He is also a very keen angler, having come back to the sport in 1995 following a break of several years. In this regular column he will tell us about his progress as an angler – his thoughts about the sport, what he learns, the fishing trips he makes, the anguish, the humour, in fact everything he experiences as his angling career develops. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
A MIXED BAG ON THE LOWER SEVERN It’s a beautiful hot summer’s afternoon and I’m journeying on what will become a very familiar route over the next few months – the southbound M5 to the lower Severn. Parking the car in the designated area I set off for my swim with the gear loaded on the barrow. Although often referred to as ‘carp’ barrows, in reality there’s nothing particularly ‘carpy’ about them. They’re just convenient ways of getting your tackle from the car to the water’s edge.
Making a sound deposit The first thing I did on getting to the swim was to deposit particles a third of the way across the river using a bait dropper. Some anglers get put off by the splash that a bait dropper makes as it hits the water. But on the lower Severn I don’t find this to be a particular problem.
Best barbel of the season so far Casting out, it wasn’t long before my left hand boily rod indicated a fish had taken the bait. Striking, I connected with that lovely sensation that a good barbel brings. With no snags in my swim (to my knowledge anyway) the odds were always in my favour and so it was no surprise when the net lifted out of the water with a good looking barbel contained within. Weighing in at 8-8-0, it was the heaviest fish of the season so far. But, having said that, it was only my second fish! (The first was 7-11-0).
Apart from the originality that comes with making your own boilies, there is also the option to make them as hard or as soft as you like, by varying the boiling time. As the lower Severn is notorious for eels, I’ve gone for harder baits and this has certainly paid off. Once darkness descends the eels constantly attack the baits. Face to face with a rat Another encounter I had just as it was getting dark was with a rat. Sitting there very still, I caught some movement just to my left. As I was almost at ground level, positioned in a step in the steep bank, I turned my head to find myself staring into the eyes of a big furry rodent. I don’t know who was the most startled, me or the rat. But I guess I won, as he quickly turned and fled back into the undergrowth from whence he had come. No more fish followed, but at least I wasn’t a blanker. And I didn’t see the rat again either.
Last visit of the month My next visit to the lower Severn was my final one for the month of June. Again, another hot and sunny day saw me heading for the M5. Even with a certain amount of traffic I can do the journey within 45 minutes, so it’s not too bad at all. And with most of the journey being either motorway or top notch ‘A’ roads it’s a comfortable one as well. As with the previous session, I landed a barbel fairly early into proceedings. This one registered at 6-6-8 so is in fact the smallest of the three caught so far. Still, it’s early days, and at least I’ve caught something. This time last year it was the height of the Foot and Mouth epidemic and the year before, my opening week or so, was a real struggle. On this session I planned to do an overnighter. That was severely put to the test, because as the sun set it got very chilly indeed. If I didn’t know the month I would have hazarded a guess at maybe December. Yes, it was that cold. The strong north wind blowing into my face didn’t help either. However, I resisted the temptation to go back to the car and drive home and fished through.
Lost barbel but chuffed with the chub As dawn came, the resultant warm rays from the rising sun were very welcome indeed. It also brought the fish to life as well. In a few hours I had a number of fish, none of them barbel though. But I did have one barbel on the end of the line, that unfortunately I lost. Battling to keep control of it, it took me downstream into a snag. But happy to say, as far as fish welfare is concerned, even though I didn’t land the fish itself, no other damage was done as the terminal tackle came back pretty much intact. Another three chub also took a fancy to my boilies. If I were fishing the Mease or the Sow on suitable gear, these fish would definitely be considered quality, and would certainly put up a good fight. I thought I’d better take a photograph of one of the chub, if only to break up the ‘monotony’ of the endless stream of barbel photographs that will (hopefully) be accompanying most of my articles from now on!
Still, I needn’t have worried regarding choice of quality non-barbel photographs, as right at the end of the session, I hooked and landed a bream just over 6 lb. Again, it fell to the boily that seems to be all the rage at the moment with the fish. What I had actually done the previous night was to switch both rods to boilies to see if there would be a change, as the right hand rod had not yielded one single fish so far, on flavoured meat. (And the same flavour as the boily, by the way). And guess what, the right hand rod had produced the lost barbel, the bream and a couple of chub! Lower Severn barbel results table Lower Severn Sessions: 4
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It’s like shift work with my tench and barbel campaigns at the moment – one off and one on. And next week is no exception, when Pilgrim’s Progress is all about tincas. Join me when I tell you how ‘Some you win, some you lose’. See you next week, and until then, may the fish of your dreams become a reality. The Reverend Stewart R Bloor Pilgrim’s Progress – read it every Thursday! |
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