A lucky double

Saturday 19th November

My trip today was to be a morning session targetting some Perch on the Derwent . Although the weather is still very mild at the minute there wasnt a cloud in the sky this morning  so i knew i would be up against it Perchwise. To counter this i took half a loaf of bread along aswell as the maggots and worms just in case the Chub were having it.

I arrived at first light and found a nice looking swim, it had a tree in the water downstream with a good depth around it and some slack water, it certainly looked the part. Almost as soon as i cast in it was obvious the swim was home to thousands upon thousands of minnows. The tip didnt sit still as the tiny fish pecked every bait i put out there to pieces . After two hours with nothing to show for it i decided to move swim . The sun was out and extremely bright by now so i decided to switch my attentions to Chub and picked my next swim accordingly. It was fairly shallow and quite wide and was a spot id caught a few from in the past .

After about an hour on the bread with no indications i switched to a worm fished alongside some reeds to my left. At least there didnt appear to be any minnows in this swim, in fact there didnt appear to be anything in there, it looked dead. Just as i was thinking of another move a large fish splashed on the far bank prompting me to reel in and cast to it on the offchance.

Within a couple of minutes of recasting i had a couple of tiny taps which had my hand hovering over the rod. Another tap followed by the line dropping slack had me striking and the rod took on a healthy curve, a very healthy curve in fact!

The fish charged upstream pulling line off the clutch, this was no Perch or Chub! I managed to coax it away from some snags on the far bank and soon it was charging about mid river which is pretty much where it stayed for the next ten minutes! I was only fishing a 5lb bottom and although i hadnt seen the fish yet i assumed it was either a Carp or a Barbel so i was being as careful as i could not to lose it yet trying to keep as much pressure on as i dare. I began to feel it tire and as it swam near the bank downstream of me i got my first look at it and it turned out to be a decent looking Barbel. Suddenly it decided to give up and roll on its side whereupon i netted it much to my relief!

It was a short solid fish in mint condition and it tipped the scales around to 11lb3oz, a Derwent PB and a very lucky one too i reckon!

As i returned it i decided to whip out my phone and film a quick clip of it and the results are below. I dont know why its turned out in slim-o-vision though and i have no idea how to change it . I packed up and headed home after that as i didnt fancy struggling on any longer . What a way to save a blank!

11lb3oz