Life In The Blackwater.

 

 Only taken a trillion visits to catch another R.Blackwater, this river really is a joy to be beside, the nature present is as good as you could ask to see anywhere in the country, the Barbel however have been really challenging as most of you who regularly follow my ramblings will know. When you do catch they are stunning fish and always pristine, but with the Otters ever present how long will fish like this be around for? 

 A typical trip unfolded where I opted to move around and fished just about every good looking spot I could, most have never yielded a touch but this trip just proved why you should always at least try for 20/30 mins, this beauty wasn't weighed but deserved a mat shot and quipped in my mind how many months will it take to find another.

Stunning Barbel around 4-5lb

 Anyway, I'll take what I can on this ever more difficult river before a double is found and landed. 

Pastures New and Old Foes.

 

 Since the R.Anker had thrown up the greatest of all fish I had already made the decision to sleep for the night before making the journey to the R.Dove which is was once again going to be a first, a river I have long since had designs on fishing but never got there, so with the Anker being around half hour north it is fairly close, having never fished the Dove, it was once again going to be a reccy trip.

 Once I had finally found the river after a call to Ade who has been hugely supportive this last few weeks I set about making the long walk to the top boundary to then have a good look and see what I was faced with.

 After the recent rains the Dove was up a bit and heavily coloured, this I felt for stalking which I had in mind was not ideal so I very quickly decided to take on a static approach and set about fishing each good looking spot for around 45mins and then move. I didn't realise that the Dove had Crayfish and they were everywhere! I could not get away from them, so after 6 swims and a good few hours I walked my gear to the centre of the fishery and then went rolling meat, amazingly within a couple minutes I had a brief follow from a Barbel about 7lb which looked like it was going to take the meat and bailed out at the last moment, the fish then drifted out of sight under a bush and regardless of how hard I tried to get that fish to commit I simply could not manage it. 

 For the rest of the day I moved around and feeding lightly I hoped I would come across a Barbel, unfortunately that did not happen and around 10pm I packed up. 3hrs 50min drive back home, but a blank on the Dove didn't matter a jot, that Anker success was enough to let me forget the rest.

 A few days later I made my way over to the Blackwater to carry on my pursuit of a double which unfortunately was met with the same level of nothingness which I am constantly subjected to on this particular river and two days back I made another trip again with an outside chance to make it happen but all I did was continue to remove Crayfish which I seem to be good at that, but very little else is happening on there, even Carp, Chub and Bream seem to be completely missing. I really do feel like the window on a Blackwater double is closing, the Otters are having a profound effect, even if they aren't eating all the fish their presence is moving stocks around so fast I can't get lucky and find them, not through the want of trying. But one thing that is true is that I will continue to keep trying, I won't give up on there, not just yet.

River Anker Double, That's A Wrap!!!

 

 My season just seems to be going from strength to strength, last seasons total of two completed rivers had been equalled before this incredible result, now...here's how it unfolded.

 Following on from my last visit a couple of weeks ago much has happened, that stuff that falls from the sky (rain) decided to put in an appearance and my god we have needed it, when I arrived on the Anker at around 2pm I could very quickly see that the river was about a foot higher and carrying some colour, stalking fish was now out of the question but felt it would offer feeding fish some additional cover during the daylight hours, I opted for a pellet approach as I so often do on smaller rivers, robin red pellets 4mm, 6mm and 8mm in small golf ball sized PVA bags and 8mm on the hair.

 I'm not sure how much of this made a difference but this is how my approach differed. Initially my hair when I tied it was quite long as I had misjudged the required length and was long enough to accommodate 3x 8mm pellets rather than the 2x I normally use. I fished with this setup for around 3hrs within a bite in a couple of swims so I opted to strip that rig down and tie a similar rig with a shorter hair so the 2x 8mm pellets were butting up against the bend of the hook, this presentation I do prefer more, subtle difference but may have made all the difference.

