Big Whiskers as I Ponder Sven’s Tactics

Just as I’d expected the river was in a sorry looking state, the area I had first intended to fish was nothing but exposed gravel for at least half the way out so I walked on towards a large outside bend where I have caught decent fish before.

I had expected some flow at either the tail or the head of the pool but alas it looked no better. It was hot and I had already walked a long way but decided to walk back to my first choice as there was slightly more flow there.

It was sunny and without a breath of wind as I dug myself into a bank full of head high vegetation before setting up my rods. For a moment I just sat there and looked around, taking stock of how I would approach these conditions whilst cooling down from the long walk I had just made. I really fancied the swim for a fish or two but thought I’d scale down slightly from my normal tactics to try and induce a bite in the low, clear conditions.

I knew I had no more than 2ft of water in front of me but also that a hundred yards or so downstream of my spot was an area that the barbel would be lying during daylight before coming out to feed over the gravel at dusk. I was pleased to have no other anglers in sight but for one other chap blanking around the bend. But as England were playing Wales this afternoon I’d expected the river to be nice and quiet.

Tackle

For an hour I cast a mix of ‘Mr Wriggles’ aniseed mix and trout pellets through an open ended feeder before slowing down the feed rate once I was happy I had a good bed of bait on the gravel in mid-river. Rods were Nash ‘X-Lite’ in 1.75 tc, reels were the trusty Shimano 5010, mainline 10lb Krystonite with 8lb Krystonite hooklinks, hooks were size 10 ESP ‘Raptors’.

Bait

In these conditions I prefer a small bait so I used two halves of a 10mm Nash ‘Monster Barbel’ boilie fished back to back with some 10mm pellets as back-up if these failed. Again thinking the fish would be cautious I opted for a long hooklink of around 3ft.

I sat back and listened to Sven’s strange tactics and pondered why the pillock gets paid 4 million pounds a year whilst waiting for dusk (me not him) to arrive.

10.3 Ribble barbel for Gary – pity Sven’s tactics weren’t as good!

By late afternoon I had a couple of chub raps but no positive indication, but at least fish were now showing interest in the baited area.

Suddenly I had a huge drop-back on the upstream rod and quickly wound into it. As you would expect the result of this was for the fish to bolt downstream but this particular spot was pretty free of snags (hence the light gear) so I was in no danger of losing him. Despite only having an 8lb hooklink I have no problem really leaning into the fish and in a few short minutes he was bullied through the unusually thick nearside weed and into the waiting net. First barbel of the year and a double at 10.03, what a nice start to the season and I was sure more was to come.

In the next hour the swim did come alive and I took further barbel of 9.02 and a couple around 7lb. Oh, and a lost bream of around 5-6lb who thought two feet of gravelly water was ideal bream habitat.

I packed up soon after dark when the eels decided they also liked my hookbaits – I know I could have changed to pellet and probably caught a few more fish but to be honest I’d had enough and was ready for a beer or two. It had been an enjoyable day but the river wasn’t really inspiring. Perhaps now I’ve had my fix I’ll leave it alone again until the rains finally arrive.

Incidentally the fish is the first one I have photographed using the infra-red remote of my new camera (You can see it between my fingers in the picture). I’m pretty pleased with the result and it certainly takes the guesswork out of self photography.