I wrote this for our WBC site, I have changed it to hide the location, we are completely open with each other about:- where we fish, baits, rigs and information on our WBC site (it works rather in the way the old specimen groups operated, based upon trust) but as this is so open to the public I wish to keep some of the information private.
I hope the WBC lads don’t mind me sharing this but as I have already been asked quite a lot of questions I thought it easier to post such info as I am prepared to share on this post.
Of course it might be worth offering cash or a similar incentive to one of the WBC lads but I suspect knowing them they will only sell you something you could find for free on the interweb net thingy!!
I would also like to thank Dave Currel (Ex record Barbel holder) for his help on the day, by the time I had landed her I was in bits and shaking like a leaf, having a cool headed, reliable friend at hand that could take charge and organise everything was an enormous help and I hope to do a similar job for him soon with a bigger fish.
Cheers mate.
My mate Gary Stewart phoned me yesterday to ask if I fancied a bit of dangling, Dave Currel and I had already decided that today (Monday 27th December) offered the best opportunity for a fish or one as the day time temp was going to soar to 2C and for once we would not be de-icing the rod tip five times an hour.
Also it seems that we are due some more snow and then rain, just the job, snowy water and salt, always a recipe for a blank,.
About a month ago Dave had a 14lb 9oz Barbel from the river on the pole and as I have had a couple of fish there of late we decided to give it a little go, so we all met up at Colney Tackle at 9am this morning to collect bait and off we went in Gary’s Van.
There was a sporty downstream wind going as we arrived and there was also 5 other anglers on the water but for some reason the swims we prefer were empty, I stuck Gary in the Alder Tree swim (one of the better swims on the river) and Dave went off to fish the pole behind a rush bed, I dropped in to the swim I had the 11-9 from two weeks ago.
Sport was slow but I was baiting both the main channel and the far reeds of the river, after an hour I noticed a patch of fizz pop up in the middle of the swim, the fizz looked very Barbely and while I was considering this I realised that I had not set up my big net!!
Mistake rectified I fished on for most of the morning and early afternoon with only a couple of half hearted bites to give any encouragement.
I took a short stroll up to see Dave to warm my toes, it turned out that he had got a Chub of about 3lb on the stick earlier, while I was watching him he put his pole away and had another go on the stick, second trot through and his pin was spinning as a feisty 4lb Chub went for the far reeds.
Dave had lightened off down to 3lb 1oz Exceed hooklength to get a bite; I considered this for a moment and went back to my swim to set up a lighter outfit.
I set up my MAP 15ft stick float rod with my new Okuma pin, a 8 No4 wire stemmed Drennan stick with bulked shot and a Power Pro 3lb 6oz hooklength to a 18 Drennan Specimen hook; this was about as light as I dared go, I knew there was one Barbel in the swim as I had seen the fizz but I was not sure I had any Chub as I had seen no sign of them at all, to make matters worse third trot through and there was another patch of fizz!!
I was still considering this as I had another trot, which was when the float buried!!!
I struck and everything went solid, I sat and watched the rod top convinced it was bottom when I realised that the bottom was kiting back into mid river, the fish then slowly went down stream about ten yards and stopped, I slowly pumped the fish back toward me but it was hugging the bottom on the inside line, as it got closer first the float appeared, then some shot, as it went past a convenient hole in the rush I peered in to see just how big this Chub was…………………………..only to be astonished as one of the biggest Barbel I have ever seen cruised into view and then sank away out of sight!
The fish then went through two dead weed beds and visited the far side rush to sulk, I put a bit more pressure on the fish and it came out to the middle of the river, it then went back again, in all it did this another 4 or five times, all the while I was thinking:-
“If you are going to loose one, make it the next one, for (place whatever word you think will fit here) sake make sure you land this one!!”
The fish then changed tack, hugging the bottom mid river, every time I tried to lift it off bottom it muscled its way back, this was ideal as it was a risk free way of reducing her energy, after five mins of this she moved off downstream about 20 yards, I followed and eventually pumped the fish back to a nice landing spot where she slid over the waiting net!!
I lifted her out to take the hook out and that was when the shakes started, she was simply enormous, in perfect condition but far bigger than I had realised!!!!!!!
I rested her in the water for quarter of an hour or so, phoned Dave and told him I had a fish of at least 13lb in the net, thankfully Dave came down and took charge of weighing and photos, a good job because by then I had turned to jelly, as Dave lifted her out he said:-
“This is fifteen……….. Actually no!! This is a very big fish!!”
We weighed her on my digi’s (which do not like extreme cold at all) and a pair of Avon’s, the Avon’s looked a bit flaky too, on my digi’s she went 17lb 15oz but on the Avon’s she went 17lb 6oz, so we called it at 17lb 8oz.
Dave said he thought my digi’s were more accurate as they consistently went 17lb 15oz and the Avon’s weighed at 17lb 14oz on second attempt, later I checked my scales on 18lb of ex-butchers weights and they were spot on so I am claiming 17lb 15oz, a new PB and a simply beautiful fish!
After a few photo’s she went back, swimming powerfully and no worse off for her day out!!
Tight Lines Chaps and thank you for your comments.
