Trying a new peg
I arrived just after mid-day, planning to fish until dusk. I decided on peg 25 at Ellenthorpe - middle stretch. Other than the fact that there seem to be Barbel around here, another plus is that it is a very short walk from the car which is parked just the other side of the flood bank. This means that I can take lots of stuff with me just in case e.g. brolly, extra feeders, leads etc and even an extra rod in case I want to give the float a go. These can all stay in the car until needed.
Peg 25 was a very comfortable peg. It had a nice flat area to each side of my chair and a small promontary just in front of my chair which gave plenty of room to stand, play fish etc. Caution is advised though - the water is about 10 feet deep right at the water’s edge!
Plan for the day
I decided to fish the Barbel rod straight out in front of me, about 3/4 across the river (with halibut pellet and PVA mesh bag) and my Chub rod further downstream and roughly mid-river. On this rod I would start with lobworm in the hope of either Barbel, Chub, Perch or Bream and then alternate with luncheon meat that I was also trying in PVA mesh for the 1st time.
Pellet is king
My first bite came about 3:40pm on the Barbel rod with halibut pellet. I was actually just changing bait on the Chub rod when I saw the Barbel bite. This was fortunate as I did not need to worry about getting snagged up in the second rod/line.
The Barbel, as usual, fought really well. However, the deep water close in seemed to spur the fish onto continual lunges into the depths whenever I thought I was about to net it. I was just hoping there were no bad snags down there. Thankfully it seemed clear enough and I eventually netted this lovely 9lb fish: -
I decided to use a keepnet for the Barbel. This is not something that I would normally do but I have seen many club members using a net and the fish seem non the worse for wear. This would allow me to photograph several fish together if I was ever lucky enough to catch more than one - I haven’t so far on the Ure.
Having got a fish mid afternoon I was hopeful of getting at least one more before the session ended. However it was a very long and uneventful afternoon and evening. I did not get a single knock on the Chub rod and only that one bite on the Barbel rod. I did notice that the halibut pellets fell off the hair a couple of times before I even cast in - I need to find a solution to that otherwise I will be sat there for ages with no bait on the hook!
Late appearance
I decided to pack up and had just pulled up my keepnet (Barbel not yet released) when my Barbel rod crashed into the water in front of me. I initially thought I may have hit the rod rest and knocked it off but then saw the tip bending around and heading downstream. I quickly released the netted Barbel and was easily able to grab the rod and had a relatively calm fight (in Barbel terms) with this 7lb 4oz fish: -
This one had a noticeable nick in the bottom of it’s tail fin.
A new first
This is the first time that I have managed more than 1 Barbel in a session on the Ure. I wasn’t able to get a photo of both together due to the unfashionably late arrival of the second fish. Maybe next time I will go all out and use halibut pellet on both rods so see if I can beat 2 in a session.
Two days later, up again
Level 13.4m and peaking.
After a lousy Saturday where we all experienced a lot of rain, the river was rising most of the day on Sunday. It looked to be peaking around 4pm so decided to try a couple of hours until dusk. Whilst I was expecting it to be up by 3 metres from Friday, I didn’t really appreciate what that meant having not fished this stretch very much. When I got there the river was well over it’s normal banks and working it’s way up the flood bank. The following photo shows just how high it was - I would normally be fishing in that line of trees that are 10m out in the river!
I was only able to fish one rod due to the strong flow and did not get any bites despite trying halibut pellet, luncheon meat and lobworm. I did manage to loose one lead but it was a lovely evening once I got sat under the brolly for the occasional shower that showed up. The river looked lovely as the sun was dipping down over the trees: -
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