Met up with daughter and son-in-law at a NT cottage close to the River Severn in Early November. My wife usually fishes for bits on a small feeder; son-in-law, Simon, is an occasional holiday sea angler and daughter generally accompanies him with a spinner or a float rod. Effectively they are river novices. This required an enormous amount of preparation and much of my own tackle to equip the four of us for six days fishing. The weather was very mild but frequent and heavy showers pestered us most days.
The river rose about two feet over the week and made fishing difficult for the ladies as well as dangerous with slippery banks. Nevertheless, they caught dace, perch, gudgeon and the odd “big silvery thing” (roach)to keep their interest but lots of sticks and leaves in the process. Daughter was thrilled to see regular appearances of the kingfishers.
The barbel fishers, me and Simon, fished ledgered luncheon meat hair-rigged to 10lb line; me with my Fox 21/4 tc rod and Simon with my 21/2 tc Greys Prodigy. I blanked on the first day, Simon caught a nice 4lb chub which behaved itself to the net.
Second day we both blanked but the appearance of an otter swimming leisurely through our pegs brightened things up. Third day Simon caught his first ever barbel, a small one of 4lb 8oz, then, a couple of hours later, a massive 10lb 2oz barbel which he struggled with. By the time I arrived he had brought it in too far and was playing it under his rod end! It was difficult to advise him what to do except hang on and let the rod do the work although the clutch was helping slightly. Up on the bank I declared that it was a big bast@*#d and we weighed it. I’ve been fishing for over fifty years and my PB barbel is 9lb 8oz – Oh, cruel fate…
The rest of the week went in a similar vein, I would catch a 5lb barbel and Simon would catch a 6lb barbel; I would catch a 6lb’er and Simon would catch an 8lb’er! We finished up with 12 between us; me with 5 and Simon with 7 which is a decent result I thought. The kingfishers continued to flash by and the long-tailed tits cavorted through the willows; it was a joy to be on the bank.
The bailiff came down Wednesday; I’d made sure everyone had bought rod licences and membership of the club that owns the fishing rights, so no worries there. One or two other anglers had turned up and I would like to thank one in particular who, upon learning my wife had a pike in her swim (she’d been bitten off twice) and that I had no wire traces (I have always carried a couple with me for forty years, but I couldn’t find them!), very kindly gave me one that he always carried with him. What a guy!
Jammy Bast@#rd
Andy
. Only kidding Gordon. He had 2 roach before I had made my first cast and the second was a very respectable fish of at least 8oz. I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days but I needn’t have worried. I had 9 carp and 2 roach on the feeder caught on a variety of pellets and maize. This was probably the biggest at around 5 lb.
