Chub-Tastic.

 

 The R.Blackwater has been rubbish all season barring a 1 Chub, 1 Bream, 1 Barbel and 1 Carp...it really has been that tough. So imagine my delight when I was finally getting some bites!

 First of the last three trips I had one Chub, 4lb 14oz.

 Second of the three trips I managed three bites and three Chub!, where were these Chub hiding? One of them was a lump too and not far off 6lb! They have been there all season, just not catching them and all of a sudden they switch on. But this wasn't the best trip either and yes, these were actually trips in search of Barbel but they remain totally absent, but the Chub numbers were pretty epic!

 

Beautiful piece of water but very tough!

 My third trip was even better! I opted to feed a few Dynamite Baits " Hot Crab & Krill " boilees in each swim like I have done for months, only half a dozen as I just want to give fish a taster, in the colder temps they don't feed anywhere near as much, so overfeeding them is something I'd want to avoid.

 Forty Five minutes in each peg and with no sign of fish I'd move on, but amazingly in the first spot I got a couple of early indications that fish were present so I stuck it out and was rewarded with a pristine 5lb 14oz chevin, thought it was alot bigger, really thick across the back, a proper crayfish muncher!

 

5lb 14oz

 That peach was followed up pretty quickly by a 4lb 11oz and 4lb 14oz ( not the same fish as the previous trip ), and it wasn't an hour later that the tip started to tap away again in another peg 100m downstream which took some patience before striking the tiniest of pulls, that battle resulted in a fantastic Chub of 5lb 8oz as the light began to fade and about two hours after dark much further downstream I had one last fish which I needed two attempts at, I struck the first bite and only managed fresh air, I got the bait straight back down and within five minutes it was back and this time I sat on my hands and waited for the fish to get cocky, I won! 

Bliss, but chilly. Chub didn't seem to mind!

 When I see the Chub come up in the torchlight it looked huge! so wide across the back once again and honestly thought it was going to cruise past my early season best of 6lb 1oz by some distance, alas she did not! 5lb 12oz was still very pleasing and a super afternoon / evening of fishing, 2x upper 4's and 4x 5lb plus Chub, that will do very nicely. 

5lb 12oz

Leisure Sessions with Dad!

 

 Always nice to get out fishing with my Dad, 73 this May and still keen as mustard to get a bend in the rod, this desire to get out I'm sure is fuelled by their impending move down to Gillingham in Dorset, some cracking fishing down that way available but would be nearly 3hrs each way from me so these types of sessions will be no more which is a shame.

 We opted to rove around on the small river as we usually do, a few trots or rolls in each run and move, very quickly we were both off the mark with fighting fight torpedos in the fast flow which snared free-lined or bounced bread flake into likely areas but its not just Barbel that are present, Carp and Chub also call this river home and came across both on the two recent visits we have had, both coming away with fish on the two outings is always a massive plus.

 All in all great fun!

I'm Back!

 

 I can't believe it's been almost two months since I was last on here! Truth be told I have been out a fair bit so I will hopefully get through it all over the next day or so.

 Since my trip to the Hants Avon we have had biblical amounts of rain and has rendered certain parts of the country totally un-fishable so naturally where I could fish I chose Barbel, primarily the Bristol Avon and Blackwater, neither of which for numerous visits ( 4x Bristol Avon and 5x Blackwater ) gave up any gems which would see me move on to 31 completed rivers on my challenge, alas that by the point of early March had not been achieved.

 I really was struggling, the Bristol Avon was in flood for about 4 months solid and every time it looked to start dropping the south west would be buffeted once again by monsoon rains! 

 During this time I did have some Chub to 4lb 11oz and a few Bream to around 6lbs but of course not my target, catching up on sleep in the car for a few hours before getting back on it was scantly rewarded, seems to be a theme this season. The Blackwater gave me nothing, not even bites.

Fishing at the top of the flood bank..

Slim Pickings, Happy New Year All!

 

 I've barely fished since my last blog post, work and family reign supreme, that said I have been out twice, both in search of Roach, where I am currently targeting real big ones are possible, an outside chance of a three-pound specimen which would certainly be a truly momentus catch should I manage to find and land one!

 On my first trip I struggled for the first half day as a solid high air pressure and freezing cold night and biting wind made it very uncomfortable and the fish clearly weren't too bothered in feeding, thankfully I had a very productive final 3hrs where I managed over 20 Dace, most of a good size with half a dozen around 10-11ozs, 12 Grayling also came to the net along with four Roach with best weighing 1lb 11oz which was lovely to see after such a long hiatus from the H.Avon, for me dusk came and went too fast and it was off time, I could not wait to get back.

 A week later I did manage to get back and conditions were very similar with cold brisk winds blowing upstream just to make things harder, one thing I know very well with Roach is presentation is king and if its off even a tiny bit the fish will not touch it and felt all day I fished well but just could not make it happen and came away with a couple of small Grayling and slim Sea Trout. 

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.....

Hauling.

 

 Last Saturday with the conditions holding up well enough to sneak back out for Barbel I made the effort to go and that turned out to be a good decision, another long drive to Somerset was in order as I revisited the Bristol Avon and really try to make good of the successes of recent trips.

