A long hard weekend

[mithrandir]

We had a meeting from another forum to the river Severn, I have been asked not to make the location too public so that is as much as I will say.

We travelled up on Friday night as it was a couple of hours drive and I am not fit still. Had a nice meal and got to bed early as we wanted an early start.

Met up with everyone at 6-30 and collected our tickets for the weekend, I had chosen to fish the "easy access" area of the river due to my condition, not the best stretch of the river but at least it was not a 1/2 hour hike and 15 foot banks to clamber down, Claudia chose to fish near me as she wanted to keep an eye on me.

Here is Claudia later in the day at her swim



By the time we had hiked the way to our swims we realised that travelling light was not really a concept we had grasped fully, I was puffing and shattered as the walk was a bit further than I realised. I set my first rod up and baited up with a 14 mm halibut boillie and a few loose 3mm pellets in a feeder, cast about a 1/3 of the way across to the ledge that Dicky (the organiser of this meeting) had told me about and waited.

After about 5 minutes I threw a handfull of mixed pellets just upstream of my bait and decided it was time for a quick smoke before I set up the end tackle on the second rod. A quiet rolly was enjoyed when the the rod tip cranked over and the baitrunner started streaming off.

Fish on!

I shouted over to Claudia, who was still stetting up her rods, and she came over to help me land it as the concrete edges was about 6 feet above the water, and I had not even sorted out the landing mat etc.

The fish gave a very spirited fight, and the excitement mounted as I got to see it the first time through the clear water before it screamed off again, it was looking to be a good size. I finally got it into the net and landed it, still all fingers and thumbs I managed to unhook it and get it into the weigh sling, it tipped the scales at 3.5 Kgs ( 7 lb 10 oz).

I had caught my very first Barbel and it was only 8-20




After releasing it I settled in for the rest of the weekend happy in the knowledge I had hit my target.

The day carried on with various other members of the trip popping by for a chat. It seemed that the river was low, clear and a bit cold, an experienced Barbel fisherman reckoned in these conditions it was going to be hard work to catch them, they would probably not be searching for food so recasting every 15 minutes with small baits and hoping to land one on their noses was going to be the way to catch them.

As it turned out he was right. The fishing was hard, I did not have a single bite for the rest of the day, James on my left struggled until 4-10 when he caught his first ever Barbel on a single maggot and ground bait in a feeder.



The day was slow at times, here you can see James into the seriously hard fishing



Day one ended with with over half the people in our little stretch having blanked, so it was off to the hotel for a wash and brush up and the down to the pub for a meal and a social. We had a great evening, nice meal and good company, it seemed that the anglers who had taken the long walk and scaled the slippery 15 foot banks had been into the fish. Some good Barbel and Zander had come out. So off to bed with Claudia determined to get her first Barbel deciding to head for the dangerous banks in the morning.

Day two was a bit of a worry as we got into the van at the hotel, the heavens opened and down came the rain, it had also been raining overnight, so a safety choice was made and Claudia decided to fish the same stretch as day one as the banks might be too slippery, not such a good chance of a fish but better for me in my condition. I was not going to fish that day as I was exhausted from day one. I did relent later and get a rod out for a couple of hours as the weather was so nice after the rain finished.

Four of us set up around the same area as before and set about small baits and long hook lengths, not what we had originally thought or prepared for, but a tactic that had worked for others.

That stretch did not produce a fish all day for any of us, and as the afternoon wore on the debris was making it very hard work as it dragged the lines down stream, so as dusk fell we headed on home determined to return and have another go at those magnificent Barbel of the River Severn, armed with the knowledge of better tactics for that river.

Mike

[pingu]

Nice one mike what a fish


dave
dead jealous

[biggun]

Nice fish! Shame they weren't playing tho. Better luck next time.

[Twiddler]

What a fantastic weekend it was.....even though the fish weren't playing for a few of us.

Mike and James managed their first barbel, James also caught a chub around the 2lb....

The biggest fish was caught by our host Dicky, a fantastic guy and a perfect host....he managed to land a barbel over 12lb.

Steve and wife Wendi also had a first...both caught a zed.

It was great to put a few faces to names and to have met up with a few old friends.

I will certainly return to the mighty Severn but next time I will make sure to travel light, as it is a good 20-30 min hike to the better swims where bertie is hiding.

[Norfolkboy]

Well done, Mike

[BaggieRich]

Well done guys!

That's a fantastic fish Mike, in obviously difficult conditions. Top effort mate!

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Craking read and well done

[perch_king]

well done all nice pics i just love barble i get my first barble on day and that pic is a classic him sleeping

[Vagabond]

Hard it might have been, but you got a result - well done.

It looks like luxury fishing though - like waiting for a railway train No mud, no steep banks, no tree roots - not like the Ribble!

[Twiddler]

Originally Posted by Vagabond

Hard it might have been, but you got a result - well done.

It looks like luxury fishing though - like waiting for a railway train No mud, no steep banks, no tree roots - not like the Ribble!

Well there was mud, steep banks and tree roots but we didn't dare the long hike to the better spots....tackle tarts as we are, it was too much kit to carry, specially with Mike aka 'Sicknote' in tow.

I'll be fishing the Ribble next Feb for a long weekend with a friend of mine who lives 'ooop norf'