Back to the R.Blackwater.

 

 I have a strong desire to chalk off at least one river this month and with a toss up between a few the Blackwater is one river I think I will focus on, the Kentish Stour of course will always remain an option but not finding it easy on there as I've extensively documented on here.

 Yesterday afternoon I finished work and jumped on the M4 westbound via Chiswick A4. For an early Friday afternoon the traffic was very light and chewed through the 45 miles at a pace, a Barbel of any size would always be welcome but a double figured fish of course was my target.

 I walked this section for the first time and started dropping bait in a few areas that looked good for a bite and drifted between pegs, spending around 30-45 minutes in each before moving. Around 6pm I had a brilliant take on the pin and it screeched into action, straight away I could feel the weight and knew it was a very good fish, I started to get nervous and it took 2/3 mins of constant lung busting runs upstream and back down into the pool I was fishing before I saw it, I could have swore blind it was a Barbel, alas a few minutes later it revealed itself, a nice river Carp but I can't lie, I was a tad deflated if I'm totally honest.

 A couple of quick pics and slipped it back to whence it came and hoped the next interaction wasn't from a Carp or the pesky Crayfish that seem to be there in great numbers, annoyingly.

 I spent the following 6hrs moving between 5 swims I had baited and fished them on rotation until my eyes started to close, I knew I had to get away, still with 64 miles of driving ahead of me, of course I was fine to drive, just a motionless rod-tip was hypnotising me. I will be back soon enough for another go!

I do love a James Denison, very mourish.

Barb wire is your friend...mmmmm BEEF!

River ColnBrook Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 My last two trips out resulted in two magnificent catches of Barbel off of the ( River Ribble and River Rother (Sussex) ), somehow could I complete the hat-trick? Well, it would seem my purple patch extended into my third session, it has become quite an incredible 3 weeks. Almost speechless.

 After more than two weeks off the bank owing to work and family commitments I hadn't managed to get out, so with the hot spell abating and an unexpected early finish I thought it would be rude not to go fishing for a couple of hours before heading home for dinner. 

 Around 1530 I arrived on the ColnBrook and had a wander with my rolling gear, very minimal gear and scoped out areas where I suspect the Barbel would be holding up and it didn't take long before I got a savage wrap around on my rod but when I struck nothing was on the other end, I suspected a Chub as it was typical for Chub to be present in this specific area. But on the other hand I could not totally rule out a Barbel.

Tough to roll but doable when you know how.

 After that brief action I decided to stick it out in that area and got a bait on the bottom but after an hour nothing materialised so I moved upstream, rolling through various treelined runs but every run seemed devoid of life, all that broke that lifelessness was the constant flow of planes taking off from Heathrow, some low enough to cup your ears and feel the hot waft of aviation fuel whip past as they headed for foreign climes. 

 2hrs of constant rolling meat and evading mosquitoes led me slowly back down to where I had that early action, I dropped my bag on the floor gently, crawled into position and flicked my bait across to the far bank and allowed it to slowly fall to the bottom ( around 4/5ft ) no sooner did it brush the bottom I felt a subtle pluck which was instantly followed by the raw power of a Barbel, my centrepin was in meltdown and my 1.5TC Drennan Twin-Tip Duo was bent right through to the butt, this fish was very strong and within half a minute I caught a glimpse of the fish which I knew was a double, that made me very very nervous indeed.

 I think not seeing them for a majority of the fight makes it somehow easier, seeing this one so early on I knew how high the stakes were and this was a must win battle, ColnBrook doubles are very rare indeed.

 Three or four times during the battle the line pinged off its dorsal fin and that did not help with the nerves either, twisting and turning downstream after long surging runs up and down towards weed-beds which seemed to surround me before inevitably it found one and wedged itself deep underneath, luckily for me the bed it found was under my feet so I had the chance to create numerous angles on the fish, with 12lb line and a micro-barb hook I knew the odds were still in my favour. I slackened off the tension and slowly but surely began to feel it kick gently under the weed where I then put the rod into full action and the Barbel eased out and back out into the flow to continue its crazy fight, this fish did not want to come in, mercifully she was tiring and it wasn't too long before I finally had a ColnBrook double resting in the net, we both needed a breather! That was enthralling to say the least. 

 I didn't need to weigh it to know what I had achieved, but I did anyway, of course!.

