I'm Back!

 

 I can't believe it's been almost two months since I was last on here! Truth be told I have been out a fair bit so I will hopefully get through it all over the next day or so.

 Since my trip to the Hants Avon we have had biblical amounts of rain and has rendered certain parts of the country totally un-fishable so naturally where I could fish I chose Barbel, primarily the Bristol Avon and Blackwater, neither of which for numerous visits ( 4x Bristol Avon and 5x Blackwater ) gave up any gems which would see me move on to 31 completed rivers on my challenge, alas that by the point of early March had not been achieved.

 I really was struggling, the Bristol Avon was in flood for about 4 months solid and every time it looked to start dropping the south west would be buffeted once again by monsoon rains! 

 During this time I did have some Chub to 4lb 11oz and a few Bream to around 6lbs but of course not my target, catching up on sleep in the car for a few hours before getting back on it was scantly rewarded, seems to be a theme this season. The Blackwater gave me nothing, not even bites.

Fishing at the top of the flood bank..

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

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.

Struggling....

 

 Since my visit to the Yorkshire Rother and Idle my 40 Rivers Challenge fishing time has been met with hours of motionless tips and the blanks are beginning to rack up again. For a moment back in late August I thought I had turned a corner and things were going to get better, however the Blackwater chiefly has been a major thorn in my side and I've really struggled to engineer bites, the Barbel seem to be on holibobs somewhere because they aren't where I'm fishing.

 That said my visit to the R.Teme the day after my R.Wye jolly up ended up a Chub fest with 13 coming to the net, all on the 8mm robin reds with nothing over the 4lbs, plenty of action and walking done but not one Barbel seen and the same can be said about the Blackwater until last night when I decided to go lamping and somehow managed to briefly spot a Barbel about 6/7lbs on a gravel shallow, but my god there seems to be so few fish around! 

 So when I've got a bit of time I'm going to go back for that and yes, I know it's not the target fish but a Barbel off there this season would be a sight for sore eyes, they've been extremely elusive and theres nothing I have been able to do about it. 

 9 trips to the BW equating to 76hrs of angling in sunshine and rain!

 I have just got to keep trying and moving around stretches to inevitably I WILL catch my target fish!  

This is full winter flood is one hell of a beast,
fishing here you feel so small!

Comfortable!

Nom Nom 

Keeping up Appearances.

 

 Barring that Perch trip last Sunday the last month has been very hit and miss, a couple of visits to the R.Itchen for Barbel (primarily) have resulted in blanks and along with a visit to the R.Blackwater I have stared at motionless tips or rolled hundreds of times without incident. Unfortunately for me time is tight, so many of my trips this season have been shaped around my work or this instance taking my brolly and bed-chair out and grabbing a couple of hours kip whilst trying to eek out a Barbel from what is turning out to be a bloody difficult venue on a work night ( getting back home for 5am to get showered and dressed for another days graft ), I know stocks on the Itchen are very low with around 30 Barbel estimated among the locals in over a mile of river. Real needle in a haystack kind of job.

Working the weedlines.

 During the day of my first trip I opted to fish for the Barbel where I remained biteless whilst sat in the expensive seats, by midday I'd given up. I then decided to go and join the boys (Keith Jobling, Danny Everett and Brian) who were sampling the wonders of chalkstream delights. I have to admit I'm quite spoilt that I can be on some of the very best chalkstreams in just over an hour and have access to some wonderful beats, some free, some paid for. The LIF is something of an enigma, because its a beautiful place to go fishing and you should feel that you are on an exclusive bit of river with the chance of big Grayling etc. Neither of those are true unfortunately as the Grayling rarely top 2lbs there anymore and its certainly not exclusive, £31.50 paid in advance is enough to have anyone wondering the banks!, plus the constant pressure once the coarse season opens. 

