Last week was quite busy in that following the fishing on
the River Severn on Sunday and Tuesday that had produced double figure barbel
on both days, I had a trip south planned from Wednesday through to Sunday
evening. The basis for the trip was that
I would help John Found with a Barbel Society fish in week-end on the Kennet,
and at the same time have a trip on the River Test on the Thursday. With an early start needed for that Test day
I decided I would go down on the afternoon of the Wednesday hence the long
session. I normally only fish maybe four
days a week but this would be a comparative marathon that would hopefully
produce some interesting fish.
Mid-morning on the Wednesday I set out on the 100 mile
journey down to the River Kennet and upon arrival I found the river to be in
perfect condition for my barbel attack.
I had made a stop at Lanes tackle shop in Coventry and I picked up bait
that I hoped would see my through four days on the Kennet and another day on
the test. Ten pints of casters and a
gallon of red maggots – expensive but you only live once and I was sure that
this would give me a better chance of success than either boilies or pellets as
the main bait to be used. As always when
barbel are the target I had also boiled up a gallon of hemp and this would form
the main attraction with the casters keeping the fish occupied once they
arrived in the swim. The maggots were
mostly for the Test, where trotting through with maggot is always the approach to
be used with great effect.
Well I start at the beginning and relate the Wednesday action;
yes there was some which is not always guaranteed on this venue. Arriving early afternoon I made my way to the
river leaving behind my normal boilies and pellets having invested too much
cash in the caster to ignore them. I
dropped my tackle off as soon as I reached the river, it seems to get heavier
by the day but that is probably just age catching up. Then I walked most of the length looking at
swims and how the venue had changed since I was last here the previous
season. The floods had left their mark
in washed out banks and fallen trees lying in the river, it looked quite
inviting and certainly good for barbel.
The river appeared to be at what I would call normal winter lever, a
little extra water and colour, but not excessive. I chose a swim with a nice flow under my feet
and with the tips passed on by John I knew there would be six foot or more of
depth in that position, spot on for bait dropping accurately. I know I have mentioned this many times but
it does stand repeating, accurate bait dropping catches more fish, if you
cannot do it then practice until you can since it will pay rewards later. I mixed two pints of casters into the hemp at
about 50/50 and then put about twelve droppers of the mix into the swim perhaps
4ft from the near bank, now I could set the tackle up at my leisure since I was
already into the fishing mode and the bait could work its magic.
The day was quite pleasant and it was very nice to be out on
the bank with that chance of a big barbel just waiting to be caught. I am sure you know that feeling and once
ready I bait dropped another five droppers before casting a bait into the
swim. Tackle was as I normally use, this
being the Drennan 1.75lb test barbel rods with 12lb main line and the usual combo
hooklink going to a size 12 Pallatrax hook.
The hair carried three natural casters super glued in torpedo fashion
onto the hair, if small fish proved too much hassle I could change to
artificial but in the event it was not required. That was it, and now I cast out ready to wait
for the three foot twitch that is so exciting to see, any size fish could be responsible.
I had hoped for a quick response but it was not to be and as
I approached the 7.15pm kicking off time I was ready for a blank. Extra mix had been put into the swim at
regular intervals, perhaps in the order of every 45mins or perhaps the hour,
but so far nothing had even twitched the tip an inch let alone three foot. Then at 6.50pm the rod slammed round and I
was into a powerful fish that gave the impression of being far larger than it
eventually proved to be. When the scales
went to a very pleasing 11lb-2oz I was well happy with the first double off the
river this season and I still had three more days to go on the venue.
Day two had an early start and John and I made our way down
to the River Test via a very nice full English breakfast. Once there we passed an hour talking with our
host the now famous author and big fish angler Dave Steuart who has the most
wonderful front garden you can imagine.
Again the river looked in fine trim though perhaps a little more of the
weed had survived than I would have liked.
This of course limited some of the usual swims making trotting extremely
difficult, but there were still plenty of other sections that would respond to
the tactic. The day was fine, warm and
dry giving both John and I the chance to catch lots of fish, grayling to
1lb-8oz and roach to 1lb-4oz, not the 2lb of either species that are present in
the stretch but I did see the big roach.
There are a number of big brown trout in the section since Dave has
always insisted on the browns being returned quickly to the water. To help these fish and for his own pleasure
he has made a couple of sections of the bank out of bounds for fishing, it
almost goes without saying that this was where I could see half a dozen roach
that were the best part of big two’s or possibly even three’s. With those browns present it was a fair certainty
that we would lose the occasion monster on the tackle we employed for the
roach, but never the less we did land fish to over 6lb having had a terrific scrap
off them.
Along with a few of these.
Day three and I was back on the Kennet again this time on my
own since John had other business to attend to.
No problem and there were several other anglers that came on during the
day some just for the late afternoon having finished work a little early. This time I chose a swim a little bit further
down the river, a nice smooth glide going past a snaggy section on the opposite
bank. I decided to fish two rods, a
maggot feeder fished across to the snags and the caster/hemp down along the
nearside bank. It seemed a long time
from my early start until the 5:30pm time when at last I got the first bite of
the day to the maggots, again one hell of a fight and yet again the scales
showed 11lb-2oz. A nearby couple of
anglers came along for the weighing and to help with photos though I was fairly
thoughtful it was the same fish as I had caught on Wednesday. In actual fact a later look at the photos
showed they were definitely different fish, not that important but still a nice
touch.
The second double at 11lb-2oz.
There was the Barbel Society fish in over the next two days
but as I left the fishery on Friday evening the rain was just coming in and
overnight it chucked it down. Floodwater
is not a problem for barbel but this was absolutely full of rubbish and many
swim were impossible to fish. Five
minutes was a long time to keep your tackle in the water before it was swept
away with crap on the line and the result was disastrous, two small barbel did
get caught but that was the total for the two days. I retired on Sunday evening happy with the
two doubles, but sorry for the missed chances that rain gave me and all the
fellow anglers that did not catch. We
did console ourselves with the thought that this is the nature of fishing and
we do it because we enjoy it – but!
At least it was a pretty blank day for me.
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