Extracts from the experiences of a river angler, mostly barbel, but with comment and musings about other species, river wildlife and associated topics. All pictures will enlarge if you click on them.

The stews for the young roach to grow on in are increasing in number, and the costs of constructing and maintaining them is considerable. The costs associated with rearing and feeding the thousands of baby roach are considerable too, but with the help of anglers both locally and nationally, Trevor and Budgie are putting back some precious stock that will help to kick-start the Avon roach populations back up to self-sustaining levels.

The Barbel Society funds are held in the Research and Conservation Fund, and are earmarked for habitat works on the Avon. We recently completed our first project, with the removal of some old redundant iron piling from the river near Ringwood. The bank had eroded behind the piles, and they were deflecting the current towards the bank and causing more erosion, as well as making the swim very difficult to fish.
It was decided that such unnatural structures were best removed, and the BS paid for a machine to pull them out and dispose of them. Some other lumps of metalwork were pulled out of the river bed at the same time, and the smoother flow that now follows the natural bankline should minimise any further erosion.

Looks a good barbel swim again; last time I fished it, several years ago, before the bank washed out, I had a nice thirteen pounder.

Not being a great fan of weirpools, I sat and fished the tail end close to some weedbeds and where there seemed to be a more even flow, and did not expect much to happen. It was a bright day, and much time was spent sitting and chatting with Martin and Terry, who I first encountered in 1969 on the banks of Throop, and there was a lot to catch up with. In those days we fished cheese, meat or maggots, and the latter only in the Seventies when we found out how effective they were, and we could afford them at thirty two shillings a gallon. They both fished maggots in the old style, bait dropping and regularly casting in a big block feeder into the fast water upstream of me. They were pestered with dace and the odd nice perch, but nothing happened to my ubiquitous cheap and cheerful pellet and PVA rig until mid afternoon.
I cannot afford maggots these days either.

We were watching a goosander hunting the minnows under the weir-sill when the pin gave a quick screech and a hooked fish dived into the weed under my feet. At first I thought it was a chub, but it turned out to be a nice little four pound barbel, clean and fresh as a daisy. Evidence that the Avon barbel are showing more signs of a comeback, as fish like fish are seemingly more common this year.

Terry and Martin accused me of taking advantage of their feed, and I was happy to admit my guilt, but they did choose the two best swims before I got there. Just at dusk, when were packing for a pint in the Royalty Inn, the reel went again, and a very powerful ten pounder rounded the day off nicely. Again, it was a very well-conditioned, healthy fish, no hook marks and fin perfect. Must try the Royalty again soon.

I have had eight different fish lately from one swim, all from four to eight pounds, yet have never seen more than five fish in the swim at the same time; they just keep appearing. All are fin perfect, with the coral and lemon yellow on the fins that younger barbel of the Avon often exhibit. Chub are ever present, and a good deal of trouble from dace, with healthy- looking shoals in evidence in many areas. I had a catch of chub the other day, four fish in a few hours all between five and a half and six three, again all clean and healthy, and I saw eleven fish in the swim at one time.
The Avon is going to be chub heaven this winter.

Went to the launch of Phil Smiths new book at the weekend, a nice event, and a nice book, with a fascinating record of his exploits in search of big fish. Amongst the many attending was a keen barbel angler who brought along his prized bronze barbel, a superb specimen cast in solid alloy, and quite the best example I have seen.

It is classed as early autumn now anyway, and cooler weather and recent rains had coloured the river, making spotting fish impossible, but the weedbeds and open pools were still evident, and grayling and dace do like the open water as a rule. Several bright and sparkling grayling of just under two pounds made for good sport, with the occasional small trout and salmon parr stabbing the float under as brazenly as the greedy grayling.

A long lean fish, quickly weighed at 2.10 was best of the day, and beautifully coloured as ever, with the steely grey flanks contrasting with the blues, greens and corals of those elegant fins. Just like barbel, they need retention in the net for as long as it takes to get their breath, turn upright and start fighting to escape before letting them go. Big fish like this are pretty old too, and usually have only a season or two to go before they die, with a seven or eight year old an old age pensioner.

Sad to see that the river in this area has been lost to the horrible Himalayan balsam, showing that the lush vegetation of the chalk streams is soon overpowered and destroyed by this evil weed. Some areas where cattle could not reach had turned over to 100% balsam, with nettles, reeds, rushes and even bramble inevitably replaced by the stuff. We keep working to keep it off the main Avon, and it is possible, with a bit of determined work and vigilance to eradicate it and keep it in check.

