Last four fishing days - day two - morning

The weather forecasts suggested that today would be like yesterday - really hot from mid morning - but I was somewhat surprised to find at 5:30 that there was a thick, damp fog. If this took time to burn away, fishing could be better today than I was perhaps expecting.

Today's plan has yesterday's FFS2 as today's "Float fishing swim 1" and I have a new FFS2 further downstream. Visibility was just 30 yards or so as I walked across the fields to the downstream end of the fishery. Hemp and corn into the two prospective float fishing swims, hemp and boilies into five others for later.

I had really enjoyed yesterday's float fishing so it was with some excitement that I started this morning where I'd caught the 4-15 yesterday. But for some reason I don't get a bite in the first hour - maybe the two swans that went through the swim as I was pre-baiting the other spots had an adverse effect. So off the FFS2.

This next spot is a far more challenging float fishing proposition. The focus was on a huge raft on the far side of the river. The main flow is about 3/4 across the river, and a cast here should ensure that the float travels just past the raft, maybe just inches away from the trailing branches. Baiting is a bit tricky as the corn tended to disperse in the air and land all over the top of the raft. But there isn't much I can do about this. After half a dozen casts I have worked out how to manouevre the float just past the raft, letting it move down past 10 yards of hanging branches. I am rather impressed by how well I seem to be fishing this. I am even more impressed when I hook a fish about half way down the raft and, after quite a tugging battle on the light-ish tackle, I was rather pleased to land another 5lber on the float. It was quite a short fish, but had a very solid stomach (early spawning?) and went 5-02. No further bites in the next half hour so I thought I would rest the swim and have another go at FFS1, where I blanked again in the next hour.

Back in FFS2, the wind had changed a litle and I could bait a bit better. Not sure how much difference this makes, but after 20 mins or so I had a bite at the downstream end of the swim and landed another chunky fish, this time 4-07. I was thinking of packing up for the morning then as I had to get back to check in with Jerome and in any case I was running low on bait. But I decided to give it another half hour and was rewarded with a third chub from this swim around 10:30. I thought this would also be another 5lber but it was actually4-15. A really nice fish though, in great condition.

So I baited the five swims again and returned home to make some more bait and have some food and drink. I planned to be back around 4:00pm.

Last four fishing days - day one - chub on the float

Up and away from home at 5:30am - even on a Sunday! - loaded down with a large bait tin of sweetcorn, plus the hemp and boilies that I would be pre-baiting with for tomorrow. "Float fish swim 1" is a short walk from the car, a 30 yard glide, though one where the bottom shelves up as you go downstream. I have put in some bait and am tackled up by 6:00. Three roe deer on the opposite bank stand watching me for a few minutes.

Now I am definitely not the world's greatest float fisherman, and rarely fish this way. In the 1970s I once saw ace matchman Ken Giles fishing a match on the Warwickshire Avon where he caught over 50lbs of chub fishing a stick float. It was quite amazing to watch. Or there was the time in the early 1990s when I was fishing the Hale Park stretch of the Hampshire Avon and watched a guy fish a long glide with a centre pin reel. After seeing this I actually bought a centre pin reel and then discovered just how hard it was to fish that way. I don't even own a proper float rod and am using an Avon rod today, my usual Shimano Aero reel with 4 lb line, a 3AAA Avon to a size 14 hook. But this late in the season, it does seem a nice idea to float fish and I did ok the other week.

First casts are critically important in pre-baited swim as you expect fish to be there from the off and already feeding. But this does raise the issue of correct depth and I start with a run down set at about 6 ft. This produces a bite about 10 yards down the swim, and a fish which fights really well but turns out to be a mid-3lber. Was this an impetuous smaller fish, while the bigger ones are down below? I reset the depth by 6 inches and keep adding a little more every second cast till I seem to have located the bottom at about 8 ft.

I then hook a second fish but it falls off when about half way in. This could have finished the swim but I stuck it out for another 45 minutes and got a second fish of 3-15. So an ok start to my short session.

I dropped off my tackle at "float fish swim 2", put in three or four catapults full of corn, and then went for a walk downstream to bait the swims I intend to fish for barbel tomorrow. On the way down I spot something about which anglers have very mixed feeling. An otter is swimming downstream through my first chosen swim. It is nice in some ways that otters are more common but they are killing huge numbers of large barbel, so anglers generally aren't keen to see them in their rivers - still it is the first wild otter I have seen for years.

Back at FFS2 and what a fine float fishing spot it is. Another 30 yard plus glide, but this time of steady depth. The all important first cast produces a bite straight way and this time it is a pretty decent fish of 4-15. I have a second bite two casts later which I missed and then hook and lose a fish at the very far end of the swim. One other curious incident was when I was just starting to wind in and I suddenly seemed to be connected to a fish. However a moiment later it was gone and I wound in to find the hook missing. My guess is that a jack pike took the sweetcorn as I started to wind in, attracted to the surface disturbance. I fish on for another hour but no more bites.

I then spent an hour ledgering in one of the chub raft swims but with no bites. It was very hot by 10:00 and this remains the case for the rest of the day, suggesting a change of plan for next few days. I now plan to fish first thing each day, then come home in the middle of the day, going out again late afternoon.

Preparation for the last few days of the fishing season

I have the chance to fish bits of every day until the end of the season and I've been pondering the various choices. An inventory of bait reveals I have about 4 gallons of prepared hemp, several loaves approaches peak staleness, about 10kg of boilies and six or seven kilos of sweetcorn. So plenty of choices.

Overall, I would like to have at least one session float fishing for chub, at least one using mashed bread for chub and at least one dedicated purely to barbel. So with these in mind I was off to the river this morning at dawn to prep a few swims. I am still focusing on the stretch a few miles downstream from my house rather than Duxford, but might have a trip to Duxford before the season ends?

The first surprise is that the river is already fining down after the rain this week. I had thought it might have stayed up two more days and be fining down on Monday and Tuesday, the days I can fish most. But the colour is fading rapidly and some of the swims I use to test clarity now have visible bottoms. Will that make a difference? Not sure yet.

So I have baited two swims with hemp and sweetcorn for float fishing for chub, and six other swims with hemp and boilies. Tomorrow will be a float fishing session as I only have the morning available. I will also rebait the six swims tomorrow. Monday may well be the barbel day after two days of pre-baiting. Hopefully if there are barbel about, they will have found at least one swim's worth of bait and will recognise it when they see it Monday - if they are there. If not, maybe a big chub would like a boilie.

Nice to be out at dawn before a busy day. Two roe deer, some hares, plenty of birds. Back home by 7:30 as Daughter is home for the weekend and we have sorting out to do for her forthcoming trip to Peru and have nice food to cook throughout the day.

Blanking after barbel again

My focus for today's fishing was to try and catch a barbel from one of the far downstream swims. Bait was a mix two types of boilie fished over hemp. Arriving at about 2:00pm, I baited four spots, including two that have produced chub in the last couple of weeks. Then I settled in a swim opposite a large raft and fished this for the next hour or so. No touches at all.

