Well, my plan for a Thames barbel seems to have been derailed again. Not enough fishing and too much of it tenching, I think. I decided a couple of weeks ago that although it was too late to seek out Thames barbel, I would like to catch at least one during 2006. Probably the best barbel fishing round here is on the Bristol Avon, which I can fish on my Bristol, Bath & Wilts card, but with the year wearing on I felt that there was insufficient time to really suss out the Avon. One for next Summer. Instead, I've rejoined a local club with some barbel fishing on a small tributary of the Avon. The barbel are in a relatively short section of river which I know a little, though it's a few years since I've fished it. They run into double figures, though my largest from there is around 6 or 7lb (I didn't have any scales on me). So, I forked out a few more quid on permits and gave it a crack.

My first two sessions found the river low and clear after the dry Summer. Finding barbel turned out to be fairly easy. Catching them was another matter. On my first session I walked down to the bottom of the second field, hoping to find a couple of swims I'd had success in before. I found them, but one overgrown and inaccessible and with the water low and clear I could see that there was nothing to be had in the other. There is an undercut, which I fished into for a while, but nothing came out.

Moving downriver, I found a shoal of chub and a couple of medium sized barbel lurking in shallow water beneath an overhanging bush. They were willing to take pellets, but it was very hard to get a rod to the water. Ideally I’d have put a bait in from upstream of the bush, but I just couldn’t get a rod through the undergrowth. The barbel kept drifting back under the bush, and any attempt to get a bait to them resulted in a take from a chub. Infuriating. Eventually, I failed to whip the bait away in time and hooked a small and very vigorous chub, which sent the barbel drifting into permanent hiding. I headed back upstream.

There were two other anglers on the upper field, so I ended up fishing the most obvious (and therefore pressured) swim on the beat. I've never had a barbel from this swim, though there are plenty of chub. I set up a loafer and had a few chub to about 3lb on floatfished pellet before settling down to leger a bait under the far bank feature. This brought a few more small chub, but nothing whiskery.

I wasn’t discouraged by this, and indeed took the next day off work to fish again. I felt that I needed to get some fishing done before the weather turned against me; a cold snap and the first frosts of the year could put paid to my plans. Also, one of the other anglers had caught a couple of fish. This time, I decided to concentrate on the upper section. I settled in one of the deeper swims, where a narrow current flows over streamer weed into a short deep pool. After ten minutes of exploratory fishing I put a few handfuls of hemp and pellets in and left the swim to settle.

one of the deeper swims, where a narrow current flows over streamer weed into a short deep pool

While I waited for some fish to come out, I sneaked a look at another swim a little further down. This spot is shallow, less than 3’ deep, and shaded by trees. At the downstream end is an overhanging tree, and downstream from that a weedbed. I noticed a shoal of chub hanging around by the tree, and put a couple of handfuls of pellets in. Almost immediately a trio of mid-sized barbel arrived and started tucking in. I nipped back to my swim and returned with my rod and net. I flicked a bait a little upstream of the nearest barbel, meaning to let it trundle down with the current, but immediately it hit the water a small chub turned and aimed to take it on the drop. I whipped it away and tried again, this time aiming to put the bait closer to the barbel. The barbel spooked, turned and powered away, followed by the other two. I left the bait on the bottom, waiting for them to return, but it didn’t take long for a small chub to find the bait. I left it and returned to my main swim

This pattern was repeated throughout the day. I would fish for a while, spook the barbel and return to my swim. Any bait left lying around would be chubbed in no time, and any bait dropped close to a barbel scared it. I finally spooked them for the last time by feeding a few torn up chunks of luncheon meat. Complete panic, from which they did not return. I think they’ve seen it before! I ended up with a similar catch to the previous day, eight or ten chub to about 3lb but not a sniff of a barbel.

