Just adding my "two penn'orth", out of 13 trips so far I've managed a grand (?!) total of just 12 barbel
(although 4
have been doubles, at least!)
Whilst I am always aware that early season results are customarily disappointing, when compared to the same period last season (21 barbel caught) and 2014 season (25 barbel), this current dearth of whiskers is worrying. And I know that this is also a problem on other rivers such as the Warks Avon and Severn.
To add a bit more detail, the four doubles all came from four outings to a particular stretch of the Tidal (2 in June and 2 this month) with the catches running thus Trip 1: just a 10lb 8oz, Trip 2: a 6lb followed by a 10lb 10oz,
Trip 3: 11lb and Trip 3 (last Thursday) a 6lb 7oz, 3lb & 13lb 4oz. What was significant about these outings was that I fished hemp and caster on one rod all day
without a single bite and Elips pellet (as I
always do, everywhere ) on a second rod; and
all of those progressively bigger doubles (along with the remaining smaller ones) came on Elips, virtually on the last cast of each day! (Maybe I ought go back on my next outing because I should be due a new PB the way the doubles have been growing!!!)
Although I don't want to sound all bitter and twisted now, I discovered something yesterday about the only other angler that was there (about 70 yards or so downstream of me) on my last trip from a colleague (who knew he was there via a mutual source), which I have grave concerns and reservations about. I had spoken briefly to this angler just once before setting up and learned that he was "there for
three days" and had had several successful, multiple catches previously. He was bait-dropping particles (hemp etc., like myself) regularly throughout the day. And as far as I could tell he had banked about 5/6 barbel before I left at about 8.30pm. What my friend then told me was that he had netted some
seventeen barbel on the Friday, and as for Saturday...heaven knows!(I haven't been able to speak to my friend to ascertain the final result!)
Now I'm all for anglers trying to better their catch rates, but I am just now wondering whether it will be really worth my while actually going back there now. If he's been fishing over several days in that same area (which I'm pretty sure he has!) around the same period of time that I've been struggling to get a bite at all, maybe this extended, multi-night, bivvying-up, carping-style approach is what has now been creating the "pressure" on barbel in our rivers that is being mentioned regularly on this particular website?
At 70 now, I am not inclined to want to kip through the night, relying on blue tooth bite alarms, having enjoyed a few cans and some dubious "roll-ups" that I regularly see being indulged-in on my "day-time" outings. Surely the whole point of barbelling is being there to actually
see the classic three-foot twitch which makes it all worth while (if there any barbel left for me!)
Roger