A summary of sorts: Part 2

Wednesday 7th September – back to Bedfordshire

After my experience in the Blair Witch wood adjacent to the Great Ouse I thought that I’d go back. I felt that I had something to prove. I had heard that there were a number of smaller barbel downstream of where I fished last time with a range of fish from 10 oz to about 7lb.  I figured that the odds were good so I decided to have a go there in the morning and then go back to where I had been the previous month to fish in the evening. I set off really early so that I arrived at the river at around 7:30AM and it truly was a beautiful morning. There appeared to be a little colour in the river and it looked perfect. I had been told to fish small pieces of meat on a link ledger and allow it to drift around in the current. It was great fun with huge shoals of dace hitting the bait quickly, the crayfish had no chance in this aquarium. I had a great time missing the dace bites and fishing light it was a nice change. I had fished this weirpool before and had stonking Perch over 2lb from it on lob worm. It’s not surprising that they are there with the vast quantities of dace.

I did eventually get my first Great Ouse barbel, in fact I ended up catching 6, but none of them were over 10oz, lovely little feisty fellows that were punching well above their weight. I also had 2 big dace the best of which was 12 oz. I had a bit of fun on the ABF forum reporting a spectacular 6 fish haul from the Great Ouse including 2 doubles. I got one or two bites on there as well. Mike Heljula came down for a while but couldn’t stay as he has a very newborn baby to look after, he looked a bit tired bless him. I’m not sure whether these fish are stocked or not, I suspect not as the EA have intimated that they haven’t stocked for 3 seasons and the fish that are from that last batch were over a pound last season. Whether they are or not they are thriving and there seems to be plenty of them so hopefully in a few years things will be better than they are at the moment.

I did hook a decent fish but the 5 lb mono cut off on something, I’m pretty sure that it was a decent chub and not a barbel but alas I’ll never know. I left the weir pool reluctantly in plenty of time to get to last week’s venue before dark, I must admit I was really enjoying catching whatever came along and the constant activity. I knew that where I was going would be a complete contrast.

I fished until about midnight and made my way home without having had a proper Gt Ouse barbel, obviously I will have to return, in fact I think that I’m going next weekend.

9th, 10th and 11th of September – ABF/HKS and Bradford No1 fish in.

HKS and Bradford No1 member Dan Birkett had booked the 3 days last year with Barnsley prior to the ABF taking over the running of the Horsefield Knights Society at the beginning of the season but it was going so well he suggested that the ABF get involved and that we expand it a little. There were 36 anglers in attendance predominately Dan’s mates from Bradford No1 Angling Association with a few ABF and HKS members. I took Friday afternoon off and arrived just to see how things were going before Dan arrived later on. The fishing was difficult with only one or two who had ventured upstream off the beaten track doing rather well, but as a social event it was a resounding success. The Bradford lads are characters and really entered into the spirit of things, thanks to all of you for making the weekend such a success.

It has to be said that Dan Birkett did the majority of the organising for this event but the ABF membership really helped out with some cracking prizes for the raffle which drawn on the Saturday.  The charity was the Barnsley Hospice which is where my father passed away with dignity due to the excellent care provided by the resident McMillan nurses, so I was more than happy to be involved. Whenever charity events are run at Fiskerton the charity is nominated by Barnsley and District Angling Association who own the fishing rights, it only seems fair and in this case the club kindly donated 50 pegs for 3 whole days and nights thanks to Geoff Brown who runs the match bookings on the stretch.

There were 20 plus prizes on the raffle and some won multiple prizes so went away happy. There were also some donations via the ABF website from the members, the grand total raised was a staggering £933.79, I must say that this exceeded my expectations and was entirely due to the generosity of those involved and the bloody hard work of Dan Birkett who I can’t thank enough. Barnsley are running another charity event this weekend; the proceeds of which will be added to the ABF total. I’ll let you know the grand total. It was pretty tiring and I went home about 1am on Friday night, returned at about 10:30 AM then left again at 11:30 PM and had another good kip. I just don’t enjoy overnighters in bivvies these days, too fond of the comforts of home.

