Robert Catesby has been put to bed for another year, I would have said fireworks but they seem to be a permanent fixture on our calendar these days. My thoughts are now on the annual Christmas excess and my guiding days have come to an end for another year.
This past year has been far from easy in fact it’s been a rather difficult one, not quite an annus horribilis but not far off! The loss of my very dear friend, Fred Crouch, hit me much harder than I would ever have thought. I’ve said before that I always operate best in tandem with someone and Fred was my rock when it came to fishing, he’s irreplaceable, and while I hugely enjoy the days I spend on the river with wonderful people it’s when the day is over and I want to talk about it that the emptiness kicks in; there would always be a joke to share.
So as we settle down to Christmas and to the New Year ahead let me give you a brief rundown of what has happened in my barbel fishing world since I was last here. I’m going to start off with the rivers Severn and Teme for your Christmas Eve entertainment, then take you to the rivers Kennet and Wye to see in the New Year.
Lower Severn
The lower Severn is still my spiritual home but it has to be said that it is a place I find it incredibly hard to be on it at exactly the right time! Daft I know, I have all the time in the world, but events always seem to conspire against me and then the window shuts, most irritating but there you go!
Four visits are all I’ve made, but each of them provided a moment to remember and for Pete the session we shared was the springboard to much greater things.
The end of September is about the time I like to make my first serious forays on to the lower river and the first job after hitting the bank at 7am is always to get the hemp in. The biggest Seymo dropper on a heavy old rod and in no time at all two gallons of the magic seed are spread around to form a carpet a third of the way across the river, the intention being to provide an area that a few barbel might be prepared to forage around in for the fourteen hours or so to follow.
An hour after the first dropper hit the deck Pete arrived full of enthusiasm, totally fit and ready as he only had to make the short journey from Tewkesbury.
Bait tactics for daytime lower Severn when the river is low tends to be a couple of 10mm Elips pellets or a Crave boilie with a medium-sized piece of meat, cut in half and superglued to the loopless hair, the backup plan.
It’s nothing more than a Fisky Feeder stuffed with Dynamite groundbait and mixed small pellets, or a straight lead for the meat; simple rigs, nothing too complicated, it’s always worked ok for me.
We had to wait a few hours for the first barbel but that was no problem at all because once Pete told me he spends all the winter in Australia in his house on the Northern Beaches we found another common bond and the time just flew by. But around lunchtime the rod went over, line peeled off the reel and the first fish was on!
No monster but that’s the whole point when you fish the lower Severn, you just don’t know what will turn up. There are techniques which are very successful for being selective but I tend to bring those out later in the day when it’s a guiding session.
Late afternoon and barbel number two, again we didn’t bother with the scales, no point, it was a really nice fish and it mattered not one jot whether it weighed six, seven or eight pounds. That’s not to say weight is irrelevant, but it tends to be for me until the scale says ten pounds or more! Silly I know but I think it is still important when a barbel gets into double figures, it’s the benchmark for me anyway!
As the sun set over the hills darkness set in, although it never gets pitch black on my venue, I like it like that at my age!
Just as we were thousands of miles away on Whale Beach waiting for the Mulloway to bite we were rudely interrupted by the sight of the rod tip heading downwards and line being taken so we were rapidly back in the moment! This time we had a feeling that one of the bigger barbel had picked up the meat – and so it proved as the scales and large weigh bag came into play for the first time. A satisfying 10lb 9oz reading brought an enjoyable day to its end.
Three barbel in a session is good enough for me, in days gone by, when the lower Severn was considered to be one of the finest barbel waters in the country, that result would have made the long journey more than worthwhile but we have tended to become a little too greedy these days perhaps?
The following day we met up just a few miles away on a different river, the Teme. No doubt about it that this beautiful river is not what it once was in regard to its population of barbel but they are still there in sufficient numbers to warrant a day in their pursuit.