 With great anticipation I watched the scales settle on 11lbs 5oz, EPIC!!!

 💥💥💥  RIVER NUMBER 22 COMPLETE!!!!  💥💥💥

My ColnBrook beauty.

 

 I honestly don't know what is going on but that's now three trips, 4hrs on the Ribble, 10hrs on the Rother and now 3hrs on the ColnBrook and caught a double off each with no other fish featuring, there is no way I could top this run, could I??? Right place, right time and the right tactics and watercraft.

 Bring. On. Number 23, please :) 

Season Review 2022/23.

 

 As most who follow this blog over the last couple years will know Barbel have been in the forefront of my plans during the course of the river season. It however wasn't all Barbel related as I did manage to squeeze in the odd session for Grayling, one trip for Pike, Rudd, Catfish where I did get some action.

 However I covered most of what I caught in my (Recap 2022) so I have just a couple of bits to add and the highlights of what was another productive year for Barbel as I continued with my 40 Rivers Challenge.

14lbs 6oz stillwater Bream PB.

 My two best fish I think without doubt have to be the colossal Bream I had off of The Stow which obliterated my personal best for the species, the other has to be the largest documented Barbel ever caught off of the R.Don in Yorkshire, a monumental occasion for both myself and the angling fraternity of Yorkshire as again it was the first fish confirmed on the Don to break the fifteen barrier ever, to which I became a proud owner of a Barbel Society River Record certificate, a nice momento to include in my book down the line as all of which I have endured and will endure in the coming years until its completion will be written about in finer detail than my scribblings on here. 

15lbs 4oz River Don record.

Simply colossal !

 Seeing that enormous Barbel cruise over the rim of the net was a moment in time I won't forget, my second fifteen pound plus Barbel, neither of which are Trent fish which in this day and age is not something many can lay claim to.

 Not that fishing is about boasting of course, simply enjoying the moments in my angling that have been, certainly of late punctuated by prolonged spells of inaction so when fish do come along, especially that big I enjoy it as much as I can. 

 My Barbel stats ended up like this for the season:

 25 Trips, 26 Barbel, 6 Doubles and 19 Blanks.

 I managed Barbel off of 9 rivers this season and chalked 5 of those 9 off the list with another 3 rivers targeted without a sniff from a Barbel ( Loddon, Kentish Stour and Sussex Rother )

 Over the course of the Barbel fishing over those 25 trips I spent a total of 359.5hrs, thats a lot of time for not many fish but looking at the stats a different way I averaged just five trips per double chalked off my list which now stands at 18 and in the new season I'll be in pursuit of number 19 pretty quickly (weather permitting).

 It was a tough season but very rewarding, I just need to crack the Kentish Stour early doors next season as its really made me work hard and becomes so choked by weed in the summer so its either really early raids or wait for the first frosts to kill off the weed and floods to take it away.

Big Grayling, Barbel No-Shows.

 

 A good three weeks has passed since I had a decent trip out after anything so I had to put that right. After an exchange of messages Mike and I were R.Wylye bound, however given the fact Brian hasn't had much chance to get out following his invasive treatment I thought it would be good to get him in on the act and get amongst some of the best Grayling fishing this country has to offer, very kindly a couple days later I got the all clear from Mike that Brian could come along, I had a sneaky feeling he would enjoy himself.

 Before we stepped foot on the R.Wylye part of the plan was to target Barbel on the R.Itchen, conditions were poor but I am just conscious that we have so little left of the season and would love to get one more river chalked off, however after a few cold hours trying I called it a night around 0300 as I needed some kip so popped to the car for some shut eye. 

 Unfortunately even after a quick fire 30mins rolling meat in the morning which resulted in nothing so we made the 40 mile journey north to the wonderful surroundings of the Wiltshire countryside with the target of trying to achieve a long standing desire of mine, a three-pound specimen Grayling, a fish that has eluded me for the six years that I've been trying (admittedly not very hard), I hoped I would put that right.

 My tackle for the day was my 13ft Drennan compact X-Tension float rod, centrepin loaded with 4.4lb float fish line and an 18'' 3.6lb flourocarbon hooklink and size 14 wide gape hook (micro-barb), a 7BB wire stem float fished with a combo of red and white maggots but not mixed.

Got the trots....

