A few hours on La Belle Charente

[Clive Kenyon]

I took advantage of the last of the unseasonally warm weather to have an afternoon on the River Charente near to Chateauneuf S/ Charente. It is about an hour from where I live, but I have mole trapping customers nearby so they pay for my fuel. The swim was new to me and unusually had no low branches or brambles to impede casting. The river is split by an island and the far side channel is partially blocked so most of the flow goes down the inside channel. Finding a clear patch in between the dense weed beds took about half an hour and then I set to with conventional swimfeeder tactics using fermented maize and hemp ground bait and a Frolick dog biscuit as hook bait. I also put a second rod, an old cane outfit down the nearside margin as often carp and chub cruise close to the banks.

I had two barbel on the feeder, nothing on the margin rod and at half past five decided to put the feeder rod down and use the old cane outfit to lob a partially filled feeder into the zone for the last half hour. An hour later I began to pack up and had put the dog and most of the stuff in the car which was only a metre behind where I'd had the chair. There was only the rod, net and mat left to put away and almost as I put my hand on the rod the top section turned 90 degrees and the old Mitchell began to back wind. Best fish of the day, just over 7lb.

I have to check the traps again on Wednesday so might get another crack at them.

 

[Richard Parsons]

What an excellent end to what was already a pretty decent session, Clive. Well done.
The Charente looks lovely.

 

[Chris Allcock]

I took advantage of the last of the unseasonally warm weather to have an afternoon on the River Charente near to Chateauneuf S/ Charente. It is about an hour from where I live, but I have mole trapping customers nearby so they pay for my fuel. The swim was new to me and unusually had no low branches or brambles to impede casting. The river is split by an island and the far side channel is partially blocked so most of the flow goes down the inside channel. Finding a clear patch in between the dense weed beds took about half an hour and then I set to with conventional swimfeeder tactics using fermented maize and hemp ground bait and a Frolick dog biscuit as hook bait. I also put a second rod, an old cane outfit down the nearside margin as often carp and chub cruise close to the banks.

View attachment 16736

I had two barbel on the feeder, nothing on the margin rod and at half past five decided to put the feeder rod down and use the old cane outfit to lob a partially filled feeder into the zone for the last half hour. An hour later I began to pack up and had put the dog and most of the stuff in the car which was only a metre behind where I'd had the chair. There was only the rod, net and mat left to put away and almost as I put my hand on the rod the top section turned 90 degrees and the old Mitchell began to back wind. Best fish of the day, just over 7lb.

View attachment 16737

I have to check the traps again on Wednesday so might get another crack at them.

Do they get very big in the charente clive?
Cracking fish and beautiful river mate.

 

[Clive Kenyon]

Hi Chris, thanks.

Sadly there seems to be a lack of large barbel in these parts. On the eastern side of the country they grow larger, but here in the south-west I haven't seen anything over 9lb 3oz. I've had three 9lb fish, all just over. A 7lb fish makes the local papers and many French anglers haven't seen a barbel over 3lb. There are carp to over 50lb, pike to 30lb and catfish to at least 120lb. If there are any double figure barbel you would have thought they would have turned up by now.

That photo doesn't do justice to this river. It is in my opinion the most beautiful in France and is a chalk stream for much of its middle section. That is one of the problems. Like the Hampshire Avon, it is probably too rich in natural food for easy fishing and the water clarity is almost 100% in summer.

 

[Richard Isaacs]

Sadly there seems to be a lack of large barbel in these parts. On the eastern side of the country they grow larger, but here in the south-west I haven't seen anything over 9lb 3oz. I've had three 9lb fish, all just over. A 7lb fish makes the local papers and many French anglers haven't seen a barbel over 3lb.

It doesn’t matter, they look so bloody healthy and I bet they are awesome fun on that little cane outfit.

 

[Chris Allcock]

At the end of the day mate a barbel is a barbel, whether it 3lb up to 9lb and I bet they still fight like demons. Maybe one day that elusive double will show up. All we can do is keep trying.

 

[Clive Kenyon]

I appreciate that you can only hope for what is actually in the rivers, but it is critically important to select swims that give you a higher average weight per fish otherwise you can end up catching small ones all the time and get despondant. This is even more important on the Vienne and in the Loire system as they have a larger population of small fish.

The barbel in the Charente are quite lean this year. Normally at this time those over 4lb would have a deeper belly, more torpedo shaped. If they grew into their tails they would be several pounds heavier.

 

[Mark Pevy]

I appreciate that you can only hope for what is actually in the rivers, but it is critically important to select swims that give you a higher average weight per fish otherwise you can end up catching small ones all the time and get despondant. This is even more important on the Vienne and in the Loire system as they have a larger population of small fish.

The barbel in the Charente are quite lean this year. Normally at this time those over 4lb would have a deeper belly, more torpedo shaped. If they grew into their tails they would be several pounds heavier.

Wish i could catch small ones all the time