The Sessions - Aug 2025
Barbel & Snags / Anniversary Fun & massive Barbel
I completed three guide trips and had one session fishing on my own in July; I met some nice people and enjoyed sharing my tactics, knowledge and thoughts on Barbel fishing.
Last month I wrote briefly about snagged Barbel and getting them out, and that generated quite a discussion on social media and direct messages so I will cover it in more detail here.
Barbel & Snags
After a discussion with Gary Hazell I promised to write my thoughts on Barbel in snags in a bit more detail so here goes.
Now I’m well aware we all have our own thoughts and methods that work well for us and that great, but what I can say is I lose less than 1% of snagged Barbel and firmly believe they nearly always come out if you’re patient.
I don’t believe Barbel purposefully head for a snag and have seen no evidence in my own fishing to suggest they do, they generally swim away from the pressure when you are playing them, so the first thing to consider is knowing your swim and what’s there that could potentially cause a problem. This comes down to the prep I’ve written about many times before with a Deeper and a bare lead, sharing knowledge with friends and understanding the area you’re fishing.
On the big rivers like the Trent the biggest hazards are rocks and big branches jammed on the bottom, with careful prep you should know where they are and either avoid them or be able to manoeuvre the fish away from them. But as we all know sometimes they are in the best swims and we want to fish there so inevitably sometimes a Barbel will get snagged.
The first thing not to do is start pulling hard as all you are doing is pulling against the snag and not the fish and in most cases making the situation worse. I always try to get above / behind the snag with only light pressure on the line, there will be just a slight bend on the rod tip, just enough to feel what’s going on, if it’s a rock and you get above it then quite often it will come free quickly, if it’s a big branch or the fish hasn’t come free you just have to be patient and not have too much tension on the line while you wait and be ready when you feel them move. I stand holding the rod and when I feel movement I apply light pressure away from the snag and they nearly always come out.
If you can’t get above / behind the snag, I’ll do the same, hold the rod and apply light pressure so I can feel the movement, this does require the most patience and I have stood holding a rod for 90 minutes and got the fish out.
Unfortunately there will always be that occasion you lose one, but generally the above will work in 99% of situations, please remember, pulling hard and walking up and down pulling away at all angles is your enemy and will cost you lost fish and tackle.
On the smaller rivers I’ve fished like the Ouse, the Derwent and Warwickshire Avon, streamer weed is the biggest hazard, that is fairly straight forward and I’ve found by walking below the snagged fish with light downstream pressure they come out every time. The dark green Onion reeds on the W/avon were a problem so the late Merv Wilkinson made a tool that we threw out on a rope behind the reed and was then dragged along the bottom to cut the reed stem, this worked really well and my cutter is always in the van if I’m fishing a river with lots of Onion reeds.
That’s my thoughts, try it in your own fishing and let me know how you get on.
2 August 2025 – Walthamstow
I enjoy summer Barbel fishing immensely but with the fish all down in weight I thought I’d do a night on Walthamstow and see how the Bream were looking….what a mistake!
With all the lakes open there was no draw so I paid for my ticket on opening and barrowed down to the swim I wanted, there was no rush as there were only five anglers on the lake and they were all Carping and not in the area I wanted to target.
The weather was nice, 23 degrees, cloudy with a light wind, it all looked good. There was quite a bit of marginal Canadian pond weed so I pulled that in to make landing fish easier.
I had some new Free Spirit Hi S 2.5tc rods to try, I wanted the bigger test curve to make the casting easier and after checking with a bare lead wrapped the rods at 11 wraps. I spombed out a four pint mix of casters, hemp, 2mm pellets and a few 10mm boilies and got the rigs out for approx. 09:00.
I put two on 12mm boilies topped with fake corn and one on three fake casters, all on 45g method feeders and that’s when the problems started, Tufted ducks, loads of them, they were relentless!!
I was using the bird scarer torch which is effective in daylight up to 50m and had to charge it three times through the day, it was ridiculous. The ducks sat just beyond the 50m mark in an arc around my baited spot and as soon as I turned away, or put the torch down they started moving forward. I tried spombing water at them and they’d move away and come back as soon as I put the rod down, it was so frustrating. I was the only Bream angler on, and the Carp lads were bait boating out their rigs with not much bait so I was screwed, at one point I counted 41 over my spot!!
As it got dark they moved away, I topped up my spot and thought I’d be ok through the night as the torch is far more effective in the dark, but no, as soon as I shut my eyes they were back and I had to unhook two. Just too really rub it in, I had a take at first light that picked up the other two lines and the hook pulled, so that was it I packed up early.
To finish a bad session as I was about to cross the main road to the carpark my barrow inner tube and tyre burst with a bang that made everyone duck for cover, there’s always next time….
