Big Derwent barbel

^{Monday August the 16th}

^{Early evening saw me heading back to the Derwent, this time with the intention of fishing static and trying to build a swim. Once again I made my way to the stretch that I am most familiar with and where I caught from last week, time was getting on and it was half past five by the time I reached the swim.}

^{Straight away, I sent eight small droppers of pellet and partiblend out onto the central run with the intention of drawing the fish away from the far bank cover with the hope that I could catch from there without disturbing the shoal by casting right into their lair, half an hour later another four dropper followed by the rigs. By a quarter past seven I had seen no signs of activity whatsoever and with my time being limited started to kick myself for baiting with anything other than bags of pellet on the rig. It was crunch time and I abandoned my initial plan and sent the rigs out against the trailing branches that had produced the goods last week. I should have thought more about this one, with only three hours fishing time I was risking too much by baiting, you feel daft changing tac like that sometimes but better to change late than to kick yourself later, maybe they would have come onto the bait in numbers with a bit more time, on a longer session I'll put that to the test.}

^{The move was proved to be a good one within fifteen minutes of recasting as the upstream rod flew over and I heaved a fish from the danger zone and eventually into the net, a nicely conditioned fish of 7lb 2oz's. As I was resting that one in the net before releasing it the other rod attempted to clout me around the head forcing me to drop the net handle between my knee's and strike into barbel number two. With the first fish still a bit woozy all I could do was to hope that it was fit before the second was ready to net, luckily it was and with a jaunty twist of the legs I dipped the net head and let it swim off, I should have been in the circus! A fish two ounces bigger than his mate was landed after a right old tustle and I was left to survey a swim from armageddon, rods, rigs and line everywhere.}

Number one

Like buses

^{After sorting that little lot out I plonked myself down for five minutes peace only to be interupted by the resident cows attempting to trample their way into the pitch, of all the places to get a drink why my swim, it isn't hard to work out where the phrase stupid cow comes from is it. I chased the daft critters back into the field and went back to resting my legs.} 

Who you looking at?

 ^{The next bite came maybe an hour latter and this one I really did have to give some stick, it just held firm on the edge of the branches and kept attempting to plunge in amongst them. I just kept the spool clamped tight and walked back a pace when I could until I was right at the back of the swim and the fish was out of danger, real heart thumping stuff. This was obviously a better fish and as it drifted into the net I thought I had my first Derwent double but the scales made it 4oz's short, still no complaints from me.}

9lb 12oz's

^{That just about exhausted my time and happy with the result I packed up and took a slow stroll along the bank in the half light of dusk, it was a cracking evening, a pleasure just to be out but I was the only angler in sight which seems to have been more or less the norm this year, where is everyone?}

^{Tuesday the 14th of August}

^{Well from an almost complete lack of fishing for weeks on end once more I had been all consumed by my addiction and I couldn't keep away, I pulled a swift one from work, silly as it would only lead to more stress later in the week when trying to cram everything in but there you go, that's me.}

^{Midday and I was back up to what appears to be the more popular of the stretches of Derwent new to me this year, one other car in the car park and both of the occupants fishing near to it meant that the snag, and most popular, swim was free and that's where I went. After two hours of fishing away from the feature I was biteless and so moved a rod nearer to the woodwork, it didn't take that long to fly off and obligingly the barbel swam straight downstream away from trouble and towards me, not a big fish at maybe six and a half pounds but a start. A recast resulted in another bite within minutes and this time a 4lb tench was the culprit, most strange in such rapid water but not rare on this river. I recast again and sat contemplating the situation. The ground around me was covered in discarded bait, the swim obviously gets hammered relentlessly, did I want to follow in line or go and fish for less pressured fish? I'd made my mind up to go and check out another stetch that I was yet to see when the baillif arrived, after a good chat he mentioned that he was just off to the other area himself to strim the grass, that plan was out of the question then I had no wish to fish with that going on. The decision was made to go back to the previous nights swim, I hadn't caught of the barbel present I was sure and maybe there was something special waiting for me.}

^{By the time I was back at the van I was a mess, the sun was blazing down and the sweat was running in my eyes, first stop was the shop for something cold. Feeling slightly more human I made my way around the back roads only on reacing the car park I carried straight on, I am a weak willed so and so! A short detour would see me back at that stalking swim, surely I could just bang a quickn one out of there and be back into the hot area with pleanty of time to spare couldn't I? Well I didn't actually know but I was just about to find out, It's no wonder I always feel so knackered, half an hour ago I was on the edge of heat exhaustion and now I was commiting to another trek through the jungle, there's nowt as daft as an obsessive is there.}

^{Well one mistake I certainly wasn't going to mistake again was to haul all of my kit through the undergrowth and so one rod was unpacked along with the essentials and off I trotted . Pretty much as on my last visit I was playing a fish within at the very most ten minutes of laying my kit down and at 9lb 2oz's it was another cracker. With the quick result I talked myself in hanging on for a little while longer to try and deceive another one and although I did very quickly establish the swim again with barbel visiting regularly I couldn't get a bite, I hung on for almost an hour longer than I intended and then left them in peace.}

9lb 2oz's

 ^{Back to yesterdays swim and this time no messing about with bait droppers, two pva mesh bags went straight out into the swim and I sat back to wait. It didn't take long to find that they were up for a feed as the downstream rod bent double before I hit into a rocket powered river torpedo, after the now familiar scrap the fish was in the bag and weighed in at 7lb 4oz. Straight back out with the rig and after another half hours wait the same rod was off again. This time I really did have a battle on my hands and it took all of the pressure I dare apply to hold the fish from the snag, once mid river the fight was a very steady plodding affair and I got the impression that this was going to be something a bit more substantial. I wasn't disapointed either and at 12lb 9oz's my first Derwent double was well and truly sorted, lovely job.}

12lb 9oz's

^{After sorting out the photo's I slowly started to get my kit together ready to leave but was interupted by another bite resulting in a fish of about 7lb's odd just to cap the day off before I headed for home a happy bunny.}