Jigotai

Tony, can you put my name down please. Regards Andy.

My thoughts are with you and your family Steve. All the best. Andy

This is such sad news. Like others on AN I had the pleasure of meeting Alan at a couple of AN fishin's. I am sure he will be sorely missed by his family and friends. Steve, please accept my deepest sympathy on your loss. Andy.

Well done Andrew, nice fish and a great report, thanks for sharing it with us.

I believe franticfisherman knows a bit about Charr fishing on Windermere. Here's one of his videos from a link in his signature. Charr fishing

While we are on the subject of spam, I couldn't resist posting this vid. Youtube Video ->

Hi Mick G, as Anderoo says I fish the Lea regularly, although not below Ware so cannot comment on Kings Weir. Also, as far as I know Kings weir is in Wormley. If it's the weir at Ware (behind the Angel pub) you are talking about, there are barbel there but very few, the only one I heard being caught there was by a friend using pellets. You will catch loads of bream and carp before you catch a barbel. I am not sure how bad the fish kill at Kings Weir was, but they must of lost quite a few fish if the EA are going to restock it. If you manage to get hold of a copy of Fred Crouches book 'Skies of Fire, Rivers of Gold' there's a great chapter about Kings Weir and its barbel of old. The closest Barbel stretch to Ware that might be worth considering is the LAA stretch at Hertford, but even there they are few and far, although not impossible if you know where to look. There are plenty of stretches of the Lea that hold good numbers of barbel up as far as Wheathampsted I believe, although very few that hold fish to double figures. If, when you have enough posts, you are still interested send me a PM and I will help you a little bit more (sorry to sound a little bit "secret squirrel" but the stretch that I had virtually to myself last year seems to be getting busier lately). I tend to fish quite light with a main line of between 6 to 8 lb with a light running ledger. Baits I use tend to vary, but I have most of my fish on meat, pellets and boilies. The rod I use is a carp feeder rod, a did buy myself a barbel rod but found it a bit long and cumbersome for the narrow overgrown stretch of the Lea I fish. Also I prefer the sensitivity on the tip I get with the carp feeder as I have found not all barbel bites are wrap rounds. Andy.

Thanks Nick, he weighed in at 7lb 12oz.

Hi Steve, here's a photo of little Nathan. That's it now, three boys and one girl is enough.

Congratulations Nick, I know how you're feeling, my latest addition to the family arrived on Sunday morning.

It has been a while since I last fished the lake so am not sure which baits are working at the moment, but I always did well on luncheon meat. The front swim as you enter and the back swim, fishing between the islands were always productive.

Cheers Anderoo, I'll look forward to that.

That river looks absolutely fantastic, great report, thanks for sharing it with us.

My day started a little bit earlier than Anderoo’s. I turned up a about an hour earlier as I was getting a bit excited. The weather was great and the river looked fantastic, perhaps a bit too clear for fishing and with the sunshine it was going to be tough. I set up my feeder rod and picked the carpark swim so I could let Anderoo in when he turned up. It wasn’t long before I caught my first fish of the day, a minnow of about 2 ½ inches long, not what I was hoping for but it was a start. Anderoo arrived a few minutes later and after a quick chat we had a stroll along the river. Even though I fish here regularly I found it difficult to choose a swim, they all looked so inviting. We finally picked a couple of swims and settled down. My swim was a bit deeper than Anderoo’s with a few clumps of streamer weed. I had had some success with this swim in the past catching some nice chub so was quite confident. After a while this confidence began to fade as the only bites I was getting were from the ravenous minnows. At one stage I freelined a piece of bread to try and tempt a carp that kept swimming past only for it to swim up to it and get spooked by something and disappear into the weed. That was soon forgotten as I noticed something move by my feet. I looked down only to see a grass snake over 2ft long slivering past, what a sight, made my day. We moved on soon after and wandered downstream. The river gets a bit wider and a bit weedier but has some lovely channels between the weed. We stopped off in a swim and noticed movement, this turned out to be more carp, but in amongst them I’m sure for a moment a barbel appeared. Anderoo stayed in that swim and I move a bit further downstream in a swim covered by some trees (it was nice to get out of the sun as I could feel myself starting to burn). It was a lovely swim with just a few patches of sunlight getting through to the water showing up the gravel on the bottom. Every now and then a small roach or chub would swim through these patches of sunlight. I started off trotting a float through the swim and was soon joined by Anderoo for a chat. As we talked we noticed the water had started to cloud up and after further investigation we spotted a couple of carp with their noses down having a root about just under the bank where I was fishing. Little was I to know then how frustrating the next couple of hours were going to be. Anderoo returned to his swim and after little while I noticed large clumps weed floating past , a sure sign of a hard fought battle with a fish that didn’t give up easily. This was confirmed when Anderoo appeared with a big smile on his face. The carp were still in my swim and were joined buy a few more all of which totally ignored my bait. After a few changes of bait and no luck I admitted defeat and we moved on to the swims that I was hoping would produce Anderoo’s first barbel. We settled in our swims and it wasn’t long before I was getting knocks on my rod that I had a small boily on. These knocks developed into a proper bite and I hooked into a lovely chub, only about 1 1/2 lb, but a nice fish on a day which for me had been difficult so far. A short while later I managed to catch a small perch on a lob worm. This was a first for me on this stretch as although it looks very perchy I had never managed to catch one, mainly because I have been targeting the barbel. I recast another worm and almost instantly I had another bite, I struck and the fish shot off, taking line from my reel and swam straight into the reeds where it managed to get free leaving me well and truly hooked and having to pull for a break. I never saw the fish but from the feel of it I’m sure it was a larger perch. Things went quiet after that and after using my last lobworm (I could only find three in my garden) I went back to using boilies again. While admiring the bats silently going about their business above my swim I sat back for a moment only to be interrupted by the end of my rod arcing round all of a sudden. At last, a barbel. I jumped up and hooked into what felt like a monster. Once again it headed for the reeds but this time I managed to hold it back only for it to shoot of downstream like a torpedo. I managed to stop it and bring it back a bit and then of it would go again. When it finally began to tire I noticed the reason for the prolonged battle, it was hooked in the tail. We finally got it netted and quickly weighed it before returning it. 7 ½ lb, a good fish, shame it was foul hooked. A few minutes later I heard what I’d been waiting for, “I’m in”, Anderoo had finally hooked into his first barbel. To see the smile on his face when he finally banked it was priceless. Not too long goes by when I hear a splash and realise Anderoo is into another fish. This time its bigger and I’m sure his thoughts while playing the fish are of a pb barbel, then the fish came to the surface and I notice a slight look of disappointment when he looked down and saw a carp. We net it and bring it in, and after weighing it both agree, at 11 lb it was still a nice fish. A great days fishing with great company, you can’t ask for more.