A second round of baiting at about 4:00, then a walk to the downstream limit of the fishery for the first time in ages. Three of four very promising chub swim by nearside rafts, and some static bays on the far side - the sort where Thames carp might hang out if you wanted to fish for such things. Another fishless hour spent in one of the swims while I waited for the bait to do its magic - or not.

More baiting, then a move to one of the chub swims. First cast, after just five minutes wait and with no preliminary indications, the rod slammed round. My first thought was that this would far more like a barbel bite than a chub bite. The fish had taken the bait from the top end of a raft and gone downstream so far that it was well under the raft by the time I had struck and got contact. I few hard pulls but then everything went rather solid. Some heaving from several angles at least confirmed the fish was still on. After a minute or so more, I was beginning to think the fish was too well snagged, but then to my surprise, it came free. This also confirmed that it was a chub, not the hoped for barbel, but it was a nice fish of 4-10. Still, now I know that the chub on this stretch will take 14mm seafood flavoured boilies.

No more bites tonight in any of the baited spots, though I fished on till 9:00pm, so the wait for a barbel continues.

A poorly thought out fishing trip

I rather messed up today's planned fishing trip. After the rain on Sunday I had been pondering a day targeted at just barbel. Two rods, lots of hemp, pellets on one rod, boilies on the other, and so on. Three swims primed for this, fished from 2:00pm till 10:00pm in 30 minute rotation.

But overnight, there has been a heavy frost. My immediate thought was that this would not be good for barbel and that I should target chub again. So I topped up the mashed bread mix I had left over from a few day's ago - a most beautiful mix of mashed white bread, crumbed white and brown bread, the water from previous hemp boiling, and about 4 pints of hemp. Off to the river with that and a bag of crust, some flavoured with a sweet nectar syrup that I got from a health food shop over the weekend.

However I had forgotten that the river would probably be up from the previous rain. Indeed it was up about 3 inches and the sort of lovely brown colour that barbel anglers love. As expected, the temperature was down a little on Sunday, so it probably wouldn't have been the best for barbel, but the coloured water also suggested that chub might not go for standard bread mash and crust. Instead I should have luncheon meat, or lobworms or cheese paste - but not crust (even super duper flavoured crust)

I did have a single half full bait box of spam and hot dog sausage left over from a week or so ago but this had gone into a rather gooey mix. But that was all I had that might be suitable, so from 2:00 until 6:00 I fished with that in a number of swims without a single bite. By then I had decided I might as well bait a couple of swims with some mashed bread and so I finished the evening like that. The result? One chub that might have scrapped 3 lbs from my single bite (and on plain bread, not the flavoured).

So not good. I am now looking towards Thursday when I might aim to stay till well into the evening. And I might plan for that on Monday and Tuesday next week when I actually plan to stay till midnight both nights. Weather forecast is for more rain, so perhaps barbel will come back into consideration. Perhaps a fining down river on Monday and Tuesday will turn out to be perfect?

A mobile morning fishing session

For family reasons, only a very short fishing trip is possible first thing today. At 5:30 it was actually raining but I decided it wasn't enough to be overly unpleasant at the river. A different approach for today. No pre-baiting swims, just a piece of crust tried in as many possible spots as I would manage in the 3 hours I had available.

First spot was the swim nearest the road where the other angler was fishing last time. This is an interesting swim with a near bank slack area and a tree in the water at the downstream end and could bear a decent effort. I had a couple of little taps on the tip, but not enough to stick it out longer.

Next stop, the long glide/crease swim. I had intended to skip this swim, but then thought it might be interesting to try and search the swim by upstream ledgering from the downstream end, not an approach I often use, but one which I would like to get better at. I used a 2/3oz weight, which might have been a tiny bit light as the tip deflection was only an inch or so rather than the 2-3 that perhaps it should have been, but the actual technical fishing went ok, and second cast I had the classic slack line bite and landed a chub of about 3lbs. Very pleased with that, given that I rarely fish upstream ledgering.

Inspired by this, I did have a look at a couple of other swims that I would usually have ignored and gave them a cast or two to again test the upstream ledgering idea. If I can get this right, there are quite a few other swims that might respond well to the technique, especially far bank raft swims which can be very good fished this way.

A bite in "Hawthorns 1" which produced another 3 lber, then nothing in "Hawthorns 2" which rather surprised me. I baited one of the top raft swims and the "inside crease", but left them till later, instead moving well downstream to a couple of the deeper swims. It is this stretch far downstream where I really want to put much more effort in the last week or so of the season.

One swim that could be very good is where there is a line of reeds on the near bank, then a raft ten yards further down. This produced a 4-02 today.

By 9:30 or so the rain was getting heavier, though I remained warm and dry. Bernie, the crayfish netting farmer came down and we had a quick chat - rumours of a big barbel caught recently are of great interest, especially with today's rain. I haven't fished for barbel for a week or two - perhaps the rain is a sign I should. But by mid-morning the rain has a heavy sleat component and the overnight forecast is for a mild frost. So maybe barbel aren't on the cards. Maybe Tuesday's trip can be more barbel orientated?

Another five pounder, but what a wait

A damp, misty start to the day and only 1C outside first thing, so I was not absolutely sure I would go fishing today. But during the morning I made up a bucket of bait - mashed bread made with the liquid from my hemp making, plus 4 or 5 pints of hemp and a mix of white and brown crumb. Delicious - what chub could resist? The mist finally cleared around lunchtime and it became a bright sunny day - also not great for fishing, but at least it would be warm out.

First surprise was two cars already parked in the layby. The first angler was fishing in the first swim below the car park. He said he had fished here a lot over the past five years or so and had managed two 6 lbers in that time. He'd had a 5-10 from the swim he was in today on his last visit. We talked for about 20 minutes about prospects for a Thames barbel, how we both disliked commercial stillwater fisheries, and how great the chub fishing now was.

Again my plan was to bait half a dozen swims with my "magic mash" and fish each for 20 minutes or so until well after dark. But in the field where the last two swims were, there was an angler in the far distance, so I went for a wander down to see him, perhaps to keep him away from my baited swims. It turned out that he sort of knew who I was - he was one of the friends of the guy I had met a couple of weekends ago from Windsor. He was fishing in a similar-ish manner to to other guy - extremely mobile, not bothering to bait swims first, no more than 10 minutes in any spot. And he had done pretty well, having had 5 fish - one of exactly 5lbs, 3 other 4s and a 3. He was fishing with a friend who was actually just upstream and who I had not seen when I walked down. We all chatted for another half hour or so about local river fishing - the state of the Cherwell, Evenlode and Windrush - the prospects for a big Thames chub (they have had a few sixes on this stretch and one of them had a 7 a few years back). They were both retired and described themselves as doing more or less nothing other than fish. Apparently they first fished this spot in the 1960s when a 4 lb chub was a great rarity.

So finally I started fishing around 4:00, by which time I was expecting my baiting to have done the trick, despite the fine sunny weather. But for the next couple of hours I was untroubled by fish completely. However by the time the two other anglers were leaving (about 6:00pm), I was starting to get the odd small tap on the quivertip - not enough to strike, but a sign some fish were around. The other two had finished with one extra fish each, for a catch of 9 between them.

