Testing my new Ultralight: Two Trotting Trips

After not fishing on the previous weekend due to workload for college, I thought the best call for getting out was to try for some of the larger roach on my local river, the Itchen. With various walks after college on the way home past the river, I found a few areas holding some good roach and even spotted a few skimmer bream amongst them!

With my birthday money, I picked up a Drennan 14ft Matchpro Ultralight float rod and was absolutely dying to test it out, along with the Clearwater floats I have been kindly given. I started on a deeper, slower stretch where I had spotted several roach to what I personally reckon are over 2lbs. Unfortunately though, there was still a lot of weed and presenting a bait was not particularly straight forward so I decided to move on downstream.

Lovely rod and my favourite Clearwater Float!

After a few minutes walking I arrived and spotted a good shoal of roach. I fed some mashed bread upstream, and watched as I saw some nice roach taking bits as they crumpled off. After missing one bite, it wasn't long until I was into a fish. The rod was absolutely beautiful with a nice action in it and was feeling in very good contact with the fish. With the right tackle I've come to realise that roach are actually decent fighting fish. This was a lovely fish to christen the rod at around a pound or so in weight I would expect, what I would see as a quality roach. After a few more runs through, as the roach had backed off from this spot, I long trotted the breadflake and picked up a nice grayling coming onto a pound and a half. I moved swim and connected with a very nice roach shortly after feeding another nice pocket of fish. It gave another lovely scrap, flashing its beautiful silver bar as I gently guided it towards my waiting net. After putting this pretty roach on the scales it went 1lb 6oz, which is my second biggest of the river season and a nice result. After this, it was time to go, so I packed up and headed for home.

Can never knock a River Roach!

A couple of days later after a kind invite from a good friend, Simon Daley, we headed to the Dorset Stour with a decent chub or two on our mind. After sorting out tickets etcetera, we headed to one of Simon's favourite chub swims with some cracking features for chub to dart and skulk around. After feeding for a good few minutes, catapulting maggots, Simon ran through and at the bottom of the run, he was into a chub straight away. After a few seconds the hook pulled out, but we were both not feeling disheartened as this was so early on in the day. After sorting out an appropriate float rig for the job for the shallow water on this particular swim, I ran through a few times before the float buried and was into a nice chub. The ultralight had a lovely forgiving action and despite the chub digging away on the end of the line, I managed to slow its run and slowly guide it to the waiting net. This was a nice solid fish of 4lbs or so which was a lovely result and was nice as the first chub on the new rod.

Nice way to put the new rod to some test!

Simon and I continued to feed, and as I was watching Simon's float moving beautifully through the swim, I knew it his float was going to bury at any second and sure enough it did. After what seemed like a very enjoyable battle as I catapulted another dozen or so maggots, another quality chub was in the net. This fish was at least an upper 4 pounder, so another great result.

Another for Simon's impressive album!

After one more hook pull and a few missed bites, the swim was suddenly dominated by minnows as the morning mist cleared. It was rather frustrating though as despite the chub were still coming in and out of the over-hanging tree, it was impossible to wade through the minnows. We decided therefore to venture downstream and try and find some 'virgin' fish.

It wasn't long until Simon spotted a lovely group of fish in the shallows downstream and in no time we had them going on our offerings of maggots. After patience of watching this nail-biting scenario of 5lb plus chub feeding on our maggots and eating a few snacks to try and make time go faster, I had my first run through. Continuing with the feeding pattern, on my third or so run through my float buried. I struck and felt another good chub digging on the end. "Get downstream of it mush" Simon urged, as I ran up the bank trying to keep in good contact. Unfortunately there must have been a weakness in my hook link and therefore it unfortunately parted. Much as I will beat myself up about it sitting on my desk now, it is easily done at the time. After giving the swim a few minutes to rest I fired some more maggots in and it was Simon's turn to run through. After a bit of steady feed and a few runs through, Simon's float buried followed by a firm strike. Not hesitating like me, Simon hurriedly ran down the bank and managed to guide the feisty chub out of the thick weed and after what seemed to be an enjoyable battle of the chub digging away on the end, another nice fish of 4lbs or so was in the net. What I enjoyed about this scenario was it was opportunist fishing and in difficult conditions like what we were met with, it is a very rewarding endeavour.

