Tough work

Thank god one of us did okay!

Hello everyone.

Beautiful weather conditions we've had this last fortnight or so eh? Not so great for river fishing though....Personally it's been tough work and despite a few trips out the barbel have been tough to get into. Saying that last season was even tougher! I shouldn't complain I guess. River anglers eh? The only numpties that would sit and beg for rain in the middle of summer.

After the fantastic start to the season I guessed things would be a little tougher on my next outing. Well, it certainly bloody was! I went on a brief evening session with Taffy to our club stretch at Monmouth and we did a late evenings fishing. We set up in the pontoon swim and from the word go, the rowing club were horrific!

Not just their usual ignorant selves but that evening there was a total disregard for other river users. The supposed safety boats were racing up and down at silly speeds causing a huge wake in their midst, which washed up all over our kit and soaked our legs!

My tenth barbel of 2015...nothing to write home about really

Then we had endless rowers coming in so close that you could pretty much climb into the boats from the shoreline. One group of 4 elder gents came in so close that they actually hit my rod tips that were
pointed down at the waters edge and with the downstream flow. They carried on regardless wiping out both my rods and Taffs as well.

Despite our attempts to keep them at bay and shouting out that we were there, they continued to keep coming in close as an almost deliberate act of malice! Their argument being that we hadn't been there for over 3 months and that they weren't expecting us to be there??? Someone really needs to have a stern chat with the club but as is always the way, our own fishing club has little or no interest in us river fisherman and ladies.

Mathews fish was a little bit better size

Despite the aggro Taff and I stuck it out until into darkness and managed a 5lb chub each for our efforts. But no barbel....My next chance out was with Mathew back up to Herefordshire. We got our day tickets in the morning from the tackle shop in Hereford and headed to try and find a few new spots.

Things didn't really go to plan and 3 hours later we were only just wetting a line. Our first swim choice was free after taking a mile walk to check it for anglers. On our way back to grab our gear we were passed by two chaps well loaded up with kit. That scuppered that idea.

My only other bite of the day!

We decided after trying a few other areas that we'd drop in on the first section we had visited and fish by the bridge. Mat went above and decided to do some trotting on the stick float. I went straight onto the lead and single rod approach.

Well, I sat there for 2 hours without a sniff. Mat had a couple of dace, chub and some trout but no barbel. The heat was searing yet again and after 3 hours of blanking i'd had a titful. We decided to move to the section we had fished on opening day. I dropped into the same swim as before and Mat was keen to try the beach swim just up stream of me.

chub, dace, trout and perch by the ton!

We sat it out for the day and Mat caught plenty of small chub and dace on the float. I however had just a few odd nibbles until finally getting a barbel  at about 4pm. The fish was lethargic and at 6lb 12oz just another average fish for that section. That was it for the swim and despite fishing it until nearly 9pm, I received no other action.

I moved in next to Mat on the beach and he started to catch a few nice chub on the lead just below me. I still struggled though and only managed 1 chub of 5lbs for my efforts. Mat finally sneaked a crafty barbel out of 8lb odd and about 6 or 7 chub to 5lbs as well. Great effort and reward for his hard work.

My next session was a late decision trip out to try a new little section of the River Ely in Pontyclun. I'd done a bit of research and found out that the river is now pretty much free fishing throughout due to the local clubs being disbanded in recent years.

I ventured down late afternoon with a bit of float kit and a lightweight rod and center pin set up. To say the fishing was ballistic would be an understatement! I caught fish after fish! In fact I caught so many trout on the float that I actually got bored in the end! I also managed some cracking dace, surprise perch and even a few small chub too.

It seemed that the fish were a real sucker for a single white maggot. The river was on its bones though and with just a majority of 2 feet or less running over its rocky bottom, swims were hard to fish bar just one or two areas. I'm going back down tomorrow with Mathew and Natasha for another little dabble at it.

Finally.....I took Natasha out last night up the valley to one of our many rugby pitches and we took a rod and reel, hoola hoop and a few leads. The sole purpose being for me to give her a bit of tuition on how to cast properly. She's done a little with a float and obviously under arm swinging for the majority but I wanted her to learn the basics of putting a lead out and compressing the rod.

She had it all spot on! Good girl!

We spent a good 45 minutes talking about her stance holding the rod, her feet and hand positions and then we had a little cast or two. Well, it started promisingly and after 3 or 4 attempts she was getting her release time spot on.
I then upped the anti and got her pulling and pushing properly with both her arms. Things went from good to excellent in no time at all and after just an hour she was already hitting 65 yards with just a 9ft rod and an ounce and a half lead.

Pretty impressive for an 8 year old girl! Well done sweetheart, proud daddy moment yet again!

Tight lines guys
K
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