River Go Up, River Go Down, River Go Up

The rain for the previous few days had scuppered my plans for a bit of end of season trout fishing. Although they hadn't gone up much, the rivers I have access to were well coloured. But, rising rivers mean barbel feeding. This presented another set of problems, where to fish. Some spots were ruled out due to road closures for the cycling. Others were ruled out due to the water level. Too high to fish from the bottom of the bank, but too low to fish from the top. There's no half way due to the steepness of the banks. In the end I opted for the Derwent. Unfortunately the river dropped about a foot while I was there.. Probably due to the sluices been opened. as there still appeared to be a bit of water still to come down.

 








The plan of attack was simple. Pellet and mesh bag in the barbel swim. Lob worm dropped in various interesting spots elsewhere. The barbel swim was very quiet. Apart from a few rattles I had just the one bite, which after a hectic couple of minutes threw the hook. Not sure what it was though.

 








The worm, though, did sterling work picking out dace around the 4-6oz mark, roach to just over a pound and some small chub. Which would have been a lot more fun taken on appropriate tackle rather than a barbel outfit. Surprisingly, despite the kit used, the bites were all very positive and I don't think I'd of caught any more with a lighter set up.

 








 








 









One surprising aspect of the day was the number of Martins still about. They appeared to be heading down stream in quite large flocks. As usual though, the Derwent babel were elusive.