After such a manic week I was glad for
once to see a bank holiday on the horizon. The whole weekend was
spent relaxing and recharging the batteries as well as the usual jobs
such as weekly reports, tidying tackle as well as completing Part 4
of ‘Targeting a new Tench Lake’ for Coarse Angling Today’.
Sitting in the garden I felt a sting on my knee and looked down to
see a black and white ladybird biting me, a bite that was to flare up
over the next few days. Beware red and black one are fine but other
coloured ones bite! The only drawback was that this holiday would cut
right into my own personal fishing yet getting on top of things was
far more important and I finally managed to get out late Tuesday
afternoon. Arriving at, or should I say, almost arriving at our
chosen carp swim at 7pm we were confronted with a situation that
prevented us from getting to the river, joy! What with the tench lake
closing earlier in the year and now, no way of getting to our carp
swim to continue our campaign, we almost laughed, some things are
just not meant to be.
Heading downstream we finally settled
at another area close to a yacht club and after baiting up watched as
the bobbins started to dance, joy, bream are around. After six five
pounders I changed my preferred snowman rigs for 20mm baits which as
usual quietened things down, yet come 1.30am I was thinking whether
these bigger baits were actually being ignored by not just the bream
but any carp that might be around. Out went the 15/10mm snowman rigs
and within minutes in came two more bream. The bigger baits went out
once again and come 5.30am when we made a quick getaway carpless once
more and having to rethink what direction our fishing for the rest of
the year would be taking.
Back at home and after a couple of
hour’s kip I was once again out, this time meeting one of my
regulars Ron at Godalmings Broadwater Lake. Unfortunately the lake
fished badly and after the six hour session we ended up with just
five carp into double figures. I always try to find a reason why the
fishing is bad and on today I blamed the variable wind that just
couldn’t make its mind up.
Thursday was all about preparing for
the final Farnham Angling Societies Barbel Teach-in and as usual we
saw two no shows which is really disappointing, however it did give
the four eager anglers the opportunity to move around. Paul, new to
river fishing was first of the mark with a chub which was unfortunate
as he was in the banker barbel swim and on this occasion was rudely
interrupted. Dean headed of upstream and landed a small barbel while
Barry and Brian moved around trying out my tactic without any joy.
Once again thanks guys, it was a pleasure to meet you and keep me
informed on how things go.
Friday I was fortunate to get a lay-in
as my customer for the day wanted me to introduce him to a very
difficult stretch of the river Loddon, brave man. Meeting at 10am in
bright sunshine we headed of upstream with me revealing past and
present barbel swims along the way whilst watching red kites fly over
top. Brian had in fact fished the section on seven previous occasions
without any joy and was in need of a helping hand as he dearly wanted
to catch his first barbel away from the more commercial sections and
wasn’t put of by the rock-hard nature of this stretch. We finally
dropped into a swim towards the top of the section and after going
through bait, tackle and some watercraft on the swim swung the rig
into position. Amazingly after just a couple of minutes a couple of
tiny taps were noticed then ten minutes later the rod pulled round in
true barbel fashion and after an explosive fight I slid the net under
Brian’s first barbel. After this we roved the river trying another
ten swims, some showing signs of fish, one even producing a good
bite, yet after being in contact for a few seconds the hook pulled.
It wasn’t a barbel, probably more likely a chub or bream and come
darkness we were back in the car park, drained but well happy with
our results. Good luck Brian, go get ‘em’.
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