River Ribble above Preston 14/03/16
3:00pm-10:30pm
Normal river levels approx 0.36m
2 Rods Ground-bait Feeder with pellet, corn and dead maggots
Started session with maggot feeder and picked up a small Grayling at 4:00pm. Baited swim at 5:00pm with a few large balls of ground-bait on each rod, awaiting nightfall with the usual anticipation. At exactly 6:30pm I had my first 3ft twitch on my downstream rod, which resulted in a 5LB+ Barbel to 14mm Halibut Pellet (Good Start) and signs that Barbel were willing to feed. I had a couple of savage plucks on my upstream rod on meat, but they didn't progress and I put them down to Chub. 7:20pm and my downstream rod sprung into life again, with the open drag screaming, resulting in a 7LB+ Barbel to 14mm Halibut pellet. I changed bait on my upstream rod and switched from a large piece of luncheon meat to a small piece of hair-rigged Pepperami, with loose offerings in the feeder. At 8:10 the upstream rod hooped over and the fish began to take line, I immediately lifted into the fish and was met by an initial powerful run on the drag and then a steady heavy plod, which told me it as a good fish, after about a 6min fight I netted the fish and was greeted by a huge head and broad shoulders, tipping the scales at 10lb12oz (This was now turning into a great end of season session). I followed this up with a 3lb+ chub at 09:20pm and another 3LB+ Chub at 09:50pm, one falling to a piece of Mega Corn and the other to an 8mm pellet, one upstream and one downstream. Packed in at 10:30pm a very happy Ribble Rover.
Good luck to everyone for the new season in June 16