 My day started off really well as I had banked fish of 1lb 10oz, 2lb 1oz and 2lb 2oz in quick succession and hoped the day would follow that similar vein of form. Within thirty minutes the swim had gone pretty quiet so I decided to move on up the river and quickly crossed paths a spirited 1lb 15oz specimen before finding a few smaller ones between 7ozs and 1lb 12ozs ( slightly bigger ) it wasn't until after I'd photographed a beauty for Brian that was when I started to find some better fish much further downstream. 

2.2 & 1.10 under very gloomy skies.

 A super two hours followed where even though it was very hard graft getting bites and indeed keeping the Grayling on the hook a run of six fish came weighing 1.10, 1.12, 1.8, 2.2, 2.4 and a mega looking 2lb 11oz pewter clad beauty, which incidentally is the third 2.11 Grayling I've caught and all represent my personal best, can't seem to get away from that number :) but with such a pristine fish who could be unhappy about that!

A mint 2.4

Then this amazing creature at 2lbs 11oz

Always wanted this shot!

 That run of fish seemed to spell the end of my days big fish as I wrapped up the day with five fish over 1.8 to 1.12 by which point the sun was going down and we both called a day, Mike had had a great day too landing a couple of 2lbs Grayling and a handful of smaller fish and Brian' day...well you can read it here Brian' Blog I think he would say he had a "cloud nine" kind of day. Must say I really enjoyed myself too.

Recap of 2022.

 

 2022 was an odd year for me fishing wise, a few short sessions after Barbel - a few day trips for Grayling with a couple of Pike trips, trying to find ways to get the gear together and get out was challenging with such a busy work schedule and a young family and busy work schedule. Fishing wise for me this was the theme across the year. I still managed to catch some wonderful R.Itchen Roach to just under 2lbs which was awesome in what were pretty tough conditions, later in the month I headed to the magnificent R.Wylye in search of Grayling where I was successful in tempting 37 of them with seven over 2lbs with the best tipping the scales at 2lb 9ozs. A couple of average sized Barbel also put in an appearance during January but no doubles to add to my tally.

 *40 River Challenge: Trips 0 / Blanks 0/ Hours 0 / Barbel 0 / Doubles 0.

 February: There was very little to write about as I had lots of work on and when I did get out they were mainly blanks.

Decent bag on the 'small river'.

*40 Rivers Challenge: Trips 2 / Blanks 2 / Hours 11.5 / Barbel 0 / Doubles 0. 

 March: With the end of the season on the horizon a bumper session was in order where I looked to press home the advantage of mild weather and an upturn in catches present across social media platforms signalled that it was probably a good time to get out. First of all I targeted the Dorset Stour where the Chub were feeding but not a Barbel sight, then I joined George Burton on the Warks Avon for a jolly up and ended up walking away with a 12.6 Barbel and a solid 6lb+ Chub, a proper result that was, then headed down to the R.Wey for another social with Mike Denny and we ended struggling all day, on dark I lost a monster Barbel, only to follow it up five minutes later with a 10.4 Barbel which rounded off the 2021/22 season with a bang!

WA 6.3

WA 12.6

WEY 10.4

*40 Rivers Challenge: Trips 4 / Blanks 2 / Hours 75.5 / Barbel 2 / Doubles 2.

 April: I didn't fish at all owing to extensive amount of work going on.

 May: I set about targeting Eels by design and on my first attempt managed two off the canal and then time to go back just didn't present itself, a whistlestop trip to the Stow turned out to be an inspired one as I smashed my Bream PB by just over 2lbs with my previous best of 12lb 5oz coming off a river! Then a trip after Catfish that didn't go as smoothly as we (Brian, Richard and I) had envisaged.

Canal best @2.5

Stonking slab @14.6, new PB

Decent slug.

 June: A month of mainly searching for Butterflies and things creepy crawly, however I did manage some fishing, finally a successful trip to the R.Severn where I managed seven Barbel to just over 8lbs, I opened the season on the Kentish Stour after Barbel but was unsuccessful.

*40 Rivers Challenge: Trips 5 / Blanks 3 / Hours 44.5 / Barbel 8 / Doubles 0.

Best off the Severn - 8.1

 July: Yet another lean month with only a couple of trips made. A trip to the KS produced a decent Chub of 5.8 but again, no Barbel.