During the next few days, my fears were confirmed as the heavens opened. No frost, but an awful lot of cold water. My hopes were not high the following Saturday as I found the river running a foot high and brown. It was falling, though, and had apparently been 2 ½ feet up the previous day. I settled in the swim I had been stalking barbel in on the previous session and fished lobworms while feeding hemp and pellets. I’d left my hooker pellets at home, but had a feeling that lobworm would work better anyway. It was windy, and though I was out of much of the wind in the deep cut of the river, for the first time since last winter, I was cold. Not a good sign. Once again I caught a succession of chub, with more or less constant rattles as chublets gnawed at the lobworm. Frustrating, because had I not been after barbel I would have been very happy with such a catch of chub on an out of sorts river. I hate the attitude of treating one species with contempt when targeting another, but the chub really did seem to be getting in the way of the barbel.

I found the river running a foot high and brown

I returned to the river today to find it in much better condition. It had fallen, and carried a little colour. I could see a few chub about, but it was too coloured to see through to where the barbel lurk at the bottom. I returned to the swim I’d fished on the previous session, and resumed the process of catching chub on lobworms. After a couple of hours and half a dozen chub to about 3-4lb (the largest of which had my hopes up for a second or two), I decided to give up and try somewhere else. I would return to the swim in the second field with the undercut bank, and see how it looked. I had another target at the back of my mind; there were a few lobworms left, and there might be perch under that undercut bank

the largest of which had my hopes up for a second or two

Returning to the swim I’d tried on my first session I found it much improved. There were small fish topping at the head of the swim and with a little colour in the water and a little more water in the river I felt more confident . I started off with a couple of lobworms, link-legered on a size 6. First cast resulted in a jagged twanging of the quivertip, and the inevitable chub of about 12oz. Subsequent casts resulted in much chewing of the lobworms and a few three inch chublets which somehow managed to engulf a lobworm on a #6. Huge gobs! Eventually, having explored the whole swim and run out of lobworms, I decided that I needed a more aggressive approach. In went half a pint of pellets and half a pint of hemp. I removed the split shots from the link and tied on a flattened 1oz lead. I squeezed a couple of shots onto the main line behind the swivel for the link, creating a (safe) fixed lead rig. I baited this with two 11mm halibut pellets and waited.

Returning to the swim I’d tried on my first session

I soon started getting knocks and twitches from small fish. I couldn’t be exactly sure where my loose feed had ended up. The swim was five or six feet deep and reasonably fast, so I suspected that it had gone a fair way downstream. With each cast I gradually fished further down the swim until suddenly the knocks and twitches were replaced with a double lunge which seemed too violent to be a chub. As I picked the rod up I felt something pull hard, and then reeled in a short length of streamer weed. Something had pricked itself and dived straight into the nearest weedbed, somehow transferring the hook to this disappointing frond.

By this time, it was almost dark. A few casts later and it was time to go. I normally fish on a little past this point, and have five or ten “last casts”, but this particular swim is sloping and slippery and ends with a three foot drop into six feet of fast water. If I fell in, I’d have to swim downstream to get out and I wasn’t going to risk it, so this really was to be my last cast. I put two pellets on and swung the rig out to the bottom of the swim. A tap. Another. Then a confident pull. I hit it and knew immediately that it wasn’t a chub. It had power, and it wasn’t giving up. It went for the tree roots, for the undercut bank, and then tried to run upstream into the jungle at the head of the swim. I turned it and saw a flash of gold which confirmed my suspicions, and then it was in the net.

At 4lbs, not the biggest barbel in that stretch, not even my biggest barbel from that stretch, but I was absolutely delighted with it. Mission achieved, and on the last cast of the last day. The next couple of weekends are fully booked, so I may not get down to the river again until late November. By that point it might be too late, so today may have been my last chance. If I can get some more, better still if I can get larger, that will be a bonus. Right now I’m just happy to have achieved my objective.

At 4lbs, not the biggest barbel in that stretch, not even my biggest barbel from that stretch, but I was absolutely delighted with it