 For me when fishing the LIF it's never about PB'S, simply the catch-up with friends and the chance the bend some carbon. Going back to the Barbel, the more I go I know I'm just one step closer to what I want, the odd fish is coming out here and there but invariably anglers blank, that's just the nature of the beast and being a free-stretch it gets a lot of pressure. I must admit I can not wait to chalk off the R.Itchen, its taken long enough now. Think I'm 11 sessions deep now having spent around 120hrs without a Barbel, the sooner this one falls the better I'll feel!

 As for the R.Blackwater it seems that the stocks of Barbel, albeit small again are pretty transient, so my efforts have been mirrored and barring time spent in the peg I had my 9.01 Barbel I've only spent around 30-40 mins of my time before moving off to another spot if I've had no indication of fish present, it's a fairly narrow river and spent quite a bit of time peering in, in the vein hope I'll spot an unwitting target, thus far that hasn't paid off, fingers crossed that changes for me over the next however many trips it takes to finally come away successful.

 Moving away from Barbel I had a quick visit between jobs to the area I had that magnificent Perch last weekend, with just four live-baits I got to moving around a fair bit and let the gonks do their best to find me a massive Perch. The issue was the Pike were of a ravenous disposition, I managed four takes, using all four of my baits to all of which managed to swim off. I lost three of the four fish, with two looking / feeling decent (over 10lbs for sure) and a little jack, the one I landed again was a jack of possibly 6lb which was in great condition but not the species of predator I wanted, next time I hope that those big old soldiers are in a feeding mood and the Pike stay at bay.

No wonder why the perch are big!

Go Big or Go home.

 

 That's quite often a phase I mutter to myself whilst pondering my misfortunes, the lack of bites does have me thinking whether my approaches should be refined, or if refined go bigger and bolder. That was something I had been thinking about between visits to the River Blackwater.

 At home, whilst driving around on my way to jobs and whilst on the tools that nagging feeling of what was I doing wrong. I couldn't seem to get a Barbel to commit to my highly nutritional offerings perfectly placed, in positions where I felt they would be home, not to mention hours of rolling meat too. None of which seemed to arouse one iota of interest, I couldn't be getting it that wrong could I?

 So I decided to rove around on Tuesday for the day, in the rain and try to search out a fish. A single rod, tin of meat, bag of essentials and I was away, just add Barbel. For around 2 miles I rolled and searched for fish, under trees, through the endless beds of ribbon weed and occasional metalwork, I just couldn't muster a touch, by this point (3pm) I'm thinking there must be next to no Barbel around and I seriously thought about packing away and heading to another stretch I have an eye on, but I wanted to try one more spot.

Playing hide and seek.

 This spot looks the bollox and with the persistent rain hammering down I opted to hunker down under the brolly and see if something would come to me, a sixth of a tin of meat went out on a nice hard slither of gravel flanked by dense ribbon weed. A game of patience began and in between phone calls with friends about three hours had drifted by without a touch, then, out of absolutely nowhere my rod thumped off downstream to what can only be described as a typical three foot twitch, IT HAD FINALLY HAPPENED.

 I wasn't home and hosed just yet though as this fish had no intentions of coming quietly, numerous strong lunges downstream and runs upstream into the ribbon weed this fish knew what was up! and it was a good fish too. In the relatively clear water I could see the fish constantly turning and flanking before disappearing from sight once again, it was a tricky 4-5min battle (or so it seemed) before she finally came to the net before resting in the folds, I had, at last caught a R.Blackwater Barbel and she wasn't bad either.

 A piece of meat was the winning formula this time around, who knew! :) the ever faithful luncheon meat.

Excellent!

 A few record shots were taken and a weight taken too, I didn't think it was the double I am angling for but knew it was a good Barbel and at 9lb 1ozs I was not disappointed, third trip to the river and I have lift off!

Mint conditioned Otter dodger :)

  The rest of the evening passed by without incident, I shall have to wait for another visit to chalk the Blackwater off my list, number 20 is pending, watch this space!!!