Unfinished Business with the Prince of the River

Both rods out in the witching hour!

Over the last two seasons, I have been lucky enough to get a taste for catching barbel, and it has been amazing to have caught them from four different rivers. On a kind invite from my friend Simon Daley, there was potentially a chance to catch my first from a fifth river, the Hampshire Avon. On the last session I did on the Avon with Simon, he managed two stunning barbel to just short of double figures, which certainly showed in the flesh what the fishery was capable of. After an early start, Simon and I journeyed up to Christchurch in order to get our tickets for the Royalty Fishery. We hastily acquired them, before whizzing our way to the river bank. Following this, we propped our gear down and had a look around, admiring the plentiful cracking swims the fishery has. Simon pointed out a stunning swim to me with plenty of ranunculus cover for the barbel to dart in and out of and some lovely gravels which looked a perfect zone for barbel to 'ghost' about.

After introducing some bait, I casted the first rod out, whilst Simon set up and baited a nice swim upstream which also had some thick ranunculus and gravels where he had caught a fair few barbel before. I set up a rig which would be nicely pinned down to the river bed, in these clear conditions, with a supple hooklink and a couple of pellets on the hair. I had one rod flicked upstream, and the other flicked downstream between the weed, which gave me confidence I was covering both bases. Just as I had settled down on my seat and had just helped myself to my first biscuit of the day, the upstream rod's tip jolted as if the rig had been dislodged and absolutely tore line off on the freespool. I picked up the rod, and felt the pure muscular lunges of a barbel on the end, as I watched my line jolt in a zig zag motion going downstream. This fish absolutely clung to the bottom as I tried to apply pressure to keep it away from the thick weed. I retained this steady pressure, and managed to deter it from making a further rush. It remained deep and charged upstream with pure muscle, putting me through the mill with its sheer strength! I patiently continued to exert pressure, and the tell-tale shark-like fin soon graced the surface, as the fish turned and lashed back towards the weed - I always find this part of a barbel fight the scariest! After cupping the spool, as the fish had its final lunges, the stunning barbel graced the net. I couldn't believe the beautiful colours as I revived her in the net, an absolute stunning golden flank.

After some well earned minutes of revival and quickly unhooking the fish in the water, Simon had made his way down to my swim: "you didn't muck about did you mate?", he exclaimed, smiling. To say I was chuffed was an understatement, as this was my first barbel of the season and first off the Hampshire Avon. After quickly weighing the fish, which was an ounce under 6lbs (5-15), Simon kindly took some lovely photos. After doing so, I rested the fish once more before it had retained its strength and was ready to swim back strongly into its hideout of the ranunculus. It was really exciting watching the barbel swim back into the crystal clear water, as I have rarely been able to see this in the daytime before, and Simon remarked the sheer camouflage of the barbel against the gravel, as we both watched the stunning fish disappear into the weed.

Lovely golden-flanked barbel (5-15)

After freshening the baits on both rods, I flicked both rigs back out. Just as I was tidying a few things in my rucksack, my downstream rod absolutely whacked over. I scrambled to the rod before it had the chance to pull it off the rest! This fish charged straight upstream and attempted to make several dashes to the thickest beds of weed in the swim. Luckily with my reasonably substantial tackle in these weedy conditions, I was able to put a brake on these runs. After several more sprints, a lovely little barbel popped up to the surface. After a few final lashes on the surface, I safely managed to find an opening in the weed to land the barbel. Simon kindly did the honours with the camera again, and the young barbel was soon ready to dash back into the cover, after a few minutes of revival.

Little powerhouse in lovely condition!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable start to the morning, having managed my first two barbel of the season and off a new waterway! The rest of the morning, henceforth, seemed to be a lot quieter, with the sun starting to come out. After a few hours, Simon and I decided to go and look for some chub. I had been seeing the odd one about throughout the course of the morning, and it felt as if it was now time to see if we could tempt one. We arrived at a run with some nice depth and a slack at the far side, where we started to introduce some bait. It was not long until they were taking a few competitively, which meant it was perfect time for Simon to introduce his free-lined bait. As expected, action was pretty instant, with Simon receiving a snatching take. He struck sharply and connected with a decent looking chub. After a couple of surging runs, the chub was resting safely in the net. I was amazed by the sheer size of it out of the water: "looks a good five" I said, excitedly. At 5lb 9oz, it was a cracking chub for anytime of year, and what a way to have caught it!

A cracking summer chub (5-9)

The rest of the day certainly proved to be difficult, with the sun still high and it also seemed nigh-on impossible to avoid the plentiful dace which were picking up our pellets. Between us we must have had more than a dozen dace, chublets and we even had a roach each when switching to 10mm boilie barrels. As the sun started to descend, it was lovely to see a pair of terns diving in the twilight, with the odd salmon or sea trout crashing clean out of the water! It was nice to get back out, after several days stuck indoors.

Big thanks goes to Simon for inviting me for another shot at a Hampshire Avon barbel and imparting his knowledge of the stretch, as well as his knowledge of the barbel present.

Tight Lines,

Tom