Quest for a Warks Avon double
hello back again after after a good layoff.
the reason for this layoff was the carp in my syndicate water were suffering from K.H.V and we lost alot of fish .
i know it shouldnt have stopped me from carping, but when you set your sights and targets for the season . and it all goes tits up you need to move on but i had no back up plan and i dont to day ticket waters.
well ive been enjoying a bit of barbel fishing on the warwickshire avon with my mate john marshall who is a very good match angler .and won many matches mainly on the rivers , he recantly caught 14lb of 3inch roach and came second in a 4 hour match on the stick float .
thats good angling .
i used to do alot of river fishing so i found it quite easy to get back into it . starting on the river blythe catching plenty of chub and a 10lb barbel using stick float waggler and lead methods.
my mate john marshall showed me the ins and outs of the river blythe and we caught plenty of fish . we then mover on to the warwickshire avon looking to catch some big barbel and catchem 
we did john catching around 10 barbel with one double weighing 10lb 4oz and i ended up with 4 barble and 3 of those where dobles upto 10lb 6oz in 8 short visits of about 4 hours per vist .
one of those visits i managed to lose the biggest barbel i have ever seen .
the river iself was in flood with about 3ft on we found these 2 pegs out of the main flow .
i casted out just out of the main flow . (10lb 6oz barbel)
I casted out just out of the main flow in a small marginal eddy i had been sat there a good 2hrs and all of a sudden the water erupted and this large torpedo shaped barbel washed its grills and went down to feel on the hemp and pellets i had to put in 2hrs pervious.
i sat the and waited it seemed like a life time waiting suddenly the line bites started so it was any minute now i was right the 30z tip wellied round i struck into something solid that i thought was a snagg but this snagg started moving i knew it was a big genral i wanted to see it so badly but didnt want to bully it after 10mins it broke the 
surface this fish was a monster a fish of a life time my heart was pounding like mad and i was sweating like a mad man not wanting to lose this battle of a lifetime .
the fish floundered out of the net once so we had a good look at the fish it was around 3ft long and at least 10 inches across its back we recon it was well over 16lb .
i thought this was it avon record barbel in my net made up ,
no not me i let the bugger do me in the dead reeds and it was off .
(John with a nice double)
Well my rattle went out of the pram and i sulked for the rest of the day (wouldnt you?) thats fishing .
my mate john also had one on and didnt see it in 35mins of the battle finaly leeding to a hook pull same as me.
The return
After a good few blanks and capture of the snow fish it was time for a bit of Barbell fishing. So it was off to my local river Avon syndicate at Barford on Avon where I caught five double figures Barbell last winter.
The first visit to the river I was so exited to see the river in full summer bloom, well after a mile long hike I finally arrived at the swim that threw me up to doubles last winter.
The swim was well over grown compared to last winter there was a small gap through the stingers which opened up into a nice small area with reeds in front of giving plenty of cover the river itself was crystal clear with a gravely streamer weed bottom going towards the shallows to the right and the left, there was a narrow fast run leading up to the shallows and right in front of me it went dark and deep. 
So armed with a tin of corn I made my way up stream to the left and after a fight with the stingers I managed to get two handfuls of corn into the fast water hoping to get the Barbell to follow the light coloured slow sinking particle down to in front of my swim; I didn’t put any more bait into that area as it is very visual bait under the water, throw just enough in, some of the fish will follow straight away and when the others find out there is no more , these fish should follow.
Back at the swim and time to set up but I keep watching up stream and noticed some large bow waves moving down stream the plan had worked so it was time to send some corn down stream to the shallows to bring the fish up to my swim within minutes there were bow waves coming up stream it was time to introduce the boilies into the deeper water with a hand full of corn for the visual attraction for the Barbell to come into the swim and get on the boilies, and they did, just that with a few rod wrenching bites I ended up with four Barbell and lost two and missed three good bites, two of the fish were seven and eight pounds.
I drove home racking my brain and thought about my Carp rigs and came up with a small D rig used with a Drennan Teflon coated size 10 Barbell hook, as Teflon coating on the hook doesn't pick up the glare of the sun in the clear water which, the Barbell could see and get spooked, and avoid my hook bait this was tied up with 12lb Flouro Carbon hoo
klink.
