Day Three of the 2020 River Season

For my third trip of the new season I decided a spot of barbel fishing might be in order. Especially as the river was rising, albeit rather slowly. As luck would have it by the time I got there is was beginning to fall, again rather slowly. Arriving mid afternoon I laid down an area of bait, groundbait laced with sweetcorn and hemp,  in one swim with the intention of leaving it for a couple of hours for the fish to move in. In the mean time a was going to have a bit of a trot in another swim with the few maggots I'd got left.

The little dace and chublets were quickly on to the float fished maggot, but only when the sun was behind the clouds. When it was out I got very few bites. This despite the fact the river was carrying a bit of colour and I was fishing in the shade of the trees. After 90 minutes or so I thought I saw something following a fish in. Next cast, sure enough, a baby jack grabbed my dace as I reeled it in, letting go just as I got it in the net. I bet if I came down with a lure rod there wouldn't be a sign of a pike.

Not long after the pike incident then rain turned up, so I retired to the barbel swim and under the umbrella. The tactic for the rest of the day was to quiver tip either Sweetcorn or Peperami. I have to say I've never seen such a stationary quiver tip. I would have expected the tip to bounce around occasionally as the little fish had a go at the bait, but nothing. I had few trots through with the maggot rod and the little dace and chublets were present in the swim, but like previous days weren't interested in a stationary bait. Despite fishing on in to dark the barbel failed to show.

No wee film today as I forgot the action cam. I always forget something. That's it until next week as we're now back to working normal hours. Not sure how it will go as there's a heatwave predicted.