 I've just had a message for my wife to say she's coming back with the children and we'll be home in about 10 minutes If there's ever a reason to go and wet a worm in the rain, it's because the kids are about to come home Kinster's pie Oh yeah, why not? Lobworms Maggots Headtort still charging Never mind, take that Keys Right I'll put my keys It's been pouring down with rain And I expect it's going to be running brown And I expect that there may be a few trouble Maybe if I'm really lucky, some barbel Let's give it a go So I'm going to start off fishing right underneath my rod tip Just in front of that tree there Because if I do catch a fish I expect they're probably going to start to back off a little bit downstream If I start off down there, I've got no backup plan If I'm lucky enough to catch one or two I'll be pleased with a chub because it's been years since I caught one Wouldn't it be lovely to catch a barbel though? I'm taking a bit of a gamble here because normally I'd fish right tight to the bank underneath the trees But with it being all coloured up like this, I'm just hoping the fish will be coming out And feeding quite openly in the main channel where it's much clearer of snacks So at first cast, I had that little tap And just as this rain's come in, I thought I would just check the bait Because I did have that little tap Lifted the rod up into a really hard snag and had to pull for the break So I'd better re-tackle Three pound hook length, which I'll fold over Put some swan shot on It's a little bit cheaper than buying Arzley bombs I do have some in here but that's one There you are, one, two, three, four I'm going to go for a size six hook And I'm going to hair rig a big dirty piece of luncheon meat on the back I'm going to leave quite a long hair This is just the main line that I've got on the reel Six pound main line on a size six drennen barbers hook Other end I'm going to bother with a swivel So no point in losing more tackle I'm going to do a loop to loop So there's my hook length, it's only about a foot long I'm going to do a weak link on like that And the idea of that obviously is that if this gets snagged That line breaks form a main line You know our free running rig I'm going to attach the hook and then on There you go Alright, cast it straight back out into that snag Curiosity's got the better of me I'm going to have to see if the bait's still on Or if indeed it's snagged That first cast was going nowhere That's come out fine, no problem They are face gone This is it Good sign though You know that's really very positive Because if I show you the spot that I'm fishing You would take one look at it And I'd ask you where you would cast to And the obvious answer is Tight to the bank under there Down there, but actually right down here in front of us Is where it gets most flow You can see the eddy coming back around That's a big pool here Where the current actually comes back round And where we've got this sunken tree There's a little bit to cover for them And the channel narrows That's what we call pinch point It's a nice little bottom there To funnel all the food down into one spot Alright, pay attention this time In fact, what I'm going to do Because I'm fishing so close Is just slacken the line off a little bit Because they might be feeling that rotted A little bit too early I used to bring the local scout group down here Six or seven of them at a time And one of them came up to me In the evening and said I'm really sorry, but someone's stolen Your fishing rod And I thought obviously that they had stolen it And he didn't know bushes or something But after a while I had a good old look around Lost, pulled all my hair out and the rest of it And it turns out I just saw the rod butt sticking out the water Of course a little chub Only that big doesn't take the rod round Taking the whole lot in So, moral of the story, you never turn your back on a rod We've got some lovely features down there And again on the opposite bank It's almost like a channel within a channel If you look at the way that water's flowing It's like it's It's coming in down like that Coming across the river Around to my bank and then back over Around the other way It doesn't matter what you do to canalise a river It's always going to try and meander I've got some interest in my rod tip here So, it's starting to go round Fish on! Don't really want to give him an inch There we are Don't do that bail on That fish has certainly been around the block Hasn't it? What the healthiest of looking fish So close to look Old log head Come on bud Lovely Look out Now for a free public stretch You can't argue with that, can you? Terrible scarring down its flank There is anal fins in a right-hold mess But it's a chub, nevertheless I think it's a good old little scrap Well, that flank's not too bad So, putting back in It's been ages since I've bought something on bait I want to talk about that in a moment Going back in the water If there's a shoal of fish like that Mocking about down there We're going to make short work of those 4 or 5 bait dropped Bait droppers have lunched And pellet So, need to reload that Probably before I put a line back in with bait There we go So, bait dropper Bit like a swim feeder Just put the hook down Through the hook, cork in the bottom Fill that up with food, close it up The hook goes over the top When it sinks down, plop There's all your bait If you start balling bait into 8 foot of water When it's chugging through like this It will just scatter it everywhere This is the old original John Wilson, Avon Quiver And they were really popular They came with two rod tips And they were still written on here It was a Blimey, can I read that? One and a quarter pound test curb rod Three to six pound reel line On the butt there And they were so popular He sold out to Masterline And this is the second Generation of John Wilson rods The cork handle that goes all the way through They're fantastic rods For Fishing on small rivers like this It's only since the dawn of Carp fishing that they've gradually Gone out of favor And they come with a section with a quiver tip Top And a second section with a float top And on the old version The float top has the screw fitting At the end so you can screw in A swing tip So anyone that follows my vlogs Will probably be aware Of the fact that most of them are on Kayak fishing, lure fishing And fly fishing And I haven't done enough of this sort of thing And what prompted me to do this actually Was listening to a guy On a podcast talking about bait fishing Struggling to understand Why people would want to bait fish When you can fly fish