Mike Spug Redfern carping mad3!
My first Barbel
A Story of a one-legged man, barbel Bob and the worlds greatest pork chop!
I have been itching to have a go for barbel for quite a while now and things being things, I haven’t had the opportunity to do so until last week. I had been talking to Adrian about a trip to the mighty river Trent and he was well up for it, especially as he hadn’t fished that river before. He has had plenty of big river fish including chub to just under 8lb and barbel to 15lb, so with an experienced river fisherman with me, I hoped I might be able to learn a thing or two as I have barely cast into moving water. After I had a chat with Kev at Mainline, we then decided to give the A1 pits stretch a go. On Kev’s advice, I purchased some heavy cage feeders, 4-6 ounces specially designed for the strong flow, I had also bought some storm rods, so I could get my buzzers up high, apparently this is what you do on the Trent!
I was really looking forward to this trip, I had done the homework and was all prepared, and I hadn’t been fishing with Adrian for three years and we always seem to have a great trip, with a few laughs and fish! We met just outside Newark and made our way to the day ticket stretch, that also encompasses the A1 pits complex of lakes. After a quick drive up and down the river, we choose a couple of swims, which as it turned out were very popular swims, one of which (mine) was called “Sunken Barge” and it transpired that the Sunken Barge was a very popular and prolific swim. Which I thought would be handy, as I didn’t really know what I was doing, so the easier the swim the better in my eyes! Adrian was more than happy with his swim, as in his experienced eyes, the way water flowed through and the general layout of the swim looked good for bite, obviously that was way over my head! I was going to be fishing the heavy feeders in the middle of the river, all in a line and filled with groundbait and hemp from Mainline and their new bait "the link" as a hookbaits and bait over them. That would do for me, it was time to get set up and get the rods out!
As we were setting up a couple of anglers turned up and wandered into the swim, you could tell they were hoping to have got this swim, but they were friendly enough and decided to go in the swim next door, even offering some advice on how to catch barbel out of that swim, they were down for five nights and planned a move in to the Sunken Barge when we left, that was fine, I understood that. I popped on two feeders and cast them into the middle, while I sorted my bivvy out. A little while later, the bailiff came down and we purchased our tickets and I told him how excited I was at the thought of landing my first barbel, he offered some advice, to which obviously I listened, although it wasn’t exactly the same as the advice, the other two lads had, so I took it all on board! It turned out that a local legend called “Barbel Bob” regularly fished this swim and often had big hits, of big barbel, I knew then we were definitely in the right place!!
The next thing I knew the BBQ was lit and the garlic mussels were on the stove, as the sun disappeared, but the wind continued to blow. As the feast ended we spoke about the strength of the flow, the power of the river was quite strong and we couldn’t hold bottom with 4 ounces, so we were up to 6 ounces! With such heavy tackle, I had brought my carp gear and although a little “agricultural”, it was what was needed for casting these big weights. The only downside being that if I caught a barbel, I wouldn’t have the fun of the fight on lighter tackle.
Now one thing I am not is a “big head” or “arrogant”, but I will tell anyone who will listen that I cook the world’s greatest pork chop, and I do, simple as that! I had told Dean Macey about it earlier in the year but he was sceptical, well until he ate one and agreed that it was the best he had ever eaten, I also did this with Jon Butcher and Marc Pickering and they were the same. So, I was itching to show off my skills again on this evening but alas (as per usual) I had brought far too much meat for the BBQ, so my cooking skills would have to wait until night number two!
Adrian’s rod was away just as we finished eating and after a small scrap, a nice-looking Chub of about 4lb came in, a great start on a new venue. We didn’t stay up too long as it was quite windy and not that warm, so I dozed off to sleep, hoping a bite would come my way, especially as I had been told a lot of the bites came at night.
The next morning the sun rose over the trees and day two started with a nice cup of coffee, a couple of re-casts, some baiting up and then a fry up. Adrian decided to have a small porridge instead, which I guess is why one of us carries some weight and the other doesn’t! As we were sitting there chatting, it transpired that he had lost a fish in the night and he said it had felt like a good one too. The lads next door had landed a couple and lost one, but I hadn’t received any thing and was beginning to wonder if I was doing it right. As I stood there thinking about it all, suddenly and without me having heard a car pull up, a one-legged man stood right next to me and said “good morning, how you getting on?”, I nearly jumped out of my tight-fitting camo trousers! He was a nice fella and it turned out he had fished the swim many times and he offered some advice too, which again, was different to what everybody else said! Adrian let out a small laugh at this point, I am sure he was thinking the same as me, which was probably for me to just do my own thing and find my own way and not to get to confused by all the advice.
One thing this nice gentleman did say was that the fish are always around the sunken barge and you really needed to get a lead as close as you dare to it, because he had caught loads like that and so had Barbel Bob. It made sense all fish love snags, even a non barbel angler like me knows that! We covered many topics in his chat, immigration, fishing, women, kids, jobs etc, but I noticed when “foreplay” came into the conversation, that Adrian seemed to disappear from view, possibly a “too much information” scenario me thinks! After he left I tried getting my 6-ounce feeders out to the barge.
I could make the cast but they just would not hold bottom, they bounced down the river, like a spring lamb in a field. This was frustrating, I believed my new-found friend about the barge, but I didn’t have the tools to do the job it seemed. The flow was getting stronger and the tree branches that stick off the top of the sunken barge, were starting to disappear from view, as the level rose. The heavy rain the day before was now starting to come through from further upstream.
