Saturday, 15 March 2025

Felina-Ten-Ten


James joined me on the Small River for an end of season fish-off. Most barbel wins a pint. And there were no extra points for breaking into the others swim and poaching out a fish - but we did it anyway!


To be honest there was quite a bit of faffing about, clearing swims and a bit of litter picking but when we got going I took an early lead - the first three barbel were mine - including a 6lb 9oz & 7lb 0oz barbel.


But James wasn't going to be beaten on his home-river, especially by someone new who had only been fishing the river for fifteen years! And soon started bagging - including a 7lb 2oz barbel.


Action was hectic - and included four double hook-ups - we were going to get a photo of us both with a barbel, so I left one in the net - James took too long to land his, so I had another while waiting!


And then we forgot to take the photo - but does explain the top photo - none of those fish were kept in the net for more than a couple of minutes. First time either of us has had a three barbel photo.


A cracking afternoon and the final scores on the doors: James: 10x barbel to 7lb 2oz, Brian: 10x barbel to 7lb 0oz. Ten each - which was the perfect way to end up. Can't beat a twenty barbel afternoon!


And as a bonus we found a couple of stag beetle grubs where someone had broken a fence post. We put them out of the way and built them a little log pile - hopefully see them again buzzing along the riverbank.

Friday 14 March (6 hours)
Barbel: 6lb 7oz, 3lb, 7lb 0oz, 5lb, 5½lb, 5lb, 5lb, 6½lb, 3½lb, 6lb (10)



So just 9 short missions on the Small River this season, with 57 barbel added, taking my total up to a nice round 1,700. Need another 7+ though - I'll be back next season...

 Season No 5+ 7+ 10+ Best
 2010/11 27 1 0 0 6lb 6oz
 2011/12 44 14 8 0 9lb 12oz
 2012/13 56 34 20 6 12lb 4oz
 2013/14 8 5 4 0 7lb 13oz
 2014/15 71 33 16 1 10lb 1oz
 2015/16 127 45 15 0 9lb 4oz
 2016/17 70 31 15 2 11lb 15oz
 2017/18 132 56 23 2 10lb 9oz
 2018/19 101 36 13 1 10lb 3oz
 2019/20 164 69 28 5 12lb 1oz
 2020/21 250 77 20 6 14lb 2oz
 2021/22 180 34 8 2 11lb 1oz
 2022/23 228 47 8 1 10lb 9oz
 2023/24 185 59 16 4 10lb 14oz
 2024/25 57 22 5 0 7lb 6oz
 Total: 1,700 563 199 30  

16 comments:

  1. For a minute there, I thought you were using stag beetle larvae for bait :o(
    A mad session to end the season, you deserve a rest but I have no doubt you have plenty planned for the next three months.

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    1. We did joke about using them - bet they’d tempt those shy Small River chub.

      Great session to end on - and now I’m a man without a plan..!

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  2. Great session on the little river. 1700 looks great, 200 7+ would of been 1701 which looks odd! Catch some more please Brian! I might venture down post June 16th.
    What's the number after the slash on the year??

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    Replies
    1. Cheers. One of the sixes could have been a bit bigger for 1,700 / 200 but it’ll keep me coming back. Might see you there next season.

      2024/25 is the season that starts in 2024 and ends in 2025 - made sense in my head but obviously not very clear.

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    2. Ah. I was reading it as 2024/2557. There is no space on my screen. I see now, it's 2024/25 57 caught then then weights. I was not reading it right! Sorry

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    3. Wrote my own Blogger interface, didn't like the standard one, sometimes it doesn't like small screen sizes. I'll fix it at some stage...

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  3. What a way to end the season nice one Brian and James. Barbel soup nice to see 😎

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    Replies
    1. Cheers, cracking last trip. Sometimes it’s barbel soup, sometimes it seems to be devoid of life!

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  4. Replies
    1. I can only login on Chrome now - think Blogger needs some updates…

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  5. Replies
    1. Absolutely. Got to fish hard (and fast) when you’re fishing with James!

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  6. Nice to catch up on the bank Brian. You went on to have a great session I see. A couple for me which was a good enough end to the season. Hope to see you again in the new season. Let’s hope the Wye starts the season better than this one did.!

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    1. Really nice to catch up, your tails of monster Wye pike may keep me on the river for another season! Glad you went on to get a couple, saw you heading down into big fish territory… Hope one was a double!

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  7. That was good fun aye! a nice feeling to break up those runs of blanks in search of leviathans! well done mate you did well ( even if you did poach FIVE barbel out of my swim ) :-) Good to fun indeed.

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    Replies
    1. If you’re going to keep casting into a tree I’m going to keep poaching fish out of your swim! I think we hooked 10 fish in 12 casts between us.

      I hope Stu reads this, imagine how many he’d have had that afternoon…

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