In a radical departure from my normal barbel fishing break with a couple of grizzled old chums, combining fishing with a few good nights out, this year I went to the River Severn with my wife. She has a particular fondness for visiting National Trust properties, the more remote the better. We once went to stay for a week in a cottage in Wales that was half way down a cliff; I had to carry the luggage 400 yards, carefully avoiding boulders, steep drops and sheep shit. However, this one was very different; it was thirty yards from the River Severn.
The week’s break in mid-October was to be a mix of country house visits and fishing depending on the weather and water conditions. The river was low, almost summer levels according to the local tackle shop owner, and a walk down the length nearest the cottage revealed several good looking swims. I was hoping for something safe and easy for Sue and eventually found one with a large, flat grassy area for her to sit, with no overhanging trees or visible snags.
Sue always fishes well, she may not be able to tie great knots or have the experience of where to fish but when it comes to concentration she’s up there with Rodin’s ‘Thinker’, sitting like a praying mantis; her attitude to bites and striking are ”If it moves – hit it”. Consequently she frequently catches much more than me, particularly on slow days when bites are few and far between. I tackled up for her with a groundbait feeder, medium 11’ feeder rod, 6lb line and a 4lb hook link to a size 12 hook. I suggested that she fished double maggot and I told her to expect small dace, roach and chub. In preparation for the trip I had hastily visited our local, slightly run down, tackle shop and bought the last bag of groundbait there; it was a specialist ‘Bream’ groundbait that smelt of vanilla which Sue found very pleasant.
I fished in the next swim so I could be handy in case she cast into a tree or something. I had taken a long time setting myself up and I had just had my first cast (which resulted in a lost feeder) when Sue called. I rushed around arriving just in time to see her reeling in.
“I’ve just lost a big ’un, I got it right into the edge but I couldn’t manage the landing net very well and it got off in the edge” she said excitedly “I think it was a bream”.
I didn’t want to disillusion her but I didn’t think there were any bream in this section of the river, it’s too fast. There are shallow rapids half a mile downstream and fast shallow water half a mile upstream so I considered it extremely unlikely it was a bream. Admittedly, due to the low water conditions, there was slower water in front of her but I just didn’t think bream would thrive in this length.
Thoughtfully, I went back to my swim to tackle up for the third time this morning, thinking, “bream? No, I don’t think so”. Twenty minutes later, before I had had chance to have a cast Sue called again. This time she had one in the net, a bream of about 4lb; a stunner in beautiful condition.
I could hardly believe it; I just stood there shaking my head. This trip was turning out like all my other trips with Sue, I spend loads of time setting things up and she ends up catching loads more than me; she caught another four bream that morning.
Anyway, later in the afternoon, after I’d moved swims, I had a couple of barbel; one on banded 8mm halibut pellet and one on a cut down Bait Tec Hybrid Barbel bait also on a latex bait band; they were both around 6lb-7lb. I was dead chuffed, Sue was impressed too.
A few days later, after we’d visited the RAF Museum, Cosford, (where they have TSR2, a Lightning, and a Vulcan, highly recommended) and a couple of National Trust Country Houses I managed to sneak two evenings on the river, both successful with three more barbel around the same size.
The last two days of the trip we were fishing all day, Sue in the same swim with her groundbait feeder and variations on the double maggot theme, me roving about trying different locations. In the middle of the second afternoon Sue sent me a text:
“Hook line & feeder gone!!! Was an immovable object. Didn’t help that I’d been catching small roach. X”
I hastened to her swim and heard all about it, you didn’t have to be John Bailey to know it sounded like a barbel. I beefed-up her gear with 7lb hook link and watch her recast. She was just demonstrating what the bite looked like when the tip trembled and before it could develop into a three-foot-twitch Sue struck and the fish took off. It shot downstream taking line off the reel; I leaned over and adjusted the clutch up as Sue grimly hung on. Sue had never had a fish on that pulled back so hard, she was trying to gain line just using the reel and not letting the rod do the work; it’s hard to teach someone that particular skill when they’re in the middle of the fight but I tried to suggest the best course of action to follow. After six or seven minutes she was getting the better of the fish but you know what barbel are like, they don’t give up at the net; it was time for me to give her a bit more help. She was quite relieved for me to take the rod and complete the job, it took a few seconds and the barbel was landed, a fish of about 5lbs; Sue was delighted and exhausted, her first ever barbel.
Later on we decided to move nearer the cottage for the last half hour, chuck some maggots in. Sue caught a 2lb chub, how lucky is that?
As I look back over the week’s fishing I realised how well Sue fished, she’d caught decent bream, dace, roach, some minnows, her first barbel and a bloody chub; remarkable focus. I’d done okay, better than usual as a matter of fact, fewer distractions than when I’m with my barbel buddies but I couldn’t quite banish a nagging suspicion that if I’d got Sue’s powers of concentration I would have caught more. I spend most of my time thinking about changing swims and changing bait; as if that’s going to transform my day when I should be just concentrating and sticking to the plan.
Of course it could have been that I’d given her the best swim!
Andy Scholey ©2016
