Friday 4th November – Old Estate Lake

Back to the Estate lake for another quick after work session. Got to the lake at about 2.30pm and actually saw a bit of fish activity (these fish very rarely show themselves at all).

Started fishing at about 3pm and again used the Rahja Spice shelf life’s in conjunction with small pva stocking mesh bags of the mini mixed pellet.

Had just about got the rods in when the heavens opened and it didn’t stop chucking down until packing up time at 11.30pm. I never had so much as a bleep although there was continued carp activity throughout the evening. I came away unsure as whether the weather was to blame (in all the years I have been fishing I have never really caught many carp during prolonged periods of torrential rain), or whether I should have put a bed of bait out to try and get the carp to feed.

Got home to an air temperature of 14 degrees C, crazy for this time of year.

Saturday 5^th November – River Dove

Made my first trip of the season to an area that I don’t really fish a lot. I checked the Environment Agency levels and the Upper Trent was showing 1.26m and rising (probably unfishable with the weed coming down), whereas the Dove was showing 0.72m and rising, so the Dove it was.

I wanted to try some swims that I had not fished before. The river looked like it was carrying about 2 feet of extra water and it was obvious that there was a lot of debris coming down but with a water temperature of 11.2 degrees C the barbel should be on the feed.

I started fishing at about 3.15pm. The first swim I chose had a nice smooth surface to it (signifying a nice gravel bottom) and a decent flow but it became obvious after about 30 minutes that I couldn’t fish it properly due to the amount of debris being washed down the river. I was using 5 ½ oz just to hold bottom a rod length out and this was only holding for about 15 minutes.

I went for a walk downstream and found what looked like the perfect swim for these type of conditions. All the flow was past the middle and to the far side of the river, creating almost a backwater on my side. This would enable me to fish out in the flow without the problem of debris collecting up the line as none should be collecting in the backwater.

With the extra colour in the water I added a matching paste wrap to my Rahja Spice hook baits hoping to give a little extra pulling power. I also baited the edge of the backwater with about 30 boilies of varying sizes.

I had a quick wrap on the rod top after about 10 minutes so I knew there were fish in the swim. After about 30 minutes the rod was away producing a barbel of about 4lbs which convinced me to stay where I was. I then missed an ‘un-missable’ bite about 30 minutes later so I shortened the hair on this rig. Within 15 minutes of recasting the same rod was away again and after a good fight and a few attempts at netting (a really awkward swim to fish) a nice barbel of 11lb 1oz was in the

11lb 1oz

net. I took a couple of quick photo’s and then returned the fish in a different swim (where I could reach the water level better and so look after the fish properly before it was ready to go back).

This swim was proving like chalk and cheese compared to the first one, I could leave the baits in for literally as long has I liked. Nothing else happened for a couple of hours and then the same rod produced a barbel of 9lb 15oz.

The sky cleared at about 9pm and by 10pm there were signs of frost on the quiver etc that were on the floor. I packed up at 10.30pm with no further bites but happy none the less.

It’s always nice catching fish from ‘new’ area’s, especially in quite difficult conditions. It also underlined the importance, once again, of being able to read the river to give you the best chance of fishing properly when the going is tough. Add to that being able to watch a terrific firework display for free and it was an enjoyable evening. continue reading…

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…

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…