Pat Gillett continues his excellent Diary Blog…

Didn’t get out much at all during August with 3 or 4 short trips to the Trent and the Dove which produced a couple of smallish barbel and 2 lost fish (cut – offs) on a stretch of the Dove which I had not fished before.

Friday 2^nd September – Upper Trent

Made a visit to a stretch of the river that I hadn’t fished for about 12 years.The river here is very narrow and it was absolutely choked with weed, so much so that it was restricting the flow of the river. It was 4pm before I found anywhere that I thought was worth trying. Packed up at 8.15pm (strictly no night fishing) and only had 1 small bream to show for my efforts.

I had put a bit of bait in 2 spots and the river was that low and clear that I actually had mallards diving on my bait (first time this has happened to me on any river), they just wouldn’t leave it alone and made that much disturbance that any chance of catching was ruined.

Don’t think I will come back to this area until later in the year.

Saturday 3^rd September – Upper Trent

Another short afternoon / evening session (4.30 to 11pm) on a different stretch of the Upper Trent. Again the river had very little flow to it and the weed wasn’t really a problem. A really warm night that produced a 4lb 9oz chub and a bream of about 7lb, both to 16mm pellet hook baits fished over the mini pellet mix. I used the Rahja Spice on the other rod for the first time but it didn’t produce anything.

Friday 9^th September – Upper Trent

This was an after work session (4.30 to 11pm), I was undecided where to go, but after checking the river levels on the environment agency website I could see that the Dove hadn’t had any fresh water, but the Upper Trent was showing a rise of 0.1m. This made my mind up for me and so it was the Upper Trent with the hope that some fresh water would spur the barbel into feeding, as long as the weed coming down (with the rise in water), didn’t make the fishing impossible.

Looking at the river it was noticeable that there was a much better flow (with the little extra water) and so I was quietly confident that I would catch a barbel.

I did away with my normal approach and fished boilies on both rods (I really wanted to give the Rahja and Ghurkha Spice a go). The upstream rod was fished in conjunction with a feeder (carrying 5oz of lead to combat the weed coming downstream), which was loaded with the mini pellet mix and some broken boilies. The downstream rod was fished just 10 feet from the bank and consisted of a 3 ½ oz lead and a stringer of various sized boilies with 2 x 15mm baits on the hair. I also baited this area with about 50 Rahja and Ghurkha spice boilies of various sizes.

After about 20 minutes the downstream rod was away and i quickly netted what proved to be a river P.B. bream of 9lb 2oz. Like the barbel from the Upper Trent this was a young looking fish in absolutely pristine condition.

A small chub soon followed on the upstream rod and then all was quiet until about 9.45pm when the upstream rod was away again and after a good fight a cracking barbel of 11lb 4oz was in the net. Before I even had time to weigh this fish, the downstream rod was away. This proved to be a barbel of about 8lb that I struggled to get into the landing net, which already contained the 11lb 4oz fish. It’s amazing how many times this happens when you just get that little feeding spell.

I had packed everything away at 11pm and was just going to reel my upstream rod in, when the bait runner started to scream, resulting in a barbel of about 7lbs.

So quite a productive short session, good initial results on the Rahja and Ghurka Spice baits on what was a really balmy night with strong winds (it was still 18 deg C when I got home at just before 1am). The weed situation wasn’t too bad and I was able to leave the baits in for up to an hour before the feeder or lead, was dislodged by the build up of weed. I am sure the extra flow spurred the fish on to feed. continue reading…

After reading Shaun’s diary type pieces, I thought I would share my own. Due to work I have been restricted to a couple of short trips a week.

Friday 8^th July – River Dove

After a bit of success on the Dove during the two previous week-ends, we were back again to the same area for another after work session. I stayed with the Special Crab after the previous results but despite trying numerous different presentations I only had a few small chub knocks to show for 6 hours fishing. I would guess that with the present conditions the barbel will revert back to feeding late at night (11pm onwards). This very often happens (on the small rivers), you get a ‘duffers fortnight’ where the fish can be caught relatively easy at the start of the season and then it changes very quickly. It was quite surprising that even with all the heavy rain showers we have been having, the river was still at the lowest level I have seen it.

