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!

Bristol Avon and Blackwater Visits.

 

 With a 24hr gap in my hectic diary became free I decided upon a trip on the fly to Bath to fish for Barbel on the Bristol. I have had a trip there a couple years ago but it was only to have a look around with not much time spare after my successful trip to the R.Severn. This time around I opted to head there straight away and with the van loaded I was off. With very little information to go on I opted to just fish free stretches to begin with and if I fancy it later on then I will get an Amalgamated book.

 To be fair on the 'brizzy avon" I'm not overly rushed because it's a river that is slowly improving and know that there are some good fish still there but in small numbers. Time should be on my side here.

 I spent 9hrs in total moving around the weirs on the middle B.A and unfortunately for me I didn't get a touch and I'm not entirely surprised, the river barring the weir run offs was stagnant, not the conditions you really want for Barbel. My expectation was that the B.A would have had a lot of water going through it owing to the recent rains but was abundantly clear that wasn't the case.

 At 0030 I had had enough and packed up and decided to drive back toward home, on my way back is the Blackwater so I decided to fish that and hope the rains had stirred them up to feed but another 9 hours on there too proved totally fruitless and that wasn't the only recent trip there as I went back yesterday too for an 11hr session. The levels up around 6 inches and the flow fractionally quicker, once again and unsurprisingly the tip remained motionless besides the constant bombardment of Crayfish, so much so I have decided against go back there for a few months, its too much and can't keep a bait out for more than 15 mins without being hammered. 

 Rather tedious start to the season for me. It. Can. Only. Get. Better!

Farewell My Inflatable Buddy.

 

 After 10 years of "near" perfect service, run ragged, rode upon by a few hairy arsed men holding rods aloft my trusty fishing boat finally gave up as a rogue overwintering rat had a part of my right gunwhale for dinner.

 It took me 96 miles of driving and organise a couple days of angling for Rudd with my mate Chris to realise the hole that was there. Chris had himself made the journey over to the fens to sample some of the angling I and a few others have experienced over the last decade. Here are a few captures that have crossed the walls of my boat, it had done well. 

A pic from a couple years back.

PB Zander for me

A good upper double pike

Brian with a sparkling esox

Ditto

Brother Rich with a 13lb 3oz Zed!

PB Rudd last summer, 3lb 0oz

Hundreds of beauties like this.

No pomp and circumstance, to the tip!

Oh HELLO! Bigger, more spacious, my new boat!

1 Bite, 1 Fish.

 

 Yesterday night I popped to the upper Thames for a catch-up with my mate Adam and decided to put a couple of rods out each with the hope of a Barbel. We nagged away for a few hours but all that came my way was a Bream and Adam was plagued by Crayfish and small chub, although one of his takes certainly looked Barbel-esque. Alas he didn't make contact.

 My plan was when we finished on the Thames I was going to jump back on the Blackwater and continue my quest for a BW double. I was fishing before 2am and first light was only a couple hours away. I hopped between pegs as I always do when Barbel fishing but the only indications I got were from Crayfish nipping away at my boiliee.

 As first light tinted the sky I was welcomed with a beautiful wash of pinks, reds and orange glows, it really was special. 

 I was really hoping to get a barbel during this time as it would have made a wonderful picture for sure! Sadly it wasn't the case and sunrise had come and gone and I'd made numerous moves and dropped little heaps of boiliee and pellet so I could go back to them on rotation, amazingly I didn't get a bite until 1050, it was a good bite too and fishing right under a raft of fallen willow in 5ft of water and clear gravel, the sort of place I would expect to find a Barbel, this time around though it wasn't but it turned out to be a really big Chub! Bigger than I thought they went in the Blackwater.

 A summer "six" anywhere is big but a 6lb 1oz Chub off the BW is a really big fish and she was in great nick barring a big scrape on the other flank. I couldn't be disappointed with that, two trips I have had a nice river Carp, now a big Chub, the BW really is full of surprises. 

 Next time around will a Barbel finally let its guard down? My fingers are crossed.

Back to the R.Blackwater.

 

 I have a strong desire to chalk off at least one river this month and with a toss up between a few the Blackwater is one river I think I will focus on, the Kentish Stour of course will always remain an option but not finding it easy on there as I've extensively documented on here.

 Yesterday afternoon I finished work and jumped on the M4 westbound via Chiswick A4. For an early Friday afternoon the traffic was very light and chewed through the 45 miles at a pace, a Barbel of any size would always be welcome but a double figured fish of course was my target.

 I walked this section for the first time and started dropping bait in a few areas that looked good for a bite and drifted between pegs, spending around 30-45 minutes in each before moving. Around 6pm I had a brilliant take on the pin and it screeched into action, straight away I could feel the weight and knew it was a very good fish, I started to get nervous and it took 2/3 mins of constant lung busting runs upstream and back down into the pool I was fishing before I saw it, I could have swore blind it was a Barbel, alas a few minutes later it revealed itself, a nice river Carp but I can't lie, I was a tad deflated if I'm totally honest.

 A couple of quick pics and slipped it back to whence it came and hoped the next interaction wasn't from a Carp or the pesky Crayfish that seem to be there in great numbers, annoyingly.

 I spent the following 6hrs moving between 5 swims I had baited and fished them on rotation until my eyes started to close, I knew I had to get away, still with 64 miles of driving ahead of me, of course I was fine to drive, just a motionless rod-tip was hypnotising me. I will be back soon enough for another go!