9-11 August 2025 – River Trent, Gunthorpe
Julie and I spent three days in the Peak District walking and camping and had a lovely time, with nice weather, nice food and drink and a relaxing trip, we love it there and will go for years to come. This time we visited Thor’s cave and Soloman’s Temple, both were well worth a visit, there’s lots of versions of why it’s called Thor’s cave but I settle for Thor himself as I grew up with the comics and still love the Marvel films 😀
I had a couple of nights to get out fishing before going back to work and planned to go on the middle Trent looking for the big Barbel I’ve been after, when I got to the swim there were two boats moored in the swim for the weekend so I had to change plans. There was a swim free on the island so I dropped in there and it turned out to be a great decision.
14-09
I was able to fish in the swim at night and roll meat in another swim in the day and it turned into a great session, I had 14 Barbel on the BBB boilies to 14-09 and 16 rolling meat to 11-09, with 13 of the 30 Barbel being doubles to finish a great weeks annual leave.
11-12
11-03
11-09
23-25 August 2025 – River Trent, Gunthorpe
After a long two weeks at work I was looking forward to being out again, it was our anniversary weekend and we planned to be fishing as last year, and this time I wanted to get Julie her first double. I drove up on the Saturday and got the swim set up and much to Pottys amusement I set up the bivvy with a groundsheet which is something I just never use. The two man Tempest went up and the Nash Emperor bedchair to make it comfortable for Julie especially on our anniversary 😀
I fished the evening up until 01:00 and had four fish to 10-13 and reeled in and got some sleep.
Sunday was warm at 25 degrees and I’d baited up ready for Julie to arrive, she had a nightmare journey with a crash (not Julie) on the M1 holding her up for 90 minutes so the journey took 3 hours and she arrived at 17:00.
We got into the swim and I put the rods out, both on BBB dipped in food dip, and they were both hers until she had a double. It didn’t take long for the first bite and felt a good one but unfortunately it came off, as did the second but she was learning how to play them, just the hard way. The rod went over again at 21:00 and this one felt good and it all went well and she guided a lovely fish at 12-10 into the net, it was just brilliant and mission accomplished.
12-10
We ordered some chicken wings and a pizza each and had a lovely evening and I reeled in at midnight so we slept well. I put the rods out at 06:00 and had a low double straight away and we packed the swim down for 09:00 as I planned to roll meat for an hour.
What a great decision that was, I had ten casts and landed nine Barbel to 11-01, we agreed nine, one for each year of our relationship and we’d pack up, we spent more time unhooking and returning fish than fishing it was brilliant and we were away for 11:00, what a great way to start our anniversary day.
29 August 2025 – River Lea, Kings Weir.
My first visit to Kings Weir for this season had arrived and I was really looking forward to it, I’d left it until late August as the weed coming over the weir last season made fishing really difficult last summer. There hadn’t been hardly any reports of fish being caught this season so I didn’t know what to expect but it is a tough place to fish with big rewards. I felt the change in the weather would help after the hot summer we’d had, with lots of wind and rain during the week and a drop in temperature.
I arrived quite late just before dark due to work so got the leading rod out to check the spots I’d fished last year. The level was up after the rain during the week and was flowing hard but I have found smaller rivers drop quickly so I wasn’t concerned. As I’ve stated previously always check your spots when fishing a swim you haven’t fished for a while as flooding definitely changes things on the bottom moving gravel around. I found it to be quite weedy in places with dark green thickish weed that wasn’t there last season, I spent quite a bit of time with the leading rod and found two spots that looked fishable.
I set one rod up on my meat rig and the other with my usual combi-rig and BBB hookbait. I planned not to put any bait out, my thoughts were it gets fished quite regularly and there hadn’t been much caught so there could be bait still laying there. I lowered the meat rig onto a spot close in and flicked the boilie rod out to a clear patch of gravel.
It was soon very evident the weed was going to be a problem again, it comes over the weir after being cut up by the boats and back eddies round continually catching on the line so regular recasts were needed. To add to the problem the Crayfish were active on the meat so that rod was reeled in for the night. I dropped a large piece in the margin and watched a Crayfish move almost a whole tin 5m and under a rock! The weed on the other rod got the better of me by midnight so I reeled it in for some sleep.
30 August 2025
I was up at 05:00 and decided to fish just the BBB rod on the gravel patch, the weed was a pain but with a 5oz lead I was holding for 90 minutes or so until the boats got going later in the day. The first bite came at approx. 09:20 and tore of down the river heading for the Thames, I wrapped my hand round the spool and hoped and turned it just in time, I knew straight away it was a Carp but was surprised at how big it was, after a long fight I bundled a 29-11 into the net.
29-11
With the Crayfish being active I thought all the excess bait would have been eaten so I baited with just 10 BBB through the swim.
At 13:25 the rod went again and I knew this was a Barbel and a good one, after a few lunges it went in the net and what a fish for August at 17-15, making all the weed issues worthwhile.
17-15
I thought about going home as two in a day from KW was unlikely but the angler in me is always “glass half full” and wanting more so I recast and put another 10 BBB.
It was a difficult evening with the weed with my line looking like a washing line at times but it was worth it as I had two more takes landing Barbel at 9-02 and another lump at 16-07.
16-07
What a session, a KW season’s worth in one trip!!
Note: It did get even better on my next trip, but I’ll save that for next moth 😀
Until next, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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