The Sessions - May 2016
A red letter morning and a trip to Spain
1 May – Barbel Society Show
The Barbel Society show was again held at Chesford Grange Hotel, Warwickshire and as last year it was a great day out catching up with friends old and new.
It’s always good chatting with likeminded people about something we love doing, the day just flew by. I was asked to put a 24 hour guided session with me on the Trent into the raffle, of course I agreed and much to my group of friends’ amusement it was won by our pal Grazy Roberts. I’m really looking forward to the session with Grazy as he is a real funny guy, but I just need to watch the wheels on my car as he comes from Liverpool…….
2 May – Gingerbread Lake
I’d been in contact with one of the members Mitch who told me the lake had fished really well over the weekend with over 30 bites coming to the lads. He was in the Dug-out and the fish were all in that side of the lake, he was leaving at 18:00 hours and would hold the swim for me, perfect I’d drop in there unless I saw anything better.
I got to the lake at 16:00 hours and spent 2 hours walking round looking, Mitch was right on location and I witnessed at least 6 fish caught during the two hour period. I set up behind him and took over the swim when he left. The weather was a real mixed bag again, sunny one minute and then rains the next with a south westerly wind.
I got my rigs on my spots followed by 15 pandemic over each rod, the lake was busy and had seen a lot of bait over the weekend so 15 was plenty.
Well needless to say after a busy weekend, the night passed without event and I packed up for work at 05:30 hours.
5 May – Gingerbread Lake
It had been getting warmer every day and had been up to 22 degrees, much better spring temperatures. I arrived at 19:30 hours and found the lake to be busy, after a good look round it was clear the fish were still in the same area.
The only reasonable swim available was the Pipes with the better swim Boom-boom being next door. I drove round and chatted to the guy in Boom-boom to find he was getting up early for work, which sounded perfect so my plan was to fish the Pipes for the night and move next door when he left in the morning.
All three were on stiff hinge rigs, 2oz leads and my Fruit Special pop-ups, two were flicked out onto the plateau and one in the right hand margin with 10 pandemic over each rod. The angler next door turned out to be on the club committee, Neil Sampson, he got the kettle going and we stood out until very late chatting while both getting constant liners from Bream.
Neil woke me in the early hours to photograph a 32 pound Mirror and we both continued to get liners all night.
6 May
Neil left for work at 06:30 hours and while he was packing down I’d seen a fish fizzing up just of the left hand margin and a few show over the plateau.
I put on fresh baits and flicked a single onto the fizzing patch and it landed perfect first time, the other two went onto the plateau on my markers, as they were well away from where Neil had been fishing I put 15 pandemic over the plateau rods.
Once set up again I put the kettle on, the sun came up and started to burn of the morning haze and fish were showing further over the other side of the plateau, but I felt like it just had to happen.
It was a morning for minimal disturbance, trust your bait and rigs and wait. The three anglers in the main swims couldn’t help themselves and out came the spods, it was quite comical and I don’t want to sound disrespectful but they were casting across each other and fishing each other’s water and making plenty of noise. The constant spodding was like a gift from the gods to me as slowly but surely the fish pushed over to my side and the patience paid off……
09:40 hours – the left hand bobbin pulled up tight and the rod bent round (on the fizzing patch) and I was on it, it felt heavy straight away and went on a series of strong runs and fought really hard, once in the margin I saw it and realised it was a very good fish and I prayed the hook would hook, eventually it slipped over the net cord and what a fish!! I let it rest a couple of minutes and then broke the net down and lifted it onto the mat…..
09:45 hours – the middle rod roared off, now I had a problem with nobody close enough to help, I picked up and set the hook properly and could feel another good fish. I put the rod back on the rest and had to transfer the other fish into the retention sling, make sure it was all zipped up and lowered it into the margin, while I did this I got a good enough look to see it was “the brown fish”, I knew it was big and a forty so didn’t want to lose it. All the time I was doing this I could hear the baitrunner going on the other rod, once the sling was secure I picked up and played the fish back towards me to regain some control and then put the rod back on the rest so that I could put the net back together, luckily everything went to plan and another good fish slipped into the net, I could see it was a good one but didn’t realise how good…..
