The nights are starting to draw in
It’s the last weekend in August 2009 as I write, and so far I have not fished the stream before 4:30pm this season, prefering to make the most of the evenings when the barbel seem to become less wary and feed more confidently on the small Hertfordshire streams that I fish.
With it being the last weekend of August it means that the nights are starting to draw in and the evenings are starting to get a tad cooler and soon I will have to fish more during the daytime.
So I decided to squeeze in another evening on my favourite stream while it’s still warm and relatively light. In a few weeks it will be back to fishing during the daytime again because a stroke I had several years ago had put an end to my fishing in total darkness.
A good start
I arrived at 4pm and found the swim that I wanted to fish was empty, which was a good start. There were three other anglers fishing a few swims away. 
The swim only looked around 18″ to 2ft deep instead of the 3 to 4ft that is the case when the river is in normal flow, but there were usually some barbel underneath the tall undergrowth that hung up to 3ft over a deeper channel that ran tight against the far bank.
I was using a shortish 8 inch link leger with a ½oz flat lead (see photo) so that I could hold a bait stationary in the hole in the undergrowth on the far bank where I had caught barbel before. The bait I was using was punched garlic flavoured luncheon meat on a sharp size 8 barbless hook.
I fired out some small hemp sized halibut pellets slightly upstream and peering through the clear shallow water I could just make out a couple of grey shapes moving in and out of the far bank cover and mopping them up; so I was feeling fairly confident.
Occasionally feed during the day
I had the first barbel at around 4:45 and it took the needle to 7lb 8oz. This is about the earliest that I have had a barbel here this season, it was still light and sunny although slightly cooler, I remember thinking that perhaps the barbels’ internal clocks had already kicked in as the days had got a little shorter.
I know that barbel do occasionally feed during the day, but not nearly as often as they do in the late evenings on this stream, even though there are some excellent anglers targeting them throughout the day.
The second barbel was around 4lb so I didn’t bother weighing it, just took a quick picture and put it back after holding it in the flow to recover. (Picture left)
The third barbel pulled the needle round to 8lb 9oz, but I was so busy admiring and weighing it that I forgot to take a photo (I must be getting a bit senile in my old age).
The Fourth Barbel was even bigger at 9lb 3oz, which is my largest one this season from the stream so after I had taken a couple of ground shots together with my centrepin (to add scale and for future fish identication purposes) I got one of the other anglers to take a picture with me holding it.
A small one with attitude problems
The last Barbel came as I was starting to pack up and was a small one with attitude problems of around 2lb which fought like a little devil. (Picture right)
The groundwater is in dire need of some prolonged rain to top it up. We have had some rain showers and thunderstorms in the past few weeks, but nowhere near enough to top up the groundwater resulting in the river levels getting lower and lower. Any rain showers just run through the rivers and have no time to top up the groundwater.
The evening turned out a lot better than I had expected considering the recent weather and the extremely low water levels. 
Be willing to explore
These small streams can hold some surprisingly good fish for an angler who is willing to explore them and is willing to fish into dusk or at first light. It amazes me how many anglers are just not aware of what they are missing and drive past them without as much as a cursory glance on their way to their more crowded stillwaters.
Tight lines
Keith Manger (KeithM)