Saturday 9^th July – River Dove & Upper Trent

Each season I try and fish a new stretch of river and with everywhere being extremely low and clear (and the fish having finished spawning), it seemed like the perfect time to go and have a look somewhere new.

The stretch of Dove we went to look at proved to be a major disappointment. After walking for about 1 ½ hours, through head high vegetation and nettles, clambering under and over barbed wire fences etc we never found anywhere that looked really appealing. I did see four or five nice chub (biggest would have been a big 5) but only one very small barbel, not much when you consider I could see the bottom along 95 % of the stretch.  It also proved to be the wrong time to be wearing new walking boots as my heels are now covered in blisters lol!

Part of the Upper Trent

With this stretch being unappealing we made our way an area of the Upper Trent where we had made a couple of swims on the opening weekend. You don’t usually see another angler on this area but on arrival there was another car there, and true to form the guy was fishing in the swim I had made. I ended up fishing well upstream in an area I hadn’t looked at before. I made a small gap in between the 6 feet high bull rushes and fished the remaining four hours there. Again I was bite less and the weed coming down was a real problem at times, even using 6oz to hold bottom. continue reading…

Words and pictures by Pat Gillett. 

Geoff Dace relaxing in his swim

Over the years I have had some good days fishing as a guest on Barbel Catchers Club ‘fish-ins’, so when my good mate Geoff Dace asked me if I would like to be a guest on a ‘fish-in’ on the river Wye, I jumped at the chance.

 

 

The ‘fish-in’ was to take place on Friday 22^nd July, with the Midlands Region of the B.C.C. booking a stretch for the day.

Having never fished the Wye for Barbel before I did a bit of searching to see what information I could find, and it soon became apparent that the Wye seemed pretty much the same as the Middle Severn that I used to fish about 15 years ago. There are large shoals of barbel in certain swims with the rest of the stretch holding the odd one in most swims. With this in mind swim selection would be key to having a good day.

We arrived at the venue at about 1.30pm, there were already a couple of the members there and one of them was just returning a barbel, so the fish were obviously feeding. A quick walk of the stretch and I soon found what I was looking for, a swim that to me, absolutely ‘screamed’ barbel. This was on the inside of a bend and about 120 yards above a shallow ford that went across the river. There were banks of streamer weed to about 30 yards out and then a clean gravel bottom, which proved to be around 3 to 4 feet deep. From my time fishing the Middle Severn this looked a perfect area for holding a large shoal of barbel at this time of year. continue reading…

Question:

Hi Shaun,

I fish a small river in Berkshire which holds some very big Chub and Barbel.

Earlier this year I brought several kgs of rahja spice 10mm to feed and some 14mm as hookbaits, I also purchased a few pots of you paste and dip.

The question is Shaun, what is the best way to approach barbel with this type of bait?

I have per-baited a couple of kilos in three swims, should i be using pellet as well?

One thing I have noticed is the paste is a bit dry, how can i make it a bit more tacky, I think the chub love and just pulling it off how ever i mount it.

Cheers

Steve

Answer:

I prefer to mix the sizes of feed

Hi Steve,

Good timing this one really as it is something I have been doing and got terribly wrong at the start of the season which shows we should never take fish or our methods for granted. I had found some Chub and Barbel I could watch during a dog walk in the close season and they became a little bit of a fascination for me. I started feeding them Rahja Spice and Ghurkka Spice boilies in mixed sizes 10′s, 15′s and 20mm. They got stuck into the 20mm’s as much as they did the other sizes and it made it easier for me to see how much they were eating. The 10mm’s were more difficult to spot on the bottom in the wavering current. continue reading…

Archie Braddock with a recently caught Tench of 9lb 8oz and we are delighted to be able to re-release by popular demand Archie Braddock’s ‘Mega Tench’ spice blend. This gained a huge following a few years back and we are delighted to be able to offer you exactly the same blend again. Incredibly complex blend of spices and essential oils for adding to groundbaits, maggots, stick mixes, meat in fact the only limit is your imagination!

Here is a press release by the Anglers Mail. Available now!