Early Season
Whilst I enjoy fishing stillwaters, I am at heart a river fisherman and by early June I’m chafing at the bit to get back on the rivers. From the start of the season until early Autumn my main quarry will be the barbel of the Yorkshire rivers and for the first month I’ll concentrate on the shallows and the deeper glides adjacent to them. If the rivers are right then I will be sight fishing, stalking my fish in clear, shallow water.
Barbel location is much easier in the early season, especially if the rivers are at normal level. Shallow water with overhead cover is always worth a try and always watch out for flashing barbel. The dull bronze flash is always a sign of fish that are willing to take a bait. As the evening draws on barbel will often move into deeper water adjacent to the shallows to feed so it is worth fishing these spots in the last hour.
It’s a lot easier to catch fish that are not aware of your presence so stay low and stay quiet. Although they have had a few months of relative peace and quiet barbel will soon wise up again and it is anglers who can cope with this who will catch the bigger fish – I like to think of it as the ‘Spook Factor’.
Every fish has a threshold above which it becomes wary and another threshold above which it just won’t feed. These thresholds will vary from fish to fish and from river to river, but bigger fish in busier venues will have low thresholds. I like to make a mental list of factors that might spook a fish and try to eliminate them: Noise on the bank, standing on the skyline, obvious end tackle, line entering the water at a steep angle, large quantities of bait, and so on. By minimising the ‘Spook Factor’ I’m increasing my chances of catching bigger fish. A few years ago I wrote an article for FM called How to Catch Bigger Barbel, the Spook Factor is explained in more detail in that.
My Plans for the Season
Thinking about my fishing over the past few years I realised that I’m getting into a bit of a rut: fishing the same old swims with the same old methods so this season I’m going to shake up my fishing a bit. The first thing I’m going to change is my mobility. Rather than sitting it out in the same old swims I’m going to travel light and really explore a stretch of river, making sure I try lots of new swims.
Like many barbel anglers I’ve become increasingly reliant on pellets over the past few years. They are convenient and the barbel like them so I use them. I’m coming round to the view that firstly I’m now too reliant on pellets and that secondly that pellets are less effective than they used to be. I’m still going to use the smell of fishmeal as an attractor, but I’m going to experiment with different carriers. I’ll report back on this.
I’m also going to put more effort into catching a Yorkshire chub above 7lb. This is a challenging target and I’m going to have to devote more time to this than I have done in the past. My current PB of 6lb 11oz was caught on the float and it would be nice if I can catch my ‘7’ on the float as well.
Finally I’m planning to spend more time perch fishing. The Yorkshire rivers can produce some real crackers and I intend to devote a bit more time to catching them.
