly smaller fish, the time it took to get her really confident was too long for Dad as he opted to head back towards the car to rest his back, sitting down wasn't an option.

 Ten minutes later, you guessed it, she picked up the double 8mm pellet rig and shot off down stream leaving a trail sediment in her wake, it was a typically rip-roaring battle as I've come to expect, but amazingly when she finally gave up it looked bigger than the biggest at 10.6 that I had last month and the scales didn't disappoint, 10lb 10ozs - bloody awesome....the river record is only 11lb 5ozs, this fish could possibly do that come March if it packs some winter weight on. What a stunning specimen too, wowzer.

Everything a Barbel should be.

 Well there was no way I could top that fish, but I really wanted Dad to get one for his efforts, so I left that run and headed on back up to the car to persuade him to get back out on the bank. On the way up I did find another shoal of Barbel hanging just off a sand patch and my inability to ignore a Barbel kicked in, I rang Dad to let him know I was coming up to the car but not before I fed that shoal for half an hour, cast out, first cast bang on the money, 5 mins later the rod hooped round as I watched a decent Barbel puff out some sediment through its gills and shake its head to rid the hook...no no no, play nice now Mrs Barbel! 

 9lb 11oz:) not bloody bad at all, I love this kind of angling, LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION! The three most important words in Barbel fishing. 

 After releasing her I marched onward to the car and dragged Dad' arse back to the river and subsequently went on to have three takes, losing one and landing two of...

7lb 6oz

6lb 15oz

A mint little for me towards the end.

 A fitting end to a great trip!

Wharfe and Aire Returns.

 

 After a few weeks of planning and sorting out a couple tickets the time had come last Wednesday to get set, this time around though my Dad decided he wanted to come and I thought it would be good for him to get out for a few days. After I finished work I swung by my parents gaff and picked Dad up and drove to mine where we loaded the car and had dinner before setting off for the Wharfe with an arrival time of around midnight (228 miles - 4hrs 22mins).

 Mercifully the roads were clear the whole way barring a 5-minute rolling road block for a highways officer to reset an SOS phone by the looks of it as we were 3 cars from the front...hows your luck.

 Anyway, we arrived half hour ahead of schedule and very quickly I had my two rods out with a load of small pellet lumped out, problem was we are currently having spring tides on the full moon and the part of the river I was fishing is fully tidal but only a few miles from the end of the tidal range, on neap tides the affects aren't felt up here but we gained 3-4ft upon the incoming tide which wasn't comfortable and made everything super muddy.

That said, within 30mins I was away, a rip roaring take as the tide reached the top, the battle was incredible in the deep water (at the time around 13-14ft), the runs were powerful and I felt this fish could be what I had come for and when she finally gave up I really did think it was a comfortable double such was the length of the fish, so when I got her on the scales I was expecting it to be 10lb something, but NO!

 Amazingly she settled on 9lbs 6oz and yes, it beat my Wharfe best by one ounce, but I honestly thought and built up in my mind that she was my 31st river done, alas it wasn't the case. All said and done for the Wharfe a 9.06 Barbel is still a very big fish and doubles aren't common but with my quest nothing less will do in the cold light of day.

 Anyway, after that initial excitement I had to wait three hours for another bite, similar to the first it fought very well but knew fairly quickly it wasn't as big and at 7lb 5oz it proved so, after such a good start I had visions of a mental session and playing the numbers game my chances of a big one would be better, but inexplicably the next 12hrs drifted by without a touch! Just plenty of chatter with Dad about all and sundry, 2pm on Thursday we called time on the Wharfe and headed to the Aire where we hopped between sections of water (free waters) where we failed to register a bite but a lot of the good areas were taken by anglers who looked like they were camped out for ages with the view of catching plenty.

Mid 7.

 After calling time on the Aire we set about just getting Dad a fish or two on the Friday, so we drove to our destination and set up camp with the view to starting the next morning.

Bristol Avon, Off the Mark.

 

 As usual fishing has been hard going and I thought about going somewhere else as I needed to break up the blanks on the Blackwater that are starting to get on my wick, I am fishing well I just don't think there are many Barbel in there (to some that may come across as making excuses but I would have expected something by now).

