Tench, bream, barbel and eels but only one of them caught.

My poor catch returns continue, but to some degree they are self-imposed in that I choose the venues to catch a fish I want to catch rather than just catching for the sake of it.  At the moment it seems that our sport is generally at a low ebb, of course some of the thousands of anglers that have been out will catch good fish, but a tremendous number did not with me amongst them.   As the Glorious 16th approached I considered if I would have a go on the rivers, there are many to choose from and some offer a better chance of catching than others.  Probably if just catching a barbel was my criteria then I should go to the Trent, but I wanted to catch a fish that would mean something to me so I went to possibly the worse choice I could make – the River Tame at  Tamworth.

                                                 My swim on the River Tame

 

I have yet to catch a barbel off this river though I know they are there all be it in very low numbers, at least where I fish.  This season I would hope to increase the number of rivers where I’ve caught a double figure barbel from, currently at 23 rivers I am going to target four more, the Tame, Nene, Ribble and Goyt.  I could catch on the first trip to each or totally fail on all of them, but that is the challenge and the fun of my quest.  With just a few knocks off chub the first trip was the first of many blanks I shall probably experience, but the satisfaction of success should it come will be far greater than just catching another barbel for the sake of it.

My tench / bream efforts suffered another blank as well, again the choice is more for quality than quantity but even the local tench venue is not doing too well at the moment going by reports I’ve had.  Along with most of the lakes in the Colne Valley my current choice does contain the potential for very big ells and this year I will be trying to improve my 6lb-10oz pb.  With a third rod out just in front of the marginal rushes I did manage my first eel of the season, at 3lb-9oz not a monster but a start.

                                                A pointed head on a worm eating 3lb-9oz eel.

 

                                                      What's in a photograph?

 

They say a photo is worth a thousand words, and the photo above needs a few to explain just what you are looking at.  The photo is a shot of my swim on the London Lake and I’m fishing three rods, two for tench and a third for eels.  The swim itself in a bay off the main lake which is about 100 acres in extent and my thoughts were that the tench and bream might have moved in ready for spawning, if they did the eels would follow for the feast on their eggs.

The water surface is covered with willow herb seed heads, a pain in the backside in that they are very difficult to remove off your line and can in extreme conditions jam the line when trying to reel in.  A good reason to use rods with large rod rings at this time of the year, a quivertip or match rod would not survive an hour of this.  My torch can be seen hanging off the back of the rod rest, though I normally sleep with one around my neck as well ready for action in the depths of darkness.  The second torch is just in case the first fails which I’ve had happen so I cover the possibility of it happening again.  You might have noticed the catapult laying on the floor and thought this was for putting out bait, but it’s not, a closer look will show a few pebbles lying next to it.  A family of coots had found my nearby baited area with easy pickings and they were making my life difficult.  I am not worried about the little amount of food they might gather but more that I would eventually hook one of them and the ensuing problems.

The blue bowl covers my method mix and groundbait against both possible rain and little creatures that might have come during the night, the maggots tub has casters in water ready to go into the swim at regular intervals and the smaller container has hookbait for the second rod, a mix of corn, pellet and 10mm boilies so I can ring the changes over the three days I’ll be here.

The more observant of you might have noticed the two handles in the photo without apparent use, one on the right going into the reed bed and one on the left going out of picture.  These are in fact the two landing nets.  I try to avoid leaving a net where a rat or such like can get trapped in it and usually bite their way out.  This means leaving the head of it held in a nearby tree or rushes.   The net on the left is one of 50inch and its next to the eel rod,   Eels are sods that only need the tip of their tail to be outside the net and they are back out again in no time.  The other net is more like 40 inch and it is much more manageable for the smaller and more cooperative tench and bream.  Lastly the unhooking mat still folded up tells its own tale; I had blanked up to this point.    Quite a few words to cover a simple photo just imagine if I had included the camp in the shot. 

 

                                                  Holiday makers set off into the sunset.

                                   Sunset over the main lake - no photoshop just sun and cloud

A barbel session on the River Ribble.

The sun had finally came out but for me it went from one extreme to another, the 14c or so that we have been getting along with the rain is definitely on the low side, but 30C in bright sun is too high for me.   I was pleased to note that the north of the country would be under cloud and as a consequence it would only reach the high teens for temperature.  That was the deciding factor and I soon arranged for a trip to the River Ribble in order to renew my attack on its mighty barbel population.