Specifics on handling barbel are not as important as the general principles; just keep them out of the water as little as possible, and let them recover in a landing net for as long as possible, never letting them go until they are fighting to escape.

There was a big fish in the swim, amongst a pesky shoal of chub and three smaller barbel, and the capture of the small barbel and the ubiquitous chub rattled the remaining barbel enough to require a revisit a day or so later. Hugh had enough footage to put something together, so I returned to have a go for the big one.
The second visit found the barbel still in residence, and even the big fish was gobbling up casters and hemp with enthusiasm, and though the swim was quite shallow, the fish tolerated a dropper on their heads, returning within seconds to feed. Fortune smiled again, and the biggest barbel came first, screaming off downstream, bow-waving in the shallow water and threatening to reach the cover of fallen trees under my own bank. There is nothing like watching big barbel, then playing big barbel in the clear waters of the Avon, with every second of the fight in clear view. At 13.10, it was a bigger fish than I thought, but it was incredibly short, deep and fat, one of the really chunky variety that look smaller in the water. One of the smaller barbel, a young clean fish of about six pounds, and a six pound chub came in quick succession, and with a couple more five pound plus fish to finish, business is now most satisfactorily completed in that swim.

Once the first barbel is in the net, I can relax a bit, and just concentrate on having a good chat, and both fell in love with the river, and vowed to come back. There are still quite good numbers of barbel about, and some unsurpassed chub sport; they both had personal best chub, up to 6.6, and the barbel were all in the 6 to 8 pound range.

Found the remains of a big signal crayfish whilst out spotting a few days beforehand, undoubtedly munched and left on the bank by an otter, and I did see a curious bitch otter swim though my swim a short while before I had a twelve pound barbel. They will help to keep the crays under control, and these vile crustaceans have been in the Avon for over twenty years. I have seen several over that timescale. Thankfully, they have never thrived, and the river is seemingly not to their liking, but otters adore them, and they can crunch up as many as they like.

With some careful support stocking, and associated habitat improvement to help the river repair more quickly, we could see the barbel recovering soon. The local EA Officer with responsibility for the Stour is working tremendously hard to put together more projects to restore the river, and the BS will try and help as much as we can without limited resources. The stone croys above and below the reconstructed weir will help to create current diversity, scouring the new gravel riffles, and also provide habitat for fry just downstream.

I love to experiment, to aim for some variety in my fishing, and also like to take a risk or two by fishing swims where barbel are hard to spot, and where I have worked out, in theory, where they ought to be. Difficult swims add to the challenge, and also tend to limit the competition from other anglers, again, in theory! Surreptitiously dragging a small hole in thick weed, can bring results, and actually fishing and baiting such holes can bring fish in eventually. These weed-living barbel are inevitably on patrol, travelling great distances, and if you are lucky, and persistently revisit, you can come up trumps and create a swim that may produce for you exclusively for a while.

That first bite, the excitement as something burrows powerfully off into seemingly solid weed makes up for all the waiting, all those fruitless hours searching for a glimpse of a tail or fin. Often it is a carp, or strong chub, but a barbel sought out in this way is a satisfying result. A couple of tens, an eleven and a nice dark chocolatey twelve twelve have come from one such weedhole, and I never saw a fish until the reel signalled the bite. Interesting to see that one of the tens had an extra barbel on one side, so three on his right side and two on the left. It may be that past mouth damage had resulted in an extra regrowth, or it was just a simple mutation, a natural variation, as extra barbels as side -shoots are very common on barbel.

Another technique that adds a bit of variety is the maggot approach; in the right swim, a constant trickle of droppered maggot will send the fish into a most agreeable feeding frenzy. The routine of baiting, waiting, then regular feeding, casting, feeding and casting again, then waiting for the screaming bite in response makes a change from the old boilie under the bank approach. A very responsive thirteen pounder was the latest fish to fall for the irresistible trail of white maggots, a bunch of four, superglued and hair-rigged on a small hook always look irresistible to me!

I took Glen out for a day recently, one of the Research and Conservation auction lots, and we soon spotted a couple of barbel responding enthusiastically to some pellets trickled in under a bush. We fed and watched them for a while, left them and went for a walk, fed them again, then dropped in a nice little PVA bag of micro-pellet and a couple of small pellets on the hair, heavy bomb and short hooklink, and one of them engulfed the bait within seconds. A little over ten pounds, and he was as delighted as I was.