After going downstream where the next section seemed somewhat even weedier, after getting electrocuted a few times by the electric fence, and sorting out our gear we found a good point to wade in and fish this beautiful run. The sun also came out glistening beautifully on the river, and it certainly was enjoyable to run the float through and we managed a few nice chub between us. After doing some roving around and not finding many more 'trottable' runs, we moved on upstream. It was not long until we saw some big chub, some of which we both reckoned were over 6lbs! After feeding these fish for over 40 minutes they unfortunately disappeared to our sheer disappointment and disapproval as someone waded in on the opposite side right near where they were. We were very disappointed as we refrained from fishing for these fish for a while and it was sabotaged within seconds.

Not feeling disheartened we moved upstream and fished a weirpool where Simon had had some good chub action in the past. We decided, to begin with, to try and catch some perch on minnow livebaits. After catching a few, we let the minnows whirl about on the weir pool and it wasn't long until we started getting takes catching plenty of lovely conditioned little perch.

Pretty Little Perch

Whilst I continued catching a few perch on the live baits, Simon decided to get to work with the maggot feeder. After baiting his swim up effectively, he was starting to get bites instantly from dace and managed many hooking themselves on his feeder rig. After doing lots of chopping and changing with bait variations using imitation and real maggots, his perseverance really showed when he hooked his first chub after battling through MANY dace. After a good fight, although it wasn't the biggest chub in the Stour, it was a very pretty chub, scale and fin perfect. After more dace, Simon's tip walloped round and he was into a much better fish. After getting upstream and guiding it out of the snags downstream, it unfortunately managed to find the concrete of the bridge upstream and cut Simon's hook link off which was certainly wounding for him in the circumstances. We fished into dark on the tip and after missing a couple of bites we decided to head for home as we were both getting tired from the roving about and the early start. Thanks for a great day Simon, look forward to sorting another trip soon!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Birthday Weekend on the Severn

As my birthday was starting to approach, I felt that a weekend away would be a nice experience to make for a memorable 18th. What was on my mind, as I thoroughly enjoyed my experience on the Wye back in summer, was to try and tackle another prolific barbel river. I have wanted to fish the River Severn for many years now and I thought now was as good a time as any to take up my good friend Robert Mitchell's kind offer of fishing round his neck of the woods on the Middle Severn in Shropshire. Robert also very kindly leased his land on the river for the annual YouTube Bloggers Match which this year I was unfortunately unable to attend.

Robert's lovely stretch

After packing the car on the night before, I met my dad at the college gates as the plan was to drive up on the Friday. After opting for a fiddly journey with only a couple of hold ups, with the help of my smartphone we eventually arrived after a good solid 3 hours. After quickly having a wholesome meal at the accommodation, the plan was to head straight to the river. With Robert's work finished we thought we'd meet up on the evening to see if we could try and get off the mark with a barbel. By this time it was dark, but as I always say you have to be in it to win it. I met up with Robert at his house where he had kindly picked up for me, some essentials I needed for the Severn. From here we had a nice walk to the stretch, having an enjoyable chat. We arrived at the swim, which was nice to access compared to the dangerous banks of the wye, and even though I could hardly make out the features Robert had explained to me I casted out the feeder for the first time. The tactic Robert showed me was a groundbait feeder (we used 'hemp and hali crush' groundbait) and a nice long fluorocarbon hooklink with a nice bunch of casters glued to the hair. It was a chilly evening compared to how warm it was in the afternoon, but it was certainly nice to have a good chat and learn some new things about barbel fishing. We packed up just before 11pm, and despite on a few casts having crushed casters and some vicious taps, no barbel or chub were to be caught.

The next morning I woke up at 6am and planned to meet Robert at the stretch at 7am. After sorting out some lunch from a local Tesco Express, I arrived just before Robert and admired the beautiful stretch of the Middle Severn before me in the daylight. The stretch consisted of nice bends, a few deeper pools, fast shallow gravelly runs and various far and near bank features.

