A warm welcome back to fishing for memories,it has been a while since my last post.Having just picked up a new area on the Thames to get our teeth into over the winter,my father fell ill sadly for a few weeks with his diabetes and heart playing up badly,however a few weeks later and despite being in pain with neuropathy he decided he wanted to get out on the new stretch we had previously spent sometime looking at,so we decided on a shorter then usual session as Robert was on a lot of painkillers and beta blockers.
On the morning of the off,the weather was more or less spot on,Cyclonic with a light South Westerly and we was looking forward in great anticipation to wetting our lines,when we got to our swims we found the Thames in fine fettle,slightly coloured from the previous weeks rainfall but on the drop with a good flow and a fair amount of leaf debris among other things,so all in all our prospects looked reasonably promising.
I opted for one rod out to an Island on the far bank this took a 6oz lead to hold it there this rod was out with a Rosehip boilie and on a running rig with 10lb Drennan sink braid and size 8 Kamasan Animal hook,My other rod was placed on the near margin shelf about a rod length out on this rod I placed a large low oil pellet wrapped in a curry paste.
Robert Had setup in his swim and had decided to go with boilies on both rods Cranberry on his left rod and Tutti on his right rod.
The day wore on and was very pleasant with only one boat all day late in the afternoon,Robert had a single toner on his left rod,Robert was eating and had one hand with food and the other with a cup of tea he ran to his rod he got to the rod and catapulted his food into the river and was into a solid fish that powered off downstream,after a lengthy battle and having managed to play the fish within two rod lengths out it powered off again and then hit a snag and severed the link. Robert was gutted,we both came to the conclusion it was a very good fish,Carp or Barbel.As the evening drew in Robert caught a few Bream.
My spot had been fairly slow going,a handful of Bream on both rods so I decided on a recast and re baited both areas lightly.The evening drew on and time was ticking away as fast as it always does when your fishing,a couple of vixens called out and not far away an owl announced its presence with a shrill hunting call,the moon had finally managed to find its way out from the heavy duvet of cloud cover and looked splendid.
Around 10pm my right marginal rod (pellet wrapped in curry paste) bleeped once and single toned off upstream like a steam train,I jumped up and forgot the bank was uneven and skidded down and was into a solid resistance that was off upstream and hugging the bottom,over the next 10 minutes I managed to play the fish back down into my swim and it kidded me that it was nearly ready for the net and quickly decided to attempt to plod off across to the other side,it eventually was nestling in the net and it was a decent looking Barbel.Robert remarked "looks at least 9 or 10 maybe more" I slipped it into the weigh sling and the scales tipped round to 10lb 8oz`s exactly.I was happy to say the least,new stretch and a decent double figure Barbel.
That was to be the last fish and a very enjoyable session.We packed up at around 11pm and headed off homeward bound.Until next time from Robert and myself Tight lines and good luck to everyone out on the Thames.
