Head over heels - I Have fallen

The Loddon has me well and truly in its grasp and I am in no hurry to escape its watery embrace, the weather on the other hand is certainly smouldering, so I decided to pack my purist river feeder with link ledger, along with my barbel gear.

Having got to the river I then realized I had left my front rod rest behind, a bit of improvisation later and I had my wigwam rod rest, admittedly I should have just hunted about for a nicely shaped piece of wood.

I planned to fish a mixture of lobworms and maggots on the link ledger for the best part of the day and then change to barbel come late evening. I have to admit I keep thinking about the fish I lost, and where it might be wandering along the river now, what other haunts it might keep.

The sun was hot and I was rather thankful of the shade to say the least, despite it being such a hot day the fish fed well, the first casts bringing a few chublets, followed by a very solid, lurching bite, this fish bolted downstream trying to take me into some heavy cabbage patch, after a very enjoyable fight a nice looking summer Chub (4.9) was resting up in the net.

Later in the day Gudgeon found their way to the bait, I do seem to have found a nice pocket of them in this spot as I found out on my previous trip, however on this occasion after catching eight of them the spot fell quiet and I did wonder if  a few tigers had moved into the swim, or perhaps a Pike.

 

Sure enough the lobworms started being snaffled up by numerous Perch, it was a great way to spend the day, but by evening I decided to switch my attention to Barbel, who knows perhaps that leviathan that I had lost would reacquaint itself with me, maybe not, the joy in not knowing was an intense one.

The night was still very warm when I had a belting bite and was into a nice healthy Barbel and one which decided to take up a new hobby in tail walking..

After releasing her and checking the pictures over and over, I noticed the scar on both flanks, it was indeed the same fish I had caught on my previous trip, this time a little lighter (10.6), but nonetheless fighting fit and as healthy as before.

This brought me round to another thought, despite having not connected with the larger fish I had lost on a previous trip and knowing there were others in this swim, I feel it is only fair for me to move further up or downstream for my next couple of trips and let her be at peace for a while, as this is her home and I don't wish her to pay me to many visits, lest she might wish to follow me, she is beautiful, battle scarred and a survivor, long may she swim free.