River Soar 22-07-2012

Another late session on the river soar tonight, the levels have been up and down for the last 6 weeks so timing is everything at the moment. I had a ride down on the bike the day before and it was looking good so today looks even better. When I turned up at the gate there was 3 cars there so I thought there might be a couple on the weir island already, when I got there to find 4 others fishing in the top few pegs, the only problem I have is there is 3 of us fishing tonight, we had to take the last 3 pegs on the island, not many people been in these pegs this year because of the floods. I think I got the worse bank to fish from the soft mud on top of the peg is a real pain but I did see a barbel roll after 10 minutes of being in the peg so I was buzzing about getting a take quite quick. After slipping and sliding about in a nightmare of a peg I finally got both rods out. I sat down waiting for that first take, I waited and waited but nothing happened, it was now midnight and one of my mates had packed up and was stood in my peg have a chat before he left. 5 minutes after he left my right rod screamed off, I jumped out the chair and grabbed the rod and was into a barbel, I had a good scrap with this one as the water is high I had to guide it round the rushes and the over hanging trees, I finally got it in the net a barbel of about 7lb. I don't know how I stayed on my feet playing that fish. It was even hard to return I had to be really careful getting to the waters edge, the barbel was returned safe and sound and I was covered in mud but well worth it. We called it a night and packed up after this. I baited a couple of pegs up before I left ready for the next session. I had been hoping to do some pre-baiting this year but with the river being up and down all the time I thought I would be a waste of time, last year I never pre-baited just baited heavy while I was fishing and did really well so I wanted to see if I could improve the takes. Well time will tell....