Still No Frosts

As there'd been no frosts again this week I decided on a bit more barbel fishing. First port of call Thursday morning was the tackle shop to pick up a Gardner Specialist Landing Net Handle. I'd promised myself a new handle for a while. The storm pole I'd been using ha served me well, but was a tad on the short side occasionally and wasn't easy to collapse when a fish had been landed. Long handles in tight swims tend to be a bit of a hand full. The big knurled locking mechanism made collapsing the pole easy even with wet muddy hands. Unlike some I looked at i's nice and stiff even at it's full 3m length. The only thing I'd alter is the put some knurling on the area the net screws in to make it easier to unscrew the net.Having purchased the net handle it was onwards to the Wharfe, where the new handle would prove it's worth.



The river was still slightly up on it's normal level, but the colour had dropped out of it. MY plan of attack was chilli hemp loose feed via feeder ans/or catapult and meat or worm on the hook. The garlic meat went upstream into the a crease and the worm downstream under a tree. Not long after I'd go set up the rain started and went on for nearly four hours. In this time the only movement on the rod tips was when leaves had built up on the line. Not long after it finished raining sedge started to flutter about with the occasional fish seeming to rise to them. The reel on the upstream rod started to tick steadily and I lifted into something heavy. As I stepped from under the brolly my feet went from under me. The rain had turned the mud outside the shelter of the brolly into the greasiest of greasy. As I regained my foot the ih was still on. Obviously a barbel as it hung in the faster flow. For every foot I got in it took two. After a while it was reversed, for every two foot I got in it took a foot. After tin minutes of this it came easily to the net, no last minute run or other silliness. A nice fish of 8lb 6oz, which took a long time to recover.



By now the sun put in an appearance and two hours later the worm rod started to bounce about. The bite looked like that of a perch and at first that's what it felt like, then halfway in it shot off with some power. I thought a pike may have grabbed my fish, but changed my mind as it sat in the fast current like the previous fish. Keeping the rod low I soon made headway and ha i close to the net when, in true barbel style, it went for one last run. The next attempt at netting it had it lunge into the bankside vegetation. It and the vegetation were soon bundled in to the net. A slightly lighter fish than the last at 8lb 3oz, it clearly still ha a lot of fight in it as it rested in the net while I sorted the camera and scales out. Even after weighing and a couple of photos it still attempted to drag the landing net off into the river as if it had fully recovered. I've been caught out in the pat with this though and had a fish go belly up mid-river, out of reach, so it remained in the net for a good ten minutes.


Again I refrained from fishing into darkness given he state of the bank, besides I was more than happy with a couple of 8lb'ers. As I write this, on Friday, it's been raining for nearly six hours and the rivers are starting to rise again which bodes well for the weekend. Sadly I'll be working, as usual, so won't benefit.