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. 

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!

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.