ABF Barbel Challenge 2015

Finally we come down to the Army Benevolent Fund [ABF] challenge for the third year.  Each year Gerry Gleeson has set different parameters for those taking place and this year is no different.   With two teams, one for the north and one for the south, each would be made up of five regular members and a guest and going on to the different rivers.     This year the number of rivers has been reduced to five for each region, four in the north, four in the south and then both teams meet up on the Wye.  With 24hrs allocated as the maximum for each river it obviously means that less time than this would actually be spent fishing since the groups would need to travel between rivers within the 24 hrs.   This year the target is to get three doubles off each river, then it is hoped to back up the doubles with singles as well, difficult but that’s what targets should be.

I’ll be writing this blog about my contribution with just a few comments about other members of the northern team, but I would say that the total doubles count was 12 for the north and 11 for the south, a worthy total even if it failed the targets of three off each river.

Arriving at the River Nene for the first element of the north challenge I was set up in my swim well before dawn and within 30 mins my challenge had begun with a 10lb-1oz barbel that took the Elips pellets.  Making the fish safe I made a phone call to Mark Smith, the PDAA bailiff, he was walking back down the stretch and was quickly next to me in order to verify the weight and take the photos.  A pleasing start, although I then went through the daylight hours without any further signs of fish.  I had moved slightly along the section I was fishing with the intent to move back to the successful swim in the evening.

Jerry fishing quite a way up the stretch had more luck in daylight and took another double of 10lb-6oz to keep us on track, better still he added a couple of smaller fish to his tally.  

                                              First of the challenge Nene 10lb-1oz

Meanwhile dusk approached and yet again I cast my pellet offering to the raft that had formed on a trailing branch on the tree opposite.   No instant response this time, but it was not too long a wait before the tip shot round in the expected fashion and the strike confirmed that it was a barbel.   The swim was full on streamer weed from my bank to about half way across; the first double had come upstream along the clear channel on the opposite side.  This time the fish shot straight into the middle of the streamer giving me one hell of a fight where I thought I would lose him several times having to wait as he pulled himself out of the weed.  Trying to net him was the next problem since there was a lot of weed collected on the main line, twice I netted the fish only to have him pulled out of the net by the weight of the weed, in the end I netted both fish and weed though then I could hardly lift the net.

I thought it was going to be a good barbel, but when I finally put him on the scales I was amazed to see a weight of 14lb-6oz.  Before completed the weighing I had called Matt Marlow down from the next swim and I got him to get his scales since this would be a new best weight for the largest known fish on this section of the Nene.  Matt’s scales actually showed a weight a couple of ounces higher so I took my scales reading being quite happy they are accurate.  By now four of the team had arrived in the swim and several cameras, both still and video went into overdrive in order to keep the fish out water for the minimum time.  

                                                 River pb for me at 14lb-6oz

Two fish and two doubles, it was a happy lad that made his way across to the Trent for the next leg of the challenge.

We had had some rain in the period running up to the start of the challenge and although it had not affected the Nene to any degree it appeared the Trent had risen and it was now on its way down again.  I tried a few casts and found that my normal half way out was not really feasible; too much weed was coming down so I came closer in to the side.  With the time of year there were plenty of boats going back and forth hopefully when these slow down on dusk it might help reduce the weed problem and so it proved the case.  The Trent is one of the in form rivers at the moment but today it seems to be a little slow.   Fishing my usual big feeders with a mix of pellets and hemp along with Elips on the hook I had to wait until near dawn for my first and only bite.  Fortunately it weighed in at 12lb-2oz and Paul Floyd came along to do the honours with the camera, another successful river for me and now we moved onto the Derwent.

                                                      Trent contribution at 12lb-3oz.