Next afternoon about 3’oclock I was back at the same swim I baited the same pattern as the previous day but my rig was totally different I was so confident in this rig.
The first cast resulting in a rod bite resulting in a 9lb 4oz Barbell out of the deep area.
The next cast resulted in a smaller specimen so it was time to rest the swim and chuck down stream as the fish will drop back and took another Barbell of 9.5lb which went straight under the streamer weed so I had to wade up to my chest fully clothed down stream as I wouldn’t have a chance pulling up stream.
When I finally arrived in the shallows I could see the fish kicking on the other side of the streamer weed after a sharp tug down stream the fish broke free and after a good tussle in the shallows the fish was netted.
I then took 2 fish up stream this went on for six hours or so and I ended up with 17 fish 4 over nine, the rest were between 6 to 8.5.
That was the best Barbell catch I’ve ever had, well over a 100 lb as I hadn’t done much Barbell fishing but I‘m well into it at the moment. I tried the swim the next day and never had a bite so I moved to another swim and had 2 Barbell and 2 Chub. 
The next trip I was meeting up with my old mate Alan Lewis is good friends with that great Barbell angler Treffor West. Alan is no stranger to big Barbell; 3 days previous to this meeting up on the river at Barford Alan managed a 13lb 4oz Barbell plus a smaller one from the same stretch of river.
We only had a few hours fishing so we didn’t chat too much we made our way to our swims. There was a bit of water on the river so I picked a swim with a good Eddy on the inside a few handfuls of my magical boilies did the trick catching another over 9lb out of the Eddy down the inside and this peg doesn’t hold many Barbell so I have been recently told and the next session. The same peg produced me 3 more with another over 9lb. the next week was a bit quiet with only Chub being caught on the weekend we had some good rain fall, so me and my mate John Marshall decided on another trip to the river we set up in our swims and said there was a match on so I went and told John but John had found the shoal of Barbell and had already had 2 to 8lb and last a gud up he was gutted so we had to move upto the 90's and we both blanked.
The next trip was the day after John went back to the same swim but there was some geeza building a landing stage opposite making a terrible row.
I fished the next peg but moved after an hour I went down to the shallows and saw a couple of Barbell and a few Chub but I didn’t bring my waders!
The next plan was to move up one peg which was at least 100, yards away and feed the swim with small pellets these are fairly semi buoyant so they will go down stream and draw the fish up to me, within an hour or so I decided to shorten the time of the fish arriving in my swim by casting down stream 10mins and the rod pulled right round just like it was attached to some speed boat. After a good 20mins scrap I was rewarded with a 9lb 12oz Barbell still no doubles but what good sport.
Back again, armed with The Burping angler
The new river season had started two weeks ago and I hadn’t joined my river syndicate at barford on the river Avon, I hadn’t joined my local carp syndicate either as I am selling up and moving down Somerset.
The house hadn’t sold and for the sake of 40 quid I joined my river syndicate which contains a good head of barbel and a few decent carp.
I rang my fishing partner Mr Anthony Bahnik AKA the burping Angler to see if I could drag him away from the famous Fen Drayton after big carp to av a go at some good barbel fishing. Well it was bye bye Fen Drayton and hello river Avon, long story short we ended up at the fishery car park.
We decided to fish an area that I don’t normally fish in the summer time. After a hike across one meadow we finally arrived at the river that I normally fish in the winter well I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of cover that had sprung up since the winter, it was a total different river, the water was gin clear.
We spotted some barbel swimming in and out of the streamer weed these fish needed bringing up stream abit away from the large amount of streamer weed that could cause a problem when a fish is hooked so we decided to bait up a clear spot 20yeards upstream with some mojo method mix combined with hemp, casters, corn and yum yum baits shell shock a 14mm boilies.
Mr Bahnik ended up fishing peg .. and me in .. the fishing was very quiet up till the sun went down ,then the river came alive Ant managed two barbel with the biggest weighting in at 9lb 3oz and I managed a couple of barbell to 9lb just a peg down from Ant.