I spoke to the lads next door and noticed they weren’t fishing feeders at all, they just had 6 and 8-ounce gripper leads on’ the same as me they also had 2-foot hooklinks with boilies on. They had reeled in for the day and decided to sleep as they were also of the frame of mind that it was night action only. It was no good I had to find a tackle shop and get some big gripper leads. My pal Lawrence King (the bald headed twonk) had recently fished the Trent about 10 minutes downstream and had said there was a good tackle shop there called Future fishing. It was no good I had to sort my situation out and hold bottom near the barge, I shot out in my car and made the 10-minute journey to the shop. It was massive so I had to ask where the big gripper leads were, a nice young lad showed me, although clearly, he didn’t see the need for such big leads and suggested, putting a big bow in the line, to counteract the flow, we had tried that and it hadn’t worked. No, it was big grippers all round! “Well it’s up to you” he said, I think he thought I was a bit of a Noddy, but looking like an overweight hedge, in all my camo gear, with a bushy beard and not knowing fuck all about river fishing, I guess he was right!
I was paying for my leads and babbling on about this and that, when another chap behind the counter, who I kind of recognised, suddenly stood up and said, “hey are you Spug?” “yes mate” I replied, “flipping ‘eck mate, I haven’t seen you for years! I bought your book at the launch at Catch 22, I am Roger Simpkin, we used to fish together at Les Quis 20 years ago!”, I knew I recognised him and also sank home that I look so different nowdays, better try a bit harder on the diet me thinks!
Anyway we had our picture taken together and I drove back to the lake, feeling a bit more confident and with a bottle of red wine for that nights BBQ! (diet starts next week ha ha) The lads next door were still asleep and Adrian was having a play about with his rods, I showed him the Fox 8 ounce gripper leads, and he just smiled, these things are like tractor wheels! I put one on and made the gentle cast, so as not to explode my 3¼ lb test curve rods, it landed perfectly about 20 foot upstream of the barge and slowly settled right in front of the branches that stick up from it. It seemed perfect, but after a couple of minutes, it stated to move and slowly bounced down the river. This then happened about another 4 times, I couldn’t believe it, 8 ounces not holding bottom? Get lost! Then it dawned on me, I used my spare rod which had braid on it and I reckoned that if I put my reel with mono on it, and bowed the line like I had before then it might just hold bottom as the lack of stretch in the braid, was probably making everything 5 times worse. Adrian agreed with my theory, so I swapped the reels over and started again, on about the third cast and with quite a bow in the line, my lead finally stayed put! Literally 5 minutes there was two strong pulls on the rod and I hit it straight away! Although there were a couple of seemingly “stuck in weed” moments, I got the fish back quite quickly and I was praying it was a Barbel, not a carp, Bream or Chub! Adrian grabbed the net and made his way the river side. I saw a flash of a fish, but not well enough to determine what it was. There was a couple of small runs under the tip, and then my ringpiece went as I saw my first Barbel come to the surface. Adrian whipped it into the net in a flash. I jumped for joy! It was like landing my first 20lb carp, OK I admit I got a little excited and probably said something daft, but hey, if you don’t get like that when you land your first one, then it’s time to sell your rods! Adrian looked after the fish as I got my sling and scales and zeroed everything up, 7lbs 11oz was her weight and I held her up for a pic with a big grin on my face, even putting on my flat cap as it seemed appropriate to our geographical position, well we were up north!
With the fish returned and after a hearty hand shake, I re cast and sat there enjoying the moment. After all the homework done, making the 200 mile round trip to get there, putting together what the locals said, in a way that worked for me, I had done it and in quite testing conditions for a lake angler!
We noticed that the river was still rising and it seemed like the flow was getting stronger. I tried getting the lead to hold bottom again, and sometimes it did and sometimes, it just skipped and bounced down the river. I had said to myself before the trip, that if I caught one, that would do. I wasn’t looking for a Barbel Bob type of haul and although I had the feeling that the sunken barge was THE place to fish in that swim, I decided to fish closer in as I could get the feeders on and hold bottom without too many problems. So I did exactly that, my left rod had been close in the whole time, but now my right hand rod was close in too. One of the lads next door said he had caught one close in, so I still thought I was in with a chance.
The weather forecast however was very bleak! 75mph winds were on the way and a load of rain. The bailiff suggested that I move my car in case branches fell on it during the night. So I moved “Scully” up the grass a bit before having a glass of red wine and lighting the BBQ. Adrian was producing some fine saute’ (I think they are called) potatoes and all was going well until, the heavens opened! The normal calm evenings we have enjoyed were a far cry from where we were on this night, huddling in our respective bivvies, sheltering from the rain, but I did manage to get my pork chops cooked and Adrian agreed that they were bloody lovely, another satisified customer! We called it a day fairly early and I dozed off watching Dead man running on the old DVD player.
My right hand rod was away at 11pm and although I was getting a bit of a soaking, I excitedly played another fish. However this fish didn’t want it’s pic being taken and it found a snag and snapped my line, escaping to freedom as I stood there swearing at him. I am fairly sure that Adrian had a similar experience although his fish slipped the hook I think. Either way we were both knackered and ended up reeling in about 1am and letting the weather and the river, do what they had to do, so we could get a good night’s sleep.
We managed to survive hurricane Alena, or whatever it was called, with nothing but a small twig that had landed on my bivvy. We got fishing again around 8am the next day and we then had breakfast in the same fashion as we had the previous day. That left a few hours fishing and a slow pack down. By now the barge was completely submerged and the flow was still strong and we didn’t get another bite, it didn’t really matter though, we had both caught fish from the mighty river Trent, probably both learnt a thing or two and I had landed my first Barbel!
