Avoiding the Barbel Again

 A change of venue for this weeks barbeling adventures. Admittedly the reports hadn't been great, but I'd heard the few that were coming out were taking small 6-8mm pellets. With this in mind put the lighter top on one rod and set it up with a smallish feeder and hook for fishing the small pellets. still with a 10lb hook length though. The second rod was fished using the usual big feeder tactics and two 22mm pellets. If everybody else had been fishing small pellets the barbel may not be as wary with a big bait. The lighter setup went in down stream under the overhanging willow and the big bait out in front into a hole just over halfway across. I swapped the rigs around every half hour or so for the next three hour. Before I got a bite. A little gudgeon on the small bait under the trees. This was quickly followed by a minnow on a 6mm pellet. How it managed to rattle the tip I don't know. The next cast had the tip whack over the moment the feeder hit bottom. Not the barbel I was expecting but a little jack that must have taken the pellet on the drop.

There then followed a series of rattles to the tip from the bait under the tree before I contacted with an odd looking roach. The tail end looked like it was from a roach half the size of the head end. Another quickly followed. This one had a monster tail belong to a roach twice the size. A more sensibly proportioned one was the next out. This was followed a little while later by a little chublet.

Just after the chublet a few fish scattered signalling the presence of a predator and things went quiet. I swapped the baits around for a while before returning the small bait to under the tree. I then had a visit from a pair of swans one of which decided to wander up the bank and stare at me. I assume it was hoping for food. One thing you often don't realise as you rarely see them is the the size of their feet. They're huge. Another thing mentioned to me by a passer-by was that there seems to be a lot of pairs of swans but very few seem to have cygnets. Thinking about it I'd seen this on another river as well. By now it was stating to get noticeably cooler. As I put my fleece on the rod tip started to bounce around and in came a rather chunky dace. This was followed a by another slightly smaller one. I didn't see a bite from the final fish of the evening, a roach. It was there when I stated to wind in to pack up.

No barbel but I did have a few fish to keep me occupied. I may pop down again with a lighter feeder rod. There again I'd probably end up been smashed up by barbel on a light setup.