I know I have been busy but I didn`t realise how busy, I have not posted an update for the whole of July. There has been some fishing going on and lots of Barbel caught as well as many other exciting things…

After a very encouraging start to the season with several fish for our group in the first days, the weather stayed fine and settled, and seems to have helped fishing all round for many rivers. We even had 10 Barbel between 3 of us off the Teme on the 17th June!! The beginning of July saw me do a reccy for one of my customers before our day out, this produced “15” Barbel between 6 & 9lbs!

A nice June Barbel!

The day out came and we caught several quality fish, and his first for the river too. Once we had said our farewell`s and he had hit the road for a 3hr drive home, I headed for a charity event not far away, it was a sponsored Barbel fishing match (Bag a Barbel Lets Beat Cancer) organised by Andrew Poole. It was a credit to him and his family that the weekend went so smoothly, and everyone enjoyed many laughs and even plenty of fish aswell, the charity is one close to all of us and you can still donate by clicking on this link; https://www.justgiving.com/Andrew-Poole2014/ and whilst on the subject of charity events there is another Barbel related one happening as I write. It is in aid of the “Army Benevolent Fund” and is mentioned with a link on my cover page, there are 5 brave souls from the Barbel Society attempting to catch “20” double figure barbel from 10 different rivers around England in 10 days, the link for this very worthy cause can be found here; https://www.justgiving.com/jerry-gleeson1/   (I can report that 3 double figure Barbel have been caught so far, so well done guy`s and keep them coming)!!

Back to my diary entries and my last session 65 miles from home with my son Joseph very keen to get out in our new car, and spend the night in it, as the seats fold down to make a double bed. So we had a couple of hours evening fishing before getting our heads down, we started first cast with a 4.5lb Bream, it was a bite at least! Half an hour or so after, the pull was much harder and a hard fighting barbel was coming to the net…

Bright lights on tired eyes!!

It was midnight and our last cast, the rod started nodding like another bream bite but as I lifted the resulting fish towards the net, it was no bream at all….The silver side and red fins showed us a beautiful “Roach”, it was a very pleasent surprise for me and my biggest ever at 1lb 15oz! So close to a 2lb river roach, we did not get a picture because after weighing we let it go. While fishing for “Barbel” I have now had P.B`s of three other species.

Little did we know, that events the next day, were going to take the turns they did…….After a good nights sleep in our new family vehicle, I decided we would have a good chance of catching and spotting some fish on a different river. As we attempted to drive away, I promptly realised that we had a flat back tyre (surely I haven`t put on that much??). “No problem” I thought as I reached for the spare tyre……which was FLAT! So we put the kettle on, and while we waited for the AA, I set a rod up for Joseph to see if he could get a bite here. After a short while – he was still holding the rod and I was messing with tyres – I heard his call “Dad dad helllpp”! Standing up the bank, I watched as Joe was getting dragged around with the rod tip pointing at the fish and the drag clicking rapidly. It was great!! The result was the fish pictured here;

Joe`s P.B 7lb 15oz !

After lots of laugh`s, we baited the swim and cast back out for another go. I received a call from the AA to ask for directions to our riverside location, and was told they would be with us in 10mins. Low and behold 10mins later Joe was calling and the same had happened, and as we played the fish, so Dave fom the AA arrived to say “what a whopper”.

Another P.B!! (What a Whopper)

We put air in the spare and fitted it, it stayed up, Dave carried on to another job while Joe and I would have one more cast and another cuppa! Yes, another Barbel was on. We landed the fish and went to check on that spare…..It was flat, another phone call and we had an hour to wait, another cast?? Of course. We had another barbel and then a phone call, similar to the last, as our rescuer was arriving, the rod – in it`s rest now because Joe`s arm was aching – decided to bend in half and start heading to the reeds! Joseph got fingers to it, as I helped and tried to gain control, the fish knew where it wanted to get and was already half way there when we started to play it. As it was nicely getting buried in the bulrushes, a boat was heading our way…..as was our rescuer….and this fish was not!!

Joseph made a run for the far side of the river, I explained gently what was happening to our rescuer, and then asked the kind lady on top of the boat (my faith in boaters is restored), to take the rod and pass it across to Joe. She did this happily as I ran across to join Joe and play this fish from the best possible angle! The boating couple were now captivated, as was our rescuer, all we needed to do was catch this fish, and eventually we did persuade it out of the rushes for a good old tussle before netting. Everyone was happy to see the result of such commotion, it weighed 7lb8oz!!

One for Dad too…

Oh,,,,, and we made it to the tyre fitters to do the necessary!!!