With a technical problem with my
Blogger account and with the girlfriend being of very little in my
world of angling was achieved over the weekend and even if I were
able to head of into the wilderness on Sunday, I think the weather
would have even stopped me in my tracks, it was simply horrid.
Monday came and with the feeling of
barbel crawling up my rod, just like most barbel anglers I grabbed
the gear and headed back to the big fish stretch of the Loddon.
Unfortunately the river was fining down with lots of debris on the
surface and with bright sunny sky, once on the river felt I was
somewhat late in my arrival. Roving around six swims over the space
of five hours not so much as a fishy tremble came my way, yet a good
pike did show itself, one for the future I think! That evening I
headed to my local golf course as I couldn’t resist the temptation
of collecting some lobworms for a future perch exploratory trip.
After some twenty minutes and with more than fifty quality lobs in
the bucket I headed home.
7am Tuesday I found myself standing in
a torrential rain once again on the Loddon, a different stretch with
a new customer looking at being introduced to barbel fishing. What
colour the river had was short lived yet it was obvious from the
start that the chub were active, yet hitting chub bites at the best
of times is difficult, especially on stepped up gear intended for
barbel. Chris experienced a number of missed opportunities, yet
finally managed to connect with one only to see the hook pull after a
couple of seconds. Was it a barbel? The bite wasn’t the three foot
twitch, the initial uncontrollable surge never happened and its rare
for a hook pull yet what was on the other end seemed considerably
big. Was it that 10lb bream? With long-tailed tits making the most of
natures larder in the trees above we decided to try a few of the
swims were bites had come for a second time and finally Chris made
contact with a chub which pulled the scales round to 4lb 8oz a new
personal best. I stuck the rod through some trees and within seconds
had a modest chub in the net, proof that sometimes you have to go
directly to them and a good lesson for Chris in the future. The
weather had somewhat improved by early afternoon and after a spot of
lunch we headed downstream with a couple of barbel swims in mind. The
first swim failed to produce but the second produced the frustrating
pulls and releases of chub and with the clock ticking Chris tried a
50/50 strike at one of them but on this occasion the chub won.
Being the main speaker at The Barbel
Societies Berkshire meeting I thought it best to find a few images
for a slideshow Wednesday morning. It’s the second time I have been
asked by Pete Reading to attend and thought that it was only fair to
talk about the Loddon and the Kennet as the member’s could relate
to these. Everything went to plan and it was very well attended with
a few friends attending, I even came fifth in the raffle, yet with
the prize being a Nash rod protector declined the offering.
The following day was spent making up
rigs for customers, updating diary entries, placing bait and tackle
orders, solving my Blogger account issues, compiling Hot Seat answers
for CAT along with getting the tackle ready for the next couple of
days which consisted of crucian carp, barbel and perch gear. That
evening I teamed up with fellow Nash man Chris Petter for a spot of
after dark crucian fishing. Apart from the moon everything looked as
if it had the making of a red-letter session yet apart from a lost
crucian at dusk all I could record was one small tench. Chris faired
better with two tench and a personal best crucian weighing 3lb 4oz,
yet come 9pm it was obvious they weren’t having it.
I’d designated all day Friday to a
days fishing for myself. A few customers had shown an interest in
perch so armed with the lobworms collected earlier in the week I
headed to a local water with a realistic target, a two-pounder set.
Having quite a late night and restless sleep I didn’t arrive that
early, 9.30am to be precise, yet I rarely have breakfast before
leaving home, so this morning I decided to look after myself somewhat
better. I was quite surprised to see a muntjac deer grazing and as
expected anglers were already on the river, yet it was somewhat
refreshing knowing I was doing something different. I did have a
barbel rod with me and tried a couple of swim but knowing others
might have tested the swims earlier felt somewhat on the back foot.
One of the swims tried with pellet unusually showed no signs yet when
I dropped a wriggling lobworm in it things were different. The tip
soon pulled round yet the desired head shaking failed to materialise
and with a powerful fish trying to get under the bank I knew it was a
chub, yet this one got the better of me, rolled on a snag and shed
the hook. Uncomfortable with others around I headed to another
stretch, tried a couple of swims for barbel before changing back to
the worm. Straight away swims that were somewhat dead came alive and
a couple of chub, both weighing 4lb 8oz graced my net, yet it was the
last swim that topped the day, as after dropping a lobworm tight to a
raft the tip rattled and a swift strike saw what I had come for
surface, a perch. Although far from the biggest I have ever landed,
it was what I had set out for and weighing 2lb 6oz I smiled as once
you have found one, well there’s more around!
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