BIG FISH COLUMN: Season starts with a whimper

It all looked so very good before the start of the season; the barbel had spawned earlier than usual and a few had even started to drift off the shallows and back into their usual swims, a bit of rain had freshened the rivers before the off and there was a good bit of cloud cover to help daylight angling. Then the season opened and it all went pear shaped!

The sudden appearance of hundreds of anglers, the splash of leads in every swim and a mass input of pellets and boilies is always enough to alert every barbel that their three-month break is over and to send them bolting for cover.

Even on the quieter venues the fish were on the cautious side and results in general were poor, perhaps even poorer than usual for the start.

I’ve yet to take a look at a river this season but I’m reliably informed the water on the Thames and Kennet is reasonably high for the time of year but with little in the way of pace.

There were, however, success stories on the Kennet with one summer fish of 17lb caught opening the realistic prospect of a specimen pushing 20lb during the winter.

Smaller fish were showing on some beats as a fish of 8lb 12oz to Big Fish Column barbel regular Holyport’s Dave McManus proved. Dave spoke to 12 anglers on opening day and not one of them had managed more than the odd chub but his hemp and caster approach took a single fish just as it was getting dark. Dave presented a hair-rigged double caster on a size 12 hook to 8lb line.

Thames anglers hoping for a barbel were largely disappointed although good catches of bream were taken from Marlow.

At Maidenhead, Boulter’s produced only perch and bits with chub and perch the mainstay of sport at Bourne End and chub dominating at Cookham.

Reports suggest a busy opening few days on St Pat’s with the lower beat typically lively but barbel were again at a premium although there was a carp of 18lb caught on the upper section by Woodley rod Tony Dicks who fished a pellet on a size eight hook to 10lb line in conjunction with a PVA bag of pellets.

Tony had spotted a group of three good carp moving lazily upstream early in the afternoon but thought no more of them until he struck into a powerful bite an hour into darkness.

For the duration of the 20 minute scrap, Tony was convinced he had hooked a huge barbel until his headtorch illuminated the flanks of a common carp in the net. Carp in St Pat’s are not uncommon at the start of the season as they linger in the venue after spawning before drifting back into the Thames but barbel they are not!

It always takes a little while for the rivers and the barbel to settle and sport is likely to be erratic for a while longer but I suspect prospects will improve gradually over the next couple of weeks.