A stop off at a local café gave us a welcome chance of a full English breakfast before the onward trip.  We would be fishing at Borrowash where two different clubs meet at the bridge over the river.  Earl of Harrington upstream and Derbyshire County AC downstream.  I would be fishing downstream along with Julian Barnes while the other lads fish upstream.  A big thank you here to both clubs for the 24hr permissions for those without tickets.   The river looked spot on with just a little colour, but no drifting weed and Julian took full advantage taking barbel of 11lb-9oz, 12lb-8oz and 13lb-1oz.   I caught a near double of 9lb-14oz with a change of bait to one of the MAD bait offerings that Justin suggested I try.  Meanwhile Matt was in heaven having taking a monster of 13lb-10oz for a new river pb.  A very successful river and now onward to the Dove with a stop at the café yet again for breakfast.

                                                    My Derwent fish of 9lb-14oz.

The Dove has not been kind to me over the previous two trips and I’m yet to catch a barbel off the section we fish, not to be demoralised I made my way to my chosen swim and settled in for the night.  Following the usual routine of baitdrop hemp and pellet then sit back and wait.  Come dusk I cast out and caught chub but no barbel, in fact it was 3.00am when I finally struck into one of the target fish and yet again my luck held when paul could take photos of a 10lb-13oz specimen.  My third river double out of four – well pleased since I knew the chance of a double off the Wye was very low.   Matt again was well pleased with yet another river pb at 12lb-6oz. 

                                                    10lb-13oz beauty off the Dove.

  The next river was least interesting to me but off we went to the Wye only to find that the other team had arrived early had occupied the going swims.  I think this was reflected in the result of the south with 37 barbel and the north 4.   Fortunately I caught one of those four so I ended the challenge with barbel caught on all five rivers, very pleased with that.  Jerry did fish the following day having got a better swim and made the best of it in the form of a barbel of 10lb-0oz exactly, the same fish he caught at the start of the season obviously a friend J

By this stage I had had enough and so come dusk after that first day on the river I came home job done.

A great session on the River Wye with friends.

I’ve not posted for longer than my usual time frame because there was nothing to report.  I could have used my talk at Tamworth, it had been arrange by the Mercia Group who control a number of waters in the area and done in aid of a local hospice, it went very well raising lots of money for a very good cause.

                                              Various sledge weights for different river heights.

 

I tried for barbel on three occasions, twice on the River Tame and once on the Lower Severn, chub off the Severn but no barbel and total blank on the Tame, not much to write about.  The Severn was very low and clear as tap water;  the Tame just gave problems with drifting blanket weed coming down river at a slow pace that needing to be cleared off the line at frequent intervals.

Then on Friday I went to the River Wye and at last I got fish.  Two friends, John Found and David Cook were in the area with their wives, so we arranged a meeting to fish together for a couple of days they having spoken nicely to the ladies.  Having already pinched a few sessions on the river John had succeeded in spades with a rare Wye double of 11lb-4oz, a new best for the river by a mile.

                                                               11lb-4oz of Wye barbel.

 

It seemed that most of their fish had been caught between 7pm and 10:30pm, although the odd specimen had come in daylight including the double though the flash shot makes it look dark.  I could not wait to get on the section as it was my first visit with a new book.  Pellet had been the bait of choice for the lads and of course I used that on one of the two rods I would fish with.  The other carried a Monster Crab boilie but I did not introduce any free offerings on that and it was left to fish on its own with just the usual pellet/hemp mix in the feeder.  On the pellet rod, I laid out a bed of hemp and fished that as my main suspect to catch, but the barbel obviously did not know that and time after time it was the boilie that caught.  The swim chosen on the first evening allowed the two rods to be safely used in dark, but the second swim fished the following evening was too tight, and I dropped to one rod using the boilie of course since that had caught every fish coming to my net.

                                                            8lb-4oz best of the first day.

                                                        Misty start on the Wye

                                           This farmer is well prepared for winter.

 

The signs of autumn were all around and with cooler evenings and early morning mist I wondered how much longer the barbel fishing would be a viable proposition, perhaps just weeks but maybe there would be a lot more time to catch these fighting machines.  As usual these Wye barbel tended to be long and lean and pound for pound they do seem to fight so much more strongly than on most rivers being very reminiscent of the fabled Teme Tigers.  Just before dusk on the second evening David hit gold in the form of his first double figure barbel, John checked the weight and declared exactly 10lb, fantastic!