Finally, around 7:00, I had a small chub of about 2 1/2lbs from the inside crease swim, so at least I wasn't going to blank. The sky remained clear and with a first quarter moon out it was actually a really nice night to be by the river. Several roe deer had appeared as it got dark, owls were hooting continually, and one flew over the river as I fished.

By 8:00 I was in the deep raft swim at the downstream end of my baiting, casting most of the way across the river and letting the bait swing round full under the raft. A slight tightening over my finger then the classic pull round and a solid resistance on the strike. I suspect that the fish was initially further under the raft than I had thought it would be, as after some heaving I thought I had the fish well clear of the raft, but it surfaced just above the top branches. But no other troubles and I soon had a decent fish in the net. It looked quite a solid fish, but didn't feel particularly so, and scaled 5-02, whereas I would have put it at 5-08. It had some bread mash and hemp in its mouth when I landed it - had it really only just settled on the bait I'd put in? By then there had been three earlier baitings of the swim. Hard to think it had all been ignored until well after dark.

No more fish tonight, but a lovely night to be out. Venus was just setting when I packed up in the top swim around 8:45. Quite cold again by then, and a mist forming as I walked back to the car.

Next time - maybe Sunday - I am planning to go about 5:30 and be there, fully set up, by first light. Then I plan to fish loads of spots with no pre-baiting. Daughter might be home that day so I will only have until 11:00 or so, but I might be able to fish 20 spots in that time. A radical lightening of my kit will be required for this to be effective.

Another chubbing session

Anglers Mail today claims that a record chub has been caught at 9-05. Inspired by this, I have reverted to my traditional chubbing tactics for today's Thames trip rather than the hybrid chub/barbel strategies that I have been using the last few trips.

And the result? One small dace of about 3 inches, that somehow managed to hook itself on my six 6 hook, while being too small to actually indicate a bite, and a modest chub that might just have made 3lbs. Not at all sure why things worked out so badly, as conditions looked really good. Yesterday's rain will have made little difference, but it was a grey and overcast day, the river was quite warm (42F), it looked perfect. I baited about half a dozen swims with a mashed bread and hemp mix, fishing crust, but couldn't get a bite for hours. Not a touch in spot after spot that I'd had loads of chub in recently. How could every swim be quiet? The chub I did catch came at around 7:30pm, when I had just about had enough. I did notice that there was a lot of fry activity tonight, for the first time. Maybe they were out because the chub weren't. All very odd.

A 9-05 chub is a ridiculous idea. Not that many years back, I was really pleased to catch a 4lber, then I gradually started to get some 5's, and in the last year or so the number of 5s I've had has really sky rocketted. I have caught one 6 lber, and that was in the mid 1990s from the Hampshire Avon, a fluke catch I always think as I was roach fishing at the time. My current goal is a 6lb fish from the Thames and I have come close this year with one of 5-10. A 7lb fish seems miles away, but you never know with the Thames.

I have maybe 5 or 6 more trips planned before the end of the season. Maybe I can get one full day out - perhaps next Tuesday - and travel a bit further and fish somewhere where I might have a chance of a barbel. It hasn't taken me long to think that a Thames barbel is a really tough proposition.

Some rain at last - while I'm fishing!

The pursuit of a Thames barbel goes on. Armed with loads of hemp, sweetcorn, two types of meat and some boilies, it is back to the stretch a few miles from home that I have been focusing on these last few weeks. Six swims are baited, with a plan to fish sweetcorn till just before dark, then meat baits for the next couple of hours.

In my first swim, the "inside crease" from previous blogs, I manage a small pike. This attacks my bait as I am winding in and is then persuaded to take a piece of spam. I was rather surprised that it didn't bite through the line, but was hooked in the scissors and just avoided the sharpest teeth. Weighed just over 7lbs and was perhaps the reason I had not had so much as a touch when fishing corn before that.

The local crayfish fisherman was about laying some traps for the first time on a few weeks. I have discovered his name is Bernie and he knows my wife - his wife is one of my wife's customers. When he was down here the other day, he saw a nice 5lb chub come out of the swim he had just set his traps in.

My next spot was to fish the swim where I had the two bite offs the other day. Given today's events, I was a little more convinced that a pike might be to blame. First cast I had a really good bite which I missed (but which didn't bite me off). Second cast I hooked a fish and soon landed a nice chub, avoiding the snags in the raft and under my own bank. I had thought it was probably a high 3lber and wasn't going to weigh it, but it just had a bit more thickness about it and turned out to weight 4-04. So perhaps it was a chub that bit me off before.

By now the rain that had started about an hour after my arrival had grown a bit heavier - not enough to dissuade me from carrying on though. Hopefully it will rain for a few days and perk the rivers up for my binge of fishing planned for next week.

Just before dark I was back at the swim where I had the pike and took a chub of 3-15 first cast. Though I stuck it out another hour or so, no more bites occured.

One effect of the rain was that the walk back to the car was quite tricky. It usual takes about 20 minutes, but the path had become a slippy quagmire and tonight it took nearer 30. I fell over once trying to walk up a muddy slope, and the last hundred yards by the river were very nasty. You really don't want to fall in a winter river in the dark. If only I could persuade Bernie to let me drive my land rover down through the farm and park in the actual field where I fish - what luxury that would be.

A brief morning trip to Duxford

My main focus for fishing this week are planned sessions for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, when I will aim to fish into the mid evening on each occasion, hoping for a barbel from the Thames. But today I reckoned I could sneak a short session in first thing this morning at my local stretch at Duxford. This is the first time I have fished here for a few weeks, my main focus being the stretch a few miles downstream. In part, this was because I didn't want to walk too far if I was only going to fish for a couple of hours

I settle in a long glide and baited with a dozen catapults of hemp and corn. It was actually quite chilly after three very mild mornings and there was a hint of mist rising off the water. Several deer were feeding opposite, a couple of kingfishers flew past, and a heron slowing made its way across the field. All very nice.

The main flow was actually quite fast and having started with a heavy leger weight, I then changed plans slightly and switched to a 4-swan shot link ledger, just enough to hold on the edge of the faster water. For the next hour or so I slowly searched down the edge of the fast water, eventually taking a 4-04 chub from the lower end of the swim.

I switched swims to a spot just below Duxford Ford, where there was a slightly slacker area near my own bank in contrast to the fast flow coming over the ford. In the next hour I had four bites, missed them all and retrieved heavily mangled corn back on each occasion. This didn't seem like chub, and were perhaps quite small fish, but I did have some very solid looking pulls and was surprised to have hooked nothing.

So by 10:00 I was back home ready for a few hours work before the new week. The focus now is on Monday afternoon when I plan to fish 3:00 till 8:30.

An Interesting blank?

I have been reading all of the past entries in Phil Smith's angling blog for the past couple of days (www.barbelblogger.blogspot.com) and in one entry he notes that one of the differences between an angling blog and an article in a fishing magazine is that the blog will often note blanks while the articles generally won't. He makes the excellent point that one of the positives of noting blanks is that less proficient anglers will therefore realise that "experts" are also fallible and frequently blank, indeed they may blank more than regular anglers as they are set up for the biggest fish, not just to catch anything. I found this when I read 30 issues of Course Angling Today back to back. Stef Horak's articles often present a steady procession of huge fish, with little indication that anything bad ever happens. They are good though.

