Afternoon all, just back from a better session on the river dove, 4th ever session on any river for me and only the 3rd session on this particular stretch of water. Started the day using simple tactics which were;
12lb Mainline Straight through to a lead clip.
Medium cage feeder attached to the lead clip.
3 Foot braided hooklink (kryston merlin 10lb) to a size 10 Korda wide gape barbless hook.
Bait and feed were, mixture of dynamite baits spicy shrimp and prawn boilies mixed with bait tech envy method mix with a 15mm boilie straight from the bag onto the hair with some paste wrapped round the bait.
Fished close to the margin for the start of the session, decided to make a second cast to a overhanging tree on the far bank (20 yards, ish)
Rod ripped off about 30mins later as I was brewing me and my old man a cuppa!!
Fish went straight for the near side snags, possibly battled harder than I normally would but with water temps warm and oxygen levels not great I got the fish netted fairly fast, decided to weigh the fish as it was my first proper river barbel, final weight was 3lb 6oz, well chuffed, most pleasing sight was returning the fish and seeing it give a huge powerful kick off, eager to get away!!
The only fish of the day for me, my dad had a chub of equal weight fishing around 15 yards downstream, this fish did take a little nursing in the edge, monitoring it in the edge for 2-3mins then it kicked of strongly back into the depths.
Overall a really good session and my first real river fish, still a total novice on reading the water/swim and where and where not to present a bait but I'm sure that will come with time on the bank. Cheers Guys
12lb Mainline Straight through to a lead clip.
Medium cage feeder attached to the lead clip.
3 Foot braided hooklink (kryston merlin 10lb) to a size 10 Korda wide gape barbless hook.
Bait and feed were, mixture of dynamite baits spicy shrimp and prawn boilies mixed with bait tech envy method mix with a 15mm boilie straight from the bag onto the hair with some paste wrapped round the bait.
Fished close to the margin for the start of the session, decided to make a second cast to a overhanging tree on the far bank (20 yards, ish)
Rod ripped off about 30mins later as I was brewing me and my old man a cuppa!!
Fish went straight for the near side snags, possibly battled harder than I normally would but with water temps warm and oxygen levels not great I got the fish netted fairly fast, decided to weigh the fish as it was my first proper river barbel, final weight was 3lb 6oz, well chuffed, most pleasing sight was returning the fish and seeing it give a huge powerful kick off, eager to get away!!
The only fish of the day for me, my dad had a chub of equal weight fishing around 15 yards downstream, this fish did take a little nursing in the edge, monitoring it in the edge for 2-3mins then it kicked of strongly back into the depths.
Overall a really good session and my first real river fish, still a total novice on reading the water/swim and where and where not to present a bait but I'm sure that will come with time on the bank. Cheers Guys