Des Taylor’s
weekly diary
Abloke said to me the other day that he was thinking of going fishing at the weekend.
‘Thinking’? What is there to think about? The weather is great, the fish are feeding, just get out there and have some of it!
Here’s how my week went…
TUESDAY
A guiding day on the river with Eddie and Terry from Burslem, Stoke on Trent, who had caught a lot of barbel at night but struggled to catch them during the day.
I’ve been spending a lot of time tweaking my tactics for such sessions and I let them into a few tricks of the trade. By using my methods and bait they caught 10 barbel and numerous chub, and most came in the middle of the day in bright sunshine.
The pair were great to spend time with and we laughed about fishing and life in general – two proper blokes, and they even brought me a few pints of bottled cider to drink when I got home. Top lads!
FRIDAY
I get lots of different levels of angler on my guiding days and Friday was spent with a great bloke called Doug, from Northampton, who had done very little river fishing.
His best chub was 2lb and he’d never had a barbel, so you can imagine how he felt when he left for home in the afternoon with six barbel to 7lb and some clonking chub to 5lb 1oz to his name!
Before we all get carried away with the idea that everyone has had 5lb chub or a double-figure barbel, the reality is a lot of anglers have never even fished a river.
It’s quite a turnaround from 40 years ago when it was stillwaters that were only fished by a few anglers, mainly when the rivers were in flood!
Good old Doug also brought me a ‘thank you’ bottle of Glenfiddich whisky to drink while doing my ‘live’ show on Facebook on Friday night – cheers buddy!
SATURDAY
A bit of fishing for myself today. I headed to the Severn to put together a few ideas I’ve had to keep one step ahead when catching barbel in the daytime.
I am experimenting with baits, rigs and feeding. Most of it has proved to be nothing special but a few little ideas have worked. I finished the day with 22 barbel and seven chub, so I must be doing something right.
I also got a few more hours in with a prototype barbel rod from Cadence and my new Scope GT 4000 reels, which is a big step away from the tried and tested kit I’ve used for my barbel fishing for a good few years now.
I’ve always been a Baitrunner man, so it took me a little time to get used to the little turn on the clutch to go from free-running to drag mode, but I’m there now.
Most of my fishing on the Severn is near to snags so I don’t actually use a freespool system. I much prefer to be locked-up and watch the rod like a hawk.
One thing that was vital during the day was to take the rods out and rest the swim for 30 minutes or so. Getting your lines out of the water and feeding for any species will catch you more and bigger fish in the long run.
SUNDAY
I don’t often fish on a Sunday, but my wife Maggie had a golf tournament so I took the opportunity to head to a stretch of the Severn which is deep and slow and is noted for fewer barbel, but bigger fish.
It was a slow start, but by feeding little and often with my ‘pudding’ I drew the fish to my swim and managed eight barbel and two chub.
They weren’t as big as predicted but that didn’t matter – the sun was on my back, the spool was singing with every bite, and I had a great view of the Severn Valley.