That said, Phil also notes that describing blanks in an interesting manner might be quite hard - "I did this, I didn't catch anything" isn't compelling reading.

The overnight temperature was 11C last night and the temperature gradient in the river must now be up. As I noted in the last entry, my plan is to move away from crust over mashed bread, which is catching me loads of good chub, and instead try bait combinations that might, and I emphasize might, also attract a barbel. So today's plan was to bait some swims with hemp, corn, meat and boilies, then fish corn till around 5:00, switching to meat afterwards. The boilies are a modest pre-bait for some time next week.

The chosen swims were the inside crease swim where I have had lots of chub recently, the two deep swims (one of which has produced just one 3 lber and the other produced the brace of 5's the other week), plus a new inside glide further downstream and a raft swim just beyond this glide. First baiting was around 12:00, second at 2:00 and the third around 4:00. I fished each swim in rotation for half an hour or so using corn but didn't have even the slightest hint of a bite. Of course I have taken two 5 lb chub on corn in the last week or so, but that was single grains on a size 14 hook, 4 lb line and a float. Today, with barbel in mind, I was back to 8 lbs line and a size 8 hook. Maybe that dissuaded the chub today.

Around 4:30 I had my first excitement of the day when there was a big swirl as I wound in my tackle. I cast out again and the same thing happened, a tiny jack pike of maybe 2lbs taking my lead (not the meat bait). I did briefly flick a piece of meat down to it, but didn't have a proper take.

Around 5:30, I was down at the raft swim, the furthest swim downstream that I'd baited. I hadn't fished this with corn at all, but instead dropped a "cocktail" of Spam with garlic (a new, limited edition spam) with an added piece of hot dog sausage. After a few minutes I had a nice slow take, but felt nothing on the strike and retrieved a missing hook - a bite off! Next cast produced another bite that I missed. Third cast another slow take which I connected with this time. But then a problem. Line was being taken from the reel - I had forgotten to adjust the drag from when I was float fishing with 4 lb line. As I manually applied pressure, the line went slack and I retrieved another missing hook. A very confident chub (or barbel) could have caused the bite off, but given what happened earlier, perhaps it was another pike? I will never know.

Back to the first three swims and two more hours hard fishing produced no bites anywhere. So a blank for today and not looking good for my decision to abandon bread. But the weather forecast now says that rain is due for much of the next week (showers at least) and maybe this will cause meat over hemp to bounce back. The little bit of pre-baiting I've done might help also.

Float fishing for chub again

No overnight frosts for the past two days so the temperature trend should now be stable to up. I only have the morning for fishing today so decided to do the same as Sunday and float fish sweetcorn in the long glide at the top end of the stretch. Bit of a shock to get up at 6:15, but it did seem a mild morning and I was down at the river before 7:00. Yet again the river is down a little and the water is a little clearer. Two newspapers ran with drought stories on their front pages yesterday. Some rain is due this week, but not much. Fishing would definitely improve if we had a day or two of steady rain.

Five catapults of hemp and three of corn went in at the top end of the swim, slightly less in the next swim down. Sunday's tackle was slightly altered by the use of a slightly bigger float, a 2 1/2 swan loafer, just to give slightly easier casting and more solid control. My main query remains the depth to fish at. I started at about 6 ft but gradually inched upwards from there, ideally so I reached a point where I started to snag the bottom occasionally. But the swim does shallow up towards the far end to around 6 ft, so I can't fish too deep.

A huge red kite flew overhead no long after I started fishing - these really are incredible birds.

After 30 minutes or so of steady fishing, depth changes, constant baiting, etc, I finally had a bite at the very far end of the run, perhaps 30 yards below me. The fight developed oddly. I could feel the fish, but couldn't seem to get any pressure on it. It turns out that the fish had run across stream and settled in under by bank - the lack of pressure was due to it having run towards me. The float was stuck round some vegetation, but the fish was lying quite still under a weed clump. I was nearly able to reach it with the net, but that woke it up again and as it set off back to mid-river, the float came loose, much to my surprise. A new personal best chub on float tackle, 5-06.

But then I discovered that there is some sort of problem with the camera, it is not saving images to the memory stick. That could be a memory stick problem, or maybe the battery is low, or maybe it is more serious. The camera is 7 or 8 years old afterall.

I moved down to the lower end of the swim and legered for the last hour or so, my thoughts being that this might be the best chance to get a barbel. But I have also noted that all the chub I've taken on the float have come from the lower end of the swim. Maybe this is due to the shelving up of the river bottom at this point.

I actually packed up around 9:30, so only fished for 2 hours. But I have now taken 6 chub over 5 lbs this year so far.

As I write this, it is actually raining. Hopefully it will rain hard for the next 24 hours or so and Thursday, Friday and Sunday will give me good opportunities to get a barbel, if there actually are any in this stretch. So a change is planned for my strategy next time. I want to try and fish in a manner that could get barbel in addition to the chub I have been catching, so I will be moving over to baiting with hemp and fishing with corn/meat/boilies. I plan to fish three swims, baiting reasonably heavily with hemp to try and ensure that any barbel in a 500 yard stretch will detect the bait. If it could just rain enough to colour the river and raise it a couple of inches . . . . .

A really hard fishing trip

A second night of frost and a good chance that fishing might well have been adversely affected but the great results of the last two days and my thought that I'd like to investigate some of the swims further downstream tempted me out again. But it was a really hard day's fishing.

Walking down to the river, it was immediately apparent that it had dropped another inch or two. I wonder if any people other than river anglers really appreciate the true scale of the current draught? Also the water had cleared a little more and many of the shallow swims at the upstream end now had gravel bars visible on the bottom. Low and clear and getting colder - not good conditions?

Baiting today was with a small amount of mashed bread and an equal amount of a white/brown crumb mix. Some of this was placed in the slacker, near-bank water and not so much in the areas I have been fishing in the last few weeks. A quick walk downstream about 300 yards suggested 3 possible new swims and I baited each of these. Hookbait would have to be flake from a Hovis "thick" white loaf, as I'd forgotten to bring a bag of crust with me!

My starting point again today was the inside glide swim where I had so many bites on Saturday. Today it was all quiet and peaceful and 30 minutes later I was off upstream to the "Hawthorns" where I'd had the fish on Sunday with the ultra light leger set up. Would I get another today? And perhaps the surprising answer was, yes! Again I used just one swan shot and let the flake swing in to the near bank. Result? A really nice looking fish of 3-15.

But from then on, things were very quiet. I tried the two deep swims and the 3 new ones in rotation, fishing 20 minutes in each, then rebaiting and moving on. But not a touch. A second cycle in every swim then has the same result. By 5:00, I am back in the first swim having completed two cycles and was pondering on whether I should have just waited a few days, given the much better forecast for later in the week.

I had been alternating baits between flake and small bits of crust off the sliced loaf. Finally, in the inside crease swim, I had a second bite of the day on crust and this produced a much bigger fish, weighing 5-01. Its possible this was a re-capture as it had a very distinctive set of deformed scales on one side and I seem to remember seeing this before. So the five hours of hard fishing finally paid off.