I let both fish rest while I tried to get help with the weighing and photos, being midweek and most people at work it was difficult and then out of the blue a guy I know from years ago, Marc Leendert walked past with his dog, he was more than happy to help as he had never seen a big Carp before.
I lifted the first one back onto the mat, zeroed the scales and recorded a weight of 40-04 for “the brown fish”, I was elated, what a stunning fish and I’d now caught two of the three 40’s from the lake this spring.
I slipped the fish back and got ready to sort the next one, as I lifted it out Marc commented straight away “that looks bigger than the first one” and I had to agree as it felt heavier. I followed the same process and got a weight of 41-05, I couldn’t believe it two 40’s in five minutes, the early morning move definitely paid off big time.
As the weight was so close to the fish I had in May I started to suspect it may be a repeat and when I opened the sling to look properly I was correct, it was “the Clone” again, she obviously loves the Pandemic as much as the Barbel. I took a couple of shots of her again as I wasn’t totally happy with the photos from April as the sun was so bright. Marc didn’t let me down and got great photos of both fish.
Fish were still showing over the spots so I got the rigs back out with a few more Pandemic.
12:50 hours – I’d had a 7 pound Bream on the right hand rod, when the left went again, this was another heavy fish and kited into the margin, just as I was getting some control I got cut off on the dreaded zebra mussels, I was gutted as I hate leaving tackle in fish.
13:10 hours – the middle rod went again and this all went to plan and I landed a Mirror at 24-02.
I carried on until 14:00 hours and gave the swim up to my pal Darren Coles who was down for the weekend, I had to get home and get ready for Spain as I was flying out on the Sunday. What a session and one I’d remember for a long time.
9 May – Rio Segre, Mequinenza, Spain
I flew over to my second home on the 8th full of excitement looking forward to two weeks Carping, the river had been fishing well with some good fish coming out but sometimes things don’t work out as planned.
The weather had been lovely there for weeks and the water temps warming up slowly which is perfect for the Carp but unfortunately it started to rain on the Sunday and didn’t stop. It rained all day as I was getting the gear together, really heavy too, and as I was planning to boat fish for the whole trip it wasn’t looking a good start. There was a little break in the rain at 18:30 hours so I went out to a spot I’d seen fish showing. The Carp were up in the shallow water for two reasons, one they were getting ready to spawn soon and the second the Catfish can’t get there to eat them!!
I was using my standard Segre Carp rig, fixed lead on a clip, I was only using 3oz as I was fishing from the boat and just flicking them out, 10” Camfusion hooklink to a KD tied size 2 Gardener Mugger. Bait being a 22mm halibut pellet with a grain of fake corn.
The idea is to drift over towards the area and look for blooms of silt coming up where the fish are moving, lower in the mud weights and flick a rig to the area, trying to do it with minimal disturbance.
As soon as I settled it started to rain again and within 90 minutes the rain was dripping out of my pants, I was soaked right through and couldn’t be any wetter if I jumped in. During all this I had two Commons weighing 23-14 and 27-06 so I was off the mark despite the rain.
10 May
It had rained all night and knowing the system well we were all thinking the same, when was all the water going to come down.
By the time I’d bailed the boat out and got sorted it was 10:00 hours before I got out, the river was flowing hard, chocolate coloured with rubbish coming down but the levels were being controlled by the dams further up the Segre and the Cinca.
Amongst the showers and sunny spells I caught five 20’s and two doubles to 29-08, they were all spawned out so they had obviously been spawning before the weather change and it was already evident the big girls were not there
11-12 May
When I went down to the river the boats were well and truly grounded and it was obvious we would not be boat fishing for a day or so.
