Article - Coarse
River Derwent
By Simon, added on 24/07/2008
My fishing for the last fifteen years has mainly been with the fly in pursuit of trout and grayling on the Derbyshire Rivers. As much as I enjoy this kind of fishing I found towards the back end of 2007 that I wanted a bit more variety to my fishing. As much as I enjoy my wild trout fishing I wanted something that “pulled my string” a bit more, so to speak. I hadn’t coarse fished properly for a number of years, so, coarse fishing tackle was dusted down, new line put on the reels and odds and sods upgraded. The winter was spent fishing local ponds for Pike, and the odd day was spent on the Upper Trent fishing for barbel. In half a dozen trips I didn’t catch a single fish, although I was present to witness and photo a chub from the upper Trent weighing well over six pounds, along with several nice sized barbel. Despite not catching anything it only renewed my desire to become more active in pursuing fish other than salmonids.
The glorious 16th June was soon upon us and a trip to the upper trent was organised for the 18th. The plan was to visit the spot where I witnessed the capture of the large chub on my previous winter visit. Confidence was higher than high, and an early rise ensured that I managed to get the desired swim. A banded pellet was cast across river. Tap, tap on the rod tip, strike, and in comes the hook bait covered in slimy weed. Bait was cast out again, tap tap, strike, in comes more weed. Things are not turning out as planned. An hour later and my confidence was drained and with a pile of slimy weed next to me, something had to be done. No fish was going to find my bait with the bottom of the river covered in the slimy stuff. I had to rethink. I decided to move onto a stretch of the Derbyshire Derwent where twenty years ago I had caught lots of small barbel. It was around that period in time that barbel started to appear in numbers on the lower Derwent after making their way up from the trent. The question was would I be able to find the spot again, after all, rivers and landscapes change. A good hour was spent walking the banks but to no avail. The day had started with so much expectation but was turning into a disaster. The last throw of the dice was to move a bit further upstream to a stretch that I had never fished before, find a reasonable looking spot and tackle up. Catching fish now came secondary to relieving my body from carrying a mountain of tackle.
I walked along the twelve foot high bank peering down into the river where the odd chub could be seen sub-surface, taking olive duns that were trapped in the meniscus.
There didn’t seem to be anywhere to get to the water’s edge to tackle up so I kept walking. Just when I had about given up hope I noticed what looked like a small island close to the nearside bank. This obviously needed more investigation. As I got closer I could see it wasn’t an island but a sunken tree that had been washed downstream during floods creating a narrow channel between it and the nearside bank. Upon reaching the spot I peered over the top of the bank and before me opened up an aquarium of beautiful chub and barbel. They could be seen in the clear water jostling for position, waiting for any food morsel to get washed downstream. Hands shaking, a pellet was thrown into the water. Immediately one of the chub gobbled it up. Another pellet was thrown in, to once again be immediately seized upon. By now the fish could sense something was going on and they were in a frenzy looking for their next free meal.
The odd pellet was thrown in while setting up a rod loaded with ten pound line. The plan was to freeline a pellet and hopefully catch some of the chub and barbel that were gorging themselves beneath me. A pellet was banded up on a size 10 hook. First cast and bang, a chub about three and a half pound shot out and took the bait. Fortunately there was a spot where I could slither down the bank on my backside to the waters edge and net the fish before quickly releasing him. Several other chub followed averaging around the three pound mark but it was the barbel I really wanted, but they couldn’t get a look in because every time I offered a freebie or hookbait the chub intercepted the bait on its way down. I needed to get the bait nearer the bottom. A couple of swan shot on the line did the trick. I was immediately rewarded with a personal best barbel of just under seven pounds. I’d forgotten how well these fish fight putting an almighty bend in the two pound test curve rod. Despite an almighty tussle trying to keep the fish from getting into the roots of the sunken tree, the other fish didn’t appear to be spooked with several large fish taking the freebies I was throwing in, followed by the hookbait. One chub looked to be around the seven pound mark but he was a bit wilier than his smaller brethren. There was no way he was going to be tempted from his lair.
Other fish followed and the day finished with my personal best barbel of seven and a half pounds. In the end what started out as a frustrating day ended up being one of the best day’s fishing I have had in my life. I arrived home later that evening tired and exhausted, but the bottle of beer I gave myself tasted that much sweeter.
The swim is appears very popular as while I was there a couple of other anglers came down and were obviously disappointed to find me in the swim. Incidentally I have visited the same swim since that occasion and significantly upped my personal best barbel and done battle with a monster pike, but that story is for another day. I’m going to leave that swim and the barbel alone now, and move onto another species to target. There are so many different species I don’t know which one to target next.
I can recall one my friends catching several two pound perch from the river one day. I’ve never had a perch over two pounds so I think I may have answered my question. Now where did I put my perch gear?