River Soar 29-06-2011

Another great session on the River tonight, Still sticking with the same set-up and bait I would be made to change anything at this point. I put both my rods out one just under my rod tip and one out in the flow, I baited up with some of my boilies and sat back, a friend of mine Dean was fishing with me tonight using the trotting method with maggots. After 5 minutes of being there the right rod let out a line of slow bleeps then stopped and did the same again so I picked the rod up and struck into a bream of all things unluckily it fell off before the net, I chucked back out and sat back. Only half an hour later and the rod was off with a good run, I struck into a better fish this time and had a good fight with the first barbel of the night, while I was un hooking the barbel on the mat Dean was in with a little chub on the float rod, the barbel took the scales round to 7lb4oz.

 I baited back up and chucked back out and as I sat down Dean was in again on the float rod but this time a pike appeared and grabbed onto the little perch on the line, Dean was going made with excitement as the rod was bending right over as the pike tried to leave the swim with the perch, in the end the pike just let go and he bought in a slightly damaged perch, after unhooking the perch he had to hold it the flow for few minutes until it was strong enough to swim off. After all the excitement had died down I was into the second fish of the night this time I had a harder fight on my hands and after a few minutes the second barbel of the night was in the net, this one took the scales to 9lb8oz just 4oz off my P.B. which I caught the other night. After returning the barbel back to its home my mate was in again and again the pike grabbed hold of the fish this time I got right down to the water edge and was trying to net the pike as it went by the only trouble was the net am using is a little to big for pushing out into the flow its so hard to control, in the end it just let go again and my mate was a bit gutted. Not long after Dean hooked into a barbel on the float rod but unfortunately the drag on the reel he was using was not working smoothly and was the course of the hook pulling, again he was a bit gutted losing that one but it was not his fault.

 He pulled in a couple more small ones on the float and then my rod was off again this time I had a serious fight on my hands, to start off with I thought I hooked into another carp because of the really heavy feeling of the fight but all of a sudden the fish turned and headed downstream ripping line off my reel. I was really having to hang on, I had to get down into the water to stop the fish from going out of sight downstream, after a good 10 minutes fighting hard with this fish it was nearly ready for the net, my mate had to come give me a hand by landing the fish for me. I opened the net up on the mat and there was a stunning looking barbel that was easy bigger then my P.B. on the scales it went round to 12lb2oz I was well buzzing and so glad my mate was there to take the pictures he’s a dab hand with a camera.