He left early, and I went downstream and fed up a run between some thick streamer weed that I had droppered a bit of bait into earlier in the morning. Nice to see a couple of decent barbel move in on the hemp and wheat mix I was using, and with a bunch of casters on the hook, and continued feeding with hemp, wheat and casters, another pair of ten pounders came to the net by the time dusk fell, and a solid little four pounder rounded off the day. They were feeding very keenly, wagging their tails furiously as they nuzzled into the gravel, and it was one of those days when they were clearly getting their heads down. To get three doubles, and two smaller fish, in a day is not exceptional at all nowadays, and even on rivers where the real monsters have died off, there is reason for optimism.

The Avon has produced a couple of fifteens, a few fourteens and thirteens so far, and bags of up to eight fish in a day. There are lots of small fish in evidence too, so perhaps we should not complain too much!

I dispense with the marker float these days; I mostly cast wildly off target anyway, but can judge distance fairly well and spread the feed around to service a pretty big bream shoal. Markers can be a bit of an affectation, more standard practice than real necessity, and fish will home in on a patch of feed from a feeder very quickly. My biggest fish took the indicator out of my fingers as I was clipping it on! The routines are important, and scanning the surface for rolling bream, and recasting and rebaiting regularly can be quite satisfying if fish are coming to the net. Even though I had bite alarms, I never switch them on unless I am in danger of drifting off to sleep, and the bream were on the feed today and kept me awake for most of the day. The clunk of the indicator dropping and quiet buzz of the bait runner are quite audible enough, plus I do have eyes.

I had to move mid morning, after being fishless for several hours, but spotted rolling fish to my left, and was soon playing a great lump of a fish within ten minutes of moving, rebaiting and casting in. Just over eleven pounds, and followed by nine other doubles up to thirteen two and some more feisty nine pounders.
Well slimed-up by the end of the day, but refreshing to do something different, and different smells, certainly. Bream slime has a distinctive odour, not as faint as that of barbel, or as rich as that of roach, and it does not improve with age.

Dave is justifiably proud of the work he has done on his bit of river, and we saw the same sort of tree management as we have done at Bransford, where tall willows are improved by pollarding or coppicing, allowing more light into the river and margins, as well as stabilising the bank and extending the life of the trees.

I dropped into Bransford on the way home, and had a bag of seven chub and two barbel in a four hour session, with the barbel in fighting fit condition, though still a bit lean, but hungry. They do love the pellets there, and a sprinkle of loosefeed and a PVA bag of crushed pellet round the hook will almost guarantee a screaming bite in the popular swims. There is room for exploration and seeking out of new swims there too, and I found a most attractive glide under the bank that I must try out next time I visit this delightful and productive fishery. There have been two doubles out that I know of so far, and some consistent sport for both the barbel and chub, and yet you are still likely to be the only angler on the water on most visits.

A few pellets flicked under a bush soon had a barbel or two smoke screening in the silt, sending up clouds of brown sediment as they grubbed about for the freebies. I suggested to Gerry that we rebait the original swim, and then move to the bush to try a different method to the caster and hemp technique. We moved to the new swim with a minimum of tackle, and I made up a rig with a small pellet on a very short hooklength, a PVA bag of crushed pellet, and a heavy lead and backlead. It was plopped under the bushes, and we sat back and waited. The approach had an instant effect, and a barbel took within two minutes, nearly dragging Gerry in the river as it stormed off under the bush. Rod held low, and strong tackle, and a whole lot of advice from me, and the fish was eventually beaten, and landed, much to Gerry`s delight.

Another fish of about the same size, eight pounds or so, made the same mistake a few hours later, but the casters and hemp did not work on that day, and I can only think the fish were just not in the first swim.
They move around a lot at this time of year, and next time there may be a dozen or more in residence.
Barbel are pretty vagile at the best of times, and this word, vagile, that describes their roaming, semi-migratory habits is a useful one to add to your vocabulary, and list of excuses for not catching.

A birthday barbel, a fish of about four pounds was much appreciated, and followed a day or two later with a couple of doubles, a big ten and a lovely twelve nine that pulled very hard and reminded me of how dogged and powerful barbel can be. Casters and maggots are still a fantastic barbel bait, and in conjunction with lashings of lovely aromatic hemp, the fish just could not resist the particle approach. A lean and rangy nine pounder finished the session, and with signs that the recent sudden hot spell has made the barbel go for a second spawning, results have taken a nose dive again. May be time to try for a crucian carp or two.

Even the bream are acceptable when bites are few, and the last one was weighed at over eight pounds and fought remarkably well. Avon bream are clean, bright and bronze, and in a fast flow will take line and thump about doggedly. They do make the net and weigh-sling pong a bit, but it is wise to respect all the fish we catch and not dismiss chub or bream as a sort of sub-species just because they are not the target for that day.

