Short trotting session

The only way to squeeze in time on the bank at the moment is to rise early, get there at first light and then back home for breakfast. Not really an issue at this time of year, apart from the lack of sleep. This was my first session for several weeks so I thought I would target just fish, sounds daft but I mean that I just wanted to catch, size was irrelevant.

I chose to fish the run off of the weirpool down at Barton on the Warwickshire Avon. An area with a good head of fish and a nice long trot. I chose to use one of the handmade avon floats mentioned in my previous post coupled with a 13 foot float rod and centre pin reel. I chose to feed hemp and casters with a single caster on the hook, a size 16 buried inside.
I caught steadily throughout the morning swinging in a succession of Roach and Dace plus a solitary gudgeon. Nothing that made me reach for the scales but a fun session with plenty of action.

For the final hour I decided to change bait, putting on a big lump of luncheon meat and letting it trundle down the same run to see if anything bigger was at home. On the third run the float dipped and I struck into something much more substantial. What ever was on the other end of my line was not happy and it used the powerful flow to it's advantage as it powered off downstream. At this time of year the river is busy with pleasure cruisers and one turned the corner just as I was playing the fish. I had no choice but to bury the tip underwater as the boat went straight over my taut line. This gave the advantage to what could only be a big Barbel and it took it. Without any control I was powerless to stop the fish ploughing through unseen weedbeds. The boat passed by, I raised the rod tip and could feel the weed. Maintaining steady pressure I began to regain control and then the hook pulled. Without the boat would I have landed the fish? Who knows but it definitely didn't help. I was gutted, it felt like a good fish. I fished on further but the action was finished for another day.