Warks Avon Barbel

The lack of activity on this site tells its own story. I've been pretty bogged down at work during the last month and the few trips I have managed have only told a tale of woe with a few eels and two lost barbel on the lower Severn the result.

So an evening on the Warks Avon was long overdue. It was only to be a short session and it ended up being less than three hours. I arrived an hour before sunset and set up two rods. The downstream was baited with a lump of meat together with a feeder crammed with scalded pellets. This approach is my preferred method as the cooler months approach. It gives off a scent without over feeding and has proven quite successful over the last few years. My upstream rod was baited with 1 ½ boilies with PVA bags containing a few samples. I was able to top this up periodically with a few loose offerings thrown well upstream.

After ten minutes or so I received the first signal that fish had arrived in the shape of a sharp twitch

on the rod top. Soon after the upstream rod was nodding as the first fish was successfully hooked. A spirited fight brought the welcome sight of a barbel in the clear Avon water. It wasn't a huge specimen which I suspected was around 5lb but in impeccable condition. With a fish so early in the session I was quietly confident. Soon after, another barbel was hooked but a hook pull saw an end to that brief encounter. The meat bait had been left untouched until the rod tip wrapped around suddenly. I struck expecting a solid resistance but was left hitting thin air. A cheeky chub or line bite? I'll never know. The fish were obviously feeding and very active so it was not a huge surprise when another barbel was hooked a landed. Slightly bigger, this fish put up a great scrap. Another bite on the meat saw the line peeling from the bait runner but the bait was dropped and I suspect a chub was definitely the culprit on that occasion. It had been a hectic hour or so.

With a clear sky above the temperature had dipped dramatically following a warm autumn day and with it sport began to slow. The next hour saw very little happen until a 3lb chub decided to break the silence and cap the end of my session. It might have been brief but it was an enjoyable way to end the recent drought.

The arrival of October also brought about the commencement of the pike season. I now need to find time to find some pike and ready myself for the colder months ahead.