As luck would have it two earlies were packing up so I gave dad the only good spot and proceeded to set him up and watch him fish the lead, he soon had a wrap around and landed the first of two small barbel. Any barbel is a good barbel and he was happy so it was job done as far as I was concerned. I eventually got a spot to run a float through and was starting to get a nice mix of roach dace and chub on the float when dad decided he'd had enough, oh well nevermind, there's always the next time I told myself as I took dad home.
The next time was indeed the next day as Tuesday I am back down there on my own, I really felt I needed to wet a line again as didn't really get going the day before. This time it was an evening session after work yet it was still blisteringly hot, it was also rammed once again but I managed to get a swim that I actually really like, it was the only spot left, a swim which doesn't get fished as it's so shallow and narrow, the fish are tight under the rushes and although it's only a few feet wide, for me to run a float through it was just perfect.
It started a bit slow trotting pellet with only a few small chub to show but I stuck at it running my float under the rushes trying to match the feed whilst at the same time making sure to avoid a costly overcast, mind you I was basically lowering the float in it was so narrow. There was also only a few seconds of trotting each run through as the float was soon taken the length of the swim, which to be fair was quite short given that I could only see the float run a few feet from where I was sat, on the deck, legs crossed like a child, each run through must have taken less than five seconds but I love this sort of fishing.
Feed, cast, repeat..... then bam! A good bite rips the float under and everything is solid, finally after a spirited battle the first barbel is in the net, what started slow became typical barbel float fishing when two more followed in the next couple of trotts through, not huge but any barbel is fun on the float and more than welcome.
It then went dead so I made do with first watching a red kite then a buzzard circle overhead quartering the meadow really low, impressive birds and so large when they are close up, I wouldn't want to be a rabbit there that's for sure. Despite the raptor show I could no longer resist the temptation to run that float under those rushes once more, bites were few but rewarding with a stonking big dace, not much contest on 6lb line but welcome variety nonetheless. I also lost a fine chub which was a shame but I had a feeling there was more barbel to be had. A mate came down from upstream who I hadn't seen for a while who told me the park was busy with paddling kids, a reason no doubt for the sudden clouding up of the water, it was game on and as we chatted I had two in two casts with the extra colour in the water.
Sure enough from then on the other species didn't get much of a look in and it's safe to say quite a few more were had in quick succession, all fairly small but super fun, enough to get 'barbel arm' and it's always good to get one of these sessions under your belt early season. I was playing each fish against a whole array of flotsam coming down from the local kids I could now hear paddling upstream, not sure what they were doing up there but there but drifting by I saw everything from large branches, flip flops, the obligatory tennis ball and even an American football which was a new one. I would do some sort of pun about that but I was looking forward to a superbowl of ice cream when I got home.