 Anyway, I headed off to the Bristol Avon in search of a double figure Barbel. I had a two-day project in central London penned in for Wednesday & Thursday and managed to get done inside one day which opened up a nice day to go fishing on the Thursday, 4am I was up and loading the car with a 144 mile journey ahead. The excitement was growing with every mile chalked off.

 Once I arrived I had a good look around and it was clear where people were fishing as empty tins, line and litter was dotted around in bushes and long grass which is never a good thing to see ( binned as much as I could when I finished up ), I began rolling meat for the first hours so I can try and get accustomed with what was out in front of me and hope that a barbel could be picked up as I rolled under and past a fair few rafts of debris but those efforts weren't rewarded at all.

 After lunch I opted to move between a couple of spots on the static meat approach, so little activity had me wondering whether that was actually going to be a better option, a few more hours passed with nothing more than a plucky Dace or two, as the sun began to drop I got a decent wrap around on the tip and sure enough my first Bristol Avon Barbel was cutting through the flow of the weir and straight to me, not a big fish from what I could see at distance but they can be deceptive at times, this time around it turned out that my first BA Barbel wasn't going to be a double as it shrank as it got closer but one all the same!  

A little over 5lb, it's a start.

 Soon after the release and the rod went back out it was pounding away again, this time with a Chub in tow and this continued for another half an hour as successive Chub came to the net, none of any real size, one of them maybe reaching 4lb but given the flurry of activity I was keen to make the most of it and as if a light was flicked off it went dead before pitch black and up to midnight it was dead. That spelt the end for me, I packed down and had a good kip in the car for a freshen up for a morning assault at 7am.

 4c overnight was a shock to the system and it was no warmer when I got fishing with a distinct chill of winter in the air, we are only in September! I began rolling meat again and covered similar areas from the day before and although once again I was fishing well but with no returns.

 As midday came along I had a decision to make and with the area I was fishing was getting busier I couldn't move around like I did on Thursday so I opted to jump in the car and head to the Blackwater which is about half way between Bath and home, 4 hrs were spent flitting between swims with nothing once again to show for my efforts, but one day my speculating will be rewarded, I went home for a nice hot shower, visit the throne and warm bed with the Mrs.

R.Wye Revisited.

 

 On Thursday I had a day booked on the Wye with a couple of friends who wanted to catch a Barbel, both chaps are very good anglers on the fly front but do love to dabble in coarse fishing too when the opportunity presents itself. I left home a lot earlier on as I wanted to get some fishing of my own done but I had no real plans, just fish and catch what came along, for once I visited a river with no pressure to deliver a double figure Barbel for my 40 rivers challenge.

 I left home at 0430 as its a straight 3hr drive to the location and as I was crossing the Prince of Wales bridge I started to get all excited as to what the day would throw up, even at 37 I still get that warm feeling of excitement when on my way for a session regardless of the target. Thirty minutes later I arrived at the river and even after all the rain that has fallen across the country the river was as low as I've seen and I know this was only my 11th trip to the river but that was backed up by anglers who have far more knowledge of the river than myself.

 That said I didn't hesitate to get setup and opted to begin at the very end of the beat and slowly work my way upstream. With the very low water my suspicion was that if I found deep water I would find fish. 

 First of all I began with 10 medium sized bait droppers of 4mm and 8mm pellets, fed on a single line just off the main flow which dropped into around 8ft of water from 4ft just above, the thought process was the Barbel and Chub were further downstream and wanted to draw them up to where I was presenting my hookbait which was my usual Wye approach after having limited success on large baits found after around 4 trips that small baits ruled and they were picked up readily by Barbel, so 2x 8mm robin red pellets were put on a 12'' hoolink with small hair and a light lead, just enough to hold bottom.

 To be fair once I had begun feeding I opted to not fish for a while to allow any fish following the scent to get acquainted and feed confidently, after half an hour of sitting on my hands I got my first cast in. I did think I would get fish straight away but oddly I didn't, a good half an hour passed before I got a proper indication and this was a gentle pull round on my tip, it was so gentle the centre-pin let off just a couple slow ticks before I lifted up the rod. Once I was playing the fish I could tell straight away it was a Barbel and a good one too, having caught many good Barbel over the years you can tell when you have a decent one on the end and this fish just held low, powered its way upstream twice some 40 yards each time before turning it a final time to guide it slowly into the net, that was a great fight! 

