Back to the Blackwater.

  Leading on from that incredible trip up north and following through with my plan to finish at 3pm on the Idle I decided to drive back down to the R.Blackwater for further punishment, that big Blackwater barbel has to come along at some point, just two bites in 6 trips totally 55hrs!. 

 Given the circumstances that preceded this visit I felt confident of finally catching a Barbel, so I set about roving the river with bits of meat and bread in every likely space where a Barbel might be. Having left Nottinghamshire at 5pm ( a couple hours after I originally billed after being drawn in by the lure of another good Barbel to which I did achieve ) I parked up in my usual spot on the BW and got wandering.

Purple Loosestrife, the riverbank is 
not complete without it in summer.

 A couple of hours passed without incident and as dusk came and went I had a gentle pull round on the tip which I hit into and amazingly it was a fish, my suspicion was crayfish but thankfully it fought back but I knew it wasn't a Barbel and soon enough a decent sized Bream surfaced in the torchlight, at least it was a fish. 

 But the crayfish were clearly down there chewing my Source "hard-hooker" boilee, damn things I can't wait until we find a way to eradicate them entirely. But this was another that I crushed under my trainer earlier in the day, think I'm on 6 now that have been squished, another dozen have dropped off.

Horrid things.

 Unfortunately after that Bream I didn't have another bite and around 1am I called time on my epic 514 mile journey, four rivers visited, three rivers fished, three doubles caught across two rivers and no joy on one river. It was a brilliant 44hrs on the road!. That really was an epic.

River Rother (Yorkshire) Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 Well....it has been a poor start to the season, eight trips since June 16th - mostly on the Blackwater and being plagued by hoards of Crayfish, thankfully up north crayfish aren't a problem...or so I thought.

 I set off nice and early from home around 5am and with a 206 mile drive to Sheffield I got on with chewing into the miles and by 8am I was popping into a Morrisons to get my grub for the next couple days. 

 I opted to target some water that was free to fish and just as I arrived I bumped into a local angler Steve who has had some fantastic results over the last couple years and given his returns I felt fairly confident of success. The plan was to fish one or two rods static and stay in each spot for 45-60min per swim, drop some bait in and move around if I didn't have any indications of fish in the swim, my usual tactic.

 The crayfish unfortunately were present and in good numbers too, 3 had met my size 10 by lunchtime which coincidentally was when something finally happened after my 5th move. I was sat chatting to Steve around lunchtime as he popped in to see how I was getting on and out of absolutely nowhere my margin rod slammed around and I was on it and within 5 secs or so this fish had torn off downstream so quick I didn't get the chance to adjust my clutch on the reel which was possibly too tight and the fish went past some rocks and it was gone, just like that my 12lb hooklink was cut just below the swivel.

Barbel crack! The Source.

 Gutted doesn't even cut it! Hard to tell just how big it was but I was really pissed off with myself as mistakes like that should not be happening now after 30+ years of angling experience under my belt, yes the rocks didn't help me but with a fractionally slacker clutch the line may have tracked higher up in the water column thus possibly away from danger. Fuming!

 Once I lost that fish I moved off and tried to put that loss to bed but another bite was not forthcoming and moved around a fair bit until I arrived back in the peg I lost that fish in around 6hrs later on, the idea was that if there was one Barbel present then there should be more so I introduced a few loose 15mm source boilies and also small glugged PVA bags on my hookbaits and fished the exact same lines as I did previously. I got in the peg around 730pm and the plan was to stay in there beyond dusk and then move again. 

 Just after 830pm I had a couple of gentle taps on my outside line rod so my interest was peeked and all of a sudden I could see my lines entry point into the water was edging upstream, straightaway I knew what was happening, I picked up the rod, wound down and struck, then all hell broke loose! 

 A fight straight out of the top drawer ensued and a big Barbel really gave me the run around, big powerful runs up and down stream, numerous times she went under the far bank bushes / trees which I could do little about and also ploughing her head down into the bottom looking for rocks to dislodge me with huge clouds of substrate wafting up in the meagre flow. However, the outcome of this battle was not going the same way as the previous chance, she finally slipped over the cord of the net and I knew immediately she was going to be WAY over 10lb, I knew river number 29 had been completed and in fine fashion.

 After resting her well whilst I got my camera set up and sling / mat / scales ready I got her on the scales and registered an incredibly pleasing 12lbs 1oz, a Y.Rother 12+, I was over the moon massively, my task on the Rother was done and I could plan my next move, quicker than I thought too. Also incidentally this was the final part of the South Yorkshire treble ( Don, Dearne and Rother ), piece by piece I am completing vast sections of the country.

Number 29, Bloody wicked!!!

Another Yorkshire bar of bronze!

 

 Over and out :) yaaaaay!

The Dying Days.

 

 Well, the lead up to the end of the season didn't go as planned, unfortunately the weather wasn't great but still wanted to try. First off I planned to get myself up to Yorkshire for a go at the Y.Rother, a river I had purchased a ticket for back in the summer but it wasn't until 7th of March that I finally got up there! 

 203 miles of tarmac had to be covered and it was my new vans inaugural journey! sadly my trip ended up with a blank on that river, I arrived at 4pm and fished until 4am but had one little chub wrap and the temps had dropped so much that my confidence had ebbed away and opted to leave there at 0430 and yes there were loads of other options such as the Swale, Idle, Y.Ouse, Y.Derwent, Wharfe and the Aire but the conditions up there were very different to the south, so opted to drive back 203 miles to home, not a wink of sleep for 39 hrs, once in overdrive I can do long spells without kip but I do pay for it later on as when I do get to sleep and finally wake up I suffer with really strong headaches where I sleep so deep.

It's hard industrial past on full show.

Not seen waste as bad as this before, eye opening
amount of plastic littering the trees.

 However, before I did that I drove to a secluded woodland in Kent as I had gotten wind of a very rare "legitimate" small population Large Tortoiseshell butterflies, for me it was one I needed as I look to complete my list, as I ambled around I bumped into Terry Hearn who was also searching for the LT so we had a chat about things fishy and fluttery and after 4hrs of searching we came across what we were looking for "species number 53" was in the bag (not literally), success! Now with the gear in the van and a 20 min drive across the beautiful Kent countryside could I finally get that KS Barbel I so badly want?

YESSSS!!!! Finally got to photograph one, lifer.

 Nope.....of course I didn't....again. But, I did see something else that was mind blowing, 3 Beavers! just 20 metres away from where I was fishing, I couldn't quite believe it. Oh, and I also had a nice chub of 5lb 9oz and 3 Bream to about 4lb.

5.9 Chevvy.

Barbel' friend, shame no Barbel seem to exist here :) 

Beaver dental work

ditto

yikes 😳

 After that on March 12/13th I arranged to take my Dad down to the Dorset Stour as we looked to go for a big end of season Chub and Roach, I knew of areas where they were present so we targeted them, another stroke of misfortune meant that neither of us caught across both days! It was not easy at all, but at least we had a good catch up! 

 Last day of the season was spent with Brian who I knew was in London owing to his hospital commitments, with that I opted to fish super light and went about searching for fish in any nook and cranny they may have been held up in, by the end of it I had landed 10 glistening chalk stream Barbel to 7lb 2oz and Brian managed 10 also to 7lb on the button, it was good fun and a far cry from the rigours of my 40 Rivers Challenge! 

7lb 2oz, best of 10 😜

Who says you can't celebrate a draw!

 Roll on June 16th, we go again!