Warwickshire Avon - Dragletails and Doxies

A short session this, a pot of maggots to try and catch some Gudgeon and I'll fish in to dusk to try and catch a Barbel. A slightly different approach this time, feed would be via a PVA bag and pellets and bait on the hair would be a krill wafter. Its amazing that swims that hold gudgeon hold them year after year and this 2 hour session was no exception.

You have to appreciate their character, unlike any other fish that swims in out waters I'd say.

I love fishing maggot this time of year, species in miniature are also caught and bites are ridiculous even before hitting the bottom in some cases. Now these gonks reside in and around an overhanging tree and cast as tight as you can and usually a confident pull of the tip the target species is the culprit.

Dace, tiny chub and perch succumbed to the pungency  wriggly grubs.

I increased my bloggers challenge weight to nearly 1 ounze (0.97) and must have caught about 8 to 10. You can tell from the fight through the wand rod what it will be as well. Imagine them the size of a Barbel, they would be very good fighters indeed.

Sam would be horrified if I used one as a live bait, "Dad these Gonk'ies are precious"

After the tractors and harvesters had finished with their noisy duties it was out with the Barbel rod to fish in to dusk.

This swim was home to my once PB of 11lb and 11 ounces. That came at the first day of the river season, I don't fish for Barbel that often but that PB stood for a number of years before I bettered it with my current PB of 12lb 14oz.

They have been elusive of late though despite seeing them going about their business. To be fair it's not the best time to catch Barbel, Autumn and beyond should offer better probability. 

So headed in to dusk the cloud cover darkening the swim before the sun set even the bats were out early.

A confident pull as soon as the bait went out was encouraging but that didn't develop in to anything. The rod top motionless apart from the odd time a bat came in to contact with the line.That's quite a few session now without a bite from a Barbus, hmmmmm.