Barbel, Warks Avon

Only a mad man would have gone Barbel fishing in these conditions. Having checked the forecast all week it was never going to be easy. The day before my only opportunity this week it goes and snows and then just to cap it off upon arrival at the river the snow is melting double quick. Low water temperatures and Barbel do not mix but I gave it a go anyway, nutter!
A couple of hours in and things did not look good. I started with cheese paste as the possibility of Chub as well as barbel evened out the odds a bit in my favour. However the raised water levels brought a lot of crud and weed down with them which kept dragging the lead and the Cheese would inevitably come off.
I decided to change tack and went for flavoured meat on one rod and maggot on the other. That kind of worked as I could now reel in my bait but still no bites.
Eventually about 3 1/2 hours into the session the meat rod showed a bite and it was fish on. The speed of the current made the fight above average for Chub and after a hairy moment in the reeds I managed to land all 4lb 11oz of Chub.
That turned out to be the only fish if the day, in fact only bite of the day too.