                                                Very nice shot of Dave's 10lb pb 

I finished with ten barbel including a  7lb-14oz and three others over 8lb to a best of 8lb-10oz, definitely a result on this river and I will return to try again to get another double to top my best of exactly 10lb, the same as David’s fish.

                                                        8lb-10oz best of the session for me. 

Lots of river barbel and busy times.

                                                              Waiting for that barbel bite.


With the book launch just next Saturday 17th, it is a busy time.  First batch of books delivered today and these will have to be packed and sent off, but even with all the various things that need to be completed I still get out onto the rivers in pursuit of the barbel.  With two 11lb plus barbel already taken off the River Derwent this month, I decided on a trip back to the River Teme, so tackle ready off I set.

Friday 9th September.
With Merv recovering from his hernia opp a couple of weeks ago I decided to offer him a trip out to the Teme for a break from the four walls of the house.  He could not fish, but jumped at the chance so off we set.  Arriving to find the river even lower than previously seen, a thing I did not think could happen, I made my way to a nearby swim, Merv could not walk to far in his condition and that dictated which swim had been chosen. Once in place I could set about getting tackle and bait ready. The usual mix of hemp and pellet was done for the feeder, and this was soon going out into the swim along side a 8mm pellet baited hook.  Over the next several hours I got lots of knocks off those chub, but the long hair did its job and none were hooked.  Then I finally got a barbel, not a big one, but at least I was not to suffer my first Teme barbel fishing blank of the season and I mentioned this to Merv sitting nearby.  'You aint landed it yet' came the comment back, and no sooner said than the barbel threw the hook and was away with the fairies.  I don't loose many barbel to unenforced hook pulls, and when I hooked the next one I quickly told him to keep quiet.
A good fight followed where we discussed the size of the barbel we could see twisting in the clear
water, as it turned out we were both well under the eventual weight recorded.  At 11lb-6oz it was a new river pb and means that of the 20 river doubles I've achieved so far, there are 18 of them over 11lb.  Pleased with that!

                                          Flash makes this 11lb-6oz look dark but still light at 7.30pm.

Saturday 10th September.
Went down to the Warwickshire Avon today with Keith Jobling - 9am pick-up and we fished untill 9pm. The river appeared drastically low and clear, and this was reflected in the way action developed over the day's session.  Not a touch throughout the day until dusk when I took a 7lb-14oz barbel on pellet. I did weight this one since you can get out of practice after looking at the Teme fish, they are so long and lean that you easily underestimate barbel off other rivers where they tend to be deeper in the body.
That fish was followed by a 10lb-4oz beauty, and another barbel of about 7lb [not weighed] to round off a pleasing trip. Only problem was leaving home several hour too early.

                                              10lb-4oz of Avon barbel.

Monday 12th September.
I had to make a trip down to Ross on Wye to meet up with Martin Mumby who did the layout on the book, of course the rods went in as well.  Merv travelled down although he would not be able to fish for some weeks yet, better than going rotten looking at four walls all day, or say he tells me!

The river at Ross has grown to quite a size but with the lack of rain it was running quite placidly, 2oz of lead holding in the middle of the river without a problem.  I started the short session on hemp and maggots, using a large swim feeder to keep the supply of the maggots going in, lots of small stuff would be taking all those offered.   After a few hours without action I changed to pellet and then finally to boilies, not sure if it was the late evening or the bait that made the difference, but I then took two barbel in quick succession, one of about 6lb, and another weighed at 7lb-10oz - Wye fish are slim bodied as with the Teme and again are difficult to estimate - they give a great scrap though.

                                                         A nice bonus to a business trip.  Wye 7lb-10oz.

Tuesday 13th September.
Books arrived and packing up to send out.  The post office people are not going to be pleased with this lot all at once, but I did warn them last week what was coming!  The books look and feel brilliant and I'm proud to have yet another volume of my fishing to share with you all.  If you have not already got your order in then check out http://www.philsmithanger.co.uk/ where books can be purchased very easily.