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Season end

Alan Palmer

Alan Palmer

Senior Member & Supporter
Well that’s it for another season, it’s not been the easiest of seasons conditions wise. I managed 3 good barbel from the Ouse, which sounds poor but for a hard stretch I am happy with that. The Severn fished well when I could get there and the Trent also threw up a few nice fish. Had a last session today on a flooded Ouse (again) but drew a blank. It’s been a diverse but satisfying season for me. Only regret is conditions didn’t allow floatfishing as much as I liked. So it’s Tench and Carp for me now until June. What’s everyone else’s plans?
 
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it's not over quite yet
 
This was my first full season where targeting barbel was the focus, having joined a club in mid 2023 with rights on the Ribble.

Before that my barbel fishing had been spending up to 2 weeks on holiday around the Middle Severn, plus the odd day trip as I didn't have much barbel fishing locally before I retired to Lancashire.

I was quite pleased with the season, not masses of fish but caught without needing to resort to fishing in the dark, which was something that I thought was necessary on the Ribble until this year. Season culminated in a PB chub and PB barbel (11.1 as shown in my profile pic) in the last weeks of the season.

Having joined a 2nd club which has a few small still waters, I shall be giving them a go in the close season, and as I live close to the sea, will dust off my beach fishing gear when the smoothounds start to show!
 
Fantastic season for me. Dare I say one of the best. Some great early and middle season float fishing on the trent throwing up multiple barbel every session to just shy of 12lb

Same with the chub sport on both the Trent and nene inc a red letter day of 54 chub in 6 hours to over 6lb.

On the nene barbel front, fishing for one bite a session, it was also decent sport with afew big hard fighting fish that did get harder to catch after the floods.

However… I was blessed with a pb brace making 28lb 7oz in October, then just a week ago today I destroyed my barbel pb with an enormous fish of 16,09.

The pike fishing has been disappointing this season but hey …… I’ve no complaints with that. 😀
 
Steve Jeffery said:
This was my first full season where targeting barbel was the focus, having joined a club in mid 2023 with rights on the Ribble.

Before that my barbel fishing had been spending up to 2 weeks on holiday around the Middle Severn, plus the odd day trip as I didn't have much barbel fishing locally before I retired to Lancashire.

I was quite pleased with the season, not masses of fish but caught without needing to resort to fishing in the dark, which was something that I thought was necessary on the Ribble until this year. Season culminated in a PB chub and PB barbel (11.1 as shown in my profile pic) in the last weeks of the season.

Having joined a 2nd club which has a few small still waters, I shall be giving them a go in the close season, and as I live close to the sea, will dust off my beach fishing gear when the smoothounds start to show!
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what a great start to the Ribble and we had a nice afternoon not great conditions but you had a few i promise i will get my rods out this time .I retire in august and can show you around the RADAC areas of the Ribble if you want.when you get your other ticket gives you nearly all the ribble which will give you access to some better winter fishing
 
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Nothing great as a catch report, but that doesn't mean I had a bad season. Lots of super memories to keep me smiling during the close season.
My first barbel on the centrepin, had the hand injuries for weeks !
My first stick and pin lesson for barbel. (My "guide" thought it very funny I almost fell in, but we had a laugh.)
Learning the deadly method of rolling meat, using plastercene as a balance weight.
And some new friends encountered on the bank.
Happy days !
 
A very good season for me, with somewhere around +60 barbel. The Wandle has been fishing really well (caveat below) and I don’t think I blanked once. Short afternoon/eve sessions would always produce 1 or 2, longer day sessions 5-10 fish in the 4-8lb bracket. Always roving to find the fish.

A few concerns about the Wandle; the few big girls seem to have disappeared, a real lack of silvers (esp. dace & roach) and more homeless/dodgy types making some swims “interesting”.

After all the walking I’ll enjoy a nice sit down watching a waggler.

Ps. My nemesis Fishers Green remains uncracked.
 
Yeah this season I decided to ditch the multi rods and alarms and go back to the traditionst way of fishing ...singles rod roving about traveling as lite as I could and even fishing the centrepin. I av to say roving around and touch ledgering as relite the barbel bug .I add the pleasure of catching this fish touch ledgering something il never for get .roll on June
 

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It’s been an enjoyable season for me. I haven’t caught a shed load of barbel, but I have caught them trotting a light stick float and bolos, rolling meat and also maggot feeder (which yielded a PB and first double on my last session of the season). I got hugely distracted by grayling late autumn and that took over big time. I must have caught fifty or sixty when rivers allowed it. To tell the truth I’d quite happily fish for nothing else but grayling and barbel 😊
 
Not a great year Barbel wise for me. Nothing again off the upper Trent, bar the usual Chub I seem to catch on every session. Fished the Dove once, and caught - you've guessed it - Chub. Moved further downstream on the Trent, and still caught Chub. An unintentional Pike PB whilst rolling meat was something different though.

Didn't get out as much as I would have liked. Missus isn't in the best of health, so I have to work around her. Cars been off the road for a bit as well, and I'm still recovering from knee surgery, so haven't been since before Christmas.

Mrs A requires double knee replacement in the very near future, so next year could also have infrequent trips.
 
Summer & early Autumn river fishing was as good as I’ve known, but the late autumn /winter has been a write off with floods apart from the last few weeks which has been awesome as it is nearly every March
I’ve done a lot of pike fishing and again it’s been very hard all winter , with me only startingto catch a few reasonable fish in the last month and that will end anytime soon
Time to do some jobs that have been neglected, recce some new stretches of river, re-order bits , replace line , service reels
And I’m looking forward to some Saturday morning lie-ins to be honest
 
I had a good season on the Wye especially given the challenging conditions at times. I caught my 100th Barbel of the season with my last cast in late October, just as well as my car had to be towed out of the mud when I left the bank!

I'll be back for more as the combination of Barbel and the Wye is irresistible. Meanwhile I hope you all enjoy your close season.
 
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