A few spindly spiders given their marching orders a sign of a mouse being enjoying the warmth of the compressor. No party to be had here chaps, be off with you.
A return to the quiet stretch for this short after WFH evening session this time a bit of double dipping though. Not only would I be targeting the Barbel again such the success of the last session here but I'd also have a sleeper rod out for a Zander. A few times now I've sort of regretted fishing two rods for Barbel even on a fairly open river like this.
I got in to a bit of a calamitous situation because the barbel I caught last time ploughed in to my other line which was straight out in-front of me rather than being far more obtuse. Luckily quickly sorted as the fish could have well have been lost which would have been my entirely my fault. Fish welfare is key after all.
There is no reason why Zander wouldn't be here, but this area is a little strange, just below here a predator haven as far as I know from the like-minded only pike have shown up and yet just downstream and upstream for that matter Zander are in numbers. There is a good depth here, up to 9ft in places towards the far bank and at the near bank despite it being a bay on a bend as such, it's shallower maybe 4ft, the floods not doing what you thought they would do.
Because the river is so clear sill I kind of like these short sessions, there is no need to rush because the bigger fish won't start moving till the sun starts to set and the light starts to go.
Now the last trip here I did something that was a little outside of the box, and to my surprise it worked very well indeed.
Within fifteen minutes of the hardened boilie(s) being out the indications started. Usually that only happened when it was dusk and beyond, this was an hour before dusk, all very encouraging, there is method in ones madness, lets just hope ones bank balance can support it, because maybe it was the edge I'd been looking for all along. What is also encouraging is that the barbel I caught was different to the one that came out here
The Zander sleeper set-up, well my usual phosphorescent bobbins I designed myself will indicate a bite via an alarm and I'd fish my usual running set-up with a smelt offering. River Zander like their unfortunate canal dwelling cousins seem to like them too. The smell also helps I think and it's quite a visual bait for a passing Zed to home in on.
Enough of the preamble, I better get to the point. I somehow had forgotten to pack ones air dried boilies so krill wafters would have to do. It didn't take long for the bites to start though after I positioned it over a carpet of bait. Some were certainly chub trying to nick the bait off the hair. I could fish lighter I suppose and remove the hair and replace with a band bait to at least bank a fish, but I'd rather avoid the Chub than being undergunned with a big Barbel on the end.
I don't want to catch a Chub on ones Barbel rod either, catch 22 I suppose. The smelt when out in a 9ft deep gully but not even a small indication when I left 40 minutes after dusk. Nothing doing at all. The chub after a good attempt to snatch the bait decided they had enough too and bites turned in to a motionless rod top. Time to exit, at least the sunset was nice and I saw one of the biggest bats I've even seen, a scale above the humdrum.
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