Barbel 6lb
A slightly later start this week has my old mate Reg was joining me and he had an early appointment to complete before I picked him up. An uneventful drive down from Leeds saw us fishing just after midday as the first priority was getting the brolly positioned to protect from a biting cold downstream wind and occasional rain. The river was up a couple of feet with some colour but not as much as last week. Reg's cheapo fridge thermometer reported a water temperature of 8 deg C so we were optimistic. First cast and after 10 mins the upstream rod was off but pretty soon so was the fish the hook having pulled. Five minutes later a repeat performance on the downstream rod; oh well at least they were feeding. After another hour and a bit the upstream rod nodded a few times and the Barbel was successfully landed this time and left in the net whilst I got the camera and unhooking mat organised. Before I could complete this the downstream rod screamed into life but luckily Reg was on hand and brought up his landing net. These two went 6lb 1oz and 5lb 14oz, a most welcome start. After another wait the downstream rod nodded once then really screamed off but as I lifted into the fish the hooklength parted ..... bummer ! I think the braid hooklength may have got damaged on a piece of driftwood I'd landed earlier so it was Barbel 3 - Brian 2 and still one short of my seasons best of 75 Barbel. Another long wait followed then just before 5pm a rather manky looking 7lb'er put in an appearence, it appeared to have various scars and some fungal growth but it fought well. Then followed a few good bites that came to nothing but after an hour Barbel of 6lb and 6lb 1oz in quick succession. I then had the hook pull out of another one before landing the best fish of the day at 8lb 2oz just on a quarter to seven. Reg managed just the one at 6lb 8oz after throwing in a few balls of Muesli and Corned Beef groundbait, he's got some strange ideas has Reg, but at 72yrs old he's allowed to. I started to pack up around a quarter to eight having lost everything from the downstream rod on a snag. True to form the rain came down strongly as we packed away and returned to the car.
Not a bad day with 6 fish landed by me taking my total for the season to a new personal best of 78 Barbel but a shame about the lost fish, some days these things just happen.