Fished a few hours to 22:30 in the “awkward” swim opposite the spot where my rod got pulled in. River very shallow here to about halfway across.
Fished B1 discs to the far channel, and maggot feeder to various places.
Had a few knocks on the barbel rod, bait taken, but didn’t connect with anything.
Had a small skimmer plus two larger ones (almost big enough to be called “bream”!) on maggot.
Had a short, late session tonight, on a YDAA stretch.
I arrived later than planned due to my baby-sitter turning up late (Mother’s eh? Who’d have ‘em). Mike H. turned up for a chat, and he set up my quiver with a maggot feeder and promised to catch me an eel. After a few minutes, he was into a decent bream – it weighed in at about 4lb 8oz but my scales packed in shortly afterwards so they may have been wrong, and Mike thought it was over 5, and he’s usually right about these things.
We put the bream back and Mike had just baited and was just about to re-cast when my barbel rod screamed off. After a short tussle, a nice barbel was in the net. It wasn’t weighed due to the failure of the aforementioned scales but we both agreed it was around 7lbs, possibly a little over.
Time for a small advert…
Last season, DNA Baits of Thirsk were developing a barbel bait and they gave me a few samples – we dished them out at the Ousemeisters fish-in, if I remember rightly. I had good results with it, so I bought a bag ready for the new season. This is the stuff: http://www.dnabaits.com/product.php?xProd=362&xSec=34
It comes in barrels, which I cut in half and fish as two discs on a hair. I caught again on it tonight.
So, 100% record so far – 1 visit, 1 barbel! Let’s hope it stays that way, or better!
R.
An early start today – up at 03:45 and on the bank by 04:45 in time to witness a beautiful sunrise over Towthorpe bridge. The dew hung heavy on the tall bankside vegetation and as I didn’t fancy getting soaked I decided to try a little further downstream, eventually wetting my first line of the new season about 300m above the weir opposite Haxby Landing.
The Foss was low and clear and I had a slow start, my float running through the swim without interruption every time but on in the first half hour. Then I moved downstream a little and started getting a bit more interest. First to grace the net was a feisty little roach which took a rather tortuous route to the net as I managed to poke my rod tip into the bushes opposite and get wrapped round a branch. 16ft rod + River Foss = not good!
A few more roach and dace came along, then I struck into something more substantial.I felt a jagging run, then it went solid and…ping. Pike! Moving further down, I tried a spot around a patch of yellow water lilies which produced more roach and a few gudgeon. Yet another lily patch resulted in more of the same.
Next, I moved down and fished the pool below the weir. I had a variety of perch, chub, gudgeon, dace & roach. I saw a large jack skulking around in the shallows.
tbc…
I stormed into the lead of the Ousemeisters Tommy Ruffe challenge with this specimen from the Swale at Topcliffe.
