An exercise in futility….

I haven’t really given Barbel that much attention so far this season, a few evening session and a couple of days rolling meat but that’s about it. I managed to catch one fish at dusk. The conditions of the river are not helping to be honest as they are in desperate need of a flush through and a good couple of feet of water in them wouldn’t go amiss. The areas I fish for them as soon as the river is ‘up’ and coloured the catch rate increases exponentially, well in relative terms. I’m enjoying fishing for other species in the downtime, I always have done but if I’m honest I’ve missed the bite and fight only a Barbus Barbus can give.

So with the water clearer than an invisible man in the mirror and the night’s drawing in I’m planning the odd short session after work in to civil twilight, civil twilight I here you say, well yes, large terrestrial objects can be seen but no detail can be distinguished. An hour in to dark is about all I can hack these days as I’m becoming less tolerant of the sights and sounds that seem to be heightened when it gets dark. As soon as the bats come out I give it half an hour and then I’m off quicker than a fattie when the buffet opens.

Just so happened I had a session like this yesterday, got there at 6.30pm, put a bed of hemp and small pellets down with a dropper, tried a few swims rolling some meat and then returned to the primed swim and for the last hour fished a large chunk of garlic spam over the top for the last hour and then back home with a whiskey at 9.00pm.

As soon as the isotope was glowing the tip started to dance, mainly from bats that were brushing the line but I also has some chub hit and run knocks that didn’t develop in to a proper bite. I tend to fish with a long hair because a Chub can really mess up a swim when hooked, in my limited bank time I don’t want that.

There is no denying a Barbel bite when fishing static baits, no need to strike, just sit on your hands, wait for the bite to develop and then, wham !!!!, the rod violently wraps over with a fish on. Exactly that happened yesterday, to the letter but sadly not attached to a fish. Damn :(

With no rain forecast, looks like same again next week……lets hope the nettles have died down a bit.