Dave Harrell
battles with Barford’s barbel and chub
AFTER a couple of poor matches on the River Severn I’d got a load of bait left to use up and fancied going somewhere where I could have a chance of a decent catch of chub and possibly barbel.
My mate Kelvin Tallett fancied a
day out too so we decided to share a swim for a few hours and use up all that leftover bait.
A quick phone around a few friends revealed that the upper Warwickshire Avon was fishing well, so we decided on the Barford Angling stretch near Warwick.
After dropping the gear on the river bank, Kelvin and I had a quick walk to survey the swims. There was a lot of weed in many of those we looked at, and this would definitely be a problem if we hooked any decent chub.
Eventually we settled on a swim a short way below the bridge where the river channelled in and ran through really quickly. It looked perfect for a few chub and possibly barbel as well.
We set up two Daiwa Tournament RS 13P rods with TDR 2508 reels and 6lb (0.20mm) Pro Match reel line. We both felt that it would be a good idea to tie a strong size 12 hook direct to the mainline. This would give us a good chance of landing a decent fish in the strong flow and also, hopefully, keep chub from burying their heads in the weed.
The swim was only 3ft 6ins deep so we set up two No1 Shallow Water stick float rigs. An 8No4 was set up with a bulk of 4BB, fixed 25cm from the hook. A lighter 5No4 float was set up with strungout No4 shot, the bottom one 20cm from the hook.
For feed we’d got two pints each of casters, hemp and maggots. I always start off with casters and hemp on this type of swim and invariably end up feeding maggots later in the session. It’s something I’ve done in matches for many years – it’s a great way to keep the fish feeding for the duration of a match or bring a swim back to life when bites have dried up.
Starting hookbait was three big bronze maggots and feed was 20 or 30 casters, plus the
same volume of hemp every run through.
The early stages of a session on a swim like this is all about getting your depth right and learning about where you can safely run a float through without snagging up on weed. There was plenty of it, and I suspected we’d have some real battles on our hands if we started to hook any big chub!
I didn’t have long to wait to find out as a 4lb fish ran me all over the river, desperately trying to snag me up. At times like this strong line is a must, and I’m pleased to report that the 6lb Pro Match was up to the task!
Kelvin and I had agreed that we’d swap over after every couple of decent fish, so after adding a smaller sample to the catch, it was his turn.
We all do things a bit differently, and Kelvin wanted to slow the hookbait presentation down, so he left the bail-arm over and backwound the reel handle, keeping a tight line to the float. This is often a good way to catch bigger fish, especially barbel, and Kelvin landed a small one around the pound mark before hooking into a crazy chub that ran him straight into weed and snagged up solid! One back to them!
We continued to pick up the odd fish before the swim died. This coincided with the sun being at its highest and with the water gin clear, things weren’t exactly in our favour at this stage.
As the session went on we gradually began to pick up a few more fish on the strung-out 5No4 rig and by switching to maggot feed, more decent chub followed. We lost three more in weed but this was jungle warfare, and we’d have been very lucky to land everything we hooked.
I wanted to end the session with a decent barbel, so the final rig switch saw a change to a cut-down 4g No3 Bolo with an olivette positioned 25cm above the hook and no dropper shot. Look at the float in the picture and you’ll see that the tip has been shortened as well as the stem. These little floats work great in shallow water when you want to slow your presentation right down. Do this by backwinding it down the swim with a tight line and adding more shot if necessary. I add BBs under the olivette.
The change worked like a dream as a 5lb barbel took a liking to the four hook maggots and gave us the perfect ending to a great afternoon session!
These tactics will work on all shallow rivers where chub and barbel are present, so give them a try over the next few months.