Successful evening

[Jigotai]

Finally got out last night only to find someone had beat me there. This usually means my preferred swim will be taken. With this in mind I checked out my backup swim, which turned out to be unfishable due to streamer weed. After a short wander I found a swim that looked ok but having never fished it befor I was resigning myself to a difficult evening. By the time I had set up and sat back in my chair it was dark. After about an hour of my isotopes playing their usual tricks (I hate staring at those things) I got my first knock this was followed by my rod tip slowly bending around, I struck, but nothing. Could have been a liner or piece of debris floating down stream. Next cast ended up in the tree I was fishing close to and after a few minutes I managed to retrieve my tackle and cast where I wanted it, I had hardly sat down when my rod tip flew round and I was into my first barbel. After a cracking fight I landed a pristine fish of about 5lb.

Because of the commotion that that fish made I thought that it would of emptied the swim but about 20 minutes later my right hand rod wacked round and would have been in the river if I had not been watching it. This one felt bigger and was stripping line from my reel at quite a rate. I managed to turn it and bring it back down stream, but as soon as it drew level with me it turned and headed into the weed and stuck . I kept a bit of pressure on it and after what seemed like ages it came free. As it felt heavy I thought I’d hooked one of the double figure carp that inhabit this stretch of the river and I was pleased to see the distinctive shape of a nice sized barbel. A few minutes later I had it in the net, one look and I new it must be a PB barbel but with no scales or camera on me I’ll never know for sure. I quesstimated it at about 9lb, an absolute beauty and a good size for that part of the river lea.

Soon after it started raining and I headed off home, well chuffed.

[Steve_MK]

Well done, it's always good to succeed in the face of adversity.

[Anderoo]

Great stuff Jigotai! I'm very jealous

[Jigotai]

Thanks guys

 

Anderoo, you'll get your chance when you visit.