A week earlier my good mate and fishing buddy billy had been to the same swim and caught his first ever grayling and first chub too. Safe to say he was buzzing and i was not so quietly envious. Our 3rd musketeer Callum also got an inbox of pictures in rapid succession. At this point we decided we were all going to fish it. Next day comes "ive booked monday off work, what time am i picking you's up". "5.45 sounds good" and that was us set.
So after a week of pecking the mrs head and anyone else that would listen the day had finally come.
The view from my window when i woke up...
Half 6 those 2 bandits turned up. And we still never arrived until 8:30. After all that faffing we eventually stepped out on the pebbly/gravelly bank. And saw the very welcoming view...
I actually took 2 rods. An 8ft sigma feeder. And an 11ft sigma specialist. The latter was setup with a barbel rig. (I am still to catch my first barbel) that had an oz and half ledger on 14lb mainline and an 8lb hooklength. (I know, i know it wouldnt be balanced but its what i had in the shed) size 14 drennan wide gape and a hair rigged tiger nut boilie. Again these were already in the shed. Anyway. The specialist sat idly in the water all day without so much as a line bite so any barbel tips anyone has feel free to share them. Please. I fished the feeder rod in a similar manner but 6lb mainline with 25g closed cap maggot feeder. 2 and a half pound ultima powersilk hooklength to a drennan specimen size 16 hook. So really nothing fancy.
I fished mixed maggot in the feeder itself. Casting every few minutes to build up the swim for the first 20 minutes and went to every half hourish after that. I tried a few different colour combos double maggot on the hook. But in the end it was double white that got me every fish. Chance? I dont know.
The first fish of the day actually fell to billy. A little brownie around 4 inches. It was also his last fish.
Sat watching my rod tip. Which i had pulled tight, i saw the dropback bite. Then nothing for a few seconds. Although it felt like a lifetime. The tip started knocking fast. I jump up grab the rod and strike then watch the line dart across the swim and back. The feeder has a really soft tip and makes playing most fish an absolute dream. A bit of gentle persuasion and i had the first lady safely in the net.
This was a sign of things to come. And things could only get better. For me at least.
A few minutes later another drop back with an instant rapid succession of knocks. And there was another on my line. Took a little bit more to play this one. So had to be better. After a few minutes and me asking callum to pass the net. I had another one bagged.
Isn't she a beauty :)
Straight away. Back into the very enticing deeper channel towards the middle. (I used shadows as my guide when choosing my spot. Not for any reason other than it looked inviting and maybe a deeper pocket which may hold bait longer. So holding fish) i waited half an hour and thought its gone quiet so reeled in to fill the feeder and change the hookbait. To my surprise there was another tiny grayling who must have been on there a while. Took me a good 5 minutes to get her swimming again. But a gentle yet slightly chilly hand got her back safely.
Now we had the little one back. The feeder filled and fresh bait on the hook. I was back in again. With a slightly misjudged cast i was on the shelf of the channel but i was leaving it anyway.
By this point the sun was up. Callum and billy were getting restless with no fish. Other than bills monster brownie of course. It looked like the fish had headed for cover.
No drop back this time. Whatever hit the hook had hit it hard and i pretty muched jumped for the rod. Another fish. Another nice fish at that. Was rocketing all over the swim. After a quiet hour or so this got my enthusiasm back with a vengeance. After playing her for a while i stepped into the water to ease her into the net and got her safely on the bank.
Another lovely lady and as you can tell by the look on my face a very happy me.
This was the last of the day but a bit of a wander downstream and in my case across stream 😂 before we tackled down. Led to a photo of me wading through. (I underestimated the depth in a few places so with soggy socks in my wellies) with callum the master blanker giving me 2 kindly middle fingers from the other side.
All in all a cracking day. Definitely be returning for another crack at this swim.
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