In years past flooding has not been managed well in the area and we think to ensure it didn’t happen again they lowered the levels to the lowest I’ve ever seen them, most of the shallows were dry and you could see the old river how it looked before the dams were built. This made it almost unfishable, I spent the morning driving to all the areas I know and eventually found one area that was just fishable, but to be honest I felt like I was soaking pellets and didn’t fish much at all. I had one Carp and a Roach at 2-02.
13-18 May
The levels came up just enough to get the boats out again and the net few days were spent trying up to eight spots a day which was hard work on my own. I made a plan to go up the Segre, start in the shallow areas and work down to the confluence for the evenings as I’d seen some big fish show there on the Wednesday evening.
I was catching fish every day but all doubles and twenties with small Cats as well that made my heart miss a few beats until I’d seen them, but the scenery is stunning and as the weather started to warm up again it was lovely just being there.
I finally managed to trip a couple of good fish up in the confluence and thought I may have found them but it was just odd fish, the best two went 32-03 and 34-14, looking at the self takes there would certainly be no secret where I caught these.
19 May
The levels had been dropped impossibly low again, I only got out as I’d been lucky where I moored for the night. The river was chocolate coloured again which I think puts the Carp off feeding as there is so much sediment in the water, so I went out more in hope than expectation.
I decided to fish the confluence for the day and hope to trip a big one up and was on my second area when it happened, another story that will stick in the memory for a long time.
I was fishing in two feet of water and as the flow and wind were so strong I was a rod length out from the boat, I’d seen fish moving so was pretty confident of a take.
12:10 hours – the rod top knocked and line peeled of the baitrunner, as soon as I picked up the Carp hit the surface and a Catfish of approx. 150+ hit the Carp, instantly another Catfish rolled over the first and the Carp got away and shot round the anchor rope and into a weed bed. Water had come into the boat from the rolling Cats and I stood there in disbelief with the Carp solid in weed. I had to hand line the poor thing in and lift it into the boat, it was in complete shock with scales hanging of it everywhere, I unhooked it and slipped it back, it didn’t look well but did swim away.
12:45 hours – the same rod again and when I picked up it was obvious this was a good Catfish and it went on a run of at least 70-80 yards. Now I love fishing for Cats but they are a pain on Carp gear as they take so long to land and trash the swim so I clamped the clutch up tighter almost hoping it would come off.
After three more powerful runs I’d got it by the boat, the hook hold was good and the Gardener HD line was holding up well so I had to think about landing it. I didn’t have a glove and the net was way to small so I would have to glove it bare handed.
I missed first time and it went downstream of the boat so I clamped down on the clutch as it was getting near the weed beds. The flow and wind were making it even harder but I stopped it and got it on the surface ready when the top section of my Nash Scope exploded into three pieces, I could believe it!! But now I really wanted to boat the fish, there were two rings left on the butt section so I clamped down on the reel and pulled, It came up mouth open so I grabbed it and pulled it into the boat before it realised what had happened. I was gutted about my rod but stood there laughing at what had just happened, the Cat was approx. 110 pound and covered me and the boat in slime.
With only one rod left and the river conditions terrible I went back in and spent the afternoon and evening in the bar with Catmaster clients and we had a great evening, I can’t remember laughing so much for years, if you ever meet Kevin Taylor and Richard Blackman you’ll know why, what a cracking couple of blokes.
20-21 May
I went out both days and caught Carp but the big fish just weren’t around and with the conditions it made it a challenging but still enjoyable trip.
For the record I finished with 37 Carp, 5 Catfish and the Roach.
The Ebro system is an amazing place, great Carp fishing, huge Roach and still the best place in the world for Catfish. Catmaster Tours is without doubt the best service you can get if you want a guided trip and it makes for a fantastic holiday.
That ended another great months fishing, and was made even better when I got home to find I’d got a half page in Carptalk, been in the Angling Times twice and me and my best pal Colin Bunn were on the front cover of Whiskers.
Tight lines
Julian Barnes