 Fishing a crease just off the far bank flow I placed my 2oz lead and left it as long as I could to allow any feeding fish the opportunity to find the bait, over the course of a couple of hours I topped the swim up with more pellet as there is a healthy population of silvers and Chub so I couldn't imagine the pellet would have been around long and with that consistent flow of free offerings going in I hoped I would bring something upstream from a very fishy looking near bank cluster of reed and far bank bushes where the water drops away from 4ft to around 7/8ft, the perfect holding area for a Barbel or two.

 During my time there the fishing was halted briefly owing to some really powerful showers which would have made the remainder of my visit very uncomfortable so Ade and I hopped into the car to seek shelter as we could see the storm creeping ever closer across the flatlands, enough time to hot foot it to the car, both times with just seconds to spare! 

Just one of many super looking spots.

 Ade arrived shortly after I arrived and we sat back chatting, thankfully towards the evening the clouds slowly broke up enough so that the threat of rain abated. Around 1910 Ade opted to head off home to grab dinner and no sooner he got half way home my rod gently tapped twice to alert me to the presence of something, then out of nothing the rod tip slammed around violently and the centrepin went into meltdown, the vortex whipped up by whatever had just picked up my bait was huge, the brutal power of this fish saw me simply trying limit the amount of line this fish took, more than 30 metres of line was stripped before I managed to get a modicum of control, my heart was in my mouth because I was praying it was a Barbel and not a Carp, the sheer power was startling.

 Once I had the fish turned and slowly coming upstream I still didn't know what it was, that was until it rolled in front of me, my eyes couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was very big! I've had some very big Barbel in my time but this was pretty special, however I had to remain vigilant as this fish still had plenty more in the tank and for another five minutes or so this fish lunged, wallowed, lunged and wallowed some more, over the cord of the net twice too and back out didn't do my nerves any bloody good at all but on the third time of asking I finally got the reward for my efforts in the confines of my net, it was big! 

 A few minutes later Ade arrived to the sight of me punching the air in jubilation, but how big was she? 

 I didn't unhook her or lift her or anything until Ade arrived as I wanted to rest the fish after such an epic battle, when Ade did get himself ready and I laid out all my kit, set up the camera, wet the sling and mat I was ready, or was I? When I began lifting her up and out of the river it dawned on me this fish was even bigger than I first thought, the depth of it was really impressive for a late-August Barbel.

 When it was laid on the mat we both really got see it all and that was when Ade said to me, "That's a river record fish right there James", I had no reason to think otherwise, it was very big. I lifted the scales with them facing Ade and he read off 17lb 7ozs (included the sling) and I was in shock, of course deducting the weight of the sling (11ozs) off the total she settled on 16lb 12ozs! Indeed a new River Anker record, all recorded and indeed confirmed by Ade this fish is the old record which was set in 2022 at 16lb 6oz. 

 I was simply speechless, these moments in angling come round once in a blue moon and amongst all of that it sets me a new personal best for the species which has been in situ since October 2020! What a way to do it. Simply magical. Once that was done a quick couple of photos were taken and then got in the river to have one last moment before she vanished once again into obscurity, hopefully not for so long this time, a new personal best and a new river record for a river I'd only visited once before, that's what dreams are made of.

New River Anker Record - 16lb 12ozs

Magnificent!

And of course, that is the 33rd river I have had a double figure Barbel from, the target is really and truly in sight. 

R.Anker - Pastures New.

 

 After my success on the R.Tame it was time to move on, after slipping back that beauty I retired back to the car and had a good nights sleep, with one of the windows half cracked open I could hear the chorus of Owl chatter as I drifted off. Nice.

 Sunrise came and at the alarm I was already up and tea brewing such was my eagerness to get moving on, with another day of angling ahead I packed away all my wet gear and off I went, goodbye Tame and hello Anker. A totally different river, much more intimate, winding ( Anker from Latin literally translates to winding river ), its the sort of river I love to fish, the whole stealth approach and minimal disturbance is right up my street and within half an hour I was seeing Barbel and Chub, one Barbel possibly around 8lb and another which looked close to that magic 10lb mark. 

