I have fished with Malcolm a few times now perching, and chub. The last day of the coarse season in March this year Malcolm had a 6lb plus chub.
So he asked me whether it was possible to have a days fishing with me on the H.Avon for barbel. Now the stretch I fish has some good barbel in it however catching them is a difference kettle of fish.
So we arranged to meet at 9am with mutual friend Hugh Miles on the bridge on the stretch we were fishing. Hugh wanted to tag along for a catch up with Malcolm and to see my method of fishing.
Our first swim had 4 barbel feeding on the pellets some were double figure fish. We fished there for 3hrs without any sign of the barbel being caught. They were very cagey.
Fellow barbel angler John McGough came along and said that the fish had been fished for hard and that they might not play ball.
Malcolm was satisfied to be looking at the barbel all day without catching one. I’m a bit more determined and off we went to another stretch. We said our goodbye to Hugh and John and went on our way.
Arriving at another swim I spotted 3 barbel on some gravel and hiding under the raft of weed. I put a few pellets and soon enough they were feeding. So we waited until they vacated the swim and Malcolm lowered his bait into the swim. I wasn’t entirely happy with the position and watched barbel come and feed in another area of the swim. I could give Malcolm a running commentary of the barbel coming up to the bait, however they didn’t take it.
One of the fish was certainly over 13lbs and one of the others was a double.
Whilst the fish were out of the swim Malcolm re-positioned the pellet bait to the right area. Soon enough the barbel came out to feed. They went up and down the right line where the bait waited. After a few visits the larger barbel came up and I was saying he’s coming he’s coming and with that the rod whipped around and Malcolm was playing a good barbel. He did an excellent job of keeping it out of the weed and under control.
The rod and pin was expertly used by Malcolm to subdue the barbel and in no time the barbel was netted. It looked to a huge fish and on the scales it went 13lbs 12oz which was a pb for Malcolm.
13lbs 12oz
After a few photo’s with Malcolm smiling like beacon the fish was returned. The remaining barbel scattered and we moved onto a different stretch. The day passed into evening and what a sunset.
The end of a perfect day.
Malcolm had a huge grin on his face for the remainder of the day and probably the next few too.
Soon the day came to an end where we made our journey home stopping for a swift pint to celebrate his huge fish.
Oct 24, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Fishing with Malcolm on the H.Avon and a huge barbel
Chris and Tom had not caught any barbel before and asked me to guide them on the river Wye. Both were very competent anglers. Both fished together when younger and met up occasionally to catch up on life. Chris and I met early in the morning, as Tom was travelling down the M4 he arrived […]
Oct 24, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Chris and Tom barbel fish the river Wye
Paul Fagan was our cat fishing guide in Spain for Dan’s 21st birthday. A date was arranged to take advantage of him fishing for barbel whilst in the UK to have a social fishing session. Most of the team Dan, Vince, Mark, Rob and Clive wanted to fish so I booked a beat on the […]
Oct 24, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Cat fish Team take a day out on the river Wye
These next 10 blogs are reasonably short as I’ve had little time to write them up and here I am mid Oct. I’m just happy that I keep a good record of the catches on my phone. So here goes. Carl is in the tench fishers and is a very confident angler. I guided him […]
Oct 24, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on August Carl Prosser and a couple of days fishing on the river Wye.
The month of July was slowly turning to August and the guiding on the river Wye was not so frantic as last year so I’m managing to fish the H.Avon a little more. The first session was after I cancelled a guided session on the Wye as we had lots of rain and I was […]
Aug 07, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Two more visits to the Hampshire Avon and two big chub.
I had guided Luke a couple of times for tench and barbel on the river Wye and this time he wanted his mate James to come along. The day before Bill and Dan who caught a few good barbel. Again we arrived early and the only difference of the river was that it was up […]
Aug 07, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on James and Luke fishing the Wye
What a brilliant Xmas present to buy someone, a day on the river Wye. That’s exactly what Dan bought his Dad Bill. To be fair they had fished with me before and enjoyed the session. So arrangements were made months in advance and all too soon the day comes around. We met at 7am, with […]
Aug 07, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Bill and Dan (Son) fishing the river Wye
Having just managed to land that good looking chub last week of 6lbs 13oz it was back on the H.Avon for more adventures. Again I picked up Andy (you should have been here yesterday) Cowley. The day was to be hot and sunny, and boy oh boy so it turned out. The drive down saw […]
Aug 04, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Still July and more chub and barbel.
I spoke to Andy (you should have been here yesterday) Cowley on Thursday afternoon and we decided to try a maggot approach to catch chub as the barbel were making it very difficult for most people on the river. I arranged to get a gallon of reds and pick him up at 6am in the […]
Jul 19, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on 6lbs 13oz chub
I wanted to get back onto the Avon again to try for the barbel and chub. The weather forecast said heavy showers moving east. I was hoping to avoid them and went down there later than normal. I started fishing at 2pm in a swim that I didn’t think had been fished before. Dropping some […]
Jul 19, 2016 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on 6hrs on the H.Avon and two chub to show for my efforts