 To achieve what I wanted to on the Wye I embarked on 10 trips and 168hrs of angling, over 3000 miles of driving, out in all sorts of shite weather only fit for ducks and eskimos, roll on 11 months I come over for a jolly up as it were and land a pearler that on the scales settled on 10lb 4ozs! Angling is a funny game isn't it. 

 A Wye double figure Barbel and yes, I have had one but this one three ounces larger will be inducted into the 40rivers challenge hall of fame! and with a backdrop like that its one of my best ever self takes, shame the flash had to be used but the hill blocked out the sun near me and actually kept forcing the flash to engage and without it the images were really poor, so be it!

 Once I had released that stunner I carried on fishing and kept little droppers on pellet going out but amazingly the following two hours were totally quiet, barely a tap and when I did it was silk weed building up on the line and dragging my lite link ledger out of position. 

 By 1130 my friends turned up after being caught in poor motorway traffic and when they arrived we got to tackling up and then search around for some areas to get them fishing, their desire was to catch a Barbel but given what I had experienced the previous 4hrs besides that corker which would make any session a blazing success I thought it was going to be hard going. 

 And so it proved....the first 4 hrs we spent roving around before I offered them the option of fishing one of the beaches which ordinarily would be underwater by around a foot but we could get right down and showed them both where they needed to be fishing and I got a good bed of bait out at the top of the run that Mike and John were both going to fish, around 10 yards apart.

 Once they got comfortable and fishing I went looking elsewhere for a plan B, C and D if that run didn't produce like the previous 3 swims. 4pm passed without a touch and 5pm slowly approached when out of nowhere I had another bite! 8hrs of a bit of fishing and guiding I was in to my second fish of the day once again a Barbel, this one behaved fairly similarly to the first and yet another good solid battle was enjoyed, yes this one would turn out to be just shy of 9lbs but the colours are something I've not seen on a Wye Barbel so it was a pleasure to see!

8lb 13oz Wye beauty.

 Shortly after I had this fish Brian turned up so I went to go let him in and on the way down dropped in on Mike and John to learn Mike had had a 3lb and 10lb Barbel! that made my day massively, unfortunately John hadn't managed a Barbel and for all our endeavour that was how it all ended but it was a brilliant day, the weather wasn't great after 11am with persistent rain and the odd snippet of sunshine felt right as thats all I ever endured on the Wye anyway. 

Back to the Blackwater.

  Leading on from that incredible trip up north and following through with my plan to finish at 3pm on the Idle I decided to drive back down to the R.Blackwater for further punishment, that big Blackwater barbel has to come along at some point, just two bites in 6 trips totally 55hrs!. 

 Given the circumstances that preceded this visit I felt confident of finally catching a Barbel, so I set about roving the river with bits of meat and bread in every likely space where a Barbel might be. Having left Nottinghamshire at 5pm ( a couple hours after I originally billed after being drawn in by the lure of another good Barbel to which I did achieve ) I parked up in my usual spot on the BW and got wandering.

Purple Loosestrife, the riverbank is 
not complete without it in summer.

 A couple of hours passed without incident and as dusk came and went I had a gentle pull round on the tip which I hit into and amazingly it was a fish, my suspicion was crayfish but thankfully it fought back but I knew it wasn't a Barbel and soon enough a decent sized Bream surfaced in the torchlight, at least it was a fish. 

 But the crayfish were clearly down there chewing my Source "hard-hooker" boilee, damn things I can't wait until we find a way to eradicate them entirely. But this was another that I crushed under my trainer earlier in the day, think I'm on 6 now that have been squished, another dozen have dropped off.

Horrid things.

 Unfortunately after that Bream I didn't have another bite and around 1am I called time on my epic 514 mile journey, four rivers visited, three rivers fished, three doubles caught across two rivers and no joy on one river. It was a brilliant 44hrs on the road!. That really was an epic.