The Pope’s River Diary - August: Every Kinda People

[Berty]

Absolutely shameless Paul!

That's my surrogate mum you're talking about!!

Mind you El does love a bit of banter!! ...however short!!

"however short".........and she promised not to tell anyone!, at least i think she did, she was laughing very much at the time.

 

[Rich Frampton]

Well my 6 pints of Casters and gallon of hemp rewarded me with 7 fish including three doubles to 12.6 yesterday. Now that was worth it......even with a 260 mile round trip!!

 

[cg74]

Well my 6 pints of Casters and gallon of hemp rewarded me with 7 fish including three doubles to 12.6 yesterday. Now that was worth it......even with a 260 mile round trip!!

"Jackanory" mg:

 

[Steve Pope]

Hey Colin,

I'm a cockney fella as well and there's no exaggeration in Rich's post mate, I have the texts, the calls and the pics to prove it!!

Glad you enjoyed my diary piece, hope I can keep that going.

All the best, Steve.

 

[cg74]

Steve, I've absolutely no doubt regards the validity of Rich's catch return, it was said in jest and I think Rich may know where I'm coming from:
"Jackanory" was in quotation marks for a reason......

Just a quick question; you mentioned that you expect the Lower Severn to kick in come November, why do barbel anglers seem to show a real preference to fishing the Lower Severn in winter, rather than in the warmer months?
This might seem a very naive question and admittedly I've really struggled in daylight, finding them very tightly shoaled up but once boat traffic ceases, its game on.

 

[Steve Pope]

No worries re Rich!

The Lower Severn question is a big one, my thinking stems from observations over the past twenty years and advice given to me by the late Mike Burdon who caught many large barbel from the Lower.
I have just found that the effort I put in during the warmer months in recent years especially just hasn't produced a realistic return.

Plus these days I tend to plan my season quite carefully, Wye and Kennet up till November with the occasional LS session, December and January will be taken up with perch this season as I really want to take advantage of the situation we have now with that species, February and March on the Lower with one or two trips to the Kennet.

I really love the Lower Severn, its a magical place that has been very kind to me in the past but as I get older the urge to repeat what I have done before gets less and less.

I'll do my best to go into real detail when I start fishing the LS in earnest.

Another important factor for me being fortyunate to have a base really close to the Teme confluence is that I can put in long sessions with a degree of comfort, it makes me fish much better and aids the tactic which I prefer which is to build a swim over a three day period.

There are some good articles on my website about the Lower Severn including some written by Lawrence Breakspear who I respect as a LS angler greatly.

 

[cg74]

Cheers Steve, I had a look in on your site, interesting reading about yours and others findings regards the west side of the river being the 'on' side, as for a while it really had be stumped as to why despite finding clean ground, on the outside of a bend and having wonderful over hanging cover, the east bank just wouldn't really produce as I'd hoped and I would still catch more on what appeared an innocuous nearside swim..... TBH though I'm glad I read it after fishing it and getting my own findings.

It certainly is an infectious water, first time I fished down there last season it just felt like a featureless void, but after telling myself to look at it more akin to a gravel pit regards it features and offset my small river mentality.
Now its got be well and truly hooked.

Though apart from having to do endless overnighters too get the results, I've found summer fishing to be very fruitful. TBH that suits me fine as finishing a session in the early hours then facing a 50 mile treck home, just don't appeal!

Look forward to reading your next diary.

 

[Steve Pope]

Hi Colin,

Before the pellet revolution we always found maggots and corn to be the best daytime bait, meat which worked well at night just didn't produce in daylight.

When I stopped off in Worcester last Sunday a pal of mine was on the river and he had caught four in a short session, I believe the Lower Teme fish drop into the Severn from here on.

If more anglers fished the Lower seriously for barbel I'm sure we would see some good results but these days the specialists are more likely to be after the huge zander.

Pleased that you are now hooked as well, anglers either love it or hate it but it certainly has its own special magic.

 

[abborre]

gone are the days when i fished matches on the wye 60s and 70s were my years 1 gallon of maggots minimum plus hemp and the deadly wasp grub if allowed.. most matches banned it because the bait wasnt available to everyone...in those days we used to get stung just to get the advantage the cake was as good as the grub mashed up in groudbait and really deadly for chub which was the main species for weight.... long before the barbel hit the WYE which where illegally stocked as we all know but i must say it has not harmed the river in any way ...going on to other baits how many of you use pearl barley????? i have used it for years and it catches all species of fish used white or coloured... exellent with punch crumb and used instead of the punch on the hook ....try it its pence and a superb bait

 

[Fred Bonney]

Just wondering if you set up a dedicated dropper rod and if so what rule of thumb do you use to gauge the frequency of drops, and how far upstream of the baited rod you place the dropper...

Presumably depth of swim and flow are crucial and then there's other factors like hemp (denser) will sink faster than casters??

OK that's probably another article's worth!

PS: If you flirt with George in Alan's and tell him he's beautiful, you can get a gallon of casters for £21 !!

Shameless! LOL!

Talking of "another articles worth" this has just become publicly available on our website from the members Barbel Fisher issue before last.

http://www.barbelsociety.co.uk/images/StevePopeBF30.pdf
Magazine copies available at a reasonable fee.

 

[Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)]

Cheers for the link Fred.

A good read that

 

[chaucer]

I was lucky enough to join steve on one of the above mentioned days ,and i like to say that i dont believe it to be an advertorial .The guy is very enthusiastic in what he does and more than happy to share his knowledge ,not only with regards the venue being fished but but with rigs and venues .With regards to the method he uses believe me it does work,i revisited the kennet ,but not being able to get the quantity of caster required (not giving enough notice,even though i thought 2 hours being reasonable) i used maggot instead 6 pints and the same again in hemp.4 fish landed with 2 doubles, so this was one happy essex boy enjoying the journey home .

Neil