If you read my angling articles regularly, you will know that recently I decided to take a look at the River Sow in Staffordshire, specifically in relation to targeting barbel. It’s a river that I have fished a lot over the last couple of winters after chub, but I’ve come across neither sight nor sound of barbel. In dozens of trips, I’ve never hooked one and I’ve never been aware of any topping on the river while I’ve been there.
The first trip that I made didn’t produce a barbel, although I did have a decent chub and bream that took a fancy to my home made boilies, that are all the rage at the moment with my fishy friends. It was a month later, but I felt like another visit to the Sow in pursuit of barbel. I didn’t bother getting there until an hour or so before dark, which gave me chance to bait up and then fish a swim that had taken my fancy on a previous visit. While setting up I realised that I had left at home the mono that I am currently trying out as a hook length. This is the curse of having so much fishing tackle that you can’t keep it all in one place, I guess! Anyway, I decided to fish with 8 lb Drennan Micro Braid. Usually I fish with no less than 10 lb line when barbel fishing, but as the swim I had chosen had no snags I was happy enough starting out with something a little lighter. In addition, as I had absolutely no idea what the fish potential is of the river, I didn’t want to go too high at first either. Although this session was in the month of August and so still very much classed as summer, the evening had a definite autumnal feel to it. As the sun set, the cloudless sky saw the air temperature plummet. A mist shrouded both the water and the surrounding land, and as I exhaled, my breath hung in the air. Definitely my favourite time of the year! I was only planning a short session, up until midnight, as I needed to be up in the morning for work. But as the Sow is not that far away it’s ideal for those type of sessions. Just after 10.00 pm (exactly half way through the session) the rod started to indicate a fish had taken the bait. Nothing dramatic, certainly not like the three-foot twitches I get on the Dove sometimes! Suspecting nothing more than a chub I struck. A good chub, I thought to myself, but still only a chub. Those initial thoughts however, were quickly reviewed when the fish put up more resistance than a chub would usually muster on that gear. A change of mind saw me settle on the encouraging fact I had hooked my first Sow barbel. Feeling the weight of the fish as it fought rather lamely, I guessed about 5 lb. Not for the first time in my angling experience have I been pleasantly surprised though. As I slipped the net under the fish I saw that this was no ‘5’, but was indeed something much bigger. As it lay on the unhooking mat, I wondered whether I had caught a double. The scales confirmed that indeed I had, as they were half ounce the right side of the magical mark of 10 lb. To say I was chuffed was an understatement! I have had bigger barbel, in fact already this season I’ve had one bigger fish from the Severn (13-11-0) and two from the Dove (11-2-0 and 10-13-8). But without a doubt this is the best of them all. Coming from a river that is not noted as a barbel venue, and the fact that it was all real, genuine pioneer stuff, I would go as far as to say that it actually rivalled my very first double as the most memorable barbel I have ever caught. At this moment in time – and remember I often write articles as each constituent trip unfolds – I would hazard a guess that the stretch I’m fishing on the Sow doesn’t have a big head of barbel. But, if a fish like this pops up every now and then amidst the blanks, then I won’t be complaining! |
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