Not a great photo. It was just beginning to get a bit dark and I had to use a much wider aperture, which messed up the depth of field and resulted in the background being in the best focus.

I fished on till near 7:00pm but no more bites anywhere. The forecast for Wednesday night is that it will be 10C higher than last night. I am no longer planning to fish tomorrow, but might go out Wednesday morning for a couple of hours float fishing again. But Thursday will be a very serious fishing day. I am pondering on fishing corn over hemp, with maybe some meat bait as well. The temperature rise might just tempt barbel to feed and they wouldn't be so keen on bread.

A weekend's fishing campaign - Part 2

As forecast there was a frost overnight, but it wasn't a hard as it could have been - maybe an overnight low of -2C perhaps. And the rain yesterday might be soaking into the river and that might have helped keep the river temperature up. So regardless of the frost, I was off to the river at 7:00 this morning to try and catch a four pound chub from the long glide that I had pre-baited with hemp and corn yesterday.

Tackle for the day was a John Wilson stepped up Avon rod in its 13 ft configuration, 4lb line straight through to a size 14 Drennan sweetcorn hook, plus a 3AAA Avon float. First cast landed short of my target on the edge of the main flow, but I let it continue down. Control wasn't bad once the float had got downstream of me a bit, but I am really out of practice at long trotting. About 30 yards down, adjacent to the next swim, and in the calmer water, I got a bite and with a slow and steady pressure was able to slowly bring the fish upstream, always remembering that I was on much lighter tackle than my "heave and haul" usual chub tackle. A slight scare when it tried to just into the roots under my bank, but it was soon in the net. So my goal of a 4 lb chub on the float took just one cast. The fish was 4-15 and perhaps the largest chub I have caught float fishing. Sadly no photo today - I had left the camera at home after transfering the pictures of yesterday's big chub.

While sorting out this first fish a swan and 6 of last year's cygnets swam up my swim on exactly my taking line, and I had initially thought that might be a very big negative. But two casts later and another very gentle take at the far end of the swim and a second chub, this time of 4-08. It shouldn't be ignored that both these fish came from the extreme end of the trot down, in the slower water inside the main flow. And moreover, it was open water, the sort of spot that I wouldn't have bothered with if I were legering. So quite a bit to note from that.

Six or so casts later and 9 swans came charging down the swim taking off as they did so. A huge disturbance for the swim and, as one might expect, no more bites subsequently. An hour or so later and I did change over to ledgered corn in the area where the swim shallows up at the end. But no more bites and I was done by about 10:30.

So this does show the value of pre-baiting, it does show that I can catch decent chub on the float, and it does show that decent chub are out in the middle of the river but in the slower flow.

My new plan for tomorrow afternoon is to fish a crumb and mash feeder setup with either flake or crust as bait and to focus on near bank slacks. I also intend to try some new spots below the lock - hopefully a couple of dozen new spots. The search for a Thames 6-lber before the end of the season is well and truly on - maybe 10 more trips before the season ends.

A weekend's fishing campaign - Part 1

Wife and daughter have gone away for a girlie weekend - a fitness weekend at a Spa hotel in Hinkley of all places. This means I have more or less an entire weekend free, so much thought has gone into planning what fishing I will do (despite the weather forecast of an overnight frost on Saturday).

At 7:00am this morning I went down to the river and deposited a gallon of hemp and half a gallon of sweetcorn in a 50-yard section, which I plan to float fish tomorrow. I haven't caught a fish on a float for years, and my newest target is to get a four pounder before the end of the season. That done, it was off to Witney where I bought huge amounts of canned meat, canned sweetcorn, frozen sweetcorn and bread for the coming few days, then spent another £45 in States Fishing tackle shop, mainly on leger weights, line, swivels, and so on.

I got to the river about 11:00. On Wednesday last week I badly bruised one of my toes and today's long walk to the downstream end of the fishery was not pleasant - sort of a slow shuffle. And just as I got there, I was initially disappointed to spot another angler moving spots in the distance, just at my two hotspot swims. I dumped my stuff in a new swim and went down for a chat. Apparently he and two friends fish this stretch quite a lot, despite being from Windsor. Indeed the other two had a 5-15 and a 6-10 just two days ago, one of which was from the last deep swim where I had the 5 lbers on Valentines day. He recommended the stretch at the downstream end of tghe fishery and spoke of the occasional 7-lber caught there. I definitely have to take this information seriously. He was planning a very mobile approach and soon set off downstream leaving me to my half dozen swims.

After baiting the swims, my starting point today was the "inside crease" swim. First cast I had a pull in less than a minute which I missed, then second cast, another bite which I connected with this time. A fine scrap before I managed to haul it over the dead reed bed, and a slight shock to find it is a perfect fish of 5-10, a new record for this year and closing in on the 6-lber of my dreams.

A decent enough self-timer picture, despite the twig in the way.
And a not so decent picture!

I moved from there up to the raft swim and had another decent bite which I also missed. Then up to the hawthorn bush swim. I have been thinking about this swim alot over the last few days and decided to fish it initially with a very light weight, trying to hug the inside of the river, under the bushes. Then I had the idea of just using the single swan shot. I managed a cast of about 15 yards downstream and as intended, the bait swung into the near bank, probably just around the point where there is a small raft under the bushes. This produced another nice chub a few minutes later of 4-10. No pictures this time as it had started to rain, and indeed rained quite hard for the next hour or so.

Next stop was the two deep swims, but I didn't get a bite there. Back at the first swim, I had another bite from just inside the crease which I missed, then I lost a fish in "swim 4" which seemed to snag me and then throw the hook. Things then went quiet for the next couple of hours, but again, the inside crease swim produced a bite, which again I missed.

Just as it got dark I was joined by the angler I had met earlier. He had caught four in the end, including three from one spot far downstream. His theory was that the fish were all in slack water. And you know, that could well be right. That was where I caught my two fish and I couldn't get a bite in the main flow swims. So perhaps I need to pay more attention to near bank slacks. And I have to investigate well downstream.

It had just about got dark by now. My eyes were well accustomed to the dark and as a result, I could see far more stars than normal, especially around Orion and Taurus. Just before I finished a barn owl flew across the river just above me - the first I've seen for a year or two. Lots of foxes about tonight as well - barking at each other across the fields.

So overall, a really excellent day, for my new best fish of the year and for the stuff I found out from the other angler. Tomorrow I am floating fishing for chub, and Monday might be my investigation of further downstream, toe permitting.

Valentine's Day Chubbing

Wife has consented to another afternoon at the river on two conditions. Firstly, that I don't get home after 6:00pm and second, that I am still in charge of our Valentine Day's meal. These seem very acceptable given than fishing conditions look pretty good.

I am now fishing the other local stretch of the Thames - the one where I believe some barbel have been caught. For the moment the focus will be chub, then when the water temperature begins to rise, I will start a campaign for a barbel there. Nothing has indicated that Duxford would be better for barbel - the swims I used to catch loads in during the mid-1990s just seem to have chub in them now.

