My First Soiree on the Banks of the River Wharfe.

 

 One doesn't know how 34 miles can pass by so quickly. I left S.Yorkshire and arrived in W.Yorkshire in a haze, I could not have been prepared for what had just transpired, who turns up at a river they've never seen before, fishes for 2½ hours, catches three Barbel, two of which are of the target size and blitzes the river record? Never heard of it happening before and I for one am pretty sure I'll never experience it again, as I write this (long overdue) entry the gravity of the catch is yet to fully settle in, its obscene.

R.Don - 15lb 4ozs

R.Don - 10lb 5ozs

R.Dearne - 10lb 9ozs

 Angling dreams are certainly made of moments like these and indeed much less. Now the R.Wharfe was playing host to my gigantic golden spherical plums, would she give up one of her treasures like the Dearne and Don had done in the previous 24hrs? 

 Before I was to find out I looked for somewhere comfortable to park up the car and set about grabbing a few hours kip in the motor before embarking on what I hoped would be yet another incredible days fishing. Given my mammoth effort the previous day ( Driving up from my home on the Kent/Surrey border to Barnsley in the early hours of the morning, roving around the Dearne all day before catching my target around 2pm, then I drove to the Don, had a leisurely and enormously rewarding couple of hours before slipping off up to Boston Spa near Wetherby, it had been a graft but I am used to this sort of fishing, real hardcore business. 

 I set my alarm for 6am and awoke wondering had I dreamt that all up. A quick scan of the pics once again was just the tonic to get me fired up and hopefully continue on what is a great spell. I grabbed my day-ticket from the shop and then got lost....half an hour slipped by with me buzzing around in the car trying to find the entrance to the river! After I wasted some more time I finally got my act together and found the wet stuff, what I was met by is a rolling meat wonderland!!!! I knew I would be in my element and so it would prove.

 The river was fairly clear with a reddy/brown tinge to it and within 20 mins I found Barbel, I got straight to work and got my lines on point from the get go, funnily enough the Barbel seemed to know what I was all about and the first two fish I found (both around 6lbs) seemed to spook pretty quickly and never returned. To begin with this seemed to be the way they all behaved, clearly rolling meat is a technique used here quite a bit given their reaction. The first 4hrs slipped by very quickly and had the shot at 8 Barbel by this point without even getting a sniff. 

 Around 2pm I decided to go back to the car, drop off the rolling gear and grabbed my bucket of goodies and the static gear. A change of tactic I hoped would eek out a fish. I wandered a 200 yard section first and put around 6-8 bait droppers of hemp and 6mm pellet in 4 swims which I planned to fish in rotation. My first swim was a very deep undercut bank that screamed fish, lovely gravel bottom with a swift inside line, it had all the hallmarks of a good Barbel holding area. 2hrs later and I gave up. I then decided to shorten my time in the other pegs to an hour as I was slowly running out of time ( kicking off time is around dusk ).

Amazed the rod remained motionless!

 The next two swims looked awesome and know they do hold Barbel from chats I had with friends and fellow anglers met on the day who fish it, but I could not muster a single touch! By 6pm things were looking bleak, I hadn't even snared a Chub!

It looked so good for it too!

 My last ditch attempt at a Barbel was to go back to the peg with the deep undercut bank and put a single bait over the top as I suspected the droppers of bait I put down around 2pm would either still be there or mopped up by fish that should still be in the vicinity. Sunset was fast approaching and by this time I had been in situ for around an hour, I really had gone from feast to famine, but these returns on away days have to be expected. I leant over to grab something out of my bag and out the corner of my eye see the tip bounce enough to get my attention, seconds later I was reaching out for the butt of my rod! Totally savage and typically Barbel-esk I knew I was connected to a Barbel, the deep powerful runs up and down stream played out in front of me without seeing it, possibly five minutes had gone by with me picturing various different sized fish on the other end, was it one of those rare Wharfe doubles that I sought after? or was it one of the great pretenders? When I finally got it close to the net I thought the previous! I muttered to myself "I couldn't could I?".

My first view of the fish.

 Must admit when I peered down the 10ft to the net I really thought I had! A hat trick of double figure Barbel in a little over 29hrs. She had it all, even hoisting her up to the mat the weight felt good! But could she go over 10lbs? 