Many theories have been put forward to explain the dramatic reduction in barbel numbers on the river and indeed a study is being carried out to try and establish exactly what has happened; perhaps there were just too many barbel twenty years ago? Whatever the cause(s) hopefully we will get to the bottom of it because the Teme is a delightful place to fish and there are positive signs on the lower reaches so it’s fingers crossed.
To cut a long story short Pete caught one barbel and a few chub put in an appearance too so we enjoyed a really nice day.
A fortnight later, while I was keeping an eye on my granddaughter as she ate all her breakfast the tell-tale bleep on the phone signalled an incoming message.
‘Hey Steve, an absolute stellar day, hooked four barbel 14-07, 11-04, 10-02 and lost one. Many thanks for all your help, cheers, Pete.’
Now I’m not a man given to envy but I must confess as I glanced at the array of cuddly toys surrounding little Eva their eyes all appeared to be green and piercing me with that certain stare! I texted back offering my most sincere congratulations happy in the knowledge that my predictions for the river after the seal incident were beginning to come true.
My next visit to the lower was in the company of Jamie, a nice guy who had bid for the day in an online auction some time ago, for all sorts of reasons it had taken us both almost two years to get the date fixed!
Jamie is into his bikes, think Bradley rather than Foggy, and we spent a good few hours talking about his passion.
I mention the time element because as can often happen on this enigmatic part of the river the first cast produced…and that was it! Mind you it was a nice fish, well over nine pounds and when you get one right at the start it certainly helps to keep you going as it becomes clear it may well have been the only barbel there!
I’m always reminded of a day on this stretch a few years ago when I found myself holding a rod in each hand playing two fish, again early in the morning. I managed to land them both, nice fish as I recall, and that was my action for the day all encapsulated in ten frantic minutes before breakfast time.
The next day I shared with Dave, a local guy who had already had one day out with me last season and our mission was to get him his first Severn double. We worked hard all day but the only prize came late in the day in the shape of a lively eight pound plus. But our day was all about what might have been, I’ll explain.
We were fishing two rods, I tend to do that on the Severn during the day and I decided to reel in the right hand rod to check the bait. As I picked up the rod for a split second I thought we were snagged, a common occurrence in the swim where lots of branches had taken root, but this time the branch, or best I say log, decided to move!
Not fast, very slow, powerful and deliberate, this was no log, this was certainly alive and for a few seconds I was certain we were attached to the biggest barbel- if indeed it was a barbel – that I had ever been in contact with!
I passed the rod to Dave because it was his day saying there is a very big fish on here be careful. I was very conscious of the fact that there had been no bite and no strike so the hook hold could well be precarious – and so it proved to be in thirty seconds’ time! But not before Dave too experienced the ‘feel’ of what was without question a very big fish – a barbel I’m sure – before the line went slack and the prize was gone.
Now I know we all have these stories and they become part of our own folklore but this one will haunt me because I know it was ‘that’ barbel that all of us who fish the lower dream of catching, it paid us a visit but it was not meant to be.
It played on both our minds for the rest of the day. We will be back because Dave has still to land a double, but now he has had a taster for sure.
Three weeks later I found myself back in the same swim, albeit just for a few hours, as I was stopping off on my way to the Kennet. I had four hours, enough time to land four barbel including a nice nine and a very nice ten!
Not long after that perfect conditions presented themselves but I was back in St. Albans doing my granddad bit and whilst a part of me wished I was on the river, it was truly only a small part, quality time with my daughter and granddaughter comes first, and always will.
Those fabulous late autumn conditions, mild weather with the river up and coloured certainly had an impact and the river record was broken when a good pal of mine landed a big fifteen – the lower Severn is on fire once more! The middle river has not been far behind either, producing quite a few good doubles to those prepared to put in the effort and use the selective method, and I am pleased to report that my mate Lol Breakspear – the architect of the premier selective method – and someone I consider to be one of the very best on the river, has captured a superb fish from the middle reaches.
Sabrina is giving up her riches, far from being over the hill she is in full bloom and we await with interest to see what she comes up with next…
Season’s greetings – enjoy your Christmas!
