I’ve had an interesting start to the new season, a few fish
without any monsters but steady sport.
Add a couple of diversions and I can safely say it is not too bad a
start compared to many I’ve had in the past.
In times gone past the 16th June was a very
special day and plans long in the making were finally going to be put into
action. Now with many still water venues
available it has taken on a lower excitement profile, but lots of venues have
been closed through the close season and of course we now have rivers available
again as well as the many lakes that have opened. This all comes down to it still being a
special day and I, along with many others take care to celebrate the start of a
new season with a trip to the river.
All too often this has been disappointing with little or
nothing being caught, but it is always great to be on the bank and often be the
one to make the swim fishable again having taken down all the new growth that invariably
blocks your way to the river. This year
was one of my better starts and a trip to the Warwickshire Avon proved to be a
good choice.
The banks are well overgrown
I have in the past often gone in with maggot and casters
though the results can be very hit and miss making the additional cost hardly
worthwhile. This can be a frustrating time
of the year since depending on the weather the fish can be at any of three
stages, pre-spawning and moody, spawning and it is hardly sporting to fish for them
or post spawning and although well down on weight they feed with abandon. This can also give an additional problem in
that the fish may well not be in their usual haunts having travelled to
spawning areas and not yet returned, these factors are the most likely cause of
many of my previous blank opening days though as already mentioned this would
not be one of them.
Following various reports on Facebook it was clear that many
of the rivers had already seen the barbel spawning but others were still up in
the air, I travelled in hope that the Avon was one of those already done and
dusted. Tackle and tactics would be the
well tried and trusted mixed small pellets and hemp in a feeder with pellet as
hookbait. For those new to reading this
blog I’ll expand that a bit and hopefully the regulars will either refresh
their memory or just skip the next bit.
My rods are 12ft Drennan 1.75 Barbel Specialist with Shimano
6000 RE baitrunner reels loaded with 12lb Syncro XT line. I have often use a combi hook link but at the
moment I am using just 12” to 15” of 15lb braid going to a size 8 Drennan
Continental Carp hook tied with a knotless knot to give about a 1” hair. I then superglue two 10mm Elips pellets with
a good 10mm gap between the hook and the nearest edge of the pellets, this can
avoid hooking too many chub that often disturbs the swim and the barbel. This is then fished with a cage feeder loaded
with a mixture of pellets of different size and type, I don’t think it matters
what the mix is you just need variation in this attractor feed. Put your pellets in a container and then add
cooked hemp having drained the liquid off through your fingers. This is done at about 50/50 and the hemp will
still carry enough liquid to dampen the pellet down to a point it will hold in
the feeder without going to a mushy mix.
I did not get onto the river at first light, too early for
me nowadays but by 6:30am I was in place on the bank. Fishing with two rods, one out in the main
stream and one on the inside edge against a bulrush bed, but both on the setup
described. Often I will have two
different baits on the two rods but I thought that at the start of the season
the pellet was the most likely to be effective.
It was not too long before this proved true but the bream that came to
the net was not really my intended target, never the less at least it would not
be a blank.
9lb-3oz opening day barbel
9lb-8oz best of the four on the day.
I had not bait dropped on this occasion but regular casting
kept a steady stream of feed going into the two swims and over the course of
the day the tactic proved its worth. I
ended the day with four barbel including two 9lb+ fish that would be doubles a
bit later on, three bream of 4lb to 5lb and a single 11lb+ carp that gave a
great scrap ripping up rushes all over the place. This was one trip home that had a smile on my
face, but what would be coming over the next few weeks.
Opening day common of 11lb-2oz.
There are tall leylandii trees at the bottom of my garden
and unfortunately they keep growing. I
had them professionally lopped down to about 20ft but they soon exceed that
height again and although I’ve trimmed them over the years I did miss last year
and now the home owner on the other side has been round to ask that they are dealt
with. No time like the present so through
the next three days I was up the trees taking out the tops while in the evening
I was off after eels on a local water that opened up on the 16th, no
joy for the eels but at least the trees are looking better. Over the following week I tried two more
nights on the local water for eels and one night on the venue that has given me
a 6lb 4oz, 5lb10oz and six other eels over 4lb over the last year, a good
result that, but this time they were not playing and yet another blank goes
into the diary.
Gap left with just one tree done
Job done with six trees lopped down.
Once the trees had been finished I decided on a trip after
sturgeon, regular readers will know I think these are very good sport fish and
it does seem a shame the EA spend so much of their limited budget trying to
remove them when so many other things challenge our sport. Legering a chunk of meat down the side of the
lake has always proven a successful method and yet again it gave the desired
results in the form of a 44lb Siberian and a small diamond back specimen.
Then a second trip to the Avon produced a couple of medium
size barbel and yet another bream, while a trip to the Trent gave up just a
single bream though at least it was little larger at 7lb-2oz. Now it was time to look at a new section of
the Nene that I had obtained a ticket for.
As I made my way down the A14 I felt the van just loose power and
although I could still drive it was at little more than a slow crawl up to the
next layby and then stop. I called out
the AA and the service was brilliant, just 20 minutes to arrive and although he
could not fix it he soon had me travelling back to Coventry as a passenger with
the van towed behind. I’m still waiting
to find out what is wrong and how long it will take to fix but meanwhile Mervyn
arrange a trip to the River Anker last evening where similar tactics to those
used on the Avon produced a 8lb-6oz barbel and three chub to 5lb-3oz.
An immaculate 5lb-3oz Anker chub.
A pleasing River Anker barbel.
That’s it for the first two weeks of a new season, highs and
lows in equal measure but a good mix of fish and other than the van problem I’ll
take those results anytime. I wish you
all the very best for your own quest for the fish of your choice and until next
time tight lines.