Midday Monday morning saw me heading the 120 miles up the M6 towards Preston and areas upstream of that town. The motorway traffic was reasonably mobile and a couple of hours later I was on the river bank looking at a low and settled river, time for some serious fishing.  This is my third trip to the river and the previous two were made in the colder months, would the warm weather favour my efforts, time would tell.

I’ve been fortunate in that a number of local lads have offered help in the form of conditions and sections of the river that have been on form, obviously it has been bit of a lottery this season with floods seemingly coming every other day.  A local bailiff, John Monaghan has been a real help since he lives right by the river and obviously has his finger on the pulse of local conditions and results.  With a new addition to the family he has not been out quite as much this season but even so when I met up with him he was a mine of information and I had soon decided on my swim for the next 24 hours or so.

I would be fishing off a pebble strewn bank that extended into the river and without the help previous warnings this could be a situation waiting to give problems as you will read later.  Travelling anglers like me are not aware of local river conditions and the lower end of the Ribble has one bite in the arse that would catch me out every time, it is tidal.  You’re sitting there looking at your rod tips high in the sky and before you know it your feet are no longer on dry land, the tide has come upstream like a silent assassin waiting for its target.  The rise can be from a few feet to several feet and obviously it happens twice a day so if you are fishing at night it can be even more of a problem.  Following John’s advice I had arrived just after the tide had turned in the mid-afternoon so when I settled into my swim I could watch as the water level receded back to its normal position. 

                                 A glug for pellets to help flavour and time in the water.

I bait dropped the hemp and soon had two rods out, one on a 14mm halibut pellet and the other on a boilie.  I would be using a dip for the pellets and this has a twofold effect.  First it obviously increases the pellets attraction with all the extra flavours that will leak out over the time it is in the water, second it also extends the time it takes to break down and hence it can be left in place that little bit longer.  I did not have to wait too long before I hooked into my first barbel of the trip, at 5lb or so it was not big, but even so it still put up a reasonable scrap on its way to the net.  It did not take too long to realise the school holidays had begun and I was not alone on the bank!  Kids of all ages walked, ran, some took the dog along sometimes on a lead, but most times not, you name it and they were there.  Being on the exposed pebble bank they left me alone, but those fishing the main bank had lots of problems mostly from the dogs in their tackle and bait.  My next fish really had me thinking I’d got the double as it powered back and forth in front of me and even as it came over the net my eyes still saw a potential double.  Unfortunately I had the same problem as often occurs and the scales knocked  1lb-8oz off my eyes and gave a weight of 8lb-8oz still a pleasing fish being in summer condition, long, lean and full of fight.

8lb-8oz of Ribble powerhouse.

Two more fish followed that one although I lost one when I got cut off on a rock, easily done on this river.  All these fish had come in daylight and even though I fished towards the midnight hour no more pulls occurred, so I retired to the van quite pleased with the afternoon’s results, roll on tomorrow morning.

With not enough sleep I was up early and on the banks again but throughout the morning nothing happen, not a knock.  With the tide due at 3.30pm I would have to move back off my swim and I wondered if perhaps it was the after tide effect that had given me my results of the previous day, but then with an hour to go the fish turned on and I took four barbel in quick order before I needed to move.  Two of these came together and to anyone watching it would have been a little bit of a comedy.  The first fish was being played and giving quite a good account of itself, during the netting I knocked the second rod off the rest when I swung the net around to put the fish on the landing mat and I had to leave the rod lying there while I dealt with the fish.  Having removed the hook I put the net and fish back into the water’s edge whilst I got the scales ready to weigh him and I thought to put the other rod back on its rest.  As I approached it I could see it was wrapped in a curve and line was being taken off the free spool.  In the time it had laid there a fish had taken the boilie and was making its way downstream, fortunately it had not snagged and I went on to land a second barbel into the net to join the first.  At 7lb-13oz and 8lb-4oz they made a fine brace and I took a quick shot of the pair before I’d weighed them since I returned each as soon as the weight had been confirmed.  Another advantage of the lower temperatures up north was that all the fish went back without any hesitation rather than the extra care needed on days like we are having now in the south.

                                                            A nice brace of barbel.

                   

With the way things had gone I decided that with no plans made for the rest of the week I might just as well stay here and so with the intention of trying another swim I went back to the van for yet another night.  One very useful advantage of a nearby trading estate is the use of a wash room for the toilet and a quick clean up, not always easy on the bank but nice when it can be done.

                                            The last day's swim on the Ribble.

