Night on the Trent ..bens first Barbel ??

[Maddison_Twatter]

Well the plan was to have a night on the Trent to try and get my little bro a Barbel.
He is fairly new to fishing so this was going to be a good learning curve for him.
I arrived at the stretch with my mate about 3pm and Ben came along a few hours later after he managed to slip the lead from the Mrs.

We planned to fish cage feeders packed with hemp and groundbait with long hooklengths baited with whatever I managed to dig out of the tackle shed or kitchen.
Some purists may tell us were doing it all wrong by using large cage feeders, but this is a large fast flowing section of the Trent and rolling baits and stick float fishing is just not possible.
The water was really clear which was not a great sign but hey we were hereand here to stay.
Not so much as a knock for the first few hours despite a few fish showing in the middle.
Then out of nowhere my rod tip started thrashing and the line was being torn off the spool at a rapid rate of knots ! Loving these summer barbel !!
I lifted into it and right enough it felt like a barbel and it was not giving up easy, it put up hell of a fight and I was shocked when I landed it and it wasnt a double.
Here he is anyway at a modest 6lb 14


I took the fish to the water and told Ben the importance of letting the barbel rest in the shallows before being released.
About ten minutes later Ben had a screamer but unfortunately his knot tying wasnt up to scratch and the hook slipped. After a quick knot tying lesson Ben was back in the water.
Meanwhile my mate further down had a cracking bream of 6lb ( sorry no pic).
After about another ten minutes Ben had another run and this time managed to land this nice bream


All was quiet until about 2am, me and ben were chatting and I askedhim " are your alarms on loud ? " and as if to answer my question one of them started to scream off. Instinctively and to Bens suprise I leaped and struck the bite and felt a heavy pull "sorry mate" I said to Ben and handed him the rod back .
After a good fight fom Ben and the fish it was mission complete, Ben had caught and landed his first barbel
7lb 4
.
All was quiet the rest of the night and into the next day so we decide to call it a day, all of us chuffed with our catches

[MRG2000]

Couple of nice Barbel there chaps ,well done ...

[Fishing Forum Admin]

nice one lads

[Baz T]

Great report - well done on the barbel.

[BoldBear]

A couple of very nice conditioned Barbel together with a very decent Bream to go with them.
well done a great report.

[Maddison_Twatter]

Thought Id just add this as its only a little question.. thinking of fishing to a fast flowing weir on a fairly big river, is their anything to cosider when fishing to a weir as its my first time ? cheers

[BoldBear]

Originally Posted by Maddison_Twatter

Thought Id just add this as its only a little question.. thinking of fishing to a fast flowing weir on a fairly big river, is their anything to cosider when fishing to a weir as its my first time ? cheers

I have only fished small and medium sized weirs on the Lea and the Kennet but this may still hold water on the bigger weirs.

If the weir is not one of the newer designs with their concrete runoffs then try along the lip in the white water below where the water falls, as on older design weirs they usually have a deep undercut which the water has gouged out over time. These are great Barbel holding spots as below the white water the current is relatively calm and often washes food underneath the undercut
However with the newer weirs these undercut holding areas sadly no longer exist.

Try in the deeper slacker eddies to the sides of the weirs where the Barbel can sit near the creases without too much effort and where any food will start to congregate.

Try at the tail end of weirs where the water starts to shallow, and where the streamer weed starts to grow and any drifting food will start to settle on the bottom as the flow gets less and the turbulence reduces.

Hope you have a great day on the weir

[Dubbed Squirrel]

Cracking report and fish M_T and if you had a great time who cares about the purists. well done bud

[Maddison_Twatter]

Originally Posted by BoldBear

I have only fished small and medium sized weirs on the Lea and the Kennet but this may still hold water on the bigger weirs.

If the weir is not one of the newer designs with their concrete runoffs then try along the lip in the white water below where the water falls, as on older design weirs they usually have a deep undercut which the water has gouged out over time. These are great Barbel holding spots as below the white water the current is relatively calm and often washes food underneath the undercut
However with the newer weirs these undercut holding areas sadly no longer exist.

Try in the deeper slacker eddies to the sides of the weirs where the Barbel can sit near the creases without too much effort and where any food will start to congregate.

Try at the tail end of weirs where the water starts to shallow, and where the streamer weed starts to grow and any drifting food will start to settle on the bottom as the flow gets less and the turbulence reduces.

Hope you have a great day on the weir

Brilliant, thanks BB

[saladdodger]

nice one guys, id be over the moon :)