Talk at Wiltshire Barbel Society and a great video on barbel care.

I was invited by Des Richardson to give a talk at the Wiltshire Barbel Society regional meeting last night. The subject matter was about enjoying the journey towards achieving our goals in fishing. For example we set these ultimate destinations (pb’s), but along the way we should enjoy the journey. So my theme was about this journey in catching personal bests for barbel, chub, tench and roach. The talk was made up of photo’s anecdotes and video. Now in the room was what I consider one of the best barbel fishing video experts in the name of Stewart Morgan………Also Graham Elliott who as we know is a superb angling guide………so no pressure there then. I also met some old friends whom I hadn’t seen for a while.

It all passed off well with me only having to wake 50% of the people before they closed the club. The otter debate did come up a few times and we all had a chinwag about this. It would seem that the Kennet and Lodon and a few rivers around that area are now being targeted by the otters. Oh dear!

My theory is that when some species of bird survival is at risk due to otter predation and the RSPB join the debate then something might just get done.

I really enjoyed giving the talk and will look at giving some more.

One of the questions I keep getting asked is how do you put real casters on the hair. So what I’ve done is put this great video on here. It’s from the Barbel Society and stars Pete reading and Hugh Miles and primarily it’s about barbel handling however right in the middle it shows how to super glue casters to a hair rig.

So please have a look. It’s a beautiful video as you would expect from Hugh. I know the swim well and saw a guy catch a good barbel from there only last year.

So a great video and thanks to the both of them.

I’m planning my session on Horseshoe next week. Because it’s a bank holiday it could be busy up there over the weekend into Monday. I’m just planning a 24hr session to keep the bait going in and clearing the silk weed.

I’m fishing an easier tench water on Tuesday trying to catch a few for a mate of mine. We will also be fishing for some trout on a gravel pit close by. I’m really looking forward to the session. I’ve not picked up a trout rod for a couple of years so my casting could be a little rusty. The river I think will be too flooded for fly fishing but if possible will try this as well. So a busy Tuesday lies a head.