I have tried catching barbel all summer, as you regular readers will know i had my first barbel on sunday evening. So as expected i was out there at my first convenience trying for another..... A shock (or 2) was to come my way!
Fed the swim with meat and corn, sat back and tackled up, not rushing my self as i wanted to get it right.
First cast, 3 pieces of torn meat to a size 4 hook and 12lb braided hooklength today. I decided to step up from 8lb due to poor abraision on previous occasions.
First cast was at 8:10am, one knock and then a re cast. The tip moved slightly and then slammed round! .....A good fight was in progress.
I knew it wasnt a chub so i thought another barbel was on! Yippee! After a few minutes i got the fish up off the bottom only to see it was a sizeable common carp.
Successfully netted, unhooked on a mat, weighed, nursed and released as quickly as possible.
This was a personable best catch of 8lb 8oz!
A boring stint of 3 hours passed by and having trieda number of different thing with meat, i put on 6 pieces of corn up the line and on the hook as an experiment.
It took 30 seconds for interest! Tap, Tap, ......wallop! Thie fish was hooked and was off down the river, under the bridge and into the adjoining canal! i had never had the clutch screaming like this!!!
I got the fish back into the river but it wouldnt come up off the bottom. I thought maybe this was the barbel. Whatever it was it was strong, heavy and was putting me through my paces!
I played the fish for 20minutes as a had to keep on dodging the snags to my RHS.
Successfully netted, unhooked on a mat, weighed, nursed and released as quickly as possible.
This was a new personable best of 13lb 4oz ....... mirror carp! (lovely condition)
I have learnt from this that patience is the key, never give up, stick to your techniques that you know work, but never be afraid to try something that bit different.
I hope that my next story can be about barbel, but i am happy with this one for now!
Many thanks.
Fed the swim with meat and corn, sat back and tackled up, not rushing my self as i wanted to get it right.
First cast, 3 pieces of torn meat to a size 4 hook and 12lb braided hooklength today. I decided to step up from 8lb due to poor abraision on previous occasions.
First cast was at 8:10am, one knock and then a re cast. The tip moved slightly and then slammed round! .....A good fight was in progress.
I knew it wasnt a chub so i thought another barbel was on! Yippee! After a few minutes i got the fish up off the bottom only to see it was a sizeable common carp.
Successfully netted, unhooked on a mat, weighed, nursed and released as quickly as possible.
This was a personable best catch of 8lb 8oz!
A boring stint of 3 hours passed by and having trieda number of different thing with meat, i put on 6 pieces of corn up the line and on the hook as an experiment.
It took 30 seconds for interest! Tap, Tap, ......wallop! Thie fish was hooked and was off down the river, under the bridge and into the adjoining canal! i had never had the clutch screaming like this!!!
I got the fish back into the river but it wouldnt come up off the bottom. I thought maybe this was the barbel. Whatever it was it was strong, heavy and was putting me through my paces!
I played the fish for 20minutes as a had to keep on dodging the snags to my RHS.
Successfully netted, unhooked on a mat, weighed, nursed and released as quickly as possible.
This was a new personable best of 13lb 4oz ....... mirror carp! (lovely condition)
I have learnt from this that patience is the key, never give up, stick to your techniques that you know work, but never be afraid to try something that bit different.
I hope that my next story can be about barbel, but i am happy with this one for now!
Many thanks.
