Jorvik Angler: Summer Barbeling in Autumn

I was surprised to arrive at the parking spot Friday morning to find no other vehicles there. There was one in the other club's car park. With everybody wanting a bit of water in the river I'd expected it to be busy(ish). I know it had been rising on Wednesday and steadily falling since early Thursday, but it was at a nice level Friday. With the river being about 3'-4' up there were a couple of swims that I knew fished well at this height. With no angler s about I headed for the nearest one. Unless you know the river it's not an obvious swim when the rivers flooded. The upstream rod is cast about 2' from the visible reeds, much closer and you are in the weeds. The downstream rod is cast across the river and allowed to swing downstream where it usually settles in a crease.

My original intention had been to use 22mm pellets on one rod and a big lump of meat on the other, but the only hook-lengths I had for pellets were for either 8 or 12mm. A 12mm pellet was dropped upstream with a feeder full of 4 and 6mm pellets. The 4mm ones drift out of the feeder and the 6mm stay put but slowly break down creating a scent trail. I was still faffing about setting the other rod up when the tip sprung back and the line headed quickly downstream. No need to strike. Just pick the rod up and let it arch over. Clearly not a monster, it put up a fair old scrap in the fast flowing water. A tidy little beast around the 5lb mark. I'd misplaced my phone mount so the photos had to be tale using the time honoured precariously perched phone technique.

With a lump of well matured peppered luncheon meat the size of a matchbox on the meat screw and a feeder full of hemp I finally got the other rod out. I did notice as I opened the tin that the best before date was November 2009, one of two tins hiding in the bottom of may rodent proof bait container. I'd also had to remove the woolly and was sat in a T-shirt as it really was rather warm.

About an hour after the first fish the meat rod indicated a bite but I contacted with nothing. Probably chub or debris. Just as I got that rod wound in the upstream rod started to bounce about and I was into something. After a bit of a battle another barbel similar size to the first was in the net. Again a tidy looking fish. This one decided to do the lying upside down in the net trick as it was rested. Eventually it righted it's self. Another 10 minutes and it was trying to drag the net into the river. I gave it another 10 minutes before releasing it.

An hour later and the meat rod lurched over. This time I was in and it was clearly a lot bigger than the previous fish. After a protracted battle it was in the net. My guess was that it was pushing double figures. 9lb 7oz it turned out to be. I'd also forgotten to debarb the hook so had to resort to forceps to remove it. As this fish was resting in the net the upstream rod went over and I was into another fish. At first it felt like another barbel, but it seemed to be in midstream. Sadly the line parted. Judging by the coils at the end of the hook length it looked like it had snapped in the middle of the knotless knot. An odd place for it to give. It my have been a pike as I'd heard a couple of reports of them picking up pellets and as we know they also like Peperami and cheese paste.

That was it for the day. I fished on for the afternoon, but apart from something having a chew on the luncheon meat there were no more fish. Due to other commitments I couldn't fish into dark. I was quite happy with the day, especially as the chap on the opposite bank hadn't had a thing by the time I left.