We both decided to carry on fishing this area and came back the next evening and both of us had two over 9lb and I lost what felt like a big fish, the fishing over the next few sessions was very productive with barbell to 9lb 12oz.
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All of a sudden we had a influx of bad weather with lots of rain, this means flooded river and good barbell fishing to be had. We arrived at the river and there was about 2 foot on perfect! We had a look at a few marginal swims as this is where the barbell congregate when the flow is powerful as do other species especial the carp as Ant proved and took 3 carp over the next two sessions.
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I opted for peg .. a noted peg in flood conditions the stage was under water so I threw a handful of pellets around the stage area as these barbell get right under the stage especially in these conditions, I have also seen the odd one there in lower clearer levels.
Within 10 minutes there was little pin prick bubbles coming up through the stage gaps this meant there was barbell under the stage, I had also baited a swim further down but there was no sighns of life in that one.
I opted for the bubbling swim lowering my bait down the vertical scaffold pole this gave perfect cover for the mono cutting through the water with 3ft of lead core down to a running stone lead meaning less line bites and less fish spooked.
I sat back and waited introducing a few pellets every now and then, the bubbles got closer and closer to my hook bait. With out warning the tip of the rod hurled over and the fight was on and a 9lb 4oz graced my landing net.
I thought it was all quiet up Ants swim then I had a phone call saying he had a good fish in the net well he did in the form of an 11lb 12oz barbell well done mate and a p.b he was well pleased with the result good angling.
We ended up with 7 fish between us to 11lb 12oz and decided to come back the next afternoon and make
the best of the fishing in these good conditions.
Back to the river and it was raining and rising and we decided to fish me in 65 Ant in 64 I ended up with 3 fish around 7 to 8lb and lost 3 and Ant really done the business with a carp Tench and barbell mixed bag with carp to low doubles and topped with a fish of a lifetime a 14lb barbell fair play and good angling mate but when is it my turn you b-----. Little did I know while I was wingin the next session was about to change my angling career..
Back at the river the next day and still wingin we managed another 8 fish to 9lb 2oz with another 2 over 9lb.
The thing with this barbell venue and most o
ther barbell venues when the sun drops out of sight the swim turns into barbell free for all you can have the best sport of your life if you stay till you cant see your tip anymore.
We decided to pack up and still no doubles for me not even a scraper 10 pounder, I was chomping for a big barbel as I have fished this stretch for 2 years catching a lot of 9lb and 10lb barbell but craving for a monster preferably the fish I lost there 2 winters ago witch was well over 15lbs.
As I was packing away my rod I heard a large splash in my swim and straight after I saw a big fish head and shoulder close in it was a
barbel or a carp.
Luckily I hadn’t took the bait off my rod so I lowered it back into the water put my rod on the deck bait runner on and carried on packing up, without any warning the bait runner was off I do this nearly every session on the river always leave your rod out to the very end of your session.
I grabbed the rod and thought I was in a marginal snag till the snag turned into a good fish it was dark by now and this fish felt big I had to switch on and remember where all the under water snags were when finally remembered the fish was snagged in streamer weed so a quick stumble down stream and the fish was freed and after a good 15 min scrap.jpg)
the beast was netted and what a beast, a barbell of 13lb 10oz I was running round like a grey hound on red bull, it’s the best buzz in the world bagging a big un.
So get out fishing that floodwater but remember the river is very dangerous in flood conditions risk asses your swim e.g slippy steep banks its common sence and could save your life, 2 of you fishing is better than 1 but stay in shouting distance of each other.
Our barbel fishing went well and now its time to focus on some carping on my local syndicate as I ended up getting a winter ticket.
First night at the syndicate I bagged a 26lb 4oz mirror and a 15lb mirror next day the coots and swans found me and got fat on my bait and drove the fish back into open water as I was fishing in a sheltered bay and I blanked for the next two days hoping the fish would return at night when quiet but they didn’t. I should have moved its just a gamble sometimes when the fish aren’t showing and the weather is constantly changing. THAT’S FISHING Lee.W AKA Fester.