 This time around she didn't, a very respectable Barbel all the same at 9lb 5ozs that could not be sniffed at, a Wharfe 9+ is a very good Barbel and took that gleefully! A very tough day worked out well in the end and knew I was close to time out too so after I took some lovely photos of my prize I slipped her back home to the depths of the mighty Wharfe and I scarpered!. Another river visited and yes, she wasn't a double and yes I will be back to try again but it was a very successful visit, even if it was challenging. 

 Being flexible in approaches to Barbel can be paramount to success and this scenario certainly highlighted that, never stick to one tactic if it's not working out. Mix it up, they may well be there, just not playing your game! play theirs.

Close, but no cigar this time around!

A superb specimen all the same, I was very happy 
given my effort!

 Once packed up and back at the car I had a dilemma, did I stay and fish the following day or head elsewhere and upon speaking with numerous other anglers during the day it was clear the Wharfe was in fact fishing quite poorly, so I decided against staying and drove down south to the tough R.Loddon which needs no introduction. A couple of hours back south via Donnington KFC was in order where I grabbed a few hours sleep...

Another Season on the Bank.

 

 Well what can I say about the 2021/22 season. It was bloody brilliant, lots of lows but amongst those lows I caught some big fish to really keep me focused and well and truly on track with my target for a double figure Barbel off of forty rivers across England, Wales and Scotland. So here is how it panned out!

 May:

 I only fished once in April so there wasn't much to write about there and May wasn't too different, a single trip out in search of Golden Orfe and Tench resulted in a success on both fronts, a cold spring did make fishing difficult on the day but did finally come good.

A nice G.Orfe, but not what the lake used to produce.

7lb 7oz

 June:

 

 Again it was a very lean time for me fishing wise as the birth of my second child meant I was helping out at home and being Dad, I did manage two trips (1x Medway and 1x Mole) but these resulted in blanks.

 

 2 trips / 2 blanks / 6hrs / 0 Barbel / 0 Doubles.

 July:

 I found time slightly easier come by on the bank as I was back to work, this gave me the opportunity to fish a bit on my way home and did start to have some successes, two of the six rivers I had fished in the month of July produced double figure fish for me in the shape of these below. Apart from that I had the odd Chub too and three smaller Barbel to 8.13.

R.Colne 11.07

R.Medway 13.09

 11 trips / 7 blanks / 40hrs / 5 Barbel / 2 Doubles.

 August:

 Again, in August I found myself getting about quite a bit with most of my trips being conducted after work, but I did also manage a superb road trip up north where I struck gold on multiple fronts. Nothing could have prepared me for the achievement I was to receive. A tough start on the Mole did come good on the sixth time of asking with a stunning double figure Barbel slipping over the rim of the net, I also rocked up on the R.Derwent, having never been there before and had a red-letter-day to rival all!

R.Mole 12.10

R.Derwent 13.13

PB Chub 7.04!!! EPIC.

 Trips 12 / Blanks 8 / 51.5hrs / 4 Barbel / 2 Doubles.

 September:

 

 This was yet another lean month for me and considering its possibly the best month of the season to target Barbel I simply couldn't get away from work and family matters, which in the grand scheme of things is more important, said no angler, ever! When I did get out I had some successes on the river Lea and Nene, but most notably was my incredible capture of a R.Ivel Barbel and a double at that. A river touted by many as a river in serious decline over the last decade through varying factors, it only took me 11 hours in total to manage the feat...child's play this Barbel lark :). Plus I also managed a big Kentish Stour Chub of 6.01 whilst rolling meat for Barbel, quite a turn up as that's a huge fish for the river.

A big girl for the KS!

R.Nene 8.07 (not a double but a great start)

R.Ivel 10.14 (A fish I thought would take me years to catch)

 6 Trips / 3 Blanks / 35.5hrs / 6 Barbel / 1 Double.

 October:

 A few trips were made through October and I had high hopes for a couple of the trips, however things were starting to go against me as I found conditions weren't in my favour and was missing the good conditions to be on the bank, I was quickly finding out that learning new rivers in the cooler months was hard going as I found it difficult to locate and stalk fish/potential areas. This will be a recurring theme I'm sure and ended the month Barbel-less, in fact the only fish I did catch were off of a R.Test tributary in the shape of some beautiful Grayling to just over 2lbs.

The best of a dozen taken on the float.

