It’s been a long spell since the last blog, but that just
indicates the conditions and my lack of interest in fishing after the Suriname
trip. Last week I did a little perch
fishing with just a few fish up to a best of exactly 3lb, the rain made photos
difficult especially when the remote played up.
This week I finally got onto the river and a trip to the
Warwickshire Avon last Sunday was the first river visit of the year, highly
fishable but I suffered a total blank.
With the water falling I decided on another try on the Tuesday, this
time the fishing gods smiled and gave me my first barbel of 2014 at 9lb-14oz
when he picked up a large chunk of heavily flavored meat. I fished into dark, but that was the only
chance I had though it encouraged me to try again the following day.
9lb-14oz first of the new year.
On Sunday the water temperature had been 6C and now it was
7C a fact that gave a lot of hope for the fish to be on the feed. With a good size river in front of me I was
fishing two rods, one using Elips pellets as bait and the other on the same flavored
meat that had given the previous fish.
Both were fished with just a straight running lead rather than the usual
feeder that I use. Following the cold
weather and flooded rivers there had been very few anglers on the banks, I
could see by the undisturbed mud in the swims that no one had been on this
length of river since the water level had dropped. My thinking was that although I thought the
fish would be moving about I did not want to over feed them in these lower
temperatures hence just single baits.
The weather was great, quite mild with just the very odd light shower
that hardly dampened my coat. Sitting
the on the river bank again and watching the surrounding wildlife, it was
terrific to be out whether I caught or not.
Spring is just around the corner.
Of course I wanted to catch, and when the pellet was taken
by a hungry fish I was pleasing to hit into power as he screamed off against a
quite tight clutch setting. The high
water gave him more help as if he needed it and I knew this could be something
special, when he finally went into the net that thought was confirmed when its
weight came in at a very pleasing 11lb-13oz, welcome to 2014!
11lb-13oz barbel
The pellet bait was replaced and before too long I was
playing another good fish that had picked up the meat, a different fight to the
first in that it was slower and more powerful but the result was the same and
it came to the net having been beaten in the fight for supremacy. This one turned the numbers round to
11lb-6oz to give a very memorable brace for this river. That was it for the day, but the long miles
home seemed that little bit shorter as I replayed the events of the day.
11lb-6oz barbel to complete the brace.
One of the biggest advantages of being retired is the
ability to take advantage of good conditions.
I well remember all those years at work where the middle days of the
week were always better than those at the weekend. With results so far and another fair day to
follow I decided I must try again so the following day saw me back on the banks
yet again. I moved about 80 yards
downstream of my previous day effort with the thought that I might have
disturbed the fish there and events suggested I was right. A slight point on the bank gave rise to a
slack running along the nearside and I could see the remains of a rush bed just
showing in the now clearing water out in front of my position. The pellet rod went out to the outside edge
of the rushes and the meat went down onto the crease of the nearside
slack. With a new swim, [I’d never even
seen this one before], I always wonder if there are any fish present, since
quite often the fish have not read the books to know that the features are
perfect for them to be present. As it
turned out I soon had my answer as a fish of about 6lb or 7lb took the pellet
bait with the downside being it was right in the middle of the only heavy
rainstorm I suffered on the day.
First of the day at 6lb or 7lb.
Still that was a start and it was followed shortly after by
one of those unexpected highlights that can make fishing such an enjoyable sport. I got a take on the meat rod and for a while
I played a fish I assumed was going to be a barbel of maybe 5lb, it held deep
and ran upstream in the heavy flow and when a chub appeared I was probably just
as surprised to see him as he was to be there on the end of my hook. The thing is it was not just a chub, it was a
big chub that eventually took the scales to 6lb-5oz. Now I’ve had lots of 6lb plus chub and some
going over 7lb but this is the equal of any of those coming off this river
where 3lb and 4lb are the normal size fish you catch. It had been caught on barbel gear, though very
pleasing never the less.
6lb-5oz gem of a chub.
That fish would have made any day but the gods were really
smiling since just as dusk fell I hooked into another big fish that had taken
the pellets and yet again another large barbel slide over the rim of my
net. The scales showed a weight of
11lb-13oz and being a realist I suspected it would be the same fish as the
previous day and a check of the photos did confirm that point. By using blinkers it is very easy to over
estimate how many big fish are present in a stretch of river. With weight variation and travelling good
distances it can appear there are far more fish than is reality. Still, I was not in the least bit worried, it
took as much to catch him the second time as the first and it could well be I
will never see him again, that’s fishing.
With five barbel and three of these over 11lb along with the big chub my
2014 river season was off with a bang I hope it continues.
Second time at 11lb-13oz.
With just two weeks before I’m off to Guyana it remains to
see what that time has in store but I’ll let you know.
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