Elevenses!

Well done Gary! New PB of 10lb 8oz!

Hi all.

Great little spell of late season sun we're having now. It's been great to get out on my own this last week and have some quality time concentrating on my own personal fishing again. Don't get me wrong, I have totally enjoyed guiding throughout the summer, I've made some life long friends and seen many clients land not only their first barbel but also some pretty large one's and personal bests to boot. Now, I intend on spending a little time doing my thing before the weather takes a turn for the worst. A little more on that in a moment though as I have a few paragraphs of  writing regarding another great session I had with a guided client last week.

I took friend and lovely chap Gary Brooks up to the river Wye for the evening with the intention of trying to get him into a new personal best fish. Gary's done a bit of barbel fishing with me in the past and caught about half a dozen fish to 9lb 10oz. We arrived late afternoon and got our gear all sorted and ready to attack the fish head on.

Great results for Gary...top notch fella

Gary dropped onto the two spots I had advised him to fish and I prepped him with regards to tactics, bait and approach for the bigger fish that are present in this particular swim. We had to wait a little while before any action occurred and it wasn't until well after the boats had finished doing their passes that Gary got his first inkling of a fishes presence. The first take was a little odd in that it didn't really do a lot more than just gently pull the tip over in a manner usually fit to that of a large clump of floating debris pulling the line down stream!

Gary picked up the rod and lent into the fish and a good bend in the rod saw us happy that a blank was now not on the cards for the evening. at 8lb 1oz Gary was over the moon with his fish.....I struggled to get so much as anything other than chub bites all night on the right hand side of the swim. Catching 3 of all around 4lbs to a low 5lbs.

Beautiful weather and scenery at Pixham

Next up was another good take on Gary's rod and this one took off like a submarine! Poor old Gar was bent double like his rod trying to keep in contact with the beast. A good scrap ensued and the battle raged on for a good five minutes before the fish succumbed to the net. I knew which fish it was immediately as I had seen it earlier in the month. I kept quiet and flipped the fish into the weigh sling without Gary having too muck knowledge of what was going on! I then informed him of his new personal best barbel which had just tipped the scales to 10lb 8oz! What a fish and what a pleasure to see the fella in such a fantastic heightened state of enjoyment and surprise. Magic!

He managed another smaller one to finish off proceedings and at 7lb 10oz he was again chuffed to bits with his 3 fish for over 25lbs! A great way to finish off the evening.

Just a small one from Pixham this time round

I decided to have a few days off then due to work load and penned my next diary entry trip for Monday. The session soon came around and I aimed the car in the direction of the River Severn at Pixham. I arrived shortly after 2pm to an empty car park. What a result. I decided to do the first night in the steps (peg 3) again and set about getting my kit all sorted for the impending night ahead.

Baits went in and brolly and chair went up. And that was about the end of that! I had a bream of about 6lbs in the middle of the night and lots of bleeps and knocks but no barbel at all???? Where had they all gone??? I decided after mid morning on the Tuesday that i'd move upstream to 'The Flats'. A swim I did well in on my first trip up to the Severn. I decided this time though to fish from the high bank. My reasons were that last time I had lost countless fish to the marginal tree roots and snags in the swim. I figured that if I could get way up high above them, I could at least then apply better aerial leverage on the hooked fish.

It doesn't get much better than that!!!! 11lb 12oz of Wye beauty!

I sat and waited and waited and waited! Things were stupidly quiet. I had a nice chat with Palatrax consultant Rich Shaw during the afternoon, who was fishing just above my swim. He too struggled with just an eel and a small chub in his catches I believe. He left around 12.30am and as he went through the car park gate, my left hand rod roared off! I fought the fish fairly hard and within a few seconds it was up on the nearside shelf in the clear water. At just 6lb'ish it was never going to break any records but it did break the duck and the boredom factor.

I packed up with just the one fish under my belt.....feeling rather hard done by and pretty beaten up, I thought i'd grab the opportunity to drop in on my club section on the Wye on the way home. I wasn't prepared for day style fishing with a chair etc as all I had with me was a bedchair and sleeping bag etc. This meant I had to rough it up a bit on the bank side with a rucksack as a back rest and unhooking mat as a base to park my back side on!

BBBBBBBOOOOOMMMM Another chunk! 11lb 14oz What a session!

The afternoon progressed and I had decided i'd try and fine things down a bit to see if I could grab a rather tougher day time take. The rig consisted of nothing new other than that of an 8lb mono hook link and a size 14 wide gape Drennan hook and 6mm boilie. Things were very quiet for about an hour. I was just contemplating a recast when off zipped the right hand rod. Now, the weed that had been coming down the river was almost intolerable and I had to fish the tips almost under the water to avoid getting into contact with ever loose piece of debris floating down stream. This fish kited hard up and across the rivers flow and I knew straight away it was a good fish.

Playing the fish gently was not an option but I had to be a little on the easy side as the hook and line were a little on the weak side! This worked well and about 5 minutes later I saw my first glimpse of what looked like a truly big fish! In the low light and very orangey coloured water it looked incredible! I gasped when I saw its length and girth and I thought I may well be looking at a new personal best fish! Well, I got her in the net and she looked much bigger than the majority of fish I had seen through out the summer season. On the scales she went 11lb 12oz! My second biggest of the year and second ever biggest barbel! I was ecstatic!

Another stunner of 9lb 10oz!

After returning the stunning fish, I felt the chance of another couple of fish may well be on the cards....nothing could have prepared me for what was to come though! My next fish came just as the light was failing and a small barbel of 7lb 1oz found the net. I put her back and got straight back out onto the fish. It didn't take long and after 2 nice 4lb chub in succession, I finally hooked another big barbel....This one was hell bent on tearing all the line from my reel! Thankfully when the light started to fail I had upped my line and hook size! Bloody good job I had as this mother was giving it bloody everything in its tactical bag! Nose dives, drilling, twisting etc....about the only thing it didn't do was tail walk! Eventually I had her beat and in the net she went....I shone the light down on the fish and gasped at its size! Yet again another big fish lay there looking back at my ugly face!

Moon rising on the possibly the best session i've had on a river to date!

The scales were zeroed and sling and mat readied for the incoming monster! I couldn't believe I was looking at another double for the evening! Well, it was a double and even more unbelievably another over the magical 11 pound barrier! This one slightly bigger than the first at 11lb 14oz! I was nearly fell over with excitement and the next fish of 9lb 10oz that followed was just a blur! What an evening I had had after such a slow 48 hours spent on the Lower River Severn. Just goes to show that despite being linked by the Bristol Channel, neither river has a darn thing in common!

Right that's my excitement done for this week! I'm guiding a mate again this weekend then I'm having a quick session with Bob and Dougie down on the Kennet as it's Bobs birthday this weekend and I promised to go see the old git. He's 50 this year I think???? lol

See you all very soon.
K
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