 

 6 Trips / 6 Blanks / 37.5hrs / 0 Barbel / 0 Doubles.

 November:

 My Barbel fishing by this point had taken bit of a nosedive and given the cold crisp conditions I sought out other species to target and although I did try on the odd occasions for Barbel it was the Grayling fishing that proved most fruitful. Two trips to the splendid R.Wylye in Wiltshire provided some of, if not the best Grayling fishing I've had the pleasure of experiencing. Numerous two-pound plus specimens were caught whilst trotting with the best in November weighing 2lb 7oz. I did also manage a stonker of a R.Colnbrook Chub too weighing a massive 6lb 6oz which was taken whilst in search of the elusive Barbel that do call this river home, not that I can catch them!

R.Wylye 2lb 7oz.

R.Colnbrook breezeblock, 6.06

 4 Trips / 4 Blanks / 29hrs / 0 Barbel / 0 Doubles.

 December:

 Just two Barbel trips were embarked upon in the last month of the year and given how poor my previous couple of months were for the species I didn't hold out much hope, but what do you know! A mild spell just before new year produced a super looking R.Lea powerhouse which bought an end to my mini drought, but also my time on the river which to be fair had been tough, well earned and one of the hard ones taken care of. Also as the weather got colder I fancied a go for some river pike and was rewarded with a superb mornings sport, two Pike were landed but both well worth catching with the best just missing out on twenty pounds.

R.Lea 10.05

19lb 9oz river Pike in the winter morning sun.

 2 Trips / 1 Blank / 17hrs / 1 Barbel / 1 double.

 January:

 A month of almost seemingly endless frosty mornings, could only mean one thing, Grayling! A return to the R.Wylye produced my best ever days sport for the species and taking no less than 7x 2lb+ fish to 2lb 9oz, quite a day it was. The Itchen was also on my radar and although the Grayling didn't show for me in numbers the Roach put in a surprise appearance and managed a few to just under 2lbs.

R.Wylye 2.09 - (2nd best ever)

R.Itchen 1.14

 0 Trips / 0 hrs / 0 Barbel / 0 Doubles.

 February:

 A couple of trips out for Barbel were had, one on the R.Severn and one on the Colnbrook as I hoped with the slight increase in river temps would begin to stir the Barbel into feeding. That didn't happen. All I can remember was an expensive night trying to get out of a field....

 2 Trips / 11.5 hrs / 0 Barbel / 0 Doubles.

 March:

 At the turn of the year I had my sights firmly set on having a 7-10 day assault on the rivers towards the back end of the season to try and find myself another river double to boost my tally even further, and it could not have started any better as I joined friend and fellow blogger George for a morning (wasn't planned this way) on the Warks Avon to target a Barbel, I left the river at 1pm having not only bagged a monster Chub for the river, but also a big Barbel too. The blanks that had mounted up were all but forgotten, it was a brilliant mornings fishing and to share it with George was wonderful! 

 I then went on to fish the R.Severn, R.Bourne, R.Dorset Stour, R.Itchen all with the view to maybe adding one last fish to that now very impressive list, much to my dismay however I drew almost a complete blank on all of those barring a few modest Chub. It wasn't until the penultimate evening on the R.Wey that I got a chance to wrap up the season with a bang, that said the Barbel I hooked had no inclination to stick around and after a brief battle a large unseen fish smashed me up in a nearside tree, thankfully for me whilst still cursing my rotten luck and thinking of drowning my sorrows did my rod hoop over again to produce another double figure Barbel, I got that grandstand finish I had dreamt of. It was not the way I planned it, but when does it ever go to plan aye? What an end! Eight different rivers chalked off my list in just this season alone, which now brings me up to 13 rivers out of my overall target of 40. Can I reach 20 and the half way point by the end of next season? That will be my target.

R.Warks Avon 12.06

R.Warks Avon 6.03

R.Wey 10.04

 9 Trips / 75.5hrs / 2 Barbel / 2 Doubles. 

River Derwent Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 On the quiet a plan has been slowly building to do a small tour of some of t' northern rivers, chiefly the R.Derwent but also one or two of the lesser known waterways where Barbel do reside and more importantly, double figure Barbel. The last few weeks I've spent collating info where I can and also a couple of local anglers have given me snippets of info to go on, for example what club books are hooey and what ones are worth investing in.

 Before I made the 204 mile trip to the Dearne sandwiched in between Barnsley and Rotherham an impromptu diversion was made to the R.Lea, of course good Barbel are known to live here so I really fancied my chances of getting off to a great start. After getting lost and costing me 40 minutes of extra walking I finally reached the area I had earmarked to fish ( google earth is your friend, that is of course the map is the correct way up....), with that very very blonde moment firmly behind me I got to finding the potential fish holding areas and not before long I had stumbled over a classic looking Barbel swim, decent gravel run, deeper than most of the section and plenty of cover.