 With it being so low and clear I could see the fish easily with my glasses and it was exciting to see my target species so quickly, but given the clarity was it going to be easy to catch them? the short answer was no, the Chub were in a ravenous mood and within a couple of hours I managed 6 to around 4½ pound and given that level of disturbance I had concluded the Barbel had tucked away so I moved on to try find fish elsewhere, I spent the rest of the day dotting around, searching for Barbel but also where it is quite choked with common club rushes in places and decent level of weed the Barbel had a lot of places to hideaway.

 My day was done with a few Chub to show for my efforts but I wasn't disappointed at all, Ade had been with me most of the day so in between catching Chub we chewed the fat before he headed off on his own quest.

 No Barbel came my way and at dusk I headed off home, but it was good fun wandering and see Barbel on my first trip was good to see, I will be back.

Kentish Stour Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 That is a header I've wanted to write for so long! 22 trips, across 4 seasons, 2684 miles driven to accomplish one objective, find and catch a double figure Barbel. This is so far my single biggest hurdle cleared in this challenge yet. 

 Let's wind it back to 6hrs...arriving on the river around 2pm I set about searching for Barbel with the polaroids which I always do, with the river running gin clear as usual owing to the fact it's almost a pure chalkstream finding fish is often easy, however Barbel are in short supply and finding them isn't as easy as some might think, so imagine my surprise when I peered into the first spot I could get to and witnessed a Barbel flashing on the gravels under a tree, then ten seconds later one a couple pound smaller flashed up too! I had found Barbel straight away, unbelievable.

 Of course, I was not moving anywhere. Chub and Bream across the next few hours made themselves known with seven Chub to 5lb 3oz and a solitary Bream coming to the net, I hoped that I was working my way through the other species before the lead up to dusk as I hoped as the sun set the Barbel would drop down stream from their cover, that said there was one Barbel on three occasions that did drop below me and fed confidently on the robin red pellet that I was feeding, but it wouldn't feed for long, 30 seconds or so and then would come back upstream past me and then back into its bolt hole under a limb of a downed tree, no doubt a beaver casualty.

 That Barbel was big, the biggest I had seen on the river so far. I estimated this fish to be around 12lb, the sort of fish I'd absolutely love to catch, the last time I saw that fish was around 5pm, I hoped the Barbel would feed better come the dull light into the night. Around 830 I had just come off the phone to my mate Adam and no sooner that call ended a Beaver cruised past me, creating a massive bow wave heading downstream, I hoped the fish wouldn't be too put off by it and about twenty minutes later my rod tip slammed around so hard the centrepin screeched into life, downstream I saw a big bow wave as a fish made off with my double 8mm robin reds, this was a Barbel, NO QUESTION about it, the power was immense and knew straight away it was a big fish too, bare in mind this was the first Barbel I've hooked on this river in all this time, only a couple of times have I been close to a chance.

 When I got that Barbel within a couple of rod lengths of me I could see how big it was, my heart rate went through the roof, I wanted this so bad and on the first attempt of netting her the net got caught on brambles and couldn't free it straight away, but had to pay absolute focus to making sure the fish didn't plough through the tree and branches opposite me, it was soooo hairy and then the net came free thank god, now it was my second attempt to get the fish in the net, the head and half its body went in and then inexplicably she managed back out and shot back downstream with the centrepin struggling to keep up! 

 This really was a good battle, the next minute or so the fish tried its best to go back upstream into the branches but I kept a good bend in the rod and thumbed the pin to not give it anything, not long after I was punching the air in jubilation and let out a few joyous expletives as a certain double figure Barbel laid resting in the bottom of my net, my first and ONLY Barbel off the legendary KS was a double.

River No: 31 - 13lb 1oz!!!!!!!!

 But, at 13lb 1oz it was one of the real big old girls, a fish that can most certainly tell a tale or two! I was in awe and spent a good couple of minutes just looking at it in the net, a couple of quick snaps on my iPhone and a weigh and she was back in the water, no messing around. It was a privilege to meet and hold something so special for just a moment, to see it swim off and possibly make someone else's dreams come true. Magical, Mythical, Moments, Mine.

