The Continuing Connor Diaries

This is, or can be, a difficult stretch for even the best of anglers, Alan Scotthorne didn’t do too well here, neither did Mark (Polly) Pollard, two of England’s internationals! There are only a couple of swims where he could learn about feeder legering, our intended method, and where the slacker water would allow us some control over the feeders. We chose one on the inside edge of the fast water about 8-10 yards out.

I rigged up his (my old) Daiwa Harrier-X feeder rod of 11 feet and a medium tip, 4lb main line, an open ended groundbait feeder and a size 16 hook on 3lb hooklink. Then we got down to fishing. Time passed, I had to chase off a few lads who thought it was their right to fish because “… we’ve just spent twenty-odd quid on a licence.” I explained, to their disappointment, that it was private land and directed them to the free stretch, which quite frankly was just as likely of producing fish for them as this, and far easier to control their tackle.

After about three hours we’d had two small dace about 5 or 6 ounces each. Nice to see them again, but this was proving my point nicely that sometimes you don’t do so well and there are odd occasions when you blank. However, I thought there might be an odd bream about and Frank Guttfield told me he’d had a 5lb chub on opening day, one hour into the season in fact, so I thought I’d rig up the Avon rod with a boily.

The rig favoured by Jeff

So the 8lb line was threaded, I put on a 11/2 oz bomb, an end rubber from a Nash release clip (these are smaller than Korda ones) and tied on a braid hooklink. Push the end rubber nicely over the hooklink’s swivel and the bomb’s swivel over the end rubber (see pic). I don’t remember where I saw this idea, but it was recently and I thought it looked damned good as it presents a fixed bolt rig, but if the mainline should break a simple pull of about 1/2 lb effort will release the tiny swivel from the end rubber, brilliant!

We had a couple of casts with it, keeping it out of the target area for the feeder rod, and in the meantime had another dace on that outfit. Eventually, I offered to cast it straight into the fast run of water and there we let it sit with the drag turned right off as the reel wasn’t a baitrunner. It was maybe half an hour later the spool started screaming and a fish was on. I adjusted the drag as Connor isn’t used to the Fighting Drag on Shimanos yet and after about 30 seconds it was still trying to run. I knew this was a barbel!

He coped quite well except that every so often I had to encourage him to lift the rod by putting my left forefinger under it, that’s about all I did. A problem he has is to tuck the rod handle under his armpit rather than along his forearm, hence he can’t get as much leverage. Having lifted the rod, lowered it and taken up the slack line, he was getting the hang of it and gaining on the fish, but for every yard he gained it must have tore a couple of yards off in yet another run. Eventually, it got within netting range and I tightened up the Fighting Drag yet again, but now he was on his own.

When I could see the fish close up in the shallows, I was breathless, this was a BIG FISH that even I would be happy to catch! I was kind of hoping it would be around 5 or 6 lbs, but in the water it now looked like it might even be a double figure fish. On the second attempt I had it safely in the net and sorry to say, I wasn’t thinking straight at all. Normally I would have let it rest there for a couple of minutes, but in the excitement I clean forgot and put it straight on the unhooking mat, which Connor had to unfold as we didn’t think we’d need it.

Connor and has 9lb 7oz Thames barbel (click for bigger picture)

Wet the weigh sling, zero the scales, unhook the fish and slide it in …. 9lbs 7ozs! What a fish! What a barbel! What a first!

I quickly took the customary shots. Connor looks a little hunched on his right side because I told him to hold the tail out a little more and this was the only way he felt he could manage it. Pictures taken and carry the fish, in the weigh sling, down to the quiet swim where we could release it safely by holding it.

After a couple of minutes he (I think it was a male as it didn’t move its mouth quite so much – haha) gave a couple of very positive tail wags and I released him. Unfortunately, that was false and all he did was swim forward a couple of feet and started turning belly up. The water was quite warm and therefore probably contained less oxygen than normal so Connor nipped back to get the landing net again.

I netted it back and held onto it’s tail in the upright position for a long time this time despite its tail wagging. Eventually, it did seem very determined and when I released him he slid off into the cooler depths. We stayed for a couple of minutes, but never saw him again so hopefully he will get over it. Tricky though hooking barbel at this time of year, which is why I’d prefer to catch them at night when its cooler and a little bit later, well after the spawning period. Then again, we didn’t intend catching a barbel, but you can’t always guarantee what you will catch.

Connor was well pleased and so was I, but I have to say there is a spin side to this and that is it may be a while before he catches a better fish than that. It’s nice, I think, to catch a smaller one, say 4 or 5 lbs, and then work up gradually, each time bettering your last. I was 52 before I had one of this size and there’s a good many of you out there, I bet, who wouldn’t mind a first one, but much of it is down to luck and fishing where there is a chance of barbel.

A claim is now going in to Improve Your Coarse Fishing magazine for, not just a barbel badge, but a ‘Specimen Barbel’ badge as the fish is over 8lbs. So much for teaching him that he can’t always expect to catch a huge fish and that river fishing is very difficult. He’ll never believe me again.

A single SBS M1 boily did the trick

I was supposed to have tested them on the carp lake, but that has been ever so quiet and I haven’t had the opportunities to visit it so much so far. The M1s have a very nice smell about them (a bit like Trigga and Whisky mixed – hope I’m not giving away secrets) and I must admit that a good smell gives the angler confidence straight away. So all I have tried is this ONE boily, but look at the result. Look out carp.

I emailed Graham about the catch and he has now asked for the remainder back. What do you think?

Well, I did give him half of what I had and now I’ve used nearly all mine, so that’s fair enough – innit? – Graham