River Soar - 13/07/2011

Finally twigged after scrutinising some photographs and doing some legwork that most, if not all, the barbel caught on this section have come from one particular swim. Needless to say, I haven't been fishing it! Made me feel better in one respect, but a bit stupid for not realising earlier. It is pretty obvious when you think about it......low water levels, high temperature?

I therefore set off to Kegworth with one thing in mind, only to find that somebody else'd had the same idea! Luckily they were just about packing up, so I was able to drop in the swim and was fishing by 8 pm. Dropped the first rod down the side, but then went to re-position it to find that it was snagged. A bit of pressure and the snag moved and the end of what looked like a wooden fence post appeared above the water. Unfortunately, at this point there was a loud "crack" and the rod snapped cleanly just above the first ring on the top section. "Oh dear", I said. I glumly postioned my other rod and sat down to await proceedings.

Lee, the bailiff, turned up and wasn't really suprised that I'd sussed out "the" swim. He was confident I was going to catch and hung on as long as he could just in case. He'd actually been gone about half an hour when the rod top finally banged over and I was into a scrap with a fish that just dogged around under my feet. It looked like a double in the net, but I had to settle for 9lb 12oz on the scales. Not that I was complaining about my first River Soar barbel!

Pressure's off!