Pilgrim’s Progress

The Reverend Stewart Bloor, perhaps better known as Sedge in the pages of FISHINGmagic, is an ordained Minister and Director of the Sedgley International Christian Ministries. He is also a very keen angler, having come back to the sport five years ago following a break of several years. In this regular column he will tell us about his progress as an angler – his thoughts about the sport, what he learns, the fishing trips he makes, the anguish, the humour, in fact everything he experiences as his angling career develops.

The Summer of Content – In Pursuit of Warm Weather Barbel
I suppose we all looked forward to the summer just gone for a variety of reasons. Some of us would have been high on expectation for Euro 2000, only to see England crash out to a late penalty. Others amongst us couldn’t wait for our summer vacation in the English sun, only to encounter less than favourable weather conditions, which ruined our holiday. It’s so true that the things we look forward to, when they’re all over, often leave us with a feeling of disappointment. However, my summer schedule went according to plan! I decided to spend the warmer months targeting barbel. Although we traditionally think of barbel fishing in the Autumn and of course the back end of the season, barbel are still there for the taking before then, as I found out.

I intended to target two rivers, the Teme and the Dove. One of my targets for this season is to catch a double figure barbel and I knew that if either of those rivers produced the goods, it would be a considerable achievement. With the emphasis on quality rather than quantity, I fished accordingly.

Line was either 14 lb braid or 10 lb mono. Hook length was 10lb, generally Drennan Microbraid, but Sufix Invisiline came into it’s own during the low, clear conditions we encountered here in the Midlands. I fished exclusively with a hair-rig set up. We all have our own style of fishing, much of it simply down to confidence. For me personally, I rely upon the hair-rig for a lot of my fishing. It has never let me down.

Starting off in June, the Teme and the Dove were already quite low, so I was using a 1/8oz flat lead in many of the swims I fished. This was able to hold the bottom quite comfortably, giving an idea of the lack of current due to the low water. The more pacy stretches, of course, required a heavier lead. But I never needed any more than a 3/4oz weight in the pegs I fished.

Bait, in the main, was pork salami sausage (Peperami). I fish with this a lot as I do have confidence in it. I also fished with pork luncheon meat, and occasionally meatballs. We all have different opinions on flavours, personally I’m a flavour junkie! I’m always experimenting and trying out different concoctions. For my summer barbel campaign, however, I tended to stick with plain meat for the first couple of months, then switching to sea food flavours as the summer began to draw to a close.

The Teme is a favourite river of mine, featured in the previous Pilgrim’s Progress, ‘Tales from the Teme’, so I had already experienced its barbel fishing delights. My previous best barbel, before this season, was just a shade over 8 lb. This, ironically, was the first barbel I had caught from the Teme, and had not beaten it since. Until this summer that is, when I caught a new river Teme personal best fish, just a fraction of an ounce under 9 lb. As you will see from the table at the end of this article, the Teme has lots of smaller fish, so in reality a near 9 is a good specimen. Although I do personally place the emphasis on quality rather than quantity, I think it’s important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that fishing is all about enjoyment.

I had never fished the Dove prior to this season and the first visit made was actually the launch article of Pilgrim’s Progress, ‘Debut on the Dove’. After such an explosive start, I have yet to better that fish to date on the Dove itself, which like the Teme personal best was a fraction of an ounce under 9 lb. However, due to the low water conditions I didn’t fish the Dove after the start of August, intending to return again in the autumn.

The low water conditions on both my target rivers meant that Plan B needed to be brought into action. Hence from the start of August, my car found itself regularly going up and down the M5 on it’s way to transport me and my fishing tackle to the Lower Severn. Although I have fished the Lower Severn on numerous occasions before, I had never fished for barbel. Talking with other anglers and reading articles on the river, it seemed there was a mixed opinion. Some rated it the hardest river they have fished for barbel, others had excellent comments to make. In the month or so I fished the lower Severn, it has proved favourable to me. In fact, I broke my barbel personal best twice. The first fish was 9.9 and the second 9.13. The double is looming closer. In faith I can already visualise the Pilgrim’s Progress that brings the news! The river also threw up a surprise common carp of 12.12. I also caught a couple of the bigger Severn barbel on boilies. What was pleasing is that they were home made (I always make my own) and the flavours of both the boilie and the dip were an experiment that I decided to try – which worked. Now I’ve had some initial success, I’m really looking forward to developing the bait.

So, there you have it, an account of my summer barbel campaign. As you can see from the table below, 36 fish were caught. But to bring it all in perspective, I did 30 sessions. The higher our quality expectation, the lower the quantity.

More than 50% of the fish caught were 6 lb and over, so I’m not complaining. Now that we’re into autumn, the pursuit of barbel will continue, although other species will also be featuring in my fishing. All I’m hoping for is that the summer of content does not turn into the winter of discontent! I welcome comments, observations or questions (particularly the latter from beginners). E-mail me on Sedge

Below is a table showing the numbers of fish caught in each weight bracket from the respective rivers.

The Reverend Stewart R Bloor
Sedgley International Christian Ministries
PO Box 1216, Dudley. DY3 1GW.
Telephone : 01384 – 828033
Web site : www.sicm.org
e-mail : missionscentre@sicm.org