 In all these trips I hadn't seen a fish this big before on the KS so for me to get this chance I am super stoked. The constant Mosquito and Midge attention was just a minor issue, now I just have to fight the urge to itch, because my god I got bit! In that picture above they were buzzing in my ear, on my arms, at least one went up my shirt too, small price to pay for such a big reward.

 9 TO GO!!!........

Opening Day Delight.

 

 June 16th is always ringed or highlighted on my calender every year, not even birthdays get that level of note, it was and still is the day I get most excited about fishing, once again on running water and the thought of pootling around the Fens in my boat, stalking R.Thames and R.Lea carp or in this instance getting straight down to business with the 40 Rivers Challenge where I am currently on 30 completed rivers and have been settled on that figure since mid-August 2025!.

 There was to be no annual midnight pilgrimage though, with a job booked in for a friend in the morning I packed my rolling meat gear in the van and set eyes on opening my campaign later that afternoon and once I was done on the job I made the short journey over to the R.Bourne for a short roving session and see if I could find a Barbel, a river that has bare in mind been extraordinarily difficult for me with numerous trips in all manner of conditions undertaken without as much as a sneeze or fart from a Barbel, the frustrating thing is I know they are there, it appears I simply don't have the measure of them.

 That was until Tuesday! First cast, first roll, first fish! But not just a fish, it was a very good Barbel for June and the fight was pretty good until it rolled over the line and the remainder of the fight was a tad unceremonious, but safely into the net it went. My suspicions were it probably wasn't a double and I would be right.

9lb 4oz.

 That fish was only the second Barbel I've coaxed out of the Bourne, it has been hard going, this fish nearly did the business, alas I shall have to continue my efforts on there, I do feel like my efforts on here are surely going to be rewarded in the finest fashion.

 That was indeed the only bite of that short trip and on the 17th I returned to cover more water and indeed try that spot again but I ended up with nada which is more in keeping with the Bourne' treatment of me.

 On the 19th I headed to the Bristol Avon for my first fling on there this season to try and get that river over the line, 9lb 6oz is my current best off there but a double is coming off of that river for me this season either by hook or by crook, I feel once again, I've invested enough time and money into the B.Avon that is due to be kind to me soon, once again its by no means a reflection of my effort if I may say so myself. 

 No Barbel showed up for me, however the Chub sport was pretty epic as I managed twelve Chub to 5lb 2ozs, most of them were between 3.08 and 4.08 which was good summer sport but not my target, touch wood I don't have to make that journey too many more times...

Yorkshire Bound!

 

 This is a trip I have wanted to embark upon for over a month now but the rivers up there have been in the fields for months on and off, for me as a travelling angler I have to have the conditions partially in my favour, no point making the journey if I can not reach the actual river!

 On Thursday ( 12th March ) I drove up fully loaded from home to north Yorkshire as my first port of call was the Y.Ouse and with the target in mind of catching of figure Barbel as most of you have come to expect when I make these journeys. The weather forecast was looking very dicy and with that in mind I still decided to go.

 A nice early start and in under 4hrs I was in the paddock and unloading the gear I needed for the day and before I started fishing I got the eating done first, a couple cups of black Assam tea and 3 egg and bacon rolls were my fuel for the day! Once that was polished off I grabbed my gear and went fishing. During my time on there I was given some local info on roughly where to try and where to ignore, ignore local knowledge at your peril on these missions, they really save so much time and yes, getting a double is never a guarantee as you can imagine but it increases the odds in your favour.

My weapons of choice.

My plot.

 After a couple hours the wind really started to stiffen and the predicted 45-50mph winds were upon me and the rain started to come down heavily as well. I wondered how much impact this would have on the trip. Large trees were coming down across the river including lots of limbs as the strong sustained winds were proving too much for predominantly Oaks and Birches, I was safe where I was with no trees on my bank, but it was uncomfortable and recasting was a challenge as I had to get my PVA bag of robin reds on the hook and out to the river before the rain soaked the bag! 

2mm, 4mm & 8mm robin red pellet, the business.