 So when I settled into the peg all I could think about was how big and how many I was going to catch...the Chub however did not read the script and along with the numerous now deceased Crayfish decided my dreams of a Barbel would not come to fruition, nevertheless when they are this big one can really really not complain!!

 My first R.Lea six pluser and a back up upper five pounder ( 5lb 11oz ) to boot!.

6lb 2oz Crayfish muncher.

 

 After 5 hours of persistent Crayfish interference I decided it was time to get on the road and eat up those miles! 3hrs later I had arrived on the R.Dearne, a river not so well known but has the potential to throw up enormous fish out of nowhere, but more importantly some good back up fish to fall back on if my hopes of a 16lb+ specimen are dashed.

 

  Wonderful swims like this greeted me as I roved around in between moderate rain showers (on a 2/3day fishing bender, having wet gear ain't fun!!) with the hope of finding a Barbel but with the increasingly colouring up river my chances seem to be diminishing as the afternoon wore on. I am reliably informed that those conditions are not great at all, low and clear strangely seems to be the Barbel' preferred feeding time and they say every river is different! This is no different. Arriving from the R.Lea around 9am I set about rolling meat through the numerous weed beds to try and tempt a Barbel out of hiding. This process to find one took longer than I thought as the first 3 hours yielded nothing but one Chub (4lb+), but then my chance came in the shape of a Barbel around 8/9lb mark, not quite my target size but an opener on a new river some 4hrs from home, fortunately for the fish my technique was lacking and as its nose buried in the ribbon weed to take my lump of meat no bite was indicated until it was too late, I watched the Barbel then come up in the water column with the bait in its mouth but the bow in the line was too great and I didn't have direct contact with the fish and the opportunity was gone, in fact that chance turned out to be the only one on the Barbel front on the R.Dearne! 

 This beauty of a Carp however did also fall to a lump of rolled meat, something special !

 

What a little stunner.

 As 4pm approached I felt like I needed to get back on the road, with 55miles of unpredictable M1 south traffic and accident riddled roads I knew if I wanted to get into one of the good night pegs I needed to get there a couple of hours before dusk, so I could set up and get settled, hoping for a sleepless night! 

Base Camp and waiting for Ol' Bertie.

 This section of the Derwent is heavily fished and not before long I was flanked by anglers up and down of me, not my kind of fishing but given my limited knowledge of the river it was the best I could do, assured it was a good night section I stuck it out and waited, waited and more waiting when I decided at 0130 that it wasn't going to happen and with a distinct hint of Autumn slowly creeping closer I retreated to the car for some much needed sleep. 37 hours, no kip, hundreds of miles driven, work, fishing etc. 

 I awoke from my uncomfortable sleep in the car to a bright sunny morning with that chill in the air still present but easing off as the sun got higher, plan for what is now yesterday (Saturday) morning was to travel light, simple rolling meat gear and a camera, do what I do best and seek out the fish. The main river looked excellent but didn't carry enough flow for my tactic so I had to seek out swifter water to execute my plan and that was to try and find a Barbel as I did not feel confident that a static approach would be wise. 

 Conditions for rolling meat were actually spot on, clear sunny skies, light warm wind and a clear river allowed me to scan the river bed with my polaroids. I decided to walk up to the very top to begin with to a weir, but in just the second swim I checked I found a big Barbel just holding station on the gravel run, a certain double and my Derwent target just sat there, waiting to be caught! Without hesitation I was fishing and my rolled bait was heading closer to the fish, for me I was poised and ready to strike imminently, the meat inched ever closer to the awaiting fish when it began to back away from the bait and then turned away to the far bank margins where I lost sight of it, for the next 20 minutes I rolled that 15 yard section real hard but it didn't happen for me and the chance by this point was gone, a pretty painful one to take, so close yet, so far.

 Having not been able to make that sighting count I trudged off upstream looking in every nook and cranny, hoping to find another as the sense of potential failure began to play on my mind. There is however not many better ways to settle a score than to get another chance! downstream of said weir there was a large canopy that I rolled down to and on the first roll the bait got down maybe 30 yards and then I had a violent tug that was struck firmly and the power in the flow would suggest a Barbel was now battling away in the strong flow, my heart was in my mouth big time! 

