I'd put the barbel rods away for the season and was going to concentrate on predators, but with the Derwent nicely coloured on Tuesday I thought I'd get them out again as I hadn't caught a barbel from the river this season. There was still a nice bit of colour in it when I arrived, in glorious sunshine, on Thursday. I opted for the same swim as Tuesday as it was in an area of the river I'd always done well in.
The usual pellet tactics were to be used. A 6mm pellet on the downstream rod with a feeder full of well dosed pellets and two 10mm pellets and feeder on the upstream rod. It wasn't long before I had my first fish, a foul hooked minnow on the downstream rod. Not he start I'd hoped for. There were a few sedges fluttering about and occasionally a fish would rise for one. The kingfisher was also flashing past every now and then. Around teatime, just as I'd made a cuppa anyway, the downstream rod lurched over and I was in to something solid which headed straight for the snag I'd forgotten about. It was solid, but after wandering downstream and pulling at a different angle, giving it some slack, etc. it started to move. With constant pressure it was slowly moving towards me when everything went slack. The hook length had been cleanly cut. In the past I'd normally fished the same spot from the far bank casting upstream to it. This allowed me to drag the barbel downstream away from the snag. Oh, well.
Re-rigged the rod went out once more with the clutch tightened up a bit more. I would have to give any fish a big heave and hope it headed down stream away from the snag. By now the bats were fluttering about and the owls were making themselves known. It was also big coat time as the temp had dropped quite a bit, as the light faded. It was a clear night and the bats were clearly visible. In true barbel fashion the tip on the downstream rod went over again. This time I though it felt like a chub, which after a couple of lunges came to the net rather quickly. I surprised to see a little barbel sliding over the net in the starlight. A slightly banana shaped fish of 4lb. Not quite the size I'd hoped for, but at least I'd caught.
It was quite nice sitting back in the bright starlit evening watching the bats flutter about, but the temperature was dropping rapidly and a barbel had been caught so I packed up. Apart from which we're supposed to be off by sunset, or there abouts. The best part of this rule, though, is no particular sunset is specified. You had a choice of; Official Sunset at 18:39; Civil Sunset at 19:14; Nautical Sunset at 19:55 and Astronomical Sunset at 20:28. Very useful to remember if you run into to some stroppy jobsworth of a bailiff.
Music while typing provided by: La confiserie Sonore - Electronic Music Roadshow
No comments:
Post a Comment