 It was wet, squalid, muddy and quite frankly everything I love about fishing in the autumn, gusts of wind dislodging tonnes of leaves, all I needed was some action. This time around I changed it all up, I decided to move around, single rod on the pin and an isotope on the tip which was keenly watched all night from 6pm when I started all the way through to 6am before heading off home. 

 The clouds broke up around 8pm giving way to lovely dark skies filled with stars, the occasional shooting star and silhouettes of Tawny Owls darting between trees above, but it wasn't just the natural world providing a spectacle, the Barbel put on a show too! The first two hours were quiet but by 2030 things began to happen and my rod slammed around with what would turn out to be the first fish of the night, a nice porky 6lb 10oz fish which was a new best for the river.

 I was really pleased with that fish, a big chunk of dynamite baits "source" meat on a hair fished with a lead just heavy enough to hold bottom which when leaves and other debris would cling to the line would gently dislodge the lead allowing the bait to creep across the bottom in an arc to settle finally beneath a fallen willow in a gravel channel, once that fish was released I just copied the same approach, bait went out in exactly the same position and an hour n half later off it went again!

 It was turning out to be good night! Another 6+ came along, which was followed by 5+ and a small one of around 2lb!  

 Toward midnight I got another good bite and Barbel number 5 was on and felt a lot better than the others that I had previously done battle with and in the torch light it looked like it was a much better fish, could it be a double? It looked like it could be. I started to get a little nervous as it crept into the net because it looked like it was but my nervousness soon gave way to disappointment (to an extent), she settled on 9lb 6oz, a new best for the B.Avon, it lacked length but was really thick across the back and deep, just quite a short fish, but five Barbel off the B.Avon in a night! It was one hell of a night. Or so I thought, as I had the "9" resting up I recast and before I could put the rod down it went again with the centrepin screaming off with a fish that was in the 5lb bracket, crazy! 

Best of six fish overnight.

A 9+ & 5+ brace shot.

 

 Amazing evenings fishing especially for this river which has had a well documented fall from grace in terms of barbel fishing, I certainly found a honey hole as it were, but it was missing one thing....

Back to the Brizzy Avon.

 

 With cooler weather on the way I thought I would try and sneak in a 24hr trip after work on Thursday as I was a day ahead on my work schedule which opened up my Friday, with the trip planned unfortunately it coincided with a very cold night which was very uncomfortable with so little cover. 

 A trip of mud, rain and cold it wasn't pleasant but I was rewarded with a 6lb 4oz Avon Barbel within 40mins of arriving which was the only excitement. A nice fish but 4lb off the target, I will have to revisit soon, I want to get this river chalked off by Christmas. 

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!

Wharfe and Aire Returns.

 

 After a few weeks of planning and sorting out a couple tickets the time had come last Wednesday to get set, this time around though my Dad decided he wanted to come and I thought it would be good for him to get out for a few days. After I finished work I swung by my parents gaff and picked Dad up and drove to mine where we loaded the car and had dinner before setting off for the Wharfe with an arrival time of around midnight (228 miles - 4hrs 22mins).

 Mercifully the roads were clear the whole way barring a 5-minute rolling road block for a highways officer to reset an SOS phone by the looks of it as we were 3 cars from the front...hows your luck.

 Anyway, we arrived half hour ahead of schedule and very quickly I had my two rods out with a load of small pellet lumped out, problem was we are currently having spring tides on the full moon and the part of the river I was fishing is fully tidal but only a few miles from the end of the tidal range, on neap tides the affects aren't felt up here but we gained 3-4ft upon the incoming tide which wasn't comfortable and made everything super muddy.

That said, within 30mins I was away, a rip roaring take as the tide reached the top, the battle was incredible in the deep water (at the time around 13-14ft), the runs were powerful and I felt this fish could be what I had come for and when she finally gave up I really did think it was a comfortable double such was the length of the fish, so when I got her on the scales I was expecting it to be 10lb something, but NO!

 Amazingly she settled on 9lbs 6oz and yes, it beat my Wharfe best by one ounce, but I honestly thought and built up in my mind that she was my 31st river done, alas it wasn't the case. All said and done for the Wharfe a 9.06 Barbel is still a very big fish and doubles aren't common but with my quest nothing less will do in the cold light of day.

 Anyway, after that initial excitement I had to wait three hours for another bite, similar to the first it fought very well but knew fairly quickly it wasn't as big and at 7lb 5oz it proved so, after such a good start I had visions of a mental session and playing the numbers game my chances of a big one would be better, but inexplicably the next 12hrs drifted by without a touch! Just plenty of chatter with Dad about all and sundry, 2pm on Thursday we called time on the Wharfe and headed to the Aire where we hopped between sections of water (free waters) where we failed to register a bite but a lot of the good areas were taken by anglers who looked like they were camped out for ages with the view of catching plenty.

Mid 7.

 After calling time on the Aire we set about just getting Dad a fish or two on the Friday, so we drove to our destination and set up camp with the view to starting the next morning.