 As the fish began to come out of the main flow the battle slightly weakened and quickly became clear as to why those powerful downstream runs didn't happen, it was a Chub, but a big Chub. Slight sour taste to begin with that it wasn't a Barbel but I was fairly delighted when it cruised into the net.

6lb 7ozs, Certainly can't be disappointed with that fish.

  A very nice Chub indeed and another six on my travels since Thursday night. I released that Chub and then continued on downstream, fishing hard and pretty well too as the cobwebs in my rolling meat technique were being blown away well and truly. Roughly 45 mins later I found myself rolling a very tight run with a raft of floating vegetation on the far bank and got the chance to tuck a bait under the raft and then roll the bait down the gravel gully where I could feel the bait bouncing freely in between the weed beds that I found a couple of times, even without seeing the bottom as I was at water level I was beginning to picture the topography mentally and knew if there was a fish present I stood a chance in between the weed beds, then out of nothing! I got a little tap on the finger, felt the bait stop, so I gave it a tiny lift when the rod immediately responded with a sharp lurch down stream! 

 This, was no Chub and I knew it straight away, my polaroids steamed up as my heart rate and body temp shot through the roof, panic was not quite settling in to begin with but the weight of what I was connected to started to worry me though, then it came up under my feet as it cleared the marginal reeds about 3 minutes into the battle and strewth!!! A huge dirty great big Barbel and my god, what a sight! but no sooner did I see it she powered back off downstream and stripping 30 yards of line, she did this twice and the entire time I spent trying to keep my knees steady, this really was a shot I couldn't pass up, she simply had to come in. Playing her steady every time she went down I gradually allowed her line, but not too much that I was in control for the remainder of the fight and then the time came to ship out the net, one last wind down and lift which guided the head into the net and in one giant scoop my R.Derwent target had been achieved, I didn't even need to weigh it to know that :-) 

That smile is still etched across my mush now.

 I HAD DONE IT AND IN INCREDIBLE STYLE TOO!!! On both sets of scales she registered 13lb 13ozs and true river monster, a fish I will not forget in a hurry, it was turning out to be my very best mornings fishing in a long time. River number 9 has been achieved, I can't still believe it. Some river, some fish, some trip!!

 In a state of shock that I only had just gone and done it again I sat down, had a steak and ale pie with some water and laid back on the very uncomfortable ground, looked at the sky and thanked the Barbel gods for continuing to sponsor my efforts. However, that was going to be that, I was ready to pack up and head for the car and make the journey down to the R.Lea once again to make the most of this purple patch before the blanks start to pile up again, there was one last thing I wanted to check out and that was that Barbel I didn't get earlier on in the morning and what do you bloody well know! I peered into the swim and she was in the exact same position, no two invitations were needed to give it a quick go and the first cast was a travesty, thankfully it didn't spook her, second roll was right on the money and as it approached the Barbel the fish began to slowly ease up to the bait (maybe 2ft away) when another black shape came from downstream marginal reeds and head butted the Barbel out of the way to take the bait, I couldn't make out what it was to begin with and then I saw it in front of me, it was THEE biggest Chub I've ever seen in my life in the flesh, 2/3ft down in the water column it looked huge and as she came up to the surface it just kept getting bigger, THIS WAS A MONSTER!

 The Barbel was massive, this was equally as massive, my head and mind were totally blown, fried, mashed god I didn't know what had hit me, what I did know is that I love the Derwent! I had a very strong feeling that when that Chub finally slipped over the rim of the net I had caught my first 7lb+ Chevin! And I was not wrong, if I wasn't already in dreamland I was certainly dancing on the moon now! 

 

 

 Well, I just could not hide my delight of what I was holding, 7lb 4ozs. It was huge! long, wide and deep, nothing else for me to say. I had had the best mornings fishing of my life, period and I've had some red letter days over the years, this has to be number one, bar none.

A real pretty place, I felt quite privileged to be there.

 I could not have asked for a better outcome on the R.Derwent, the drive back down to the R.Lea from Derby was fairly uneventful and soon found myself trudging the banks of the Fishers Green section in search of a Barbel, but nothing materialised, I could not be unhappy with that ending and the Lea is very close to a lot of my work, so I'll get plenty of time to bag a R.Lea double yet. Until then I'll feed off the positives of this wonderful trip that I had embarked on, it'll live long in the memory.