I do love a James Denison, very mourish.

Barb wire is your friend...mmmmm BEEF!

And so it begins.

 

 Two weeks of the new season have already drifted by and the south is bathed in glorious sunshine, just how summer should be, issue is the mosquitoes are out in force everywhere! 

 On the 17th of June I decided to venture onto the Kentish Stour once again for my customary blank, the river looked in great condition with vast runs of water crows-foot and ranunculus creating areas so dense I'd dare not fish anyway, but where I could looked great and after a good wander around settled on a nice open field away from the biting most pointless creatures on earth.

 Unfortunately I just didn't see much around apart from a very relaxed Beaver that ambled upstream past me, when it see me it powered underwater and shot up out of sight, I am starting to get used to seeing these awesome creatures, so much bigger than I initially thought, what was even madder was I was having a chat with local angler Ben and whilst we were chatting we could hear rustling in the undergrowth just 10 yards from us, then the chewing started, followed very quickly by a loud crack as what turned out to be a Beaver had removed a young tree and proceeded to drag an 8ft tree through the undergrowth to the bank before crashing into the river with it. 

 After leaving Ben I went down to the fields where its deeper and slower, I was hoping to find a Barbel down there and have seen them a couple summers back but nothing in my net apart from chub and bream and this trip reverted to type as two dark KS bream were landed. Not my target but at least I had bites.

 For that trip I was done. Last week I ventured out onto the Blackwater once again but this time around I was beginning my quest on a new section of the river and it looks so much better than where I was previously fishing, lovely deep bends, onion reed and rushes lining the banks, coupled with pacy shallow areas so it really has everything, I think catching a Barbel here will be tough but really relishing the challenge and thats the great thing about the 40 Rivers Challenge because every river within that challenge represents it's own challenges, on the Blackwater the Crayfish are the problem that need to be worked out.

 The first three spots I worked myself into I was plagued by Crayfish very quickly, two of which I nearly swung in! Knowing that Crayfish were present and very active I felt that there wasn't any Chub or Barbel present so I opted to move every 20-30mins. From experience if there is big fish activity then the Crayfish don't tend to be as bold therefore the crayfish activity isn't there and those are the spots I tend to spend more time in as I think there is a chance of a Barbel or Chub.

 As the hours ticked by I moved around to some very nice looking areas but the same outcome was faced, however as the daylight waned I had high hopes of a bite come dusk but even then my rod was motionless and around 10pm I packed up and headed home as I had work the following morning. Another blank.

 Oh, and I nearly got stampeded by these bloody retards, quicker they end up as burgers and steaks the better. Only just made it through that gate and coupled the heavy duty caribeana to link the gates, nearly shat myself and I really backed myself to get to the gate before them, threw my gear into the field as I scrambled the gate shut. F*CK.

Yuk, bloody hate cows!

My Opening Gambit.

 

 Well, it wasn't the opening day/s that I had planned, to cut a long story short during the winter the rat or rats that I had in my shed had gnawed a whole in my boat the size of a credit card, I was fuming considering I didn't notice until I had reached my launch site 93 miles from home, having set off at 3am and inviting my mate Chris to join me for a mission across the Fens in search of monster Rudd. SS Rudd was no longer.

 Chris and I both did what we could on the bank to get her afloat but there was to be no salvaging that. Around 9am we decided bank work was our go to alternative and did so for a few hours and I managed one decent Rudd of 1.13 along with a load of fish around one pound, but there was an overriding sense of complete disappointment, I was super pissed off at it all and no doubt Chris was happy just being there but for me it wasn't enough and really wanted to captain us to some brilliant fishing which I know can be had.

 We got to around midday/1pm and decided it was best if we tried somewhere different where we stood a chance of better fishing so we packed away but unfortunately Chris didn't make it to the new venue as his car was giving him trouble and had to head off home / garage to get the issue resolved. With that I carried on went about my business but the fishing in the high sun was tough going and a lot of the Rudd were tucked away in the eel grass, I knew the latter hours would be best but I packed up at 8pm, to be honest the disappointment of the eaten boat had killed the enthusiasm so buggered off home. 

 Less said about that trip the better.

Tench Campaign Part 4.

 

 Well as the river season draws ever closer and the thought of stalking monster river Rudd and feeling the tug of the bronze torpedos as I get my 40 Rivers Challenge back underway it would seem my time after Tench has come to a close (still 4 weeks to run on my ticket), it has been a super start on a venue I'd never seen before and knew little of, I came away after 6 visits with 23 Tench with 19 over 7lbs and 3x new personal bests weighing at 8lb 5oz, 8lb 14oz and 8lb 15ozs. 

 Part of me wants to get back on there before July 15th as there are certainly doubles in there fully spawned out, my only reason for not going back is the time spent there is possibly taking an opportunity away from catching a big Barbel from a river within my challenge, its a quandary I must overcome, those big tench that I was catching across late April and May are truly special creatures.

 Tench number 22 & 23 came on a short overnight session last week when I decided to have one last go for a real fatty before they got down to business, little did I know they had already been at it and considering the condition of the two Tench I had they were going hard at it, with that knowledge I packed up and went home, two 6lb plus fish to round off my short Spring campaign wasn't a bad return.

 There may yet be a part 5.....watch this space.

 Anyway, it's June 16th tomorrow, Rudd fishing wherever the wind takes me and hopefully get some great content for a film for the Drennan Specialist platform. Good Luck to you all.