Outlook
I have been looking forward to getting back on the river, especially now that my powered wheel kit has arrived for my trolley. As usual the water is running low and clear because of a lack of rain recently. Opening day was forecast to be a scorcher so I didn’t have great expectations.
The plan
I planned to fish two separate sessions today. The first would be an early start (around 5am) and would hopefully be in peg 13. I then planned to go home, have lunch and a snooze and then be back for the evening in peg 5. The reason for starting in peg 13 is that it is possible to wade out half-way across the river and setup my box mid-river. This allows me to fish the narrow, faster and slightly deeper channel where I hope the fish will be (if anywhere).
Best laid plans…
I arrived at the carp parking area at about 4:45am. When I went to assemble my powered trolley I realised that I was in a bit of a pickle because I had taken off 2 trays from my 5-tray box and that had meant raising the platform that holds the trays. This also mean that the attachment points for the rear wheels had moved and were no 2mm beyond the maximum travel of their adjustment. I needed to lower the platform by 2mm but that required an allen key of the correct size. Luckily I had my Dive toolkit in the car and it had an allen of the correct size. So, there I was dismantling and re-configuring my trolley at the side of the road at 4:45am!
That was not the end of my troubles…
Whilst walking down to the river following my self-powered trolley, I noticed that it was pulling off to one side and I had to keep correcting it even on relatively straight sections of track. After a while I felt the trolley lurch forward as the front (powered) axle cam away from the trolley. The attachment bolts (that are hand tightened – a bit like wing-nuts) had come loose and the axle had come away. This meant that I had to take everything off the trolley in order to re-attach the axle and continue on my way. This almost happened again but I spotted the problem earlier and was able to re-tighten the bolts before the axle came away.
This almost happened again on my way back from the river and I noticed that there seemed to be excessive vibration due to the track being very dry and almost concrete like (but much more uneven/bumpy). I was considering contacting the manufacturer of the trolley/powered unit because this had not been cheap and was very disappointing.
Follow-up
The manufacturer “Octbox” actually rang me the day after to say that they had sent me the incorrect shock absorber springs and that mine were far too stiff. This would account for the excessive vibration. They were sending me new springs straight away. This was very impressive because I hadn’t been in touch; they contacted me without prompting rather than just wait for people to complain. Once fitted, I saw an immediate difference. Not only had the vibration reduced but it was also easier to steer. Thank you Octbox.
Back to the fishing
With all of the mishaps, I managed to get fishing for 6am in peg 13. I planned to concentrate on Chub/Barbel until 9am-ish at which time I would switch to stick float fishing for silvers.
I had no twitches on the heavy gear despite trying luncheon meat, bread and cheese-paste. I then tried taking off all of the weight and bouncing a big piece of bread flake down the swim. On only my 2nd run through, the tip showed that a fish had taken the bait and I caught a small Chub of about 1.5lb. A good start! I hoped that I had found the method and that a few more Chub were to be had but alas, just the one.
I then fished the stick float until about 2pm. I managed a couple of nice Perch and plenty of small Dace and Bleak but no Roach (surprisingly). One of them was taken by a Pike that I played for a few minutes before it broke me.
Evening session
Having had a break I then headed for one of my favourites, peg 5. I was fishing for about 5:30pm and planned to fish as late as the light would allow.
As usual, I baited up the downstream tree and fished one rod as close to the tree as possible and another just into the main flow.
I tried free lining bread again but there wasn’t really enough flow for this to work. I got a few small taps but there were probably small fish.
Eventually
I was disappointed that I had not had any good bites on either rod. It was about 9:30pm and was just thinking to myself “Feels like one of those sessions where you wait for one bite and that makes our day” when the tip of the rod in the flow shot round in typical Barbel fashion. I hit into the fish and felt the fish powering downstream with line screaming off the reel. I was glad that I had changed my lines recently and was now using 12lb Maxima main line with 10lb Maxima hook links. After a nice fight with a few attempts to net, I finally slipped the net under this fish of 7lb 3oz: –
The fish was caught on my favourite bait – luncheon meat. I was delighted because I have never had a Barbel on opening day and hadn’t really expected one with the river being so low and clear.
Let’s hope it a sign of a good year ahead.