I agree with haighy, banding is a good way of holding the pellet on, and is the way I do it most of the time. If you want to hair rig you will need fresher, harder pellets and drill them before you go fishing, ideally with one of those dremmel type drills. They have a habit of falling off though if you use normal hair stops, so use a small piece of elastic band and gently pull it so it just enters the pellet.

Have you tried these, not the most fashionable but are comfortable.

Not quite a bait apron, but would this do Link.

I didn't have a touch on pellet on the first day of the season and only managed 1 barbel on lobworm. Last night I popped down the river and managed four barbel in a couple of hours on pellet, so I don't think they're blown yet.

Russell, you have a pm.

This fella did ok link

I went with my mate Steve on Friday night. We arrived at the river just before dark and set up our rods in the carpark. After a kebab and a quick nap we set off to our swims just before 12 O’clock. My usual approach for barbel on this river is to use pellets or boilies but after reading a previous thread on barbel baits I decided to give lobworms a go on one rod and pellets on the other. We hadn’t been fishing long when I heard Steve’s baitrunner scream, only to be followed by cursing as he missed the run. In the mean time I was having trouble with weed and other debris floating down the river building up around my line and dragging my weight out of position. This meant I had to recast every now and then to make sure my bait was sitting over the bed of hemp I had put down. I had been getting the odd knock on both rod tips so was quite confident I was soon going to have a take on one of my rods. I didn’t have to wait much longer, when I had what looked like a bite on my upstream rod that had the lobworm on. I wasn’t sure whether it was weed pulling my weight out of position, but then it twitched again and I lifted the rod. Everything went solid as I connected with the fish, realizing it had been hooked it took off. It gave a very good account of itself and kept itself hard on the bottom. Every time I thought I had it coming to the surface it would make another run. I finally got it to the surface and was chuffed to bits to see my first barbel of the season. After netting it was quickly weighed then held in the water for a few minutes to get it strength back. It weighed in at 4 lbs, which surprised me because it fought a lot harder. After a couple more missed runs Steve finally connected with a fish. His swim erupted as this fish tried it’s best to get away. Curiosity got the better of me and I wound my rods in and wandered over to see what the commotion was. He was still playing the fish when I got to his swim and he still wasn’t sure what he had hooked. Finally it began to tire and came to the surface only to reveal it’s self as a carp. It turned out to be a nice fish of 9 lb. Both our swims went dead after that and the only fish that we caught was a small chub that came to my rod that I had a lobworm on. I packed up and left at about 7:30 pleased with the session but very tired. I was going to try and get out in the afternoon, but after taking my kids swimming and painting out the nursery I was shattered, and crashed out on the sofa.

I tried worms last season for the Barbel but only caught chub, nice chub they were too. Another bait I used to use, other than pellets and meat, was liver flavoured boilies. These caught me quite a few barbel but the guy that made them sold up and I can't get them any more. You should do ok using meat, but I can't see you avoiding those chub.

I've had saturday's fishing booked for ages, no way a little bit of rain is going to stop me now. It'll give me a chance to test out my new waterproofs:D. They have got the weather forecast wrong in my area for the last week, so I'll find out on the day.

If its anything like the assassin II I have, then I don't think you'll go for wrong with it. It's a nice rod that I use a lot and have caught barbel and the odd double figure carp on it.

That's bad news jonnyboy. What might be a good idea for you guys is getting your yaks data tagged. Look here. Andy.