So earlier this year I got my first taste of mudpig fever chucking ‘flies’ at carp and getting my string very firmly pulled. Fast forward to September and I venture into another angling moneypit – barbel fishing! Stu has been chasing barbel for a few years and kept saying I should come along and have a go as the fight off them is phenomenal. I finally relented and bought a Korum specialist barbel rod in advance but dug out an existing piking reel and loaded its spare spool with slightly less heavy line (12lb mono). We hit the Wharfe after work and spent about 3 or 4 hours fishing with zero for me but a couple of barbel for Stu. Nevertheless I found the whole thing quite thrilling, staring intently at my isotope but occasionally glancing up at the starry night in awe.
Trip number two was the same stretch of the river Wharfe but a different peg this – time one where we could both fish together so I wasn’t sitting in total silence for 3 hours. Stu took the left side of said peg whilst I took the right. We were fishing with a really simple bolt and run rig and pellets for bait/groundbait. God, listening to myself, groundbait…oh how my fishing has changed…and all the better for it to be fair! It’s all pretty straightforward – chuck out your rig and catapult out pellets every now and again to keep the swim lively and attractive. Stu was the first to get a run and it resulted a nice barbel to the net.
After netting it and taking myriad photos I returned to my comfy chair to watch and wait. Now, on my 1st barbel mission I’d been getting excited when my rod twitched maybe an inch or so but nothing ever came of these gentle probings. But after not too long a wait following Stu’s fish my rod went f*cking bananas and was nearly in the drink despite me only being a couple of feet away! So this is the 3 foot twitch. The fight was truly a revelation, it went like a traction engine to quote a little Partridge and took some time to subdue but when it was in the net wow, what a fish. My first barbel was a cracker and gave me an immense buzz! I have come to realise I am a dopamine addict and veering off into a new branch of angling, with loads of new toys to buy and new fish to catch is very much filling and lighting my dopamine pipe thank you very much. As Stu said, I was also lucky my first barbel was caught whilst it was still daylight as well so that the pics came out ok.
As darkness overtook proceedings the remaining 2 hours or so were spent staring at glowsticks/isotopes although can someone tell me why the transparent plastic tubing that comes with the Korum Starlite holder kit doesn’t fit any of the rod attachments in the kit?! I decided to take a few photos of the night sky whilst nothing was happening but in fact whilst looking at my screen I saw my rod tip bouncing in the picture so had to quickly pick up the rod. The fight was a little different this time and not quite so powerful and we eventually netted a nice chub. In fact my biggest chub because I’ve never really done much chub fishing before.
Right before tackling down I had another run which turned out to be a barbel, smaller than my previous one and also rather net shy as it spat the hook just as Stu was about to net it. Can’t really complain. I’ve been twice since then and blanked both visits just to remind me it is never meant to be easy.