The following day was fairly quiet with a few small chub that broke the hours of waiting for a barbel, then a 7lb fighting machine appeared that saved the day before I packed up at 6:00pm.  There was an interesting event in that there was a salmon angler fly fishing about 200 yards above my swim and he had left his tackle on a similar beach to that I had fished the previous day.  Standing right out in the river with chest waders I was sure he would be aware of the incoming tidal surge but he made no moves.  At this time I was chatting to a local lad who had come along to see me and we watched as the level came up and then went nearly over the beach that held his gear.  In the end I shouted at the top of my voice and indicated for him to look at the bank and he seemed to acknowledge the call but still made no move so I assumed he had all in hand.  Ten minutes later he was wading through the water along the nearside bank in order to retrieve tackle that was being washed away.  Strange, since I would assume if you’re up to your bollocks in the river you are well aware of the rising levels, it seems not!

                                                            Last day specimen to save the blank.

That was it for the session in the north and with eight barbel landed and one lost it was an acceptable result, there is always another day or days to return and try yet again for that different river double, this target has been set but not yet achieved, but it will be!

Fishing in the North

I went up to Stockport to give a talk at a Barbel Society meet last Wednesday.   Very well attended with perhaps 70+ anglers who gave a warm reception.   After the talk I spoke at length to the organiser Gerry Gleeson about the local River Goyt – being the barbel record holder for that river it seemed a good move.  He was very positive and it was arranged that I would return on the Saturday to have a try at a double figure barbel off that river, a long shot but I like the challenge.

On the Thursday and Friday I had already arranged with John Monaghan to visit his local River Ribble at Preston for the two days.  Again he is the river record holder so I was in good company.  The stretch of river I fished was the same as on my previous trip but this time from the opposite bank.  There would appear to be lots of silver fish in the stretch at the moment, and the float fishermen were out in force and catching well.  Small chub, roach and bream were coming to the net in a frequency I’ve not seen for a long time. 

                                                          My swim for the first day.

Meanwhile my two legered offering of boilie and pellet were getting plenty of knocks off these small fish, but I had deliberately left a longer hair to avoid hooking them and it worked most of the time.  The chub I did hook would have been perfect as a pike bait to try for the big pike that must surely be in the area with so much fodder fish available.  With just one barbel hooked and lost to the stony river bed, despite fishing a little way into dark it were quite disappointing and the next day I moved areas to a swim perhaps a Kilometre upstream.  Deeper water and this time the swim was under my bank – the previous day the deeper channel had been on the far bank and that certainly helped cause the line to get trapped under a rock when playing the barbel.  Unfortunately the result was the same in that I did not land any barbel, this time I did not even get the chance to hook one.

                                                                   My swim for day 2.

                                                                       A couple of the snow geese that landed.

Going that 100 odd miles north did bring in a different bird life scene, a flock of oyster catchers were flying back and forth up the river with their piping call echoing all the time, occasionally the plaintive call of a curlew flying overhead would break the monotony of no bites off the fish – it is all part of being on the bankside.  A dozen or more snow geese settled on a sandy bar just up from my swim, just the little bit out of the ordinary thing that happens on the southern rivers.

That was it then, two days on the river for a number of small chub the best of which would have struggled to make two pound, I hoped for better the next day but feared the worse as the barbel fishing seemed in the dumps.  Reports off anglers on both rivers appeared to be getting the same lack of fish so I could only hope.

Dawn on Saturday saw me setting up on one of the weirs on the River Goyt, my first ever sight of that river and I would love to catch a barbel of any size, but of course the double was the target.  As with all dreams we often are met with failure and this was to prove to be such a day.  More chub were caught though of a slightly larger size the best about three pounds came to the net, but no barbel.  The day was saved by a sight I would have travelled for in its own right – a pair of dippers building a nest in under the far edge of the weir as it tumbled over the edge of the sill and left a gap at the side.  All morning these little birds, the size of a kingfisher would be travelling back and forth with material for the nest that was out of sight behind the waterfall.    As the weir water reached the bottom end of the pool it became shallower becoming a long glide perhaps only inches deep, this then went over a ridge and broken water could be seen as it tumbled along on its journey downstream.  I watched as the dippers would fly over this glide and suddenly drop out of sight into the water, not to be seen again as they worked underwater into the broken water area below.  I’ve seen on TV but now in real life it is something different again, and a memory to keep in the vaults of the mind.

    My swim on the River Goyt.

                                                         The dipper at the edge of the ripple

Plans are already in place to return to both rivers next season and the challenge will make the eventual success all the sweeter.