Kentish Stour - 5.8

*40 Rivers Challenge: Trips 3 / blanks 3 / Hours 37.0 / Barbel 0 / Doubles 0.

 August: A day out on the boat was just the tonic after very little time on the bank, a few decent Rudd were had between Brian and I as we set sail on SS Rudd, the beautiful weather made it a joy to be out. However it was an August bank holiday away "few days"and it was a blazing success with a wonderful R.Mersey double, a good solid start on the R.Tame and a fact finding mission on the R.Dearne which lay across the Peninnes.

Upper 1 Fenland bar of gold.

...And another.

R.Mersey - 10.10

R.Tame - 8.11

*40 Rivers Challenge: Trips 1 / Blank 0 / Hours 47.0 / Barbel 10 / Doubles 1.

 September: Now I only managed 1 fishing trip across arguably the best month of the fishing season, as mental as that sounds. It just so happened to be the best trip in recent memory, I chalked off the R.Dearne in the early afternoon of the first day having lost a good double early in the day, to only then fish the R.Don and chalk that off too with a brace of doubles, one of which setting a new record for the river! Oh how I love the north, but that wasn't all, the hattrick was firmly on and last knockings of my northern tour I landed I thought would have been that very fish I needed to complete the hattrick, alas it just missed out.

 What a month September was!!

R.Dearne - 10.9

R.Don - 10.5

R.Don Record - 15.4

R.Wharfe - 9.5

*40 Rivers Challenge: Trips 1 / Blanks 0 / Hours 39.0 / Barbel 5 / Doubles 3.

 

 October: Not much again in terms of time on the bank, once again with the little time I had I managed to successfully tackle the R.Taff near Cardiff, the sun had only just started to cast the first throws of light when I had a mega Welsh Barbel resting in the net! 

R.Taff - 11.10

 

*40 Rivers Challenge: Trips 3 / Blanks 2 / Hours 57.0 / Barbel 1 / Doubles 1.

 November: With falling temps I did start to target other species, I had a decent Pike on my first trip of the winter, a great haul of Grayling with one equalling my PB and another an ounce shy of my PB, only a matter of time before I get a new PB or better still a 3lb+specimen which I crave so much!

R.Wylye - 2.11

R.Lea - 17.8

 *40 Rivers Challenge: Trips 4 / Blanks 4 / Hours 25 / Barbel 0 / Doubles 0.

 December: Around the Christmas period I got out after Barbel a couple times but the rod-tips remained motionless, the Loddon kicking my backside as per. The only fish I caught were some modest Roach whilst in search of some of their bigger cousins.

 *40 Rivers Challenge: Trips 2 / Blanks 2 / Hours 14 / Barbel 0 / Doubles 0.

 Total hours spent after Barbel in 2022 was 350.5, with 26 Barbel caught in the process whilst chalking off 6 rivers in the calender year.

Chub Video - YouTube.

 I shall start by wishing all my readers a very merry Christmas and a prosperous 2023 which hopefully will be filled with fun, good memories and more importantly plenty of rod bending experiences!

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 I haven't been on here much of late, to tell the truth I have barely been out fishing as life has dominated proceedings. Money making and family (rightly so) taking up most of my time, but once Christmas is done I will be looking to head out for Roach in the cooler conditions and when it warms up the Barbel will be back on the radar.

 Around 2 months ago I was approached by Drennan International who asked me whether I would like to do some filming and I jumped at the chance, working with Drennan? Yes please. So I organised a date and a time to meet and early December it was shoot day. Chub were the target, on the centrepin and float.

 The video can be found here ------)

 Now this was the first time I had ever been in front of a camera and found it a rather odd experience but felt that it came out well, Laurence, who is fishing fanatic himself was behind the camera capturing some pukka moments and felt coupled with some obliging Chub made for content to do a video. This is always a fear if the fish aren't playing the script, luckily I knew the pegs I choose would provide some decent sport. 

 The bigger fish did elude us but you can't have it all. Seeing some Barbel was also great as there aren't many in this particular tributary so I will be back for them come January. 

 Hopefully in the new year there will be some good news and kick off 2023 in a positive manner.

 Even though fishing trips have been lean since October the odd venture to the Loddon has been undertaken with nothing more than a nibble from the pre-hibernating Crayfish. I will get my Loddon one day....6 sessions down, 57 hrs and not one single bite. Tough old cookie.