“It’s all right Fred, take your time, from now on you’re here to enjoy yourself, relax.”
These were the first words from Graham in the hotel lobby, after apologising for my late arrival following a four and a half hour journey to Padworth in Berkshire from my adopted Wolds of North Lincolnshire and an atypical trip on the M25.
My day out was a prize won on the Barbel Fishing World website, for a day with Graham Elliott of Angling Experiences.
Now, my barbel experiences started in November 1972, the 3rd to be exact. My old fishing pal Colin Adams and I had read about the Avon and Stour on many occasions but, being Essex boys, had never experienced such rivers. Our fishing was restricted to the gravel pits and to the rivers Roding, Chelmer and Suffolk Stour along with an occasional trip to the Thames at Hampton Court.
So off we went to stay in a bed and breakfast bungalow in Holdenhurst. Colin was the driver, I, being too poor to afford a car, too much wine and women and, anyway, my mate, being a refrigeration engineer, had the company van.
 Throop barbel for a young Fred |
We were there to stay for three days and tried various locations on the Avon and just had no real idea how to fish the river. So the last day arrived we came upon the Throop fishery, bought our ticket at the gatehouse and wandered the banks and found the weir (the old one), set ourselves up and were very soon into some very nice roach and bream.
By afternoon our bites had dried up so we decided to move and look for some chub and perhaps one of those legendary barbel
Well, we both got our chub, at that time my personal best of 3lb 14ozs and were now fishing into dusk, the holiday was close to being over.
So, my final fling was to throw all my remaining maggots in put on my biggest hook, probably a size 8 and filled it up with maggots, a chunky coffin lead and plonk it in the middle of the streamer weeds. Then off, for the final pee.
While I was going about my business and having a look around, like you do, I saw my rod doing a merry dance in the rod rest.
A panic run back to the swim and I was in. My memory is quite jaded now but I don’t think I got a big fight and the barbel was soon netted and weighed – all 8lb 9ozs of it.
After that, marriage, commuting and cricket took over my life, although I spent my honeymoon at the Bull at Downton. Still married, to the same one, 32 years later!
I started fishing again after a job move to Milton Keynes and few more years of two games a weekend cricket.
Got the bug again, in 1995. It may have been John Wilson’s fault or, the fact that I still had my old gear and was thinking of offloading it.
Anyway my village was in walking distance to the River Tove and 15 minutes by car to the Upper Ouse and many of the MKAA’s waters, so I gave them all a go, and very soon was into winter chub fishing with fish in the early 5’s, mostly on chunks of Stilton and in the spring tenching with fish up to 6lb 13ozs.
Sometime, probably two years before MKAA syndicated Adams Mill, I decided to have a go at barbel and fished Adams Mill and Ravenstone as many times as I could. Many times not seeing another soul, then again it was mid week and I had now retired, on my 52nd birthday and so not many people about, although, I did get fleeting conversations with and glimpses of Ray Walton as he stalked the banks.
Despite all my reading I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing regarding barbel fishing and the net result of many, many visits was a 12 ouncer from Adams Mill! But, I still had successes with chub, my new PB set at 6lb 12ozs.
Having retired so young, I now had to consider how to continue fishing and indeed eating for the rest of my life, so we upped sticks and moved to Lincolnshire. Not the flat bit though.
My first expedition to the mighty Trent was with Ron Clay, whom I met through this website. We fished Sutton on Trent, just before it became part of the Barbel Society portfolio and I had my first Trent barbel of about 5lb with some very helpful advice on location and baiting from Ron.
I then joined the Barbel Society, primarily to fish Sutton, but soon got to know Mike Berridge, Tony Rocca, Ian Hobkirk , Pete Williams, Paul Owens and the Rev. Hugh Middleton, all of whom I hope I can claim to be my good friends.
It was an invitation to fish the Hazelford fishery in October of last season by Mike Berridge that, to his joy, as well as mine, enabled me after 22 years, to improve on my personal best with a barbel of 9lb 4ozs.
So, back to where I started, my ‘Experience’ with Graham Elliott. I left my gear at the hotel and Graham drove us to the River Loddon, about half an hour away.
After parking up we walked with his tackle to a small bridge over the crystal clear river. We could see barbel, which after the Trent was something new to me. Graham tossed in a few pellets and all hell broke loose with a smaller barbel leaping out of the water twice, then, what appeared to be a mini tidal wave came up from the shallows and margins as those already below the bridge were joined by many others. An unbelievable sight, which made me wonder if just the same thing happens on the Trent, where you can’t see the fish.
Well, after that new experience, we walked upstream, but the swim Graham wanted to show me was already occupied, so we dropped back downstream. The Loddon is certainly a beautiful little river, not unlike the Tove and no more than 20 feet wide.
Graham showed me how he set up his tackle and explained his method of fishing. No, I’m not explaining it here. He handed me the rod and suggested the location for the bait to be dropped. I followed his instructions, although he said I could fish any way I liked. With many twitches and some sitting on my hands at the slow pulls and after no more than an hour, the big tug came. I held on for dear life as a big barbel, well, big by my standards, began its journey to the bulrushes.
After a short skirmish with the fish breaking the surface noisily a couple of times, it was safely in the net, Graham, purposely I am sure, underestimated the weight, probably not to get me any more excited than I already was.
The scales zeroed, fish in the weigh sling, and the reading was 10lb 8ozs. The photos were taken, I was chuffed and my heart pounded, either from the tussle or the excitement of my first double.
I think Graham was quite pleased as well, I fished for another hour and then we decided to go to the pub to celebrate.
One hour with the master, a double, and still the proper prize day to come on the Kennett.
 Fred and his 10lb 8oz Loddon barbel |
We had decided to start the day early rather than late, as I had the four hour plus journey back to think about. I didn’t sleep well that night!
I missed the full fry up, but filled the car with petrol and me with a sandwich and followed Graham to the river. We fished the Benyons stretch, me using my own kit, but following Grahams advice, tackled up in the same way. Not the best of days, although I did get to meet and fish with the legendary Dick Dowling. It just wasn’t our day, brilliant sunshine and low river conditions. Not only that, Dick, although I was warned about it, didn’t turn up in shorts! Although, towards the end of our day, a very excited Graham, managed to winkle out a 10lb 12oz beauty. He thought it was heavier.
We all left together, and after shaking hands I did the 200 odd miles home singing all the way, in three hours, despite turning back once thinking I had turned the wrong way out of the fishery!
All in all a very satisfactory trip for me. I would highly recommend Graham’s ‘Angling Experiences’ and I may well go again, this time at my own expense.