Several thirteen pound plus barbel have been reported from the Middle Avon, and such fish are good fifteen pounders in the winter. Lots of small barbel, a pound and below are also showing, with two to three pound fish being spotted too. The recent scale reading research on Avon fish funded by the Barbel Society, using scales taken last year, points towards a good spawning year about ten years ago, and excellent growth rates too. The thirteen and fourteen pounders were eighteen to twenty years old, and we hope to gain even more information from scale readings and further analysis in the coming year and from other rivers too.

I left these barbel alone, though, and thankfully a rise in levels, and coloured water after a cool flush of rain will scatter them, and there is also the June 16th syndrome, when fish suddenly seem to realise the date and get all suspicious and coy almost overnight.

My first trip will be a simple inauguration ceremony, a breaking of the water, with no need to catch from the off.

More hard work is needed in keeping the stiles and bridges up to scratch on the river, and has had great fun in rebuilding some quite attractive and functional structures on the river. There is great satisfaction in doing the inaugural walk or clamber over a reinstated stile or bridge, and I am still bemused to hear comments from anglers later in the year who will mutter that the stiles are too high/too low/too narrow/too wide/in the wrong place, etc. Sometimes they are right, but those are the stiles I did not build, of course.
All good fun and you will never please them all! Some are genuinely appreciative, however.

Latest bit of close season bank work is involved with helping out the Roach Project heroes, Budgie and Trevor, who encouraged me to become part of the workforce reinstating some old stews for their precious little roach to live in prior to final release. Terrific fun, providing much needed exercise and the opportunity to employ my considerable civil engineering skills. After a good deal of digging and hammering, drilling and sledging, wheel barrowing, more digging, and an awful lot of leaning on a spade and thinking, enormous progress has been made by the team. Much of the work will be unseen, hidden by the final touches of concrete and top dressing, but, as I so often say, there is many a field of corn that hides a crooked furrow.

The annual Barbel Show is now looming, and I think the line up of speakers is top class; it looks like being a really entertaining day. The trade hall will provide the chance of some bargains too and there is of course, the opportunity to chat endlessly with friends old and new. Tickets will now be available on the door.

The Hampshire Avon was clearer, and barbel were spawning enthusiastically on the 19th April, with a good number of medium sized fish chasing a big, darker female, then shuddering violently in a frenzied gang bang, sending up clouds of silt as the gravel was disturbed and, presumably, all the precious eggs and milt simultaneously released. Good signs, and a long summer growth period is assured for fry produced so early. The barbel are only a bit more native than the black swans, I suppose, which were aggressively protecting a nest a bit further upstream. These Australian invaders are very territorial, and are extremely intolerant of the herds of mute swans that plague this bit of river. Some invasive species may have a benefit, because there is no shortage of the mutes, and their effect on weed is as destructive as any mechanical weedcutting can be, in smaller rivers.

Latest visit was to the Barbel Society fishery on the Warwickshire Avon at Wick, and I was impressed to find what a secluded and secure fishery it is, and a lot more varied than I expected, There are bends and fallen trees, good beds of rush and some attractive deeper holes. I was shown a swim that produced nine barbel in a day last season, another that gave a bag of two doubles and a nine in a junior match, and the swim that produced the fifteen pounder was a bit more vaguely described. A lovely fishery and it will get a visit or two from me early next season!

We have planted some more stakes and bigger pollard willow along the bank, and coppiced an old ash tree that was threatening to fall in. Some of the old pollards, trimmed twenty or thirty years ago are evident if you look out for them, both ash and willow, and are testament to the good tree management that used to go on before intensive agriculture arrived. Some more instream cover in the form of live "hanging willows" have also been dropped in to provide wood in the water, overhead cover for fish and habitat for invertebrates and birds. Our plans are approved by English Nature, and in fact the fishery is used by them and the Sever Rivers Trust to demonstrate good practice.

I am going to give Bransford a few visits early next season, and as ever expect to get quite a few barbel. The chub are doing very well too, with plenty of fish, with some approaching six pounds now on the cards.
The fishery is secluded and secure, with two car parks close to the river, and plenty of room to explore, as well as several very productive "hotspot" swims. Grateful thanks are due to Pete Marshall, our Fishery Manager at Bransford, and to Martin and Dickie, the "twins", who came and helped with the work. Some nice steps at the Railway Bridge are their handiwork.

Well done gentlemen!