or lure fish Because all fish are predators But the real simple answer is That you want to fish In a way that Sets you a reasonable challenge It's also really nice to Sit down and just Chill And when there's been a deluge of rain like there has been Of late That's the one time this river Really comes to life You can't go fly fishing on a trout stream And wonder what's going to be at the end of your line Like you can here There's 13 different species of fish that I've caught here Probably more taboo And that's exciting in it's own right The reason I took up fly fishing and lure fishing Is I'm not very good, I'm not very patient I don't know how I can sit here Watching a rod tip Needs to be doing something I might actually take that bait dropper off That float rig And trot a nice big lump of meat Along the bottom here And maybe that extra free movement of the meat Rolling through Will give the fish the confidence To take it a little bit more readily Good old span It is blue and lovely isn't it We're going to set the float to about Almost to the point where it's impossible to cast I've got all the bulk of the shot About a foot away from the hookbait It's going down there I'm losing the bait When the bite sign is at its savage The float's just Dragging Just try to snore the hookbait I'm going to keep lifting the float back up And popping it back down Just to make the meat trundle along What we like for shot Drag, good Try and hold it back a little bit Because the water sure as hell isn't moving As quickly along the bottom as it is along this surface At this point I'm using the length of the rod To try and keep the float Going down the correct line Not being pushed in artificially Towards the bank Want to follow that natural flow Hold it back To make the meat kick back up And then it go See the caught on the bottom While that's sliding away so I'm going to strike Hooking the meat, I'm just laying the shank Going to the side of the meat Like that Pushing it down and then rolling it So the hookpoint's showing Just Paid off Not quite sure what I'm connected to That did pay off I'm just passing over into the slack In the opposite bank Under the tree Actually just out of the current With the float This might be a bargain Certainly charging around With a little bit more Awesome Let's keep him in the water until The camera's set up It's a much better account for itself than The chub did Lip hooked Something like to see What's that then It's probably pushing on for Two and a three quarters Maybe three pounds Isn't that pucker Lovely barbell They need their oxygen though so let's get it back Probably one of my Biggest bug bears about vloggers And people that do loads on social media Is the length of time they keep for shout the water for It's good to go now Who wants to go Great for covering my net You're not going to get it in my net mate If someone finds out about the barbell in here Because they've watched my video then Great I've got this pivot back out It was me trying to switch off my camera On top of my hat I changed hats I think I'll have more fun this afternoon Here In the local town park Five minutes down my road And I did down at Seatown When I caught that tow At its moments Of course I'll consider them out of time and effort invested Funny enough it was the corona pandemic It showed a little bit more interest In my local river again Not being able to travel Or feeling guilty travelling And the other thing Is just getting involved with the Slaving Rivers Trust I met up with a guy this morning See if we could do some monitoring It's quite funny actually Because all the baiting up I've done Is in this main channel here Just in front of the willow that's falling into the water But that barbell was picked up Just on the other side of the reef You can see up there Where it shallows up quite considerably It's actually a big bed of silt It's amazing to think that It's obviously sat there all this time And not come out to take any of the food That's gone in It's just picking up the other scrap that's washing back around So I'm going to take a risk And just fish in that shallow area Behind those reeds And actually that's the river chilled over really You'll find it very very difficult To fish out from where they feed There's so much natural food in here Quite a lot of pressure actually They don't really need To come out to feed On baited areas Unless they feel it's safe to do so It's been a good 45 minutes to an hour Since I last put some baiting on The bait dropper I'm wondering whether perhaps now I might be an idea To get some more baiting for For dusk kicks in Got to keep an eye on my rod So there you go Packed full of lunch and meat And trout pellets I was teaching a vicar and his son A few fishing basics On Friday And He was asking me What's happened to all the barbel in the crystal Avon attachment The first answer that sprung to mind Was the classic one, the Otters I actually stopped fishing this river Because of the amount of Otters that I was seeing And the reduction in fish Ecology as always Has a way of Balancing itself out And evidently They don't eat all the fish If the environments As it should be They should be able to coexist And frankly barbel don't really exist Very well in slow moving rivers They've only been in the Brist slave encatchments since the I think Someone a little bit longer in the tooth Will correct me You know these barbel, they need flowing water They need moving water They need natural food They can't just exist on fisherman's bait And they're not going to get it in a canal Or a river that Looks like and behaves like a canal Let's get into that time of evening Where I'd really expect things to pick up All the indicators are there Coots going up onto the Branches to Roost Just seeing my first bat fly down The dead giveaway is the Chavs on the car park behind me And just starting to turn up to smoke their weed And eat them at Donald's For dinner I'm eating a This is a A Ginsters pie 15% beef British made Don't get it, it's really nice Yes, brav As soon as you've got too dark To film You've got tips thumped round Similar sort of size Fish actually Gave me a bit more Of a scrap He's thrown the hook by the looks of it Yeah Still got plenty of energy As I said earlier with these barbel, want to be quick So I'll get that in the decent bit of light That's the best I can do I'm afraid But it's dark and that's barbel number 2 Which means there's no coincidence I didn't just catch a freak fish They're in here and thriving Which is fantastic news and I think I'll set them on that, go home Have some dinner and have a beer And get it back now