No Show Barbel

Reporting on the bad days is the hardest part of writing a blog like this, while it is easy to wax lyrical about your successes or the days that you really enjoy it is very hard to motivate yourself to write about your failures and days you'd rather forget. Never mind, lets get it over with....

Buoyed by my recent capture of some sizable carp I was looking forward to this Sunday evening outing to the river with Phil, visions of 'doing the double' in catching a 20lb personal best carp and a personal best 10lb barbel in the same week crossed my mind !

The private stretch of river that Phil fishes holds a good head of barbel with a few fish in double figures, there is also a decent head of chub present but prospects didn't seem so good when we arrived on the bank, the river was very low and clear, this coupled with a very bright afternoon seemed a bit dismal.

Phil settled down in the weir pool and I dropped in just below him, we fished legered meat hookbaits all evening and just into darkness without so much as a knock, and that's just about all there is to say really. Back to earth with a bump !