The River in the dying mist!

When Robert arrived the first plan of attack he proposed was to try one of the methods he uses to trundle baits consisting of a 'DH speci waggler'. We both tried trundling different sizes of meat as well as pellets and despite having a couple of subtle snatches, no fish were to be caught on this method. Although it took a while to get the good control of the waggler, I certainly started to later on improve with my at it. After this we had a nice wholesome breakfast (thanks Robert!) and the next plan of attack was to return to the swim we tried on the previous evening session to see if we could sneak an opportunist barbel on the feeder. A few hours passed with no luck, therefore we tried a scaled down maggot feeder. It wasn't long until bites started to come and we had a few perfectly conditioned dace, as well as a greedy trout! After a few more dace, Robert suggested moving upstream onto the free stretch to ensure that we were covering a sufficient amount of water. After fishing some lovely swims, trying various tactics in desperation for a barbel or chub, it was apparent that the stretch wasn't fishing as well as it could with the high pressure, the temperature drop and coupled with these two factors, the low and clear conditions. As evening started to approach we returned to the swim we fished with the maggot feeder and on the previous evening, as a few evenings prior to this Robert managed 3 very nice barbel so we knew for sure they shouldn't be too far away. I fished feeders into dark, on Robert's suggestion, both on pellets. It wasn't until the last couple of hours left I received a vicious couple of taps and the freespool started to go. I wound down and was into at last a fish that pulled back a bit. It was a nice chub probably not too far away from 4lbs.

A nice consolation

I had another bite just before I had to leave, but unfortunately the chub came off. I walked back to my dad's car feeling absolutely exhausted and a bit beaten up by how hard it had been. Despite this though, it was very enjoyable spending the day with Robert having a good laugh and learning a lot from the methods he showed me during the day.

It was the last morning and I woke up still feeling exhausted from the effort I had put in, and feeling as if luck was not to be in my favour this time. Despite this though, I thought to myself that I needed to get out there to have a chance of getting a birthday barbel. Robert and I planned this time to start on the free stretch, therefore we met at his house and walked down together. After quickly stopping in the tackle shop to get a few bits, we fished the first swim next to the town bridge. It was a lovely looking swim with nice shallow gravels in close where we could wade in our wellies, and a nice slack area in the middle. I quickly got my feeder rod out, and after loading it and putting on a new pellet, on Robert's instruction I flicked it out onto the gravels a rod length out. We got the waggler rod set up again, and after we made sure the depth was correct, it was ready to go for this swim.

Robert reaching into his bag of tricks!

As I was not use to the longer length of line determining the depth, I casted the meat a bit too close to my feeder rod and just as it hit the water and was starting to go past the feeder line to my confusion the feeder rod's free spool started to aggressively go. We both turned around and saw the rod hooped over, "yes, a fish is on there!" Robert shouted as I passed him the waggler rod and pulled into the fish. As soon as I started to apply pressure, I knew from the tell-tale hugging of the bottom and the lunges through the rod that I was connected with a barbel. After taking it nice and steady and gradually tiring it, after one final nerve-racking lunge the fish was ours! Robert and I shook hands, in delight as the ambition for the trip was achieved, a birthday barbel. It was a lovely dark fish and at just over 5lbs, was most, most welcome in these difficult conditions.

The prize, a lovely middle Severn barbel!

Robert took some lovely shots of the fish and it was great to see it absolutely charge out of my hands on release. This proved to be the only fish of the morning, but it was such a great result to have gone to that effort to give it one last go and the reward was sweet!

Off you go!

Big thanks goes to Robert for such an enjoyable weekend, making my birthday treat very special with a birthday barbel, as well as giving up his weekend time whilst he was in the process of moving house and last of all, taking me to such a gorgeous section of river on his land! Check out his Facebook page here, with lots of lovely captures, particularly barbel! May also be worth contacting him regarding information, for those interested in the Severn or catching a barbel for the first time or increasing your tally!

Also thanks goes to my dad for driving me about and coming along with me!

Tight Lines,
Tom