Ain't Chasing No Pellet

With a bit of fresh water flowing through the rivers I decided to have another go at float fishing for barbel, on the Swale. Even though there was only three inches or so of extra water the river looked a bit healthier than it had. In order to avoid the minnows I'd decided to fish pellets. Again I'd forgotten to bring the waders which would limit the number of swims available due to the overhanging trees. The swim I picked was near the top of the stretch and one I'd looked at before, but never thought it looked right. The little bit of extra water had changed it though. A nice run around four foot deep following a shallow riffle. A few trots through showed that it was just over four foot to start with, shallowing slightly in the middle then dropping to four and a half foot over the later part. By using an under-shotted chubber float I was able to keep the banded pellet on the bottom with out the float been constantly dragged under.

Third trot down with a bait I was in to a reasonable sized something that managed to snag itself up a couple of times, but constant pressure got it free. It turned out to be a lovely bronze chevin around the three and half pound mark.  There then followed several foul hooked dinky little chub/dace yearlings that appeared to have a liking for 8mm pellets.

Nothing more happened for the next hour despite a steady flow of pellets going in. While I had a sarnie and cuppa I chucked the feeder rod out with a 12mmm pellet on. Before I could even start my sarnie the rod was hooped over and I was into what felt like a barbel, which came adrift after about a minute. Having eaten the sarnie I was just waiting for the tea to brew when the rod went over again. Again it felt like a barbel which, apart form the usual shenanigans around the net, came in quite fuss free. A bit bigger than the chub it showed there were barbel in the swim right where I judged the pellets would be washed down to.

Having finished my cuppa I continued trotting until the light prevented me seeing the float. Although it was far from dark the low light and rippling water just seemed to obscure the float no matter what colour I used. Back out went the feeder rod and after a little while the tip started to rattle about. Even though it wasn't a classic barbel bite a little barbel around the two pound mark  was soon wound in. That was it despite staying an hour into dark.

It was nice to know there was barbel in the swim, but why they won't take moving baits some days I don't know.