Friday 16th September

After a fairly tough time on the Trent the previous weekend I was ready for pastures new and another new river. I finished work at 2PM and made the 50 mile trip from work to a little easterly river that is steeped in mystery. I knew that there were barbel in it but the locals weren’t about to tell me anything. However there was one local who is a member of the ABF who was prepared to help, as well as that I found a few snippets on the internet, discovered which club controlled the majority of the fishing in the mentioned areas, joined the club and went for a Recce on Friday. I saw lots of fish including some absolutely whacking chub! The river was just like my local Dearne in character but somewhat clearer and a little narrower with LOTS more chub.  Parts of the river were only 15 feet wide with plenty of weed for cover and a smattering of overhanging trees. It did not take long to find the fish, I walked about a mile upstream with a bucket of pellets and eventually saw a few barbel.  I met a nice bloke called Stuart who was quite surprised to see another angler, I fished about 40 yards below him just above an overhanging willow. I had a corker of a chub just before dark, it weighed 6lb 4oz but no barbel. I switched the lamp on an shone it onto the gravel just before I left only to see a dozen good chub and 2 barbel shoot off upstream leaving plumes of silt trailing downstream. I couldn’t wait to get back there next day.

Saturday 17th September

I arrived at the river around 3PM as the wife and I had to help my recovering mother with a few chores in the morning. My ABF pal had come down for a walk with a bucket of pellets and had spotted a couple of barbel below an overhanging tree. It was a bit awkward as the only way to fish it was upstream in front of the tree from about 15 feet below. However yet again there were good numbers of chub willing to feed on the loose fed pellets. There seemed to fish in the swim practically constantly and eventually I saw a barbel, then another. One of them was a good fish as well. The barbel only came out for about 20 seconds whereupon they returned to the safe haven of the willow roots. They were not in plain sight a lot of the time as they took a different route into the swim. After an hour of watching this we decided to try and see how the fish would feel about some 10 mm boilies. The difference was quite amazing, the chub basically went mad for them and because they were getting more and more agitated the barbel were having a look more often, staying out for nearly a minute now and barging the chub out of the way. They were mopping up the few loose offerings and then heading back to safety but they were definitely getting more aggressive. I initially introduced my hookbait with a very small amount of weight but I was the bait was getting moved around by liners or chub and I decided to put on a bigger lead and some tungsten putty as a back lead to prevent the liners. The chub were really having it. They were back in the swim with 30 seconds of my hook bait and a 2oz lead being introduced. The boilies were tough and now that the chub weren’t moving the bait around I felt confident that I would get a fish before dark. My mate had to get home and so off he went but he didn’t get far. The 1.25lb Torrix that I was using whacked around and I was into a barbel.  The fish went mad and had at least 4 attempts to get back under the willow tree, it was also most displeased with the shallow water, boy can barbel move fast in shallow water. I was relieved to slide the fish over the net, I gave my mate a ring who was back to do the honours with the camera. The Richard Walker 2 finger barbel salute was not intentional……………or was it?

The 1.25lb TC  Torrix is absolutely lovely for this sort of fishing and I won’t go anywhere without now. It is also very light when coupled with the 4000D baitrunner, it will be ideal for rolling meat. I intend to find out this weekend on the Wye in preparation for a trip down to the Royalty and Throop in a little over 2 weeks, I can’t wait to be honest. I’ll probably blank but it will be an adventure for me and Richard Walker that’s for sure. I fished on hoping to get a the bigger fish but only had a chub of around 5lb, I know it seems blasé but the chub really are whoppers. I will be having a chub fishing session on here soon.

Sunday 18th September

I only had a few hours as I needed to visit my mother again in the morning and then get back to spend the evening with the missus. This time I was heading west over Woodhead Pass to a river near a major city. The river is only 28 miles from my mothers so it seemed rude not to. I was not really sure what to expect but what I found was like the Calder with a bit of water on, a nice chocolate colour and obviously up at least a foot. I elected to use the little 10mm boilies again and a small ground bait feeder. The area was free fishing and had been rec0mmended by both Hobby and a local lad so I felt that I was in with a good chance. There was a riffle upstream, a bend pushing the water down my side and a tree in the middle of the river. I fished about 10 yards above the tree and waited a whole 10 minutes before the rod wrapped around. I actually lost this fish in a tree that was submerged just below me in the edge. I think that it is normally visible but the extra water submerged it. Anyway I ended up getting the fish of about 7lb well and truly snagged and had to eventually pull for a break. I was concerned that the fish might be tethered but I pulled the branch out eventually and found the hook length and feeder in the branch sans barbel so that was a relief. Anyway I had an excellent 3.5 hours fishing landing 4 barbel the two best of which were 7lb 2oz and 9lb exactly. I went home in the daylight a very happy chappy, definitely had a lucky break with the river conditions that day.

So unbelievably that brings my blog up to date! I will try to carry on with this but I have a lot of fishing coming up. In fact I’m fishing 3 more rivers this week alone, one of which I have never fished, another from which I have not caught a barbel and the last one a place where I shall hope that the water soothes my aching head after a skin full the previous night. Yes folks its the annual Wye do again – I can feel the pain already.