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As others have said you’re fortunate at having shoaling fish. Get the bait in and have them grubbing around for it and competing between themselves. Hemp is good as it’s not as easy for chub to pick up when it falls between the stones…a barbel however will hoover it up like a vacuum. Have a...

Used to be a great stretch, those last few pegs where great fish-holding areas (bit bloody spooky once dusk came though). I remember walking back to the main gate through the spinney about 10pm one night and a pheasant flew out from underneath my feet, scared me half to death !!! Sadly that bit...

Very true. Two or three a season is now more realistic.

Got this pretty much finished and loctite / glued everything in place. Bottom spike is a tad on the pi$$ but will still function correctly.

My mate dropped of some lovely straight Bamboo a few weeks ago and I had an idea to make a handmade rod rest. Never done anything like this and I like a challenge. I have a lathe at home and set about making a brass ferrel from some hex off cuts. Epoxied some ally rod down the core of the...

Oh wow that’s beautiful. I’ve got a lathe at home and treating myself to a milling machine next year and have thought about making a pin out of billet. Was it super difficult (I’m self taught) to make or not ?

Thanks, I did see that but am after one that’s hand-built to my own spec as it’s a special occasion present to myself.

Back on topic, the most I’ve spent on one item is my JW Young Ray Walton Rolling Pin. It’s a thing beauty even when it’s not being used. I’ve just made an enquiry about a hand-made split cane Barbel rod so that’s definitely going to trump the cost of the pin.

IMO it’s the best time of year to fish, mainly as no one is on the riverbank (how I like it) and you can have pick of the swims.

Great photos they are. I know what you mean, UK roads aren’t really built for rattley 2-strokes. Although saying that, I rode to the IofW from Warwickshire in August and it was a beautiful ride through the Cotswolds / Wallops. At least you had the SX2 which was the king of scoots 🙌🙌🙌

Hahaha. Very good. Somewhere on the WA there is a meadow with about x100 Barbel all huddled together 🤣🤣🤣

Lovely scoots they are, love seeing the old photos. Scooter prices are balancing out now a bit and falling to where they should be. This time last year an SX200 was north of £12k, people are struggling to get £8k for them now. The only ones that demand serious money now are the GT200 and DL...

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I did pretty much the same yesterday afternoon, again on the Warks Avon. Haired-rigged, large piece of meat with a size 6 hook. No loose feed at all and fished a rodlength out in the slack water. I covered x8 swims in just under 2-hours. If I hadn’t caught within 5-mins I moved swims. Great...

@Terry Harman @Nigel Whittingham - I just randomly came across this thread and thought you may like to see my scoots. S1: Complete nut and bolt restoration with 197 engine. S2: Dragged out of a garage in my hometown last summer and back on the road after 54-years. Skelly style with a TV175...

Thanks for the info Mike - I seemed to have missed this reply so apologise for the very late response !!! The rod’s just over 9ft in length with the handle making up 1ft of that. I’m never going to use it as a fly rod so it seams a waste for it to sit in its cloth bag doing nothing.

Nash Scope - Bib and Brace for me, very durable with four large front pockets which suits my style of roving fishing. I always wear them with tracksuit buttons in the winter so I don’t feel the cold. They’re a bit snug around the tummy (I like my Guinness) but the next size up we’re huge on me...

I expect you’d struggle to get anywhere near that water now until next season.

If you want to find out more about feeding stimulants / nutrition / bait science then listen to this Podcast - it's all Carp focused but they do mention Barbel and they have similar ways of feeding e.g. bottom feeders filtering out the gravel and substrate from the food particles. The Dean...

On the rare occasion I use a feeder I like to fill it with smell rather then feed. Namely: -Ground-bait (without any pellets in it) -Natural sponge (that’s been soaked in a liquid) -KNORR stock pot