 I was on the river from 0900 to nearly 1630 before I got my first bite, a typical Barbel bite and the fight didn't disappoint either, a nice looking fish came up out of the channel and continued to battle away in the margins before slipping the net under my first Yorkshire Ouse Barbel, on the scales she went 7lb 9oz and no sooner I got the rod back out I was away again! This time 6lb 13oz was the weight and very quickly I had gone from scratching my head to landing two Barbel, sweet.

7.09

6.13

 Oddly just when I thought with those two quick fish that I'd bought a shoal up to the channel I was fishing it wend dead! I didn't get another Barbel until gone 9pm and the wind and rain was still hammering through, so a quick look and weigh in for the bigger fish ( 7lb 2oz ) the other was around 5lbs. Not long after, 11pm came and it was time to get off the water and find somewhere to recharge for the night!

During the 2nd morning.

The level the day after I left.

 Day 2 was a very different day, I woke up after a fairly decent sleep around 0630 and first thing I did was look at the river levels on my phone and my fears were confirmed, the amount of rain that came down I wasn't surprised to see all the rivers flying up, the Ure, Swale, Wharfe and of course the Ouse, when I was on it on day one the level was 0.9m on the Monkton gauge, by midday it was over 3m and there was a lot more to come through, the area I fished on the Thursday was unfishable on Friday, such a shame. 

 I tried hard to make it work and found the odd fish but nothing again of note, the best of the three was 7lb 5oz, such a shame indeed. A massive effort made, over 500 miles travelled at quite an expense, I wanted at least one double from this trip but it did not happen. Seven Barbel and a Bream on my first attempt I didn't think was too bad. Next season it will have to be.

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

R.Blackwater Returns.

 

 Hmmmmmmm......the Blackwater is fast becoming a drain on my brain, god it's been a slog and not sure when its going to offer up that big chest of treasure, hours of moving, feeding (little bits here "n" there and putting a decent bit in when I know I'm coming back within a couple of days) and nothing seems to be working. I know the odd Barbel is still coming off the river but its so infrequent.

 Sunday lunchtime I got back down for another go and did my usual of moving around, 45mins in each spot with just a small PVA bag of six boilies each time, any touches I stay put, unfortunately I am not even getting that, six swims later and 35mins in whilst doing an update on my season so far on the challenge my rod FINALLY zipped off, on it in a flash I was bent into what was certainly a Barbel and it felt great, not a monster but great to have a fish on the other end. 

 A few minutes later a lovely dark BW Barbel was in the net. 7lb exactly on the scales it was a sight for sore eyes, unsurprisingly it was the only bite but my first Barbel off this particular stretch, boy its been hard and on Tuesday I went back down again in less than ideal conditions but still opted to try, but nothing.

 I will of course, like night follows day, I'll be back for another twenty four attempts.....

A Fitting Finale.

 

 Now, after that difficult spell on the R.Aire and those two Barbel off the R.Wharfe myself and Dad opted to stop by somewhere that given my limited knowledge I felt we would have more success. 

 After a short 40mile drive due south we arrived at our destination, the diminutive R.Idle, this was my second visit to this gem, it was to be my Dad' first and we made a beeline for an area I had done well on on my last trip. As we made our way downstream we saw ample Chub and Pike, but no Barbel which was odd, but when we did get to the peg where I had five to 10lb 3ozs we did see 11 Barbel sat just downstream and it wasn't long before they started to commit to small pellets, but knew that these fish would take a while to get confident enough to push on upstream towards us to be presented a hook bait.

 Over 3hrs we tried to get the fish further upstream to us and knew casting to them would push them away and after three hours we thought what have we got to lose as no fish committed, I cast down towards the fish and they immediately backed off for deeper cover, they did exactly what I thought they would, so we begrudgingly packed up and moved back on upstream. 

 As we made our way up I found Barbel in a couple locations and even though they were feeding they were very skittish and it wasn't until about 5hrs into the trip I finally got two fish feeding, one around 8lb the other a double figure fish from what I could tell, a big broad fish with good length. The bigger of the two fish continued to visit the sandy/gravel crease in front of me more than the slightly smaller fish, the time it took to get her really confident was too long for Dad as he opted to head back towards the car to rest his back, sitting down wasn't an option.

