Nuisance Barbel?!

With the wife and kids away in Yorkshire for a few days I had the opportunity to get back on the bank and retest my Roach/pellet theories to see if last nights success was a one off or a viable method. The weather was a lot more settled and to begin with the fishing was slow but as darkness descended the fish became a lot more active. There was crashing and splashing and fish rolling all over the place including some very big Roach and I knew it was only a matter of time before one would trip up.

A very similar stamp to the previous nights capture weighing only a couple of ounces more at 1lb 6oz. I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg and am confident there are larger to come from this area. My target has to be a two pounder, that holy grail of river fishing. Somehow I need to improve my catch rate to several fish in a session but I think have a plan to help me succeed, just a slight tweek of the rig and method. Fingers and toes crossed!!

There was plenty of time for more fish after the Roach was released but there was one issue, a shoal of Barbel had found the pellets and decided it was supper time.
Size twelve hooks and four pound line is not ideal for hard fighting Barbel but thankfully the swim I was in is relatively snag free so I was able to land my adversaries.

A five pounder was soon followed by a seven.

I would never describe Barbel as nuisance fish and it was great fun catching them on light tackle but when your targeting Roach they can get in the way a little. Not unsurprisingly there was no more Roach.