Team Barbel on Tour – Part 3, High Pressure Blues

Team Barbel after our NEC 2004 Appearance

PART 3 – HIGH PRESSURE BLUES

After almost giving up on the Trent for the winter, only to get 20 barbel, including two doubles during our last overnight session, myself and Ginger decided to brave the A17 speed cameras and have another go. The weather was good for mid November but we had not had much rain as the air pressure had been high for a couple of weeks giving us generally fine weather with night frosts. Although not ideal barbel conditions it was well worth a try.

I finished my shift at 0600 Sunday morning and was outside Ginger’s house ready to collect him by ten past, the 10 or so miles soon covered as the roads were empty. The Trip to Newark was uneventful apart from the Maccy Dees breakfast, can’t say I am a big MacDonald’s fan but a couple of sausage and egg Mac muffins and a large tea are great value at less than £ 3 and pretty tasty too.

On arrival the river was not much higher than summer level and very clear, so we suspected daylight fishing would be difficult. However, with the long November night ahead we had a good chance of a few fish.

We were soon fishing with shelters erected for the session ahead. As we sipped our first mug of tea my alarms sounded the presence of fish in the swim with a couple of short shrieks followed by a slow pull, “bream on” was the cry. Now I don’t mind a few bream; always most welcome, but they aren’t much sport on tackle meant for barbel.

Just one of the 32 Bream I tried to avoid

Three bream in three casts soon set the pattern I increased my bait size and turned my alarm sensitivity down so only hooked fish would give me any signal and I hoped either the bream would move on or hungry barbel would shift them. How wrong I was. Nothing I tried could stop them hanging themselves, even when using 21mm halibuts and big balls of paste, the lot, they kept coming. Best fish I weighed at 7lb 4oz with most in the 6lb size bracket.

Richy, fishing just 30yds downstream, had no such problem. No bream, which was a good job really as he normally reels in and refuses to cast again until the bream have gone. He had managed a barbel of 6lb so we were well pleased; at least barbel were in the area and feeding.

Being single old Richy has no pressure from ‘er indoors to get things done, “paint this, and mend that,” etc, he spends most of his life reading fishing books and mags. He is always looking at rigs and baits, surfing the net for ideas and the forums for the latest venue information. Unfortunately this then tends to confuse old Ginger, who used to be indecisive but now he is not sure. Ginger though is a thinking angler and has a real knack for reading waters, his ability to put anglers onto fish on our local lakes is second to none.

As the light faded I was cooking us a gourmet supper of beef in ale with spicy wedges and then raspberries and cream for sweet. I was thinking about the time at school when I got chucked out of woodwork and ended up in the girls cooking class. Boy did my mates take the mick, but it suited me fine, being in a class of nearly all girls and leaving school with an O level in cooking, which comes in handy at times.

My bream score was rising slowly even with my every effort not to catch them, the 10 caught as darkness fell soon turned to 20 as bed time approached. If this carried on I would not be getting much sleep. Richy had managed to avoid the bream and had landed himself a nice barbel at 9.05.

Ginger well pleased with his 10lb 4oz barbel

I had been at work all the previous night so was well tired and managed some sleep between my mounting bream haul. I was woken by a more positive alarm scream only to jump up in my half asleep state to find Richy playing a good fish, a nice double of 10.04 was soon photographed and returned.

Richy was well pleased to know my bream haul was now around 25 and he still had not had one, jammy sod I thought as my alarms sounded the all too familiar “peep peep” to signify yet another bream had found my bait and was not going to give in until he had eaten it.

As the sun rose over the horizon I was sipping the first tea of the day, richy had managed to remain breamless all night and my total had reached 32 but luckily I too had not had a bream for a couple of hours. But having had no barbel either to Richy’s five I was peeved to say the least. I decided to up the stakes and went for a long cast bang in the middle of the main flow which hugged the far bank in our chosen swims. All night we had both fished an area short of mid river over a large area of gravel which had produced five barbel for Rich overnight and many others in the past for us both.

The bacon had not even started to sizzle when my alarm shrieked with delight as I had at last hooked a better fish, and a barbel of 6.12 was soon returned as I recast to the same area. The next three casts produced the same result, four barbel in four casts, the best going 7.05. These were soon followed by two more barbel to the same rod, to finish another great session.

Yet again the Team Barbel boys had done the business, Richy five barbel, best 10 04, Ade 32 Bream, six barbel, the best at 9.01. My total I estimated at around 200lb, not a bad catch for mid November that’s for sure. I had been with Richy too long though I could not decide should I have fished all out for the bream and ended up with a massive bag or should I have cast much longer earlier and would I have had more barbel? You decide!

Ginger at the helm of ‘The Gay Tosser’, our Barbel Survey Vessel

On our way back home we called into the boat yard at Newark to view our recent purchase, the new Team Barbel angling survey vessel. Once finished she will be equipped with the very latest Sonar and GPS equipment, allowing us to pinpoint barbel shoals and drop anchor and bag up immediately. Also fitted with laser guided missiles we should be able to defend our chosen swims. Not sure how the Barbel Police will feel but that’s tough. Look out for us next season as we sail the river.