 Ten minutes later, you guessed it, she picked up the double 8mm pellet rig and shot off down stream leaving a trail sediment in her wake, it was a typically rip-roaring battle as I've come to expect, but amazingly when she finally gave up it looked bigger than the biggest at 10.6 that I had last month and the scales didn't disappoint, 10lb 10ozs - bloody awesome....the river record is only 11lb 5ozs, this fish could possibly do that come March if it packs some winter weight on. What a stunning specimen too, wowzer.

Everything a Barbel should be.

 Well there was no way I could top that fish, but I really wanted Dad to get one for his efforts, so I left that run and headed on back up to the car to persuade him to get back out on the bank. On the way up I did find another shoal of Barbel hanging just off a sand patch and my inability to ignore a Barbel kicked in, I rang Dad to let him know I was coming up to the car but not before I fed that shoal for half an hour, cast out, first cast bang on the money, 5 mins later the rod hooped round as I watched a decent Barbel puff out some sediment through its gills and shake its head to rid the hook...no no no, play nice now Mrs Barbel! 

 9lb 11oz:) not bloody bad at all, I love this kind of angling, LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION! The three most important words in Barbel fishing. 

 After releasing her I marched onward to the car and dragged Dad' arse back to the river and subsequently went on to have three takes, losing one and landing two of...

7lb 6oz

6lb 15oz

A mint little for me towards the end.

 A fitting end to a great trip!

R.Wye Revisited.

 

 On Thursday I had a day booked on the Wye with a couple of friends who wanted to catch a Barbel, both chaps are very good anglers on the fly front but do love to dabble in coarse fishing too when the opportunity presents itself. I left home a lot earlier on as I wanted to get some fishing of my own done but I had no real plans, just fish and catch what came along, for once I visited a river with no pressure to deliver a double figure Barbel for my 40 rivers challenge.

 I left home at 0430 as its a straight 3hr drive to the location and as I was crossing the Prince of Wales bridge I started to get all excited as to what the day would throw up, even at 37 I still get that warm feeling of excitement when on my way for a session regardless of the target. Thirty minutes later I arrived at the river and even after all the rain that has fallen across the country the river was as low as I've seen and I know this was only my 11th trip to the river but that was backed up by anglers who have far more knowledge of the river than myself.

 That said I didn't hesitate to get setup and opted to begin at the very end of the beat and slowly work my way upstream. With the very low water my suspicion was that if I found deep water I would find fish. 

 First of all I began with 10 medium sized bait droppers of 4mm and 8mm pellets, fed on a single line just off the main flow which dropped into around 8ft of water from 4ft just above, the thought process was the Barbel and Chub were further downstream and wanted to draw them up to where I was presenting my hookbait which was my usual Wye approach after having limited success on large baits found after around 4 trips that small baits ruled and they were picked up readily by Barbel, so 2x 8mm robin red pellets were put on a 12'' hoolink with small hair and a light lead, just enough to hold bottom.

 To be fair once I had begun feeding I opted to not fish for a while to allow any fish following the scent to get acquainted and feed confidently, after half an hour of sitting on my hands I got my first cast in. I did think I would get fish straight away but oddly I didn't, a good half an hour passed before I got a proper indication and this was a gentle pull round on my tip, it was so gentle the centre-pin let off just a couple slow ticks before I lifted up the rod. Once I was playing the fish I could tell straight away it was a Barbel and a good one too, having caught many good Barbel over the years you can tell when you have a decent one on the end and this fish just held low, powered its way upstream twice some 40 yards each time before turning it a final time to guide it slowly into the net, that was a great fight! 

 To achieve what I wanted to on the Wye I embarked on 10 trips and 168hrs of angling, over 3000 miles of driving, out in all sorts of shite weather only fit for ducks and eskimos, roll on 11 months I come over for a jolly up as it were and land a pearler that on the scales settled on 10lb 4ozs! Angling is a funny game isn't it. 

