Barbel Fish-in catch report...............

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

Firstly thanks to Seph and company for setting up this fish in..........I had actually forgotten about it as it happens and got wrapped up wrangling with old Kleinboet about that famous terror outfit 'The Welsh Nationalist party' LOLOLOL!...........anyway, I digress! Bottom line is I spotted the fish-in post again this evening at about 7pm and decided to chuck my rods in the car and just go.

 

I had rakes of groundbait (the GOOD stuff) but was a bit shy on hookbait but a quick introduction to badexcuseforanangler saw me almost buried beneath a selection of boilies, pellets, bumbells and drilled hookbaits which would defy the imagination! (thanks matey!!!)

 

Actually that brings me nicely onto a rather interesting twist in the tale..........I first found Malc and seph and said hello (they seemed more interested in their grub than talkin to me...........but hey, I seemed more interested in their grub than talking to them so fairs fair!!) then I suggested I'd cruise up the pegs saying hello to everyone before I set up. Firstly I spoke to Mr Matthew (god is he UGLY!!! LOL, only kiddin mate.............and glad to see you had a sensible shirt on today). After a brief natter he said badexcuseforanangler was 'just up there' so I headed off in that direction.

 

'Hi' said I as I approached the fellah in the next free swim, 'are you badexcuseforanangler' yep, that'd be me he said, but after a few minutes of chatting I mentioned anglers net.....'whats that then' he said. My eyebrows twitched a bit before saying YOU ARE badexcuseforanangler arent you?? He said I am a bad excuse for an angler yes! I laughed out loud and explained that I was looking for someone with that as a 'handle'.......he realised the mix up and laffed too..........'whats this anglers net then' he said, 'I'm gettin a pooter in a few weeks like'. I pointed him toward sephs tent and suggested he would supply him all the info he needed and scurried off quickly into the descending gloom!

 

I got set up just before the darkness descended. I decided to use a method feeder (korda type on one rod and fox on the other)......it wasn't a highly technical decision, its just my rods were set up like this from the last outing and I had a BIG tub of groundbait with me (and besides I'm a lazy sod and couldnt be bothered to change the setup).

 

For the first hour or so I recast every 10 minutes or thereabouts so as to get plenty of 'smell' into the water. The groundbait had all sorts in it......boiled hemp, ground hemp, fishmeal, layers mash, pigeon feed, fishmeal, halibut pellets etc and was all bound together with a gooey mix of water and molasses)

 

I'd set myself 1am as leaving time as I had a hot date with a South African chick by the name of Sauvignon Blanc and didnt want to be late!

 

Time ticked by and the only thing that seemed to twitch my line were the bats who spent all evening banqueting themselves on the insects which tried their damndest to puncture my skin and drink my blood! Who said bats were the bad guys?

 

10 to one and 'click click click click' just 4 clicks of the baitrunner then nothing............sod it I thought, time to lift the rod and see if anything is there.................sure enough a quick lift resulted in a cracking scrap between myself and a 7.5 lb barbel. They seem to fight much harder inthe Avon than in the Severn I thought........still, the 7 foot greys stalker once more brought a big beeming smile to my face is as it subdued the fish.

 

Just as I put him back into the water the baitrunner on the other rod screamed away..........'darn' I thought, i've caught the line with the corner of the net as i've lowered the net into the water to release the fish, but a quick glance at the rod tip suggests this is another fish!!!! I quickly drop the fish right in the margin so I can re-aquire him should he look in trouble and lift intot he second fish........

 

.............wow, this blighter feels solid!! Doesn't want to run much, just wants to keep hanging in the current like he's a sack of rocks. Oh no, he's off for the weeds...........and he's in em!!! Some gentle coaxing gets him through the fist set but he gets into the second set and goes 'solid'. I can feel him still there though but need a bit of extra pressure to coax him out this time, but sure enough, out he pops then into the current he goes for another go at trying to tease me into letting him go. NO CHANCE!!!! A few moments later and he's in the net..........hmmm, you look a tad bigger than the last one! 9 lb 10oz to be exact and I have no camera. Aha, I have sephs phone number that the dozey sod posted up on the website, lets wake him up as its only 1am!!

 

Ugh...........urgh...........hello? 'yo mate' I got me a fish here if you have a camera? I'm sure he muttered sommat about there not being any fish in this river, but all the same he said he'd come and take the pic so I didnt question his remarks further. He took a couple of pics and we let the old girl back into the flow.

 

Seph stayed for an hour or so and we had a nice old chinwag about fishing.........whist we chatted I spotted another pike sat in the shallows..................right weird markings on it too! Looked like a desert type army cammo on top of him so tried to net it. Got him in the net but so surprised was I to actually net him that he managed to swim back out the net before I could drag its rim to the surface!!!! All a good laff though.

 

Before seph went to worship the kettle gods back at his tent I had another 5 lb barbel which brought the opening evenings tally for me to 3 barbel. Whats more, I'd never caught an Avon barbel before so it was a nice landmark for me...........and boy do they scrap, in fact so addicted am I that I just might have to have another go tomorrow evening.................that is if seph hasnt pinched me swim!!!

 

Fun evening..............oh and that South African chick? I've 'done her' whilst typing this out!!! HIC!!!!!! G'nite all :-)

Edited August 5, 2006 by Brumagem Phil

[medwaygreen]

Very good catch report well done and thanks for posting the info.

[Andrew Burgess]

so far so good.

[badexcuseforanangler]

Just a quick report for me managed to get me one barbel just under 7lb on the first night a new pb for me as my previous barbel was all of 2.5lb!

The mozzies were killers I got bitten on my ankles even though I had my socks tucked in my trousers!

The day time was bit of a waste of time fishing caught with the other members got abit of sleep, watched ferret drive hill radio controled car up and down the bank, fed the minnows watched the pike feeding on the minnows.

I was expecting a quite night on the saturday it was far from quiet it just wasn't the fish making the noise, sounded like there was a country and western concert going on over the fields somewhere, then there was the group of lads fishing the next few pegs up, 1,000,000 candle powers torches, and bite alarms turned up to max.

Even with all the noise I was getting the "starlight stare" if thats a saying from staring at the starlights so put the alarms on and reclined my chair, next thing it was 5am in the morning and the people next door had $rap playing the car stereo now I was just about to go have a word when the down stream rod was almost pulled from the rest.

After a nice fight a 7lb barbel was in the net.

 

Thanks to seph for taking the time to organise it and getting me a proper barbel.

 

I had some bait to use up so after drving home and having a sleep I headed over to Tring for an evening on the canal. I fed some halibut pellets down the edge and fished some left over paste, the avon barbel wasn't took keen on the paste but I ended up with carp of 16lb, 18.5lb and 21lb ! Its been a good weekend

Edited August 7, 2006 by badexcuseforanangler