September 2nd - river Lot, France.

[Steve Arnold]

August was a tough month, needed rain! But at the end there were a few days torrential rain, Unfortunately it did not make it to my section of the river!

Went down today for a four hour exploratory session - and the river had good flow. The upriver barrage must have finally let some backed-up water out!

The fish obliged, lots of bites from small stuff. Eventually I had three barbel about three pounds, not big but good enough after such a tough August.

Then a couple of hired motor cruisers came through and made a massive disturbance with their poor approach to the lock gates. The bites dried up and the last hour was fishless - almost!

I had the usual last cast, followed by another last cast (of course!) On that last cast I was 15 minutes past my agreed getting home time as I had guests to cook for. At the end of that time I was talking to the fish "come on, you know you want it!" and various other fisherman prayers. So then I resorted to the 10 second count down, got down to 1 and "forgot" where I was and started again,,, got to 5 and the rod tip banged over, fish on!

A decent chub around four pounds put up a very good fight and gave me the run-around various snags. Got him past the sunken tree and in the net, great end to a short session. Not many chub from here so far but they are decent fish.....

Fishing buddy Alistair had a couple of small barbel, maybe that's why he took such a rubbish photo? His other photos cut either my head in half or lost major parts of the fish. He blamed on my camera phone! Hmmm!

 

[mikench]

And I thought the last cast routine, counting down the last 30 seconds in my case, then recounting as the second hand has gone past the vertical and finally agreeing to myself to stop at 4 minutes past, was just me. Reassuring as I deteriorate .

Good post and well written. Lovely chub too.

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Here on the Dordogne, the barbel fishing has been ticking along with one or two most evenings, even catching to order for a couple of guests! Not done very well on fluff chucking, but fishing time quite limited as we’ve been packed out with the business since July, should slow down in October, maybe we’ll get chance to meet up then, Steve.


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[Roger Johnson 2]

And yes I do the last cast countdown thing too!


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[Steve Arnold]

Seeing as I usually do short trips I always try harder towards the end of a session. By that time if there is a fish within smelling distance of my bait or feeder he may be getting an appetite!

August was a poor month due to low flow and a lot more tourists on the river. But I picked up a few with long casts of 70-90 yds with my 2.5lb carp rod. Reaches a bend which is inaccessible to the tourists and the water a few feet deeper, there may be a shoal in residence and a couple of my barbel captures were a reasonable size....

With the evenings closing in a little I plan on fishing a few hours into darkness soon. These fish are getting used to boilies and pellets now, there may be better fish to come!