My focus today would be on two deeper swims at the end of the stretch. This involved a one mile walk and the milder weather meant I was really hot when I got there. Fifteen minutes later and I had baited half a dozen swims and could have a sit down, a drink and a Mars bar. One new swim baited today - a spot where a tree and some rushes cause the inside line to about one rod length out to be a much slower flow than the main flow (i.e. a near bank crease). This could be a great floodwater swim. Downstream in the slower flow was a tree in the water, so maybe fish would hole up there and then feed along the crease.

My first fishing spot was two swims close together which I have christened "Hawthorns 1" and "Hawthorns 2" . With only maybe half an hour since the bait had gone in, I wasn't sure I would get anything here, but gave it 20 minutes in each before rebaiting and then moving to the big raft swim. Using slightly more lead than usual, I decided to hold the bait under the raft itself, rather than just to the side as I have done before, and actually did get a bite here, which I missed.

A second feeding of bait into the two deeper swims, then I settled into the inside crease swim, my new spot. First cast at the head of the crease produced nothing in ten minutes, so I moved the bait down a few yards and then did get a take which I connected with. The fish set off into the main flow, then promptly fell off. Not sure why as the hook looked fine. It didn't feel a huge fish though. But it was good to know that there were fish in this new spot, and so I can have another look at it next time.

Finally, after 3 hours and two baitings, it was time to have a go at the two top swims, my initial choice being the uppermost swim. First cast was perfect, drifting down towards the tree in the water. Five minutes later, the line briefly slackens, then tightens as the tip pulls round. I got a look at the fish straight away and it was clearly a decent fish. Oddly it fought by moving away from the huge tree in the water and stayed in open water throughout. And the hook held this time - a lovely fish of 5-02, the second 5-lber of the year from the Thames and a pretty instantaneous confirmation of the wisdom of dual baitings before fishing.

First fish of the day, 5-02

So with that in mind, I thought I would stay put, just in case the first fish had not scared any others when it ran away from the snag rather than into it.

And 15 minutes later, I got another bite and connected with another solid fish. This one stayed deep and did try for the tree a couple of times. But I am trying to play fish hard at the moment and was able to heave it away ok. And what a fish, 5-08, my best of the year so far. A birdwatcher appeared as I was setting up the camera and obliged by taking a couple of pictures - a shame neither of us spotted the weed attached to the fish's side which slightly spoil the photo!

The fish of the year so far, 5-08

Next spot to try was the second of the deeper swims. This hadn't produced a bite the last two times I have fished here, but 10 minutes or so in, with no preliminary moves, the tip flew round and another fish on. This one was smaller than the others, but actually caused more trouble landing as it found a snag just under the bank in front of me. But by moving downstream to change the angle of pull, it freed itself and chub 3 of the day was landed, a smaller fish of 3-15.

That proved to be the last fish of the day, though I continued to rotate between the various swims. A cold easterly wind picked up as the afternoon progressed and I was quite happy to pack up around 5:00.

Our Valentine Day's meal was a starter of salmon, prawns and scallops in a cream and paprika sauce; fillet steak with a port and red wine jus and steamed vegetables and an M&S ricotta cheese cake, all washed down with a bottle of sparkling rose and a Cahor 2004 red.

Chub in the snow Part 2

Following the snow, a night of extreme sub-zero temperatures of around -10C. My thoughts turn to chub and the attempt to catch a decent sized one in such conditions. I was on my way to the river aboput 11:00, with lots of pauses to take pictures.

Snow doesn't hold on thin willow branches apparently

Just below the ford - in the summer, a fine chub and possible barbel swim

Another fine summer swim - a nice gravel bar runs down to the tree on the far bank

My fishing focused on what I have been calling "swims one to four". The picture above is from "swim 4". In swim one I actually caught a little chub of maybe 1.5lbs. On the one hand, this is still not the four-pounder "snow chub" that I want. On the other hand, it is good to know there are some smaller fish about - this is actually my smallest fish of the year so far.

A thaw is underway by the early afternoon - the raft in swim 3 looking down towards swim 4

But just the one fish for my efforts for the afternoon - and jolly cold

Plumbing the depths - a river pike trip

The weather remains bitterly cold. However, the forecast is actually for the weather to get worse with snow tomorrow which will stick around as temperatures remain below freezing well into next week. When that does melt, it will then be another 3-5 days before fishing is very feasible. But today might have been ok. The snow melt from the weekend might have cleared, and the chub might be used to the cold.

But instead I decided that I would have a few hours on the river doing some pike fishing. It is years since I fished for pike. But my thinking was actually coloured by the idea that I could use the river float tackle to also do some plumbing of a wide range of swims. So it was really pike fishing with chub in mind.

When I got to the stretch of the Thames I was planning to plumb, there was one angler already fishing. He had just lost a decent chub and was switching over to ledgering from float fishing. That suggested I might have been better off chub fishing. But the aim was to gather valuable intelligence for the battles ahead and so for the next three hours I searched around a dozen swims with deadbaits and then, as I was ready to switch swims, I had a quick plumb around the swim.

What I generally found was that the river was deeper in a number of places than I had thought - around the 5 foot plus level, rather than 3-4 foot that I had thought. I paid particular attention to two swims at the end of the stretch which I plan to fish seriously for a monster chub before the seasons end. As I suspected, these are slightly deeper swims, nearer 7-8 foot deep and look very promising.

And I even caught one pike, though it was possibly the smallest I have caught since two pike of 15oz each which I caught from the River Leam and Esthwaite Water back in the 1980s. My guess is that it would have struggled to break 1-08. It took a float fished smelt as I was winding in slowly down the right bank margin. This week, a 32lb pike was caught in Esthwaite. Could that have been the one I caught years ago? Not sure how long pike live, but it probably isn't 30 years!

I wonder if I could sneak a chub trip in tomorrow before the snow hits?

Chub in the snow?

The snow that had been forecast has finally arrived, but not in great abundance here. We had about an inch on Saturday night, followed by some rain, and this morning it was not a very complete covering. But one of my fishing targets is to catch a decent sized chub when there is a good layer of snow, so today just about counted for that. In any case, if I didn't go fishing again today, it is unlikely that I will do for a few days as the forecast is pretty poor for the next five days or so.

My hope was that I might be able to get one in the long crease swim that I fished last friday, but soon after arrival and baiting, two swans arrived in the swim and proceeded to feed for about 10 minutes or pretty much the exact line I planned to fish. Like most anglers, I am not a great fan of swans and was pretty annoyed by this incursion. Sadly I didn't have enough bait with me to move further downstream and bait somewhere else, so I would have to wait it out. Still. this did give me a chance to take a few photos of me fishing in the snow.

The wretched swans, right on my fishing line beside the crease
Fishing the crease

I did try a couple of new spots a little way downstream, but failed to get any bites. But it was actually a really nice morning to be out. There were no other people by the river, though a micro-lite aircraft did fly directly over me at one point. The temperature was definitely above freezing and the snow was melting throughout the time I was there. Indeed, this is probably a bad sign for fishing in the next few days, as snow melt is the absolute death of most river fishing.

