barbule

August 2006

4th

River Swale Yorks.

A trip to fish the beautiful Swale, it was the 1st time in nearly 5 years that I had ventured up north, taking me back to the roots of my early barbel fishing.

Chris and I had met up on the A1 north of Wetherby after work, Chris needed some "pack up" so a quick trip to the shop to "stock up" but as is usual up in the far wilds of the north he couldn't use his "switch" card, so it looked like my food would be feeding 2 tonight! (he did offer to buy me a meal in the pub later)

The Swale really is one of the most picturesque rivers in the country and as we had had a substansial amount of rain in the last few days, it had a bit of colour and looked to about 1ft up with a nice flow to it.

My good mate Mike OZ had been down since mid afternoon but had really struggled and ended up blanking. he looked a little tired as he had had a few days travelling, doing his new job as Barbel Society Head Baliff calling in at the various society waters up and down the country, which when you consider he lives west of Carlisle shows you the comittment he has to the BS!

One good thing did come out of the milage he had "clocked up", he called into the BS water on the tidal Trent at Sutton and was rewarded with his 1st ever barbel from the venue (thanks go to Ade K and all the help he had given Mike)

Just after we had set up, I heard a lot of commotion from the peg downstream where Chris was, he came sauntering up to my swim with blood pouring from his hand! he had found out just how sharp the "yorkshire grass" is when he tried to take some to use as a stop for a lump of cheese! a trip back to the car and 2o mins later he was sorted. I won't show you the open wounds across 2 fingers as I know "young uns" look in on here! but it wasn't a pretty sight.

A couple of small pieces of flavoured meat were dropped just under the tree to my left, a tap straight away had me poised for action and 2 mins later the tip banged over and the ratchet on my pin clicked away as a fish took the bait. A great fight (I had forgotten how hard these Swale barbel fight) and a couple of minutes later a 4lber lay resting in the net. My 1st Swale barbel for nearly 5 years!

(note to self must practice more with new camera)

Chris, mean time was struggling with his cheese approach so I gave him some of my "special" meat and within 5 mins he was asking for a photo to be taken, his 1st ever Swale barbel.

I never had another touch all night but Chris ended with 2 barbel and a nice chub.

e mail me : email mike

page last edited 06.08.06.