 A Wye double figure Barbel and yes, I have had one but this one three ounces larger will be inducted into the 40rivers challenge hall of fame! and with a backdrop like that its one of my best ever self takes, shame the flash had to be used but the hill blocked out the sun near me and actually kept forcing the flash to engage and without it the images were really poor, so be it!

 Once I had released that stunner I carried on fishing and kept little droppers on pellet going out but amazingly the following two hours were totally quiet, barely a tap and when I did it was silk weed building up on the line and dragging my lite link ledger out of position. 

 By 1130 my friends turned up after being caught in poor motorway traffic and when they arrived we got to tackling up and then search around for some areas to get them fishing, their desire was to catch a Barbel but given what I had experienced the previous 4hrs besides that corker which would make any session a blazing success I thought it was going to be hard going. 

 And so it proved....the first 4 hrs we spent roving around before I offered them the option of fishing one of the beaches which ordinarily would be underwater by around a foot but we could get right down and showed them both where they needed to be fishing and I got a good bed of bait out at the top of the run that Mike and John were both going to fish, around 10 yards apart.

 Once they got comfortable and fishing I went looking elsewhere for a plan B, C and D if that run didn't produce like the previous 3 swims. 4pm passed without a touch and 5pm slowly approached when out of nowhere I had another bite! 8hrs of a bit of fishing and guiding I was in to my second fish of the day once again a Barbel, this one behaved fairly similarly to the first and yet another good solid battle was enjoyed, yes this one would turn out to be just shy of 9lbs but the colours are something I've not seen on a Wye Barbel so it was a pleasure to see!

8lb 13oz Wye beauty.

 Shortly after I had this fish Brian turned up so I went to go let him in and on the way down dropped in on Mike and John to learn Mike had had a 3lb and 10lb Barbel! that made my day massively, unfortunately John hadn't managed a Barbel and for all our endeavour that was how it all ended but it was a brilliant day, the weather wasn't great after 11am with persistent rain and the odd snippet of sunshine felt right as thats all I ever endured on the Wye anyway. 

River Idle Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 Well....what can I say! Having managed to catch a wonderful Yorkshire Rother double figure powerhouse I found myself searching for where to go next, the idea was to head to the Aire so once I had loaded the car I sat in there checking distances and first up I drove to Leeds town centre but being a Saturday night it was packed in the areas I wanted to fish, so I bailed out on that and headed down of the old Ferrybridge C power station at Knottingley, once again though I arrived to find it totally rammed.

 Gone midnight now and I still didn't have a spot to fish on the Aire so I jumped back in the car and headed to the R.Idle, a beautiful intimate river that carves its way through Nottinghamshire. Known for it clear water and weedy disposition I felt like this could be my best option so I drove to the river and grabbed a few hours kip in the car so I was nice and fresh for 7am. 

 Once I arose I got the gear together and having done quite a bit of research I opted to rove and only tackle up with the bare essentials so I could cover a lot of water as I chose to purchase a day ticket which had a fair few miles of water. Within 20 mins of being on the river I could see decent Chub and good Barbel to maybe 8lbs and part of me wanted to fish for them but I really wanted to keep moving until I found something bigger - preferably a double of course. 

 I must have walked a mile and a half before finding another pod of fish and saw one or two which were certainly big fish for such a small river, I opted to roll meat and bread to begin with to elicit quick bites but the Barbel seemed really cautious and every time a bait was moving down to the shoal of fish they would back off and vanish under cover, it became apparent I had to rethink my approach, something I rarely have to do! 

 So my plan was to fine down the approach in terms of the bait (2x 8mm Robin Red pellets), the terminal tackle was still stout, 10lb hooklink, size 12 hook, short hair for the pellets. Now the attack changed from one and done to building the swim as I felt it was necessary and worthwhile as there was a Barbel or two cruising about occasionally from under the far bank that I thought would do the magic weight.

 I spent around 30-45mins just introducing pellets and had Barbel feeding fairly confidently on the gravels which was fantastic to watch and once I could see the bigger fish feeding confidently I began introducing my hookbait which was held down by a link-ledger consisting of 4SSG shot as I wanted to minimise the plop from the bait going out which at times also alerted the fish but I worked how to get it out without a noise by killing the line just before the shot touched the surface which really did work.

