Steve Pope Barbel Fishing

I left you in part two back in October when I was looking forward to those special mild winter days with the river carrying a metre or two of extra water – that was the hope, the reality was somewhat different. The rains came and as I write this piece a month into the close season they are still here, the river is still two metres above its normal level. In a nutshell in this part of the country, well Wales, it hasn’t stopped raining!

The rain not only played havoc with the river levels, the surrounding ground became saturated and it was far too dangerous, at least for me at my age to entertain a fishing session.

At the best of times there were very few swims where I was prepared to chance it so opportunities were extremely rare and I managed no more than ten sessions during the last five months.

By mid-February my four short visits had resulted in nothing at all, no signs of fish and I don’t believe anyone else had had much success either, as I’ve said before this isn’t an easy place, every single barbel is well earned and that’s why I like it so much.

February 16^th, a Friday, I found myself down on the river, a bit earlier than usual but not exactly up at dawn, a more leisurely après breakfast.

I set up in my usual swim and went through the normal procedure of putting hemp and pellet in via the baitdropper.

Before making my first cast I was joined by a familiar face, well someone I had seen once before, I don’t see many people here, and it was Norman, another angler who lives reasonably close by and has caught plenty of nice fish.

We spent a good few minutes chatting and Norman proceeded to show me some photos on his phone of barbel he had caught this season, one in particular caught my eye.

Now Norman is a young whippersnapper well into his eighties, puts me to shame, but as I said he has caught his share of barbel. The one in this picture wasn’t weighed accurately by Normans own admission but I was more than happy to tell him that I thought his barbel could well have weighed fifteen pounds, an absolute monster for the Welsh Severn.

That photo just convinced me even more that something special is only a heartbeat away.

Norman settled in just a little way upstream and I said don’t hesitate to call if you catch a good one and need a photo!

Half an hour went by and out of the blue as is the way here, the pellet rod sprung into life and the ‘pin started to spin, I was in!

An exhilarating battle ensued.

I’m not entirely sure if it’s because my body isn’t what it once was or that these Welsh barbel are infused with that Celtic fighting spirit, real warriors – I prefer to think it’s the latter!

The fields around here are strewn with the remains of past battles, the spirits of those who fought fill the air so it’s only fitting that an angler and his barbel join the ranks of those who have engaged in such valiant past encounters.

From here on I’m going to give the big barbel I catch their own names, just between me and them and the one I was attached to will henceforth be called Boudicca!

She was the ultimate Celt and the Welsh are Celts too, I’m happy with that!

I mustn’t get carried away but it’s nice to imagine Boudicca powering across the hills in her chariot, spears protruding from the spinning wheels as she pursued her enemies and then being reminded that my Boudicca with huge pectorals akimbo and rampant tail was pulling as hard as she could to escape the awesome power of my Free Spirit Big River rod!

It was a helluva battle that I only just won.

Once in the capacious landing net it was quite apparent that another double had at long last paid me a visit.

The scales and tape confirmed my observation and as I left my queen residing comfortably in the net I shot off to tell Norman and to see if he could take a picture or two.

The pictures came out fine but the barbel, Boudicca, doesn’t look anything like the weight but I can assure you that unless the scales were wrong she weighed 11lb 12 oz.

Remember Norman is the north side of eighty five and he was standing up looking down at me and that is why the weight of the fish appears much less, all about the angles, worth remembering before questioning photos because many times a photo can actually lie.

Anyway I’m happy and so was Norman, my warrior queen was returned and not long after both Norman and I called it a day.

I managed just four more short sessions, all to no avail but my enthusiasm is by no means dampened especially as I know that a barbel in excess of fifteen pounds was caught in October and who knows what she would have weighed if someone had made her acquaintance in March?

A potential Severn record, not beyond the realms of possibility this year or the next.

What have I learnt having now spent two seasons on the Welsh Severn?

Quite a bit actually and I will certainly be making a few changes to my approach based on the results here and further downstream.

Lobworms and maggots will come into the equation and I’m going to have some fun establishing a wormery.

My local tackle shop like so many others is no more so I’ll have to buy enough and keep them in a spare fridge, will be worth the effort and as there are chub in excess of 8lbs to be caught I can put up with that kind of nuisance fish!

I can see myself trying the double boilie approach, it worked well on the lower, no reason why it shouldn’t work here.

I must become more mobile, I’ve fallen into the trap of laziness and there are plenty of likely looking swims that deserve my full attention.

Fingers crossed I can keep myself in a reasonable condition for the coming season when hopefully I’ll once more be engaged in battle with these wonderful Welsh warrior queens!

Hopefully there will be more tales to tell in the next instalment…………….