BARBEL ARE RIGHT ON THE MUNCH!
They’re feeding in the cooler water
IT’S been so good to see rain going into the rivers again, putting colour into the water and lowing temperatures. This change has seen the barbel going mad, and I’ve had my share this week…
TUESDAY
Guiding on the Severn, which went well, but I was looking forward to the Warwickshire Avon later in the day because my friend and contact Wayne Langston, who lives by the river, reckoned it would fish its head off.
Once I got home I swapped my 1.5lb test-curve Severn rods for 2.25lb versions for hopefully a bigger fish or two. I had prepared my pellet pudding for the evening at 5am, and after a quick pizza and chips I was on my way.
There were match anglers weighing in on the stretch, and one guy told me he had lost a big barbel that took him downriver and broke his 5lb line like cotton. That would have won him the match, but 5lb line on a barbel water is like trying to shoot a buffalo with a .177 pellet gun!
I was loaded with 14lb line! I wanted to land what I hooked – these barbel are powerful creatures and need strong gear to land them. I fed three big Jaffa-sized balls of soaked pellet pudding with 20 boilies and then waited for over an hour to cast in.
Then it was a case of of waiting until the sun set, when hopefully the rod-tips would start to jump about, showing me barbel were moving in the swim.
Right on cue at 9.30pm my tips began to bounce and, as darkness fell, my rod bent double and the Baitrunner sang. Barbel on!
To be honest the fight was very poor, which is unusual on this venue – they usually pull your string well.
I remember saying to Wayne that it was only a smallish fish, but when it broke surface we realised it was not small at all!
When Wayne landed the fish he said straight away that could go fourteen, and it did – 14lb exactly!
I was shocked at the size of this fish because it had fought so poorly, but some big fish are famous for that and this was one of them.
After a short time we had it swimming away strongly and my rods were out again along with another couple of balls of pellets.
Straight away I had line bites and I knew I was going to get another barbel. Ten minutes later I was in again! This time the fight was strong and the fish weighed in at 12lb 2oz. It was my biggest pair of barbel from any river, and I was over the moon.
The barbel sure love my pellet pudding!
A short time later my rig was back in the water with another couple of balls of pellets, and again the rods were soon showing that barbel were shooting around the peg, eating pellets and boilies.
The tip went around yet again and this time I enjoyed the best fight of all, which had me thinking I was into my third double of the night, but not long after that a barbel of 9lb 1oz was being returned. The feeding area was small, the feeding period short, I had made the most of it and I thought I had fished well.
The night was warm and the coffee tasted the best it had in months, but then it always does when you have caught a big fish!
I thanked Wayne – without his knowledge of the water I would not have caught these fish – and then I was on my way. After a full day I finally hit the sack at 2am, knackered to say the least but a very happy man.
THURSDAY
I needed to empty the water out of my boat and recharge its battery so that the bilge pump could do the job. What should have been a 30-minute task ended up as taking two hours, followed by another three hours spend drop shotting off the back of the boat.
The missus was golfing all day so I made use of my away-day ticket by catching a load of small perch and a small pike.
At this time of year the bigger fish seem to move out into the main river, returning in October, but it was fun and gave me a chance to try out some new Marukyu soft lures I’d been sent by the gaffer there, Howard Kaye.
I say ‘drop shotting’ but after a short time I changed to just slowly pulling a jig across the bottom, which seemed to work very well.
I learnt in Holland earlier in the year that the jig hardly has to move at all to get takes, and this winter I hope to get some practice on this method before I return to Holland next March to try and beat that 5lb 8oz perch I caught earlier this year. I can’t believe I just wrote that – it seems only a few years ago that I caught my first 4lb perch and here I am thinking about, dare I say it, catching a ‘six’!
SATURDAY
Down to the Avon again, full of anticipation for a big fish or two, and the conditions looked even better. But the barbel said: “Don’t be greedy, Taylor,” and they didn’t play ball at all. I blanked! Well, I caught a 3lb chub but they don’t count when you are after barbel!