Back in the long crease, I may have had one, very-tentative bite but didn't connect. The same in the raft swim at the end of the crease. By 2:00pm or so I had had enough. In all, I was out for about 5 hours. My next planned trip is for Thursday or Friday if the temperature remains low. I plan to go all the way down to the far end, deeper swims and give them a few hours each.

Winter fishing madness

The internet weather service I follow says that the temperature in our area of rural Oxfordshire fell to -10C overnight. By 8:00am, it had risen to -7C. It might be thought that this would be enough to persuade me to not go fishing. But given the right clothing and the closeness of the venue, it didn't seem a bad idea to me and I set off down about 2:00pm aiming to fish till about 5:30, my planned limit in the sub-zero conditions. That said, I did decide to fish the spots nearest the car, rather than walk the extra 1/2 miles and fish the three or four deeper spots before the weir that I am really keen to visit again.

The river had dropped another inch or so and the colour of the last week or so has now more or less gone from it. This means that the lower raft swim at the end of the big crease has been revealed to be actually quite shallow, maybe only 2 foot deep now. There are still spots in it where you can see that chub could hole up, but it seems a less likely spot than it was with a bit of colour.

So my focus is the long crease swim, where the depth is around 4-5 foot. A 1/2 to 3/4 oz weight is required to search the different areas of the swim correctly, and I was rather pleased with the methodical way in which I set about this. And after about 30mins, in a spot downstream of my fishing position, and just inside the main line of the crease, I had a couple of sharp pings in the quivertip, a brief slackening of the line, then a strong pull and the connection with a decent fish. The deep fight suggested it might be a very good fish, but it then just gave up the fight and it turned out to be another really nice 4lber, 4-08 to be exact.

This turned out to be the only fish of the afternoon. No bites in the raft swim at the end, possibly one other in the crease swim. I blame a jogger (!!) who ran past me about 4:00, clumping away on the hard ground and possibly spooking the fish.


A nice plump 4-08 chub

Last fishing trip before the imminent freeze?

I have been closely monitoring the weather forecasts for our area for the past few days and things are definitely expected to take a turn for the worse over the next few days. True, last week's forecast said it might snow today, but it hasn't. Nonetheless, there are now severe weather warnings in place for much of the country and snow has fallen in our most adjacent counties. So on that note, I thought it was just about possible to sneak one more trip in before this weather hits. Afterall, we have had no rain since the end of last week and so the rivers might actually be fining down - many would say this is the perfect scenario for winter fishing.

Unfortunately I don't have much bread and could only make up a half bucket of mash, but the river looked perfect when I arrived. Definitely down a little bit (white water has appeared at the ford again), but still coloured. So six handfuls of mash into the raft swim below the long crease, some in each of the "three swims", six handfuls in "swim 4", then the same in two new spots just before Shifford lock where the water is a little bit deeper. Time for a hot chocolate while I waited for the bait to do its work.

First cast into "swim four" and a bite straightaway - so rare that this actually happens, but entirely a sign that the conditions are so good. Instead of heading for the snags under my feet, this fish set off into midstream where there was little danger of losing it. At first glance, I thought it might be over 5lbs but it was 4-15. I tried taking a self portrait, but then found after one shot that the camera's battery was empty. So just one picture of this year's biggest chub.

The best chub of the year so far, 4-15. Not the best fishing photo ever, but it was intended as a first go, just to check focusing. Sadly, there was no photo number two.

Down to the first of the new swims. The main flow is noticeably slower here and I wondered if there might be bigger fish in such swims. My first cast was a little short of where I had intended, but I left it in place for 10 minutes and, rather surprisingly, got another bite. Very rare for me to have two bites in consecutive casts in different swims! But this was a smaller fish and I was just drawing it upstream when, for some inexplicable reason, it fell off. I assumed that this might not have disturbed the swim, but no further bites occured, so it was up to the next new swim, for another blank 30 minutes.

For the next few hours I circulated between "swim four", where I was regularly topping up the bait, the "three swims" and the two new ones, but no more bites. So just as the sun was beginning to go down, I made the long trek back to the first swim, the raft below the crease, where I had caught the 4-09 the other day. The last of the bread mash went in and I settled in a swim slightly upstream, planning to fish lobworms for half an hour while the raft swim settled.

Back there at 4:45pm and initially enough light to not need the betalight. Just after 5:00, there was a little tap, followed by the good pull of the typical chub bite. A very solid fish on the other end. Mindful of the many snags, I was keen to bully it upstream, but initially was hardly able to move it. But gradually I made some progress on it, though I did make rather a mess of netting it. I initally thought this was another high 4lber, but it did have a deep tummy and so with some careful weighing, I was able to claim 5-02, a new biggest of the year.

I don't have the best camera on my mobile, it must be said.

Definitely much colder by 5:30 and by the time I was back at the car, there was a frost well in progress. So maybe this will be the last trip for a little while. But two chub for 10-01 is excellent stuff.

Duxford - a "testing" session

Much colder overnight and a weather forecast that suggests it might snow here on Monday and be sub-zero most nights until the end of the following week. So not good for fishing. But a thought does occur to me. There are some techniques that I would like to be better at, so given the low chance of actually catching fish today, I could have a testing session and try out all the things I think I'm not good enough at.

The first surprise though was that the river was actually up a few inches after the bit of rain we have had and had a bit of colour in it. Of course there might not be any barbel in Duxford Loop, now I have read the article in Course Angling Today. But if they are, today might actually be a day they might be feeding. I couldn't find my themometer though but it might have been above the "magic" 41F level

So today's trip to Duxford involved, initially, baiting with a bait dropper, something that I rarely do as the Seer Specialist Rover rod that I often use is not up to casting a dropper. But I am currently using a John Wilson stepped up Avon rod and that seemed happy enough casting the dropper. Five swims got 4-5 droppers of hemp, meat and a few crab boilies

Next, I wanted to use some larger weights and get used to what was required to hold, say, two-thirds of the way across the river. There was a perfect "crease" swim to try this in, as well as two swims where far-bank rushes cause a sharp slow down in flow behind them. Just over 1oz was enough in each case. However, some people do use much higher than this in some rivers. I had a go with 2 x 1.5oz and was able to hold just under the far bank.

Thirdly, I was fishing a hair rig all day, adopting the superglue approach to baiting with either meat or boilies cuts in half. Never done that before, but actually it was little trouble at all.

Next, I wanted to do some upstream ledgering, where the weight is tightly balanced against a deflected quiver tip and bits are signalled by the line slackening and the tip falling back. The art of balancing seemed ok and I was able to bump a bait slowly down a run from downstream.

Then there was some practicing of using the self timer on my camera. This is aimed at me taking pictures of my glorious catches. I took one or test test snaps, but these revealed that I do need to look at focusing.

Late afternoon, after quite a nice afternoon, it started to hail. Quite big bits as well - maybe 2-3mm across, enough to sting when they hit my hands or face. This continued for half an hour and I huddled under a tree where I was fishing. I always think hail is really bad for fishing. Would it not penetrate the water a little way and might it even hit a fish out in shallow, open water? So after the hail stopped, it was down to a raft swim where the fish might have been a bit protected. A switch of bait to lobworm did actually produce a couple of sharp knocks on the tip, but nothing developed. Could these have been perch? I would really like to catch a big perch from a river.

