Kennet double in the Thunder and rain Oct 22nd

Having just returned from two weeks in Tenerife it was time to get fishing again.

The holiday though was perfect great company and friends were met. We even travelled to see some friends from Bristol staying at a resort close by. Can’t say I did much other than drink beer and wine, lots of wonderful food. The Mrs. went to keep fit classes twice each day while I just read and watched the world go by. Although I did swim a couple of times each day, well you need to take a pee don’t you……only joking.

There were some stunning sunsets each evening and to be sat outside dining and looking at this in temps of 27c couldn’t get better

Sunset in Tenerife

So back home I had a good few jobs to catch up on so it wasn’t until 9 days or so before I planned a trip. The weather was still warm here in the UK however not much rain had fallen. A quick look around the river heights showed that only the river Wye had been up the others had still been low.

So with some rain over the weekend I decided to take a look at the river Kennet. This is going to be my fishing for the winter and it’s fairly close at 1 hr away. I had previously looked around in August and got a good feeling for the place and even caught a little splasher of about 3lbs or so.

I didn’t want to fish all day and thought afternoon into evening would be just fine.

The weather on the way up was not good lots of rain and strong winds. However as I approached the river the rain eased and the sun penetrated the clouds a few times. The swim I chose was at a pretty uniform depth other than a tree on the far side which looked good.

So out went some hemp and then a few boilies via a bait dropper. About 1 pint was enough to start with. I’m unsure of the population of the barbel here but there are normally a few about from what I have been told.

End rig

I let the area settle whilst tackling up. A simple fixed rig with 1 and 3/4 boilies on the hair. The boilies had been air dried as there are a fair number of crays around so I needed something to stay on. The hooklink was the ever ready sink link at 10lbs, and a 2.5oz lead. Main line was 12lb Drennan Supplex which I’ve been using for a long time now. The rod choice was a 12ft Kevlex Xtreme multitip with a 1.5 lb t/c tip. These are old rods now but just great for smaller more intimate rivers as they really bend and absorb the fight of a barbel.

Kevlex Xtreme Barbel 12ft Multitip

I fished throughout the afternoon and at times it was pouring with rain and very windy. Even though I was beneath an umbrella and a tree the rain blew inside and got most things wet. Each time on reeling in by the look of things the crays were having a real go at the boilies too.

Raining hard

At 5pm I put out some more hemp ready for the evening. I went walking for a while to look around and let the swim settle. Whilst listening to the radio I could hear the crackle of lightning and thought nothing more of it. Then there were a few flashes nearby and the rain started to fall.

Flash bang, flash bang it continued then the heavens opened and I was just thinking, lets hope not just now. Yeap it happened the rod wrapped around and I was playing a barbel who tried to distance itself from me. However the rod took over and with the steady pressure the barbel started to come around to my way of thinking. The rod’s action is beautiful and nul’s all the lunges of the barbel. Before I went on holiday Jim had landed his 12lbs 3oz barbel from the D.Stour on this rod too.

The fight from the barbel took place mostly under the rod tip and it was sometime before I saw it in the head lamp light. The thunder and lightning was still close by and I really didn’t like playing the fish with one of the best conductors of electricity in my hand. But needs must!

Soon it was in the net and ready for a weigh and photo. I thought it might be just around the 10lb mark and sure enough it was 10lbs 6oz.

Barbel 10lbs 6oz River Kennet

So once it was released back into it’s watery home I thought nothing of the continuing thunder.

Then further away again another storm was coming my way and since it was 8pm and the rain had stopped I thought I would pack up and head for home. I think I did the right thing as once I had returned to the car it all started to kick off again. I have seldom driven through such rain. It was a cloud burst. However on returning to home near Bath it was dry as a bone.