Not So Sweet 17....

 

 After my trip to the Dorset Stour on the Thursday I opted to head home for a good nights sleep and woke up on the Friday morning fresh and raring to go for river number 28 had been completed, could I do the unthinkable and finally make a trip to the Kentish Stour and catch a Barbel? 

Gnarly and foreboding, like my chances of a KS Barbel.

Liquid shit looks good on those branches.

Looks nice, without the liquid shit on the surface.

 Well, I didn't and not through the want of trying. I fed little bits to try and get fish to come up into my area but that didn't work, I sat in spots for 2-3hrs at a time to allow fish to find me but that didn't work, 4 swims and 10 hrs later I gave up, the river started to rise fairly quickly owing to a deluge of rain in the morning. 

Bored.com

 Cold water coming in after a mild spell and an increase of debris coming through is never a good time to target Barbel so I packed up and buggered off. As I got my gear to the top of the bank I knocked my bucket over and rolled down the hill where the lid flew off halfway down the hill....bait went everywhere...just great....no Barbel and lost around half a kilo of pellet and handful of boillees...I was done, the rats could have it. 

 Anyway, I had a great result on Thursday, the KS sucks!!!!! 17 trips now on this river...hmmmmm.

No, that's not a KS Barbel, but one day, I might get one.

Filling In the Time.

 

 Fishing of late has taken bit of a back seat recently owing to my constant hectic work schedule, so in this episode of James' Angling Adventures we re-cap on the highlights of how my season has gone so far and I have to be honest given how little fishing I've done the rewards have been pretty good! Work as always gets the blame for curtailing my angling but also when faced with a little bit of time to go fishing I find myself too tired to get myself going and get the car loaded and set off. I don't know if that's normal or if I'm just getting lazy as I ticked past my 37th birthday last Monday.

Where I was sat there is currently 4.4m underwater.

 The Spring kicked off in fine style with a hat-trick of Bream on my first trip with fish registering 11.13, 13.7 and a new personal best of 15lb 10oz which to my amazement came after a pretty tame indication but the fight for a Bream was awesome. Link to session here --- Dream Bream Trip

 The subsequent visits for Bream either ended in blanks or scratched around for bites but did get one more decent trip in before they began to spawn. Link to session here --- Another Good Bream Trip.

 Once the Bream spawned my attentions turned to the start of the season that wasn't far away and amazingly on my first trip for Rudd once the season opened I managed to achieve a milestone that I had been longing to reach in 8 years of angling on the Fenland waterways, that milestone was a 3lb+ Rudd which was achieved by the finest of margins! Link to session here --- Dream Rudd Start

 Once I had achieved that my desire to get back on the Fens waned somewhat but with the rivers now open Barbel would soon be on the agenda but it did take me quite a while to resume my 40 Rivers Challenge and after a few sessions flitting around the country my long wait for a R.Nene double ended in fine fashion as a beauty weighing 12lb 8oz slipped into the net after a tense battle amongst the pads. --- Link to session here --- Nene Double Delight!

Bottoms Up!!

 The very next day with little time to bask in my success on the Nene I managed to do the unthinkable and caught a brute off the R.Soar just 24hrs later, like London Buses....my journey home was one of pure joy. Link to session here --- Soar'ing High!

Kentish Stour Stealth.

 A week later I went back to the R.Wye in search of a double and get myself up to 27 completed rivers but with a decent effort applied I was not fortunate to do so, three weeks later I went back with renewed vigour and after a total of 168hrs spent over 10 trips I at long last got the fish I had been searching for but only made the cut by a gnats whisker! but that was all I needed, I felt I had deserved that fish absolutely! Link to session here --- Wye Wonder.

 And since that trip to the Wye / reccy on the Teme I haven't wet a line, over two weeks ago... anyone who thinks being self-employed means you'll be able to have more time off don't get it twisted, you'll end up doing more, the money is too good to turn down and you'll find yourself busier than ever before.

Northern end of Windermere.

 Anyway that's my fault :), I hope you enjoy this little catch-up and hopefully we can catch a fish of our dreams and pray the rains ease up so the rivers will be more accessible than they were last few winters.

