Back Out Fishing Once More I Spy Sunshine

Welcome back to fishing for memories,it seems we have at last got some summer like weather which whilst not needed is always nice,given how much rain we have had of late I was begining to consider purchasing Noah`s Ark or similar.Despite the rain the fishing has been very consistent out on the river,and paid off very well this last session being very good also.


It was nice to get out again after I had previously had a bad health scare and had been in A&E and had to have some tests run,thankfully these provisionally showed negative.Robert and I got to our swims in the afternoon we had previously pre-baited them and hopes and excitement were running high as ever,the afternoon went by quietly as did late evening with just the usual boat traffic grinding to a halt,come evening time Roberts left hand rod screamed off downstream and he was into a solid fish that made a dash for an underwater tree snag and after a reasonable fight a nicely proportioned Barbel of 8lb was in the Net,This fish falling to 20mm Halibut pellet






Later that night at 1am Robert had another Screaming take on his right boilie rod and he lent into a solid fish that ploughed off upstream and to a dense cabbage patch after burying itself in the patch and needing some sensible pressure,it moved off again and came back downstream and bolted for an overhanging tree,after a lengthy fight Robert had a lovely Barbel of 9LB in the net.






My swim up till this point had been very quiet and no sign of any Carp either which had graced me with their prescence the previous session,but thats taken as given on a river like the Thames,even with the pre-baiting it`s no guarantee of getting into them every time,nothing more then a little bit of a banker or light guarantee,that they will peruse your area.At around 2am my right boilie rod screamed off upstream and I was into a very strong fish that deceptively nearly managed to snag me,luckily however,the snag which I presume was part of a rotten piece of wood,snapped and allowed me to gain on the fish,this resulted in a lovely Barbel of 9LB exactly.






At 6am I had a vicous take on my right rod again and unbeknown to me my bite alarm had died on me,the baitrunner however alerted me to the take,which was just as well gievn the fish had managed to jump the rod off the alarm I was into another fish it felt decent and sped this time downstream and off over to the mid-water area of the river,eventually it was landed and it was another pristine Barbel this time 9lb 8oz.






Four Barbel in total and despite no Carp showing,it had turned into a good session for us,30 minutes later on the pellet rod I had a stop start rattling run and the result was a perfectly formed Chub of 5lb




This was not to be the end one hour later and I received a large drop back on my right rod,which then belted of upstream,lifting in I felt a solid resistance that powered off to an overhanging tree,eventually it succumbed to the folds of the net and inside lay my first Thames Tench,which looked like it had never seen a hook and was in immaculate condition,it weighed in at 5LB 8oz.







we was within 1 hour of packing up when Robert had another run on his left rod,which resulted in another Barbel of 7Lb 8oz.





So no Carp were about or least not feeding for us,but this was without doubt a superb session,taking 5 Barbel between us,three of which were 9lb or over and with the added bonus of a 5lb Chub and 5lb 8oz Tench and proves that the Thames really is the river that just keeps on giving.