An angler's journal

An angler's journal

Tuesday 21 August 2018

When a plan comes together

With the brother-in-law up for the weekend the inevitable fishing trip was arranged. We'd been given most of the day to fish rather than my usual few hours after tea. Arriving late morning on the banks of the Warwickshire Avon, we set up in a new area that offers potential but had yet to bear fruit. I'm sure a fish will come from it this autumn but the middle of the day was probably not the best time to put its credentials to the test. After 40 minutes, a few sharp bends of the rod was all that could be reported. The plan was then to fish a maggot feeder further downstream to encourage a few bites during the warmest and brightest part of the day. Once Mike had his eye in on the casting front the bites started to arrive. Most of them were lightning quick but eventually some fish made their way to the bank successfully. Most were small chub although perch, skimmer bream and a roach all put in an appearance. One chub had a lucky escape when a pike tried and failed twice to launch an attack as it was brought to the bank.

An Avon barbel goes back strongly
By three o'clock, I decided to go and bait a swim with barbel in mind. I used a bait dropper to put about a pint of hemp and some pellets down. I also threw in around 20 boilies. It was then a case of leaving it alone for at least an hour in the hope that some decent fish would find it and grow in confidence.  Most of the bait had been concentrated in area slightly upstream with a lighter offering downstream and across towards cover. Quite often, larger fish spook when faced with a large bed of bait. Whilst it no doubt attracts fish to the area it is often the downstream rod that performs as the larger, more wary fish hang back. With both baits in place it was a case of seeing if the plan actually worked. Five minutes or so passed when Mike's rod twitched twice before slamming round. It was of course the unmistakable bite from a barbel and a fish of about 4-5lb gave him value for money with several surges towards both banks. He was very pleased with his first Avon barbel and I also took satisfaction from the fact the plan had worked so quickly. Soon after, it was my turn to do battle with an Avon's barbel. This fish stayed low and felt a better fish. Indeed it was at 8lb 4oz. We'd
This fish came quickly after giving the swim time
managed two daytime barbel from a crystal clear river within 15 minutes so things were looking up. Unfortunately, the fish had spooked and the action ceased. Ideally, we should have had another swim prepared to move into but we sat it out with us needing to pack up by 7pm. A barbel decided to jump from the water in front of us signalling they were still in the area. Time for a second plan to outwit them. I decided to change tactics to a blockend feeder with a short hooklink. The size 10 hook had a hair with 3 fake maggots attached and then the hook was baited with as many live maggots as possible. I then taped up the feeder to slow the release of bait. Thankfully this approach also came off as I hooked another barbel of around 5lb with not long of our session left. Mike went home happy although it would have been nice if he could have followed up that early barbel with another decent fish.

Comments are always welcomed to help me gauge the reach of these posts so feel free to leave a few words.

1 comment:

  1. Always read and always enjoy, should comment more - sorry.

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