First barbel of the season

Another short barbel session on a local river. I was running a bit late so didn't arrive at the river until 20:30, bait in, sort my rods out, cast out, sit back and relax. That was the plan but stupidly I had left all my leads at home, luckily a mate was fishing half a mile upstream, so I went on the scrounge and loaned a few leads.

The chub were on the baits fairly quickly but I was using longer hairs this session and it took nearly an hour for the tip to fly round. A definite barbel, a good fight, not overly long, but it did make it to the weedbeds a couple of times.

A decent start, hopefully the next one I manage to land will be bigger

With the first barbel of the season banked I was hopeful of another, it took another 40 minutes for the tip to go round. This time the fish was a lot more substantial, I struggled to keep control of the fish in this tight peg and unfortunately it made it to a snag. The fish was lost, a shame as it would of easily beaten my p.b.

A quick re-tackle, a bit more bait in and another cast towards the willows, this time it took nearly 2 hours for the to go round, another good fish on. I was determined to keep control and not allow the fish to make to any snags, unfortunately the pressure I was needed to apply was too much and the hook pulled! Gutted, two potential p.b barbel lost on the same session.

I packed up shortly after. I'm hoping to give it another go this week (if time allows), next time I will use a more powerful rod to try and keep control in this tight peg.