Quick recovery

Well after the blank on my last session I was pretty deflated and despite having a session planned just 2 days later it was in doubt for 2 reasons , firstly my head was all over the place with what had happened and I have problem with my ear , secondly and the one that was the biggest problem was the impending storm , now I will fish in any conditions if there's a chance of a fish but my wife Lou was giving me daggers with the thought of the predicted winds so my decision would be made on the morning of the session . We awoke to the sound of heavy rain but not much wind , seems we had missed the storm as it had veered more south and while it had done some damage and cost 5 people their lives it was'nt actually as bad as predicted . Confirmed with the wife that I would indeed be venturing out at some point and was asked if I could walk the dog before I left .

The first thing was to sort some breakfast out in the shape of 2 slices of toast , tin of plum tomato's , 2pieces of black pudding with brown sauce on . Proper Yorkshire food !!!!

   

After that and the rain had eased so out me and Dizzy the dog went , half hour later and were back and its time to sort the tackle out and get on my way . Now it was never going to be a long session due to working early the next morning .

I arrived at the river just after 12 noon and had a quick look round , I was somewhat surprised to find the dredger still working on the stretch as it was supposed to have finished 2 weeks ago , picked a swim that looked to be quite steady and since the river was down by around 2 feet from friday I knew the swim would be ok even when the tide turned .

I got both rods set up and cast out just before 1pm one rod had a big piece of garlic spam on it the other 2 x 10mm `boillies and attached a pva bag of pellets to this one while putting 3 or 4 pieces of spam at the top of the swim , there was a little rubbish coming down but nothing too serious to start with .

Things took a turn for the worse when the dredging barge that had gone to empty its load returned as the dredger started working again it became clear that they were removing more than we believed and had disturbed all the old smelly silt and the rotting old weed and this was now mixing with the leaves and sticking to my line , I was starting to get that sinking feeling and preparing for a blank .I decided to change the boillie rod over to my favourite pellet combination and 2 x 8mm went out , within 5 or 10 mins the rod tip nodded and something dislodged the lead at first I thought it might be weed but it continued to nod and so lifted into my first fish a bream of around 3lb which was , as has now become a custom unhooked in the water and released , this was quickly followed by another closer to 6lb  . I recast after the 2nd bream and awaited the next one as usually when they show up they show up on mass . For 10 mins nothing happened then the rod bounced over and the lead started rolling I lifted the rod expecting the nod of another bream but got a thump of what suspect was a decent chub unfortunately i was not to find out as it did that old chub trick and transferred the hook to a weed bed !!!! I quickly rebaited and recast and soon had bream number 3 on the bank again around 3 or 4lb .

Things went a little quiet and while concentrating on the pellet rod was totally taken aback as the spam rod went mental as something tore off downstream after a short and spirited fight in the extra water a barbel rolled into the net and on the scales it went 7lb 10oz .

Suddenly it went a little dark and the heavens opened and as it did bream number 4 showed up this one was around 5lb . I slipped it back and noticed a rainbow over the far bank .

Now my luck seemed to be taking a turn for the better as I cast to the point of the reflection of the rainbow and put the rod down . I checked the time and decided since the dredger was still working and the rubbish was increasing I would pack up at 5pm as it went dark . 15 mins after I had cast it out the spam rod gave one bleep then rapped over but for some reason the baitrunner did'nt give any line , now what happened next just proves how your luck can change , I lifted into the fish and disengaged the baitrunner I tried to turn the reel handle but it felt solid , looking up to the end of the rod I noticed the line had wrapped round the end and I could neither give or retrieve line , I dont know why the barbel hadnt gone on a run but a I slowly and carefully fed the rod backwards and  unraveled the line expecting at any moment the barbel to take off and break me but it didnt I played the fish to the net with only one small run and when it went into the net it wasnt until I had a look I realised it was a good fish on the scales it went 11lb 7oz which is a season high , not massive but very welcome .

I released the fish and it swam off strongly , I decided to call it a day and made my way back to the van , by the time I was ready to leave it was 5.30pm and dark but still the dredger worked .
As I write the river is rising again and the fish will be feeding again , I have a planned after work session in a couple of days so will be watching the EA website to keep an eye on the river levels.