UNITED BY OUR LOVE OF ANGLING
I had a great time fishing with the Rev!
AFTER the long winter we were all wishing for a hot summer, and so far our wishes are being granted!
Of course, the downside of a long dry spell means it can start to affect the fishing, especially in the heat of the day.
I am getting around the problem by fishing rivers at night and stillwaters early or late. Having said that, my customers and I are enjoying great surface fishing for carp all through the day.
Don’t turn the weather into a problem! With a positive attitude and looking for a way around it, there are always a few kippers to be caught! Here’s how my week panned out…
TUESDAY
Took the Reverend Raymond Adams for a day’s barbel fishing on the River Severn at Coalport. We had a great time, although I did slip in the odd bit of ‘Anglo Saxon’ that would have been better suited to the Wolves football ground at Molyneux rather than the church where Raymond worked!
But we laughed and talked fishing and it was a classic example of two people from completely different walks of life coming together and sharing their love of angling.
Raymond did well and caught some great barbel and chub and even a few decent roach on boilies. He has the angling gene in his blood, and with each fish he caught you could see the enjoyment on his face.
I love to see that, which tells me my job has been well done.
WEDNESDAY
Another guide day, this time with Steve Osgood, but unfortunately I had to cancel after a few hours because of foam on the water. No ‘liners’, no proper bites, no fish showing, and no insects coming off the water – the river was dead.
It is unfair to sit an angler on the bank knowing it is going to be almost impossible for him to catch fish, so we are making arrangements for another day.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
An all-nighter with my son-in-law Jason Ward on the Warwickshire Avon near Evesham to try and catch him and me a barbel or two.
We arrived at 6pm and straight away I put in a mixture of soaked pellets that included half-a-kilo of Nash Scopex and Squid Boilie Crumb along with a couple of handfuls of Ringers sticky 2mm pellets to bind the mix together.
I don’t soak the pellets in with the mix overnight, I simply add them an hour before I start putting them in. Over the mix I added about 20 Scopex and Squid boilies and then sat back for a couple of hours before we put our lines in the water. By the time we were fishing it was about 9pm and I expected bites well into dark.
Lots of anglers think that just on dusk will bring takes, when very often the fish will turn off at that time. Two hours after dark is when they really start to move, sometimes even later.
Tonight they played ball, and right on cue at around midnight Jason’s rod thundered over. After a spirited fight he landed a personal-best barbel of 9lb 4oz. To say he was over the moon is the understatement of the year.
There are far more anglers out there who’ve never seen a doublefigure barbel, let alone caught one, and Jason is one of them.
Next I had a cracker of 11lb 12oz. Jason looked down at it in the net and said: “It’s bloody huge!”
And indeed it was. Then it went quiet for an hour before, out of the blue, Jason had one of 6lb or so.
I told him we still had a chance of another couple just before dawn, and how right I was! At 2.30am I had one of 10lb 2oz, which made it two barbel each, but both of mine had been doubles and both of Jason’s had been singles.
Then, just as I was explaining that its was down to luck and I was unhooking my second double, Jason’s buzzer screamed and sure enough there, alongside my own ‘ten’ was Jason’s first double at
10lb 6oz. Time for a cider and to chew the fat! The night was warm and we sat there in our T-shirts as happy as sandboys.
Jason would not shut up about the size of his capture and I was more than pleased for him. That was the end of the sport, but Jason had brought cooking gear and before we left we had sausage sandwiches swilled down with coffee. You know the feeling when you sit after a successful session sipping a hot drink? Well, that’s the feeling Jason and I had in our bellies.
We packed the gear into the car before heading home, and I made a promise that my grandchild Grace was next for me to take out and help catch her first barbel.
I can see her face now, shouting: “Grandad, it’s going to pull me in!” as I hold her by the scruff of her neck, making sure that does not happen!
When we were back home, Grace’s daddy Jason was a hero for catching a ‘monster’ fish – a story that will be told for years to come.
I was glad and very proud to be a part of it.