First Ribble Barbel

After missing a trip due to a stag do i couldnt wait to get to the swim i had tried last time out,

3 rods between the two of us, 2 feeder/method and one maggot feeder - i was ready for some chub /barbs

The trip started well with bites on the light maggot feeder - but after hitting a small chub about 8oz(well i thought it might be a dace see pic below) all went quiet.

the swim looked perfect but it was shallow (about 2ft at its deepest) and weedy in places - which meant if i didnt avoid it on the cast then i had no chance of catching,

Time moved on with nothing but i kept plugging away at the channel - then in the last 30mins of the 4 hr session i was into a small chub (about 1lb or so), then as my wife was on the phone telling me politely (not) that i would be late for a pm wedding (not mine), my rod bent over.

It was a good fish and straight away i thought barbel !!! - 10 mins later and as it went over the frame of the net i thought yes!!!!

a 6.5lber - not massive but my first ribble barbel

dad finished off with a small chub to avoid a blank - feeding spells eh?

Ribble return

tried the other farm, far busier but many good pegs where its was easy to get to waters edge, lots of nice fish topping but we struggled for a bite of the barb rod,

dad had loads of sliver knocks on the feeder and managed to hit a chub - a guy passed and told us if we wanted good silvers to get on the float - he did and in 30mins we saw him nail a fair few.

so not a great session but a good lesson learnt

at the waters edge!!!

well after the last post i did a 2 hour session on the basingstoke canal - anglers were struggling when i set up at 7pm

a quick chat to a walker got me to up sticks and go nearly 1 mile in the opposite direction - there i saw more fish on the surface than i every expected to see in this section of the canal

shoals and shoals of roach, upto 1lb, bream rolling and carp, many of them

i only had corn so i was fishing the bottom - i had loads of knocks from small roach and 2 good bites - 2 bream around the 1.5lb mark, and a roach which must have nudged 12oz.

I went back to my initial peg next to the road side, which i had baited up - with 10 minutes light left - i saw this carp swim up to my float and my god it must have been a 20+ - on my lite tackle never before had i hoped a fish would not take my bait.

Next - Ribble at Elston

i went to the top(left) farm - it was a recce really but we managed 2+ hours in one swim - my thoughts - excellent!!!

dad had bite a chuck on maggot but only managed to land 2 chublets about 8oz

i had one good bite on the corn/pellets approach for a 2.5lb chub (main pic)

i did change to maggot last 15mins and had a chublet with a few bites thrown in .



Missed this w/e cos of a stag do - but will be back at w/e - 5am.