The next few weeks the weather remained much the same but the overnight frosts reduced the water temperature to a steady low 40’s and with no rain and high air pressure barbel are always reluctant to feed. A couple of years ago Tommy and myself spent a couple of days with a certain Mr West, what a guy, the Original Mr Barbel. We learnt so much in two days about all aspects of old whiskers, and one thing Trefor did tell us was when the river takes on that green tinge in low clear winter conditions forget barbel and fish for something else.

With this in mind and Richy again unable to make up his mind, me and Tommy would fish the Wensum for Pike. Richy would act as our gillie and he suggested a wobbled deadbait approach. He then changed his mind three times as to what was the best area to fish. We leapfrogged pegs as we progressed downstream with only one lost fish to brighten the day. Tommy did have a pike around 6 inches long that tried very hard to eat his large smelt deadbait which was around twice its size.

We reached the end of the stretch with not much to show, although Tommy did manage a small fish of around 3lb which our gillie unhooked for him.

Never one to miss a chance of a cup or two of tea we decided to rig up with floats and fish static while we had a pleasant lunch served by our gillie. I had not even sipped my freshly brewed tea when my float bobbed and slipped under as Mr Esox went for a swim. At only 6lb it was small but most welcome; Tommy looked well frightened by the sharp teeth.

The hungry pike with the second trace in its throat

Not many minutes later I had another run as yet again the float sailed away, a lively scrap produced another fish around the 6lb mark. More remarkable was the fact that this fish also had a trace with a fresh bait lodged in its throat which our gillie removed and on close inspection it turned out to be a trace I had lost on a snag around 400yds upstream a couple of hours earlier. That fish was obviously hungry and pretty lucky as the two sets of trebles were well lodged in his throat (see photo).

I finished with four nice jacks, with nothing bigger than 7lb, but had a great laugh as always with the Team Barbel boys. Richy did pretty well as our gillie but as always could not make his mind up; he has been particularly bad since he turned 40, early dementia perhaps.

Xmas comes but once a year and when its does it brings great cheer, but not for everyone, old Richy he hates it worse than old Ebenezer Scrooge himself. To cheer him up on Boxing Day we visited the local match fished on the Wensum in the centre of Norwich, won with over 20lb of prime Roach. Now Tommy, he has to go to London to play in the family charades championship. He was very pleased this year as his auntie gave him some new Rupert Bear pyjamas for Xmas. He can’t wait for a night session on the Trent to wear them. I was well chuffed, my wife gave me a metal detector for Christmas which I couldn’t wait to get out and try.

Another ring pull I reckon

With the continued high pressure and the fishing remaining poor, to say the least, the blues set in. Team Barbel in urgent need of something to cheer us up decided to try to find some buried treasure with my new metal detector; visions of gold coins and roman hoards filled our minds as we dreamed of retirement homes by a river filled with double figure barbel. Beep beep peeep peep the speaker on the metal detector sounded as we quickly dug and unearthed our 25th ring pull of the day. Bloody things are everywhere. We did find a few quid, some odd bits of jewellery and a bunch of car keys, and had some good fun doing it.

The continued settled weather was so frustrating, I would rather it was really cold and frosty with a bit of snow, at least then, once the weather has improved, the water temp would rise and our beloved barbel would feed again. Richy proved this last winter as he had several barbel as the water temperature rose. Catching barbel with the recorded temperature of only 38 but a rising 38 is quite possible as he proved on several occasions.

Richy lives only a couple of hundred yards from the Wensum and takes the temperature most days. Myself and Tommy have him to thank for many of the big Wensum barbel we have had. Often the temperature will be on the rise and a text from Richy will be the signal to get out the gear and get on the river. Richy will even bait up a swim during the afternoon so our arrival later will often be greeted with a swim full of feeding barbel. The downside for Richy is that he has witnessed several fish that Tommy or I have banked well over his own personal best of 12.08. Typical Richy though, he is as pleased for us as if he had landed the fish himself.

At this point myself and Tommy would like to publicly “THANK YOU” Ginger for all the effort you put in on our behalf, good on yer mate. Believe me Ginge your time will come and when it does I hope we are there to share it with you.

Matt with 10lb 12oz barbel. A star of the future?

With less than 8 weeks to the end of the season the weather still has not changed much. Matt the Angling Direct Tackle Tart had been keen to get back to The Trent after a good session late last year. With not much else happening we ventured down the A17 to the Trent. The river looked like it would be hard going, being low, clear and pretty cold. I managed a few bream and chub, but Matt faired better with a barbel of 8.11 not long after arriving and a new PB and first double at 10.12 later in the session. Matt has a big future in angling at only 16, already having a PB list many would envy.

As we approach the conclusion of another season I know Richy would love to up his PB before the end. Myself and Tommy will finish the season on the Severn as we normally do, this year Ginger hopes to join us.

How will the Season end for the Team Barbel Boys?

Will Richy up his PB?

Do Tommy’s new pyjamas fit?

Can Ade shed the blues?

Team Barbel facts and figures for 2004/2005

All this and more in ‘Ghost Riders In The Sky’

Part 4 of ‘Team Barbel On Tour’ Coming Soon.

Without doubt fishing memories are not made without great mates and I got two of the best in Tommy (Tom Sayer) and Ginger (Richard Wells).