All About Balance.

 

 Something in modern day angling that isn't mentioned much is the trails and tribulations that are involved in a quest like what I am embarking on. The 1000's of miles travelled, zig zagging across the country in search of Barbel and of course other species, this blog is keeping with Barbel in mind.

 I haven't been out many times this season but when I have been out they have been in blocks of two to four days, with the odd night thrown in for good measure. Conditions this season have been patchy at best, rivers running on bare bones with sluggish flows and dense weed growth owing to the superb summer we had. When I have been out successes have been had as I am sure you aware if you read my blog on a regular basis, but its the blank sessions that people rarely speak of, for what reasons I don't know but that sense of balance has to be struck and gives a true reflection on numbers behind the successes.

 A few of the rivers I have targeted this season have been nothing short of incredible. However, the likes of the R.Rother, Itchen, Loddon and Kentish Stour (Great Stour) have been a real challenge. Fish spotting on the Rother isn't really possible owing to its colour throughout the year, finding the fish is hard owing to the masses of features.

 The Itchen so far has consumed a fair wedge of time, over 7 trips and 91 hours spent without a bite, but the other day that very very nearly changed as I had a large Barbel which had to be 14lb+ mopping up 6mm pellet that I was feeding but owing to the snags I could not get the Barbel to come further out the cover, the sight of the gills puffing out sediment whilst it was clearly seen crunching food was exhilarating, but after 10 minutes she slowly dropped down the run and out of sight, I was gutted to say the least when it dawned on me she weren't coming back up. 

Sunrise over the Itchen on Saturday morning.

 That is definitely the closest I've come to tempting one on the Itchen, the same certainly can not be said for the Kentish Stour as I recently racked up my tenth blank on the spin as I seek one of the unicorns that I know exist, 65hrs spent searching and hoping over that 10 trips something would come my way. The only thing is the Chub on the KS seem to be a little more obliging than on some of the other rivers so when things aren't quite going my way I have been catching fish and not to the detriment of the Barbel fishing, I don't think I'm close to getting one soon either but I'll keep going and hope one day that final piece of the jigsaw will snap into position.

The Great Stour at sunrise.

 The Loddon and S.Rother to be fair haven't had a proper crack of the whip and as conditions start to improve these rivers will come into their own and catching Barbel becomes more likely but trips out in summer months to take in all the sites and learn the sections will no doubt serve me well on what are notoriously difficult rivers with small stocks of big fish. So far on the Loddon two trips have taken up 25hrs of fishing and the S.Rother three trips totalling 35hrs, its clear plenty more blanks will be needed before successes will be tasted but I knew this would be the case when I started this quest back in October 2020.

A very low S.Rother in the summer.

 Now to just drive home the numbers for my efforts since October 2020 I have blanked 70 times in 93 trips in this 2 year period, so when I do catch it very slightly shines a better light on the overall figure that will one day read, 40 doubles out of 40 rivers! But the figure that does look pretty good is that over that 93 trips my sessions to doubles ratio is currently at 5.47, that does certainly make for better reading.

 I love the sense of adventure and know it won't be easy but I am enjoying it enormously, here's to river number 18! Hopefully it falls sooner rather than later.

Back to the Kentish Stour, Again.

 

 Session 11. Why am I struggling so much on this river? Much like the ColnBrook there is plenty of water but you just can't access most of it for one reason or another. Now I have seen the odd fish on the KS, locating Barbel just seems to be a challenge in itself rather than the catching part. I know many with myself included know that when it comes to Barbel location is 80% of the game, once found typically it is just a matter of time. On this intimate river you would think sightings would be common. 

 So I got back to it on Sunday afternoon and planned to do the night then the first few hours of daylight.

 A single bait approach was opted for and moved swims / sections fairly regularly to give myself plenty of opportunities to see fish. By fish I actually mean Barbel, the Chub were literally everywhere and I found avoiding them very difficult, their very nervy nature when the sound of a plop went in ( couldn't be avoided ) everything would just go dead, funny thing was more often than not I'd fish snags and when those Chub spooked it would take everything out the back, so I got to see exactly what was present and at every occasion, it was just the big rubbery-lipped Chub that were making an appearance, still no Barbel.

