Flood Water Barbeling for Chub

Looking at the river levels on Sunday the Nidd, about 18" up and falling, seemed like the place to be to catch my first barbel of the season. The tactic this time was to sit it out in one swim, with two rods. The upstream rod was to be pellet with broken bits in a PVA bag, while the downstream rod was baited with meat over a bed of hemp.

After half an hour the downstream rod looped over in classic barbel style before springing back as I lifted into nothing. This happened half a dozen times before I contacted with something, a rather chunky little chub. This pattern repeated it's self for the next hour. I stuck it out as barbel often appear among the chub.  All the action had been on the meat rod up to this point. As the bites slowed on the downstream rod the pellet rod started to show signs of life. A similar pattern to the downstream rod soon developed. By leaving the rod alone as it rattled about in the rod rest I managed to avoid dealing with the small chub.

This was how it continued for the rest of the evening, contacting the occasional little chub all of them about the same size. No sign of a barbel, they'll turn up though. Eventually.