60 Sec.Blog Roll - Fending off Barbel Withdrawal

This is the first of a series of ’60 second blogs’, designed for a quick read (and equally hastily put together!) These will focus on a short trip report, baits or tactics and hopefully feature a little something for everyone.

With Sunday afternoon originally set-aside for barbel fishing, but conditions still not suited to fish-welfare, I decided to spend the time sorting through my fishing gear after moving house. With a few hours of the afternoon left spare and an urge to feel a bend in the new Torrix, I took a trip out to my local carp lake, Astwood Fisheries.

The fishery is equipped with an aerator, and my target species would be carp. Now I know that plenty of river anglers are entirely averse to carp fishing. Personally, I enjoy all forms of the sport and all manner of quarry. Moreover, carp are extremely tolerant of low oxygen conditions and the fishery is served by aerators. I also know the owners reasonably well so was confident when they reported there had been no evidence of fish showing distress.

Arriving at the fishery, I discovered Bluebell Pool had been recently vacated following an earlier match. The fish seemed to be in obliging mood, already occupying the margins of vacated swims. My target would be one of the lower twenties which occupy this pool, having caught fish to just shy of 19lb in the past.

I opted for a swim with an overhanging tree, offering the fish some shade, and my preferred margin depth of around 18 inches. The peg shelves off to about 11ft, where there were vast swathes of fizzing bubbles. Without any tench stocked, my assumption was this was spawning silvers, but it would give me something to explore if the carp weren’t going to feed in close.

My target swim, with a shaded margin hopefully giving an edge

I set up the Torrix with 12lb mono, through to an 8lb hook length attached to a Size 10 Korum Expert hook. The set-up was a little heavier than I would normally fish in a commercial, but there was a reasonable chance of larger fish and I didn’t want a protracted fight in the conditions. The peg was also located near a troublesome aerator rope and I wanted to be able to put the Torrix through its paces by ‘leaning into’ a fish if needed. I wasn’t expecting subtle bites, so opted for one of my late father-in-law’s cane and cork perch bobbers to give a clear visible indicator for the sail-away bites.

Baiting up with corn and pellet, I gave the fish fifteen minutes to settle on the feed with some confidence before wetting a line with a 1cm cube of spam. Barely a few seconds passed before the first fish tore off from the margins. Forgetting to slacken off my clutch from previous use with heavier gear, the Torrix gave a splendid account of its forgiving action, bending right the way through the narrow blank and cushioning the impact whilst I fumbled to loosen the front drag.

Lovely action - the Torrix 1.75 bends right through the narrow blank

It quickly became apparent that the fish had been foul hooked and this time it was the Torrix’s brute power to be put to the test, needing to drag the swimming fish both backwards and upwards into the net. Tiring the fish would have taken far longer than I was comfortable with, so being heavy handed appeared to be in all parties’ interests. Despite its forgiving action the Torrix barely blinked, comfortably providing the power required to bring the fish to net. A hard-fighting tail-hooked common around the 6lb mark was quickly photographed, rested and returned.

A foul-hooked common – a good test of the Torrix’s qualities

Having fed the swim whilst playing the earlier fish, the swim was still alive with swirls and three more takes quickly followed. However, each of these three fish threw the barbless hook with relative ease. Unwilling to accept this as co-incidence, I changed to a trusty Guru QM1, by far and away my favorite barbless pattern and one I’ve noted to be extremely effective at avoiding hook pulls.

As the afternoon went on and with the hook now holding firm, I continued to catch consistently, with 10 fish to around 12lb gracing the net in a little over an hour and a half.  Great sport and a shot in the arm for the barbel withdrawal symptoms! So if you’re like me and have been sat pining at the door waiting for the rains, get out there and give your local carp water a try!

Wildlife Spot of the Day - A speckled wood butterfly