I went into this weeks session quite confident, the river was still carrying extra from all the rain we have been getting in the south (3 months of rain and still a hose pipe ban, whats that all about!?!?)
I decided to concentrate my efforts on an area just downstream of a weir. The main flow was pushing through nicely, and I finally settled on an area of slack water and fished 2 rods in the crease.
I was fishing just my side of the white water in the above photo.
Fishing this way you are fishing right on the edge of the main flow, so you dont need as much lead to hold bottom, 3oz leads were being bounced along in the main flow and coming to rest just on the edge, this is the area that any food will gather that is being washed downstream.
I fished both rods in this spot, one with 2 x 11mm pellets, the other with a glugged boilie.
Around an hour late the boilie rod (fished slight downstream) absolutely ripped off, as is always the case, I had my back to rod at the time answering the call of nature!!
I picked up the rod and didnt flick the baitrunner off at first as the fish was still taking line, instead I cupped the spool to slow it down. I then flicked the baitrunner off and almost immediately the fish was off again, yanking the 2.25lb tc rod down again and the clutch on the reel screaming before the hook pulled!!
I stood there for a moment trying to think about what had just happened. First barbel session of the year, first take and first loss!
I wound in and found that infact the hook had straightened out!!!
The hook is a new one I was trying out, the kamasan b583. The hook certainly looked the part before casting out, just not on the retrieve!
I have no doubt the hooks would be up to the job under normal thames conditions, but when its carrying extra water, a stronger hook is definately needed.
After losing that fish, I tied up 2 new rigs with stronger hooks and recast both rods.
I stayed until 23:00 and aside from a few knocks later in the night, I ended the evening fishless!
I was gutted about losing that fish, and kicking myself for changing.the hooks instead of sticking with my usual hooks, thing is, I was using korda wide gapes, but have found them difficult to stay sharp.
So after some searching around online and asking a few thames regulars, I decided to upgrade my hooks to the Drennan Barbel specialist range, these look a very strong yet not overly thick hook.
I also found some Pallatrax hooks aptly named "The hook",
Their belief is that this one hook will cover all fishing situations, from carp to catfish to barbel using a variety of methods.
So with this in mind, I purchased the drennan barbel hooks in size 10 and the pallatrax in size 8.
I'll be using them on my next trip out so will report on my findings
I decided to concentrate my efforts on an area just downstream of a weir. The main flow was pushing through nicely, and I finally settled on an area of slack water and fished 2 rods in the crease.
I was fishing just my side of the white water in the above photo.
Fishing this way you are fishing right on the edge of the main flow, so you dont need as much lead to hold bottom, 3oz leads were being bounced along in the main flow and coming to rest just on the edge, this is the area that any food will gather that is being washed downstream.
I fished both rods in this spot, one with 2 x 11mm pellets, the other with a glugged boilie.
Around an hour late the boilie rod (fished slight downstream) absolutely ripped off, as is always the case, I had my back to rod at the time answering the call of nature!!
I picked up the rod and didnt flick the baitrunner off at first as the fish was still taking line, instead I cupped the spool to slow it down. I then flicked the baitrunner off and almost immediately the fish was off again, yanking the 2.25lb tc rod down again and the clutch on the reel screaming before the hook pulled!!
I stood there for a moment trying to think about what had just happened. First barbel session of the year, first take and first loss!
I wound in and found that infact the hook had straightened out!!!
The hook is a new one I was trying out, the kamasan b583. The hook certainly looked the part before casting out, just not on the retrieve!
I have no doubt the hooks would be up to the job under normal thames conditions, but when its carrying extra water, a stronger hook is definately needed.
After losing that fish, I tied up 2 new rigs with stronger hooks and recast both rods.
I stayed until 23:00 and aside from a few knocks later in the night, I ended the evening fishless!
I was gutted about losing that fish, and kicking myself for changing.the hooks instead of sticking with my usual hooks, thing is, I was using korda wide gapes, but have found them difficult to stay sharp.
So after some searching around online and asking a few thames regulars, I decided to upgrade my hooks to the Drennan Barbel specialist range, these look a very strong yet not overly thick hook.
I also found some Pallatrax hooks aptly named "The hook",
Their belief is that this one hook will cover all fishing situations, from carp to catfish to barbel using a variety of methods.
So with this in mind, I purchased the drennan barbel hooks in size 10 and the pallatrax in size 8.
I'll be using them on my next trip out so will report on my findings
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