 I fished all through the night whilst moving around and fishing static boilee with matching paste to hopefully tempt an incredibly guarded Barbel from its watery lair, in turn by midnight I'd only managed 6 Chub to about 4lbs. Just gone half past midnight the rod quivered and then slammed around, was this what I was after? The initial 30-40 seconds would suggest so, then right on cue a decent sized Chub came up to the surface, trying to ditch me in some ribbon weed at the last moment before the net got shipped out and mugged the Skelly before it could smash me up in the weed.

 It certainly wasn't a Barbel but I wasn't too displeased as it looked well over 5lb even just hanging down in the net, I set up the camera gear and weigh sling/scales to see what this summer Chub would go. 

A good heavy Chevin at 5lb 8ozs.

 The bite certainly had me fooled and as of 0033 (when I hooked that Chub) three stupid Pike in the morning were taken whilst rolling meat was all I could conjure up. It really was a tough trip, again.

June 16th, Glorious June 16th...

 

 Every moment of the river season whilst conditions allow I will be in pursuit of Barbel as I restart my quest to achieve a feat completed by no man! For those that don't know, or aren't familiar with this blog then it's a quest to catch a double figure Barbel off of forty (40) rivers across England, Wales and Scotland. Yes it is an epic task, it's a task that might defeat me. 

 STOP! right lets nip that pessimistic mumbo jumbo right now! This is no place for failure and I will catch exactly what I am after and that begins on the Kentish Stour! 15th of June I was walking the banks in the heat armed with polaroids and cap, the mission was simply to find Barbel and get them to feed. Only one Barbel was found and annoyingly she was surrounded by a hoard of hungry Chub, yaaaaay. Just what I wanted to see.

Such a beautiful river, but heavily weeded throughout.

 Anyway, I went back to the area I earmarked to do the darkness hours and at dawn move around, as I couldn't do the night in the other area as the mosquito's were ravenous even though I was covered in Jungle Formula ( strength 4 ) which is their highest rating, one later on did slip through and get me, right on my "Adams Apple". I can still feel it! So I settled in the overnight swim and fed steadily through the evening and hoped by midnight that I would be in prime position to snare a Barbel at the first time of asking. 

 Midnight came after a few very long hours and within four minutes of the midnight gong the rod began to show signs of life, I prayed for a Barbel and got a Bream...hmmmmmmmm, not what I wanted to see! Then twenty minutes later a 2lbs 1oz Eel stormed the party, followed by another two Bream. Where were the damn Barbel?! In fact I don't expect to catch one when on the KS, its a tough river with a reputation for being just that.

Funny looking Barbel.

Break of dawn at exactly 3am,
complemented by a chorus of Tawny Owls.

 By 5am it wasn't happening so I decided to pack away briefly and go for a walk with the glasses for an hour or so, just in the vein hope I would get a chance, just one. Again though a few hours passed without seeing anything more than Chub, that was until I decided to check out the location where I saw the Barbel the afternoon before and it was quickly apparent that there were now two! One about 6lb the other 8lb or so, not quite the double I seek but would get me off to flyer for sure. One problem I had to encounter though was the sentries that responded to anything hitting the water, my hookbait would be engulfed in seconds, everytime. The Barbel stood no chance and after 7 Chub from that one swim it was abundantly clear I was not going to manage one of those fish and soon after conceded defeat, the temps just got too high and thought better of it. 67 miles back home...no Barbel again...it's almost a case of cut and paste from my previous 9 trips.

Best Chub was 4lb 5oz

A very dosile Red Admiral lapping up
minerals off an ash pile.

 I will be back of course to give it yet another go until I get what I want, looks like I am in it for the long haul on this river. 

2021, A Year of Plans and Targets Achieved.

 

 I fancied writing a massive spill regarding this but to be fair I will keep it short and sweet. My escapades over the last 12 months have been enjoyable and although I have spent most of the time bite-less I have managed to catch some superb fish. 

