The summer river season is just 107 days long, and once again it has flown by. After a quiet closed season I was eager to get cracking - I mainly limited my targets to just three species of fish; barbel, carp and chub for the opening months. Lots of early starts and creeping about in the nettles - here’s my summer, written as I went along...
Closed Season: I had a bit of a break over the closed season, very little fishing. I did manage a couple of gudgeon matches against James on a local pond. A couple of days chasing my first wels catfish - landing five, setting a fantastic PB of 27lb 0oz. And pre-season warm up with the tench and crucians down on the farm.
June: Well rested I was looking forward to the start of the river season, and this year it was all about barbel. Seventeen barbel on the opening morning was a result beyond my dreams! And four more short sessions took my barbel tally to
34 fish for the month - a cracking start to my 100 barbel challenge, could I complete it in the summer?
July: As well as barbel fishing I set my sights on a fly caught carp - but what I wasn’t expecting was this stunning double figure koi on the fly - brilliant way of catching her! A long day of bait ‘n’ wait was rewarded with a beautiful twenty pound common carp - the first of many I hope! And I took my barbel count to
55 fish.
August: I continued my barbel quest with a few short early morning sessions - which included bagging a double - my barbel count was up to
84 fish. But the fish of the month (perhaps season) was a six pound chub from the local little river. Me and James have long speculated their existence - and here was one on the bank - brilliant!
September: The month started with a beautiful river koi - followed by catching carp on Jelly Babies! But the main mission of the month was my barbel quest - and I cracked it -
102 in the summer season! Sorted, I managed three crucians from the farm and said goodbye to the summer with my very first tidal Trent barbel!
And now it’s pike time...
Summer seems a long way back now. The Wye is quite wide at the moment and its still raining. :o)
ReplyDeleteSeemed to end really abruptly about 2 weeks ago. Big storms here today (but the pike are feeding :-)
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