A nice surprise

[BoldBear]

I decided to travel light and do a little upstream exploration a couple of miles upstream of a section of small river that I sometimes fish for Barbel and Chub and found myself scrambling through thick undergrowth with some bait in my back waistcoat pocket and a few bits of end tackle in a small plastic box in my breast pocket plus a folding spoon net and unhooking mat that I could sit and lie on in very restricted and tight places.

 

I had been to this small remote overgrown place where the stream averaged no more than around 6 or 7ft wide and averaged around 2 to 4ft deep back in June but had not had a rod with me then so I hadn't had a chance to cast a line there before.

 

I only had two to three hours before I had to leave and it was just a spur of the moment thing and I didn't expect to catch much over around one or two pounds in weight if I was very lucky but I'd been promising myself that I would give it a go sometime.

 

I was quite surprised when my rod tip bent right round within a few minutes of lowering my bait just downstream of a small bend, and as I was lying on my stomach in a small gap in the undergrowth it was quite a scramble to get into a position enabling me to play and land the fish (which felt like a barbel) that had taken my bait.

It turned out to be a nice barbel of exactly 5lb which although it wasn't big as far as barbel go was a lot bigger than I had expected from such a small overgrown stream such as this.

 

I had to wait well over an hour for another bite which turned out to be another similar sized barbel which was a little bigger; at just over 6lb.

 

Nothing huge I know; but finding fish like this on a tiny and remote section of overgrown stream was a nice surprise and very enjoyable.

 

These are the two beards that I managed to catch:

 

 

 

Keith

Edited October 2, 2017 by BoldBear

[Phone]

BoldBea,

 

Very nice, it is often said, "it is the journey, not the destination". Sounds and looks like your story is such an example. They look amazingly healthy for confined space fish. Well done.

 

Phone

[philocalist]

Nice one - I'd be happy to get fish like that in the local rivers!

[chesters1]

Our river is narrow i wish something like that were present ,or rather i wish the EA wouldnt keep electrofishing it to remove anything that could become that

 

He said breast titter

Edited October 2, 2017 by chesters1

[gozzer]

Nice one Keith, I love fishing the smaller waters, you never know what surprises are in store. To catch a fish of that size from such a stream, is equal to one twice the size from a big river.

 

John.

[Tigger]

Sounds fantastic Keith and a crackin' pair of fish top fishing .

 

Just the kind'a place I could imagine bumping into Vagabond .

[Steve Burke]

Nice one, Keith.

 

I miss my small stream fishing; most of my time is spent at Wingham these days - more often working than fishing!

 

I've never caught a barbel from a small stream, but have caught big chub, perch and roach from streams I could jump across. The farmers readily gave me permission, often saying there was nothing worth catching in them!

[Vagabond]

I've never caught a barbel from a small stream, but have caught big chub, perch and roach from streams I could jump across. The farmers readily gave me permission, often saying there was nothing worth catching in them!

Similar experience to Steve, with the addition of trout in E Sussex. My farmers said the same thing ! Alas the "salt-of-the-earth" Sussex farmer has largely disappeared, His place now taken by "farm managers" - box-ticking automatons obsessed with public liability, "elf-an-saffty" and the like.

 

Nice catch, pics and report BB

Edited October 2, 2017 by Vagabond

[Vagabond]

Just the kind'a place I could imagine bumping into Vagabond .

Alas, now unlikely, partly for reasons given in the previous post, but mainly because of mobility. I could probably still scramble down to fish, but not much hope of scrambling back up again. The ultimate in small stream fishing is when you catch from a stalking position where your heels are higher than your head, and you are reaching down to get the rod tip into a space large enough to make a cast. I miss it......

[Tigger]

Alas, now unlikely, partly for reasons given in the previous post, but mainly because of mobility. I could probably still scramble down to fish, but not much hope of scrambling back up again. The ultimate in small stream fishing is when you catch from a stalking position where your heels are higher than your head, and you are reaching down to get the rod tip into a space large enough to make a cast. I miss it......

 

I always picture you Dave when I think of places like the one Boldbear has just been fishing .

I'm sure you could persuade Brian to be your Sherpa for a day or two!