But as I expected, this was the limit to today's bites. I did have a close look at some other swims, which was good. Perhaps the next time I go for a "test" session, I should do some plumping?
The only decent self-timer photo from today

The moment when the light changes, just before sunset (after the hail!)

The demise of Oxfordshire barbel?

Just days after I decided that one of my goals in 2012 would be to catch a large barbel from an Oxfordshire river, an article appears in the new issue of Course Angling Today entitled "The sad demise of the Oxfordshire barbel"! Typical, eh?

This suggests that the last decade has seen the virtual disappearance of barbel in all the rivers in the Upper Thames system, by which he means the Thames above Oxford, the Thame (which is actually below Oxford!), the Windrush, Cherwell and Seacourt Stream. Each river is considered in detail, with some comments about the Windrush below Witney really hitting home. One year - 1995 - I fished there maybe 30 nights after work in August and September, catching well over 100 barbel with a best of just over 9lbs. On several occasions I saw what was clearly a double figure fish, but failed to catch this one. Now, according to the article, otter and cormorant predation, plus signal crayfish have pretty much wiped out the species. That is really sad. I will still have a few trips this summer there I think.

I haven't fished the Cherwell since the mid 1990s either, and have just two barbel to my name, with a best of 8-08. Apparently locals fishing the main barbel stretches there have seen catches drop from 100 a year in 2004 to 2 in 2010.

Missing from the article was any discussion of the Evenlode, which had a huge barbel stocking about 8 years ago and which might be the dark horse. Access to the Evenlode is relatively restricted as one or two clubs control most of it. So maybe my summer barbel will be focused on the Evenlode instead. Hardly anyone fishes that for barbel (or indeed anything else) so maybe they have slipped through.

Also, there are some parts of the Thames where I suspect the barbel might hole up even with a general decline in numbers. So I shall be focusing on these spots in the summer too.

So where does that leave my 2012 target of a big barbel? Well perhaps it is just what I need to inspire me to fish the Kennet more. Again, one of the clubs I belong to have a stretch that is likely to be sparcely fished, especially during the week when I do most of my fishing. And apparently we can now night fish there provided we don't park near the farm and then drive off between 10:00pm and 6:00am. So I am planning a trip down one weekend to see if I can meet any other anglers there, then maybe a few trips in late Feb into the end of the season in March.


Will Part 2 next month, an interview with Oxford barbel expert John Everard, give any hope?

Tuesday afternoon at Duxford

Heavy rain overnight and all morning. Already I am thinking that Thursday could be a great day for barbel fishing. But my planned trip today depended on whether the rain stopped. For whatever reason, I don't like going fishing when it is raining when I get there. I don't mind fishing in the rain - just not getting wet before I've even chosen a spot to fish.

I decided on a change today and selected a number of possible swims much closer to Duxford ford. The two best were a long crease swim and a raft at the end of a long glide downstream of the crease swim. But I also baited up a couple of other spots which I tried first while the bait settled in the main two swims. At this stage, the overnight rain had made no appreciable difference. I could still see clear gravel in some of the swims. I get the feeling that the bit below the Ford is more gravelly that further downstream. Maybe this would be the place to try for barbel on Thursday, when, hopefully, the rain will be in the river and the barbel will be actively feeding.

About an hour after baiting up, I was settled in the downstream raft swim. This is an absolutely classic chub swim. The main flow was two thirds of the way across of river, and there was a steady, but not too fast current in the first third, making the raft a perfect spot for chub. So first cast, I flicked a large piece of crust into the faster water, letting it swing round into the slower water just under the raft. Maybe two minutes later, I had a clear tap and then the classic full-on chub bite. First contact and the fish wouldn't move from the raft. Clearly a good fish, clearly not a barbel though. Much heaving and the fish moved slowly upstream, just missing more snags on the inside of the bank. But once past these, it was pretty straightforward.

So the best chub of the year so far, 4-09, and in absolutely perfect condition

A classic Thames chub from a classic chub swim (and one that looks very un-Thames like).

After re-baiting, it was up to the crease swim. This was formed from a tree that had fallen in the river and was deflecting the main flow out to the far bank. I have not really fished many crease swims before, but planned to give this one an hour or so giving each cast 15 mins and then casting a further five yards down the crease each time. In part, my aim was also to assess my ledgering technique. I am still more used to light ledgering on very small rivers and the use of weights over 1/2 oz still feels strange to me. But generally the search of the swim seemed to go ok. I had one bite half way down, which I missed. Overall, I think I would have been better off floast fishing this swim - it would be really great for this I would think.

So back to the raft as it gots fully dark. Another piece of crust lobbed into the fast water and swung round under the raft on a 4 swan shot link ledger. And another decent bite first cast which I proceeded to miss. I had planned to fish this spot for the first hour of darkness, but no further bites resulted.

So overall, I was pretty happy with the trip. Now to wait and see if the rain can lift and colour the river a bit and I can focus on barbel (fishy boilies over hemp and pellets is the plan).

Sunday at Duxford

I rarely fish at weekends and some aspects of today's trip show why. I arrived at Duxford just after lunch and there were already several cars in the little parking area by the farm. Just as I was sorting out my stuff, two more guys and their dog arrived. They turned out to be fisherman but were out today to visit the nature reserve on the other side of the river. Nonetheless, they were keen to quiz me about fishing as we set off along the bank.

About 100 yards below the ford, two guys were pike fishing, but with no success yet. When they found I waas chub fishing, they then started telling me at great lenght about their huge catches of chub down at Sutton Courtney. But they did say that in the past they had caught barbel in the swims below the ford. Once I was extricated from them, I still had to chat to the other two as we walked to the spot I intended starting. Because of the number of people about, I decided I would just chub fish today with bread. The area where I have been barbel fishing so far has a very narrow bank and I wouldn't be able to fish if people were walking along it.

So I settled in "swim four" from the last trip. Soon after, I was passed by an older guy loaded down with fishing tackle. He had decided to call it a day after having to chat for 10 minutes to the two guys who I had walked down with. He had caught a number of chub on lobworms in a selection of swims between the weir at Shifford and where I was starting fishing. At some point I will check this area out I expect.

Meanwhile I had started fishing and caught a small chub of under 3lbs. Ever so often I would re-bait a couple of other swims with mashed bread, but those would have to wait till I was sure people wouldn't be walking along the bank. In any case, such bankside activity might already have scared the fish.

The pike anglers appeared and settled in about 100 yards away where I could hear them chatting away - mostly about barbel tactics on other rivers. I managed a second 3lbers, but then more or less stopped fishing while I waiting for it to get dark and the chance of a fish in the swim where I caught the 4lber last week. The pike anglers packed up and walked back in the field at the top where they didn't disturb me. I was settled in the "swim two" from last week, but didn't manage a bite in the hour I was there. Had they been disturbed by the people passing so close by? Who knows?

My next planned trip is Tuesday, when I might try some of the swims nearer Duxford Ford. It should be quieter then as well.