Hampton Lucy Brook - 24.07.12

Dock leaves, I thought they were meant to take the edge of stinging nettles ? my ar*e they do. It was 27 degrees when I decided to go for a couple of hours so I stupidly donned my shorts. With the warm weather and the most rain we have had since records began some of the nettles were taller than my mate RayBot, thing is I knew I should have worn my trousers, but best layed plan and all that. What a stunning evening to be out though, and after fighting my way through the jungle I settled into my favourite swim and popped open a well deserved Betty Stoggs.

I couldn't believe how much the river had dropped though, pretty clear too, certainly not ideal Barbel conditions. I started off with small pellet baits and lobworms and had small perch, tiny chub, roach and eventually a half decent Chub. The river was alive with fish, with the bait getting attacked as soon as it settled in the swim.

Half an hour before dusk I baited both rods with big chunks of garlic luncheon meat hoping to attempt a Barbel. As soon as the light faded one on the rods was nearly pulled out the rest and I was into onel, for those that have never experienced a Barbel bite, once you have seen one, you won't mistake another one again, they really are proper violent takes After hauling it out from a snag it buried it's head and quickly found another one , from the disturbance in the water flow it may well be a sunken tree, damn, felt a good'un too. 

Not feeling too disheartened I sat behind my last remaining rod for the last half and hour, fifteen minutes of waiting it was like Groundhog Day, Barbel hooked, Barbel steered away from snag, Barbel finds underwater snag, Mick loses yet another Barbel. Arrrrhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!.  Not sure about anyone else but for me the only time to go Barbel fishing is dusk, really is the best time to catch them in my opinion, they must just feel far more confident feeding in low light, who knows but for me and what I've experienced when the witching hour arrives, so do the fish.