The stretch that Phil fishes hasn't been a happy hunting ground for me and with Sky showing a double header of Arsenal vs Blackburn and Chelsea vs Liverpool it was a tough call but what the hell, I could do with the fresh air and the weather forecast wasn't too bad.
Phil arrived to pick me up at 1pm on a bright and fresh afternoon and, van loaded, we set off. On arrival at the water we headed straight for the weir which is one of the main features of a relatively short stretch of river and the area where Phil has been most successful recently.
Phil took the swim closest to the weir and I took up a position just a few yards below him where I could fish the oxygenated water at the tail of the weir pool, tackle choice was very much the same with both of us choosing powerful tip rods matched with 8lb line, the lightest lead we could get away with and size eight hooks. We were both using luncheon meat with Phil fishing his direct on the hook while I opted to fish mine on a hair.
With the water being low and clear and the nights much cooler I took the view that small pieces of meat should be the order of the day and, just to be different, I chopped them into irregular shapes.
On my second cast I had a twitchy kind of a bite which was un-strikable and appeared to be the result of one of the smaller fish attacking the bait but at least it meant there was fish in the swim.
Some five minutes or so after making my third cast the tip trembled again focusing my attention and seconds later wrenched round and I was into a fish which set off like a rocket in the rushing water, the runs were short yet very powerful and it was quite some time before we got a brief glimpse of the fish, a good barbel, we guessed it would go about 7lb.
After another bout of fighting the fish was subdued and as he appeared from the depths and slid towards the waiting net, it was enormous. We had been way off with our initial guess !
Simply perfect and shimmering in the afternoon sun a beast of a fish lay in the net before us, just what have I been missing all these years !
Phil performed the weighing ceremony due to my rather shaky condition and ....... 10lb 8oz ..... Fantastic !
After a quick photo the fish was returned, I held it for a while in the shallow water to allow it to recover and then with a mighty swish of the tail it disapeared into the darkness of the weir pool.
We moved shortly after as in Phils experience we wouldn't get another fish from there, I allowed myself a lovely relaxing time lying back in my chair enjoying the Autumn sunshine, watching a Kingfisher flying to and fro along the opposite bank and reflecting on my latest personal best.
We fished until dark and I did have another fish, a pristine 2lb chub but somehow it didn't really compare !
Lets face it you can watch football anytime but you might only catch one 10lb barbel.
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