Every single cast, every 3-5mins....

 It took well over an hour with my hookbait constantly going out (owing to the relentless weed coming downstream) before I got a take, the pin screeched into action, my rod slammed round with me attached and within 10-15secs the Barbel had lodged itself deep into the far bank vegetation, I simply could not react fast enough to keep it out and the hook pulled fairly quickly, frustrating for sure but oddly I felt there was going to be more chances and more chances I got! 

 Another 30mins drifted by with Barbel cruising around on the gravels before putting a bait back out, within 5mins it was away again and this time I was ready for what the fish was going to do so I shoved my tip under the water and cupped the centrepin to make sure I got a chance to keep its head away from the willows and once she was clear I kept the pressure on and the battle could then play out in open water which was great fun and really putting my 1.75tc rod to the test, but soon enough my first Idle Barbel was slipping into the net!

8lb 4oz, my first Idle Barbel...yea!

 Pleased as punch with that and not too long after another slipped up weighing 7lb 9oz and just 20mins later I had another and this one was certainly bigger, the sort of Barbel that makes me very nervous. I saw that Barbel saunter its way to the head of 6 Barbel and watched the sediment puffing out its gills before turning sharply downstream with a simultaneous scream from the pin and sharp wrap round of the rod in my hand as I was sight / touch ledgering. This fish was much better!

 A good solid fight ensued and it went on for far too long for my liking but I played it well and a few minutes past she was ready for the net and took my chance with glee, I really thought it I had cracked it.

And I did!!! River No:30 ✅

 Weighing 10lb 3ozs I had done the River Idle on the first attempt, I was so happy, mega effort and pleased as punch, punched the air and let out a massive sigh of relief as I could see big Barbel down there, I just didn't know if I would get a chance at one. No need to worry, double 8mm robin red for the win!

 Two rivers, in less than 24hrs...I seem to make bit of a habit of doing that. My season started off poorly as I grinded away on the R.Blackwater with what seems like just a handful of fish among a sea of Crayfish, my time on there will come, I can promise you that! But now with this beauty above resting up in the net before releasing I had to think of another plan, where should I go now??

 That decision was put on ice as I could see Barbel feeding on the gravels even after the lost fish and 3 landed, my idea was to fish until 3pm and see what I could finish up with. Forty minutes later I had another roaring take which done me on the first run and ten minutes later I had another take which resulted in a fish weighing 6lb 15oz and one last take half hour after that which once again resulted in a hook pull and after that decided to call it on the Idle, 4 landed and 3 lost (all to hook-pulls) possibly down to still feeding a little nervously. 

 I folded the gear away and headed back upstream to the car with my mind now made up to head for the R.Blackwater, two rivers done in two days what more could I ask for?....

 ...well, that question was answered emphatically as I opted just to peer into a peg I passed early in the morning where there was a few decent Barbel loitering around, initially I didn't see any fish but thought if I threw some pellet out that if there was something downstream it would come upstream to feed, 3 minutes later I could see a sizeable shape making its way up on to the crease and started mopping up pellets...this fish was not small and bigger than anything I saw in there in the morning.

 She dropped downstream 10 yards but still in view and after scrambling my gear together I whipped out my link ledger onto the line I fed and threw some more pellet out and within 30 seconds she was back up and rooting around and BANG!!!!! she had picked up my double 8mm pellet and bolted off downstream some 30 yards before putting the breaks on her, she made her way back up but very slowly, holding bottom, very typical of bigger fish and this one looked to be larger than any others I'd had downstream. 

 This fish did not want to come in and made it away up and downstream on half a dozen occasions before finally succumbing to me, the fish once in the net looked bigger, a real thick set Barbel and on the scales backed up my thoughts! What. A. Day's angling indeed, double double and three doubles across two rivers in less than 24hrs, absolutely epic indeed. What a special river too, paradise!

10lb 6ozs! River Idle gem. 

 Magic. 30 down, 10 to go. Not long now.