Just had a very soggy evening session on the Colne at Uxbridge, usual float rod, seat, nets and box of bits job. Walked down in a lightish drizzle and got to river just in time to see Dan land his second barbel of the afternoon, about 6-8, first one had been a bit bigger, both on bread...Kept walking as I fancied one of the swims towards the bottom end but when I got there found very little flow other then down the inside as with the very low water a big bed of grassweed upstream was up to and flat on the surface and slowing it right down. Set up anyway, tiny stick with 3 no8s and a 10 spread out and a 4 right under the float and a 20 to 0.10. Chucking it down by the time I started at 4 and kept it up for the next hour and a half as I picked up mostly small perch with the odd dace, and realised that the waterproof overtrousers aren't as waterproof as they used to be, As it cleared around 6 and the light got better, could see virtually everything in the swim, which didn't include any chub or barbel, so time for a move.
Had a good look at a couple of swims as I walked back up but both looked too low so back up above the weir and dropped in three below where I had the big barbel a few weeks back.
Kept same float on but upped hooklength to 0.11. A bit of a big fish or bust swim as a rule with only a few perch to go with the lumps, but hardly any weed or other snags as its just a very dark run under low trees so no real need to go too heavy for the clarity of the water.
First few trots unexpectedly produced some nice dace 4 to 6oz before the perch moved in, a couple of 10oz fish in among them and probably had the best part of 6lb after an hour and a bit when it suddenly went dead. Predictably enough when the float went again after 15 minutes of nothing something pulled back properly and a few minutes later without too much drama had a barbel in the landing net. Nice fish of 8-3, thought that was going to be it for the evening but five minutes later hooked another which went off upstream at a rate of knots. Thought it was going to keep going round the corner which would have been problematical but fortunately it turned and came back towards me at the same speed. And as it went past me again the hook came out. Swearword. Fished on until too dark to see the float but only added a roach and another perch
Another very decent evening's fishing- can't believe how few people are on the river at the moment