 October 2020 saw me get the ball rolling with two superb Barbel of 15lbs 12oz and 13lbs 9oz off the S.Ouse and R.Trent respectively, then came a lull in action as I scratched around the R.Colne for a fish, 14 sessions over the winter culminated in just one Barbel but not the size I desire, mercifully for me, my efforts were rewarded as I made early season progress with a Barbel of 11lbs 7oz, this has since been backed up by successfully targeting the River' Medway, Mole, Derwent, Ivel and most recently Lea.

 Six rivers chalked off now bring me to a healthy tally of ELEVEN rivers out of forty and the best 2 months are ahead of me in terms of specimen fishing. But it's not just Barbel that have been a focus, some catches have been by-products of a successful Barbel mission, some have been caught in their own right and made for numerous excellent days on the river bank. Real red letter days.

 Six-pound Chub are still seen as a specimen fish and rightly so, a seven-pound specimen is widely considered " A fish of a lifetime ", it certainly ranks up there for me, after all - its a specimen thats eluded me for years and not through the want of trying, sometimes these things just happen when you least expect it.

 My winter fishing has not really been as prolific as I would have envisaged, mainly owing to the lack of time. When I have got out I have managed bags of very good Grayling to mid-2lbs and a couple of good Pike to just under twenty pounds, what with the indifferent weather my typical winter targets have been neglected and the Barbel gear has remained firmly at the entrance to my tackle den, not something I thought would happen. 

 As I write this we enter a couple of cold nights with temps expected to dip to -5c, incredible to think just 3 nights previous we had daytime temps of +15c and overnight temps of +9c....strange world we live in these days aye!

 My desires for 2022 is that I continue this rich vein of form on the "Barbel Challenge" front and get myself closer to the halfway stage of twenty rivers, not a journey for the faint hearted, but I have felt for a while now that my angling needed a refresh and that this would keep my focus on a single goal. Seems to be working thus far. A few ups and plenty of downs I'm sure will be experienced, one thing is for certain, I will enjoy it.

Tight Lines to you all for 2022!

Kentish Stour, Where are the Barbel?.

 

 With this river being possibly the closest distance wise to my house that I haven't already done, I set about trying to check the Kentish Stour off the list and get my tenth river double under my belt and achieve my pre-season target, truth be told it was a target that I thought was ambitious, nevertheless I am nearly there and could potentially surpass it with a bit of luck and time.

 Last night I decided to beat the rain and give it a few hours through dark. One area I choose to fish a static "Big Squid dumbbell with matching pellets as rolling was impossible owing to dense weed growth, so I setup a standard 12" hooklength and 1.5oz grippa lead into a gravel channel and fed with 4&6mm pellets in a PVA bag, this is a tactic that does work pretty well, however these Barbel don't seem to feed at all! 

 3 hours without more than a twitch I decided to hot foot it across Kent to another section that I hoped would bare fruit, what with the Great Stour as its also known as being 51.5 miles long there is a lot of water to go at! Luckily a mate of mine is pretty local and has some very good knowledge of the river which he has imparted on me, with that I made my way to another section he'd suggested a few months back, so it was time to give that a go.

 Thankfully the weed in this short run wasn't as bad so I opted for a rolling approach, some may even think surely rolling meat at night is difficult, I grant you rolling meat at night is sometimes easier as your focus is solely on touch rather than sharing that sense with sight, I find my bite identification is much better at night and feel just as comfortable exploring with this technique day or night. Queue the savage Chub bite, normally pretty obvious with a Chub as you feel a few plucks before they commit and yes it didn't turn out to be a Barbel but I couldn't be disappointed with yet another six pound plus Chub and my first from the KS, she was a big old unit, just looking a little worse for wear. 

6lb 1oz on the scales, none too shabby.

 

For me my task got a little harder and with any potential Barbel now on high alert I didn't think much else would happen and only one other bite materialised before the forecasted rain decided to come down in stair rods! That for me was to call a halt on proceedings and keep my gear as dry as possible. Not a terrible return and that is my best Chub off the Kentish Stour too. This was my 4th visit and not managed my target yet. Where are the Barbel??.