Lovely chubbly

Well a few sessions and few fish to catch up with . first session was between xmas and new year . Lou wanted to catch a small fish , so sorted my old telesnatcher out and we went off to local lake after 3 hours and Lou getting chilly she had caught 3 roach around 4 - 6oz and lost what I think was a decent perch all on bread punch . Now it was my turn , Lou went home and I shot off to the Trent for a couple of hours , river was normal level and clear I only managed 1 bite ( which was to become a recurring theme ) but made no mistake with this 4lb 2oz chub .

A couple of days later Lou arranged to meet her mate for lunch , so I took the opportunity to sneak off for a couple of hours . After missing a couple of bites on cheesepaste I made a couple of minor adjustments and snared the next one resulting in this 4lb 13oz chub but yet again that was it .

A short trip in early January produced not a sniff on a river carrying 3 feet of flood water I would have bet on a barbel , A week later and back again , plan was to fish a couple of hours into dark but to stay overnight under brolly , the wind was shocking and swung everywhere and brought rain with it , I had to reposition brolly 3 or 4 times and ended up using van to aid as a wind break .

Mid afternoon and rod hoops over and battle commences with a january double figure barbel of 10lb 1oz

A while later and a couple of bangs on the tip and I added this 3lb 4oz chub .

I had a bite to eat and relaxed for a couple of hours and suddenly rod was off again and a 9lb 9oz barbel was netted , shortly after and the last fish of the session turned up in the shape of barbel no3 weighing 9lb 7oz

Well today aint gone to plan . Was slightly later leaving home , called at local Mcd's for breakfast but shut for maintenance so headed to Newark and looked everyone else had . Got to lake in time to help one of lads sort a fallen tree out . Go round to see another mate who had managed to get boiling water on his hand , out with first aid kit and germalene on it . Off to fancied river swim it was up about 2 foot and bits of dead weed coming through , get chatting to another guy . Hour later set off to swim just as someone else drops in . 2nd choice swim taken so in to 3rd choice got one rod around 1pm and within 10 mins had a chub do the i will leave you playing this tree branch trick . At 5pm upstream rod takes off and in the 6 or 7 steps it took me to get to the rod 30 yards of line gone , what followed was the hardest fight off any fish I have ever had , at one point it snagged my lead in an overhanging tree and I ended up perch precariously on margin of swollen river trying to free it and luckily it pinged off , the fight continued and I finally netted a 10.13 barbel after 20 minute fight !!!! I added a 7.14 , 6.02 and one around 5 .Guess the debris coming down 
put the chub off 

My next session was my 2nd blank of the year and another 1 bite day , unfortunately I was taking a pee , a bit like the fish that picked that exact moment to ram the tip round !!!!.

The bite while peeing happened again the next session and it was made worse by the fact that the way the tip shot round the fish had to be on but it sprang back nearly as quick , thinking fish may have another go I left rod out for another 10 mins then wound in to find the hooklink had broke on my figure of 8 loop . Bearing in mind the 1 bite situation things didnt look good but 2 chub in half an hour saved the blank , fish of 2lb 11oz and 3lb 10oz.

February arrived and getting to river and finding it was up and rising it yet again became a barbel or nothing looking session . First fish I connected went mental and gave me a very hard tussle but turned out to be this baby of 5lb 7oz

With half an hour of session remaining my february double turned up in the shape of this pristine 10lb 2oz fish .

With the weather on the turn and the river dropping , I arrived to find ice in the margins and a cold foggy morning , I also had this buzzard for company .

This again turned into a 1 bite day and came 2nd cast and another pristine chub of 2lb 14oz.

The last session for this blog was a couple of days ago and forecast was for a high of zero degrees and an easterly wind chilling it to around minus 4 . I sat through rain , sleet , hail and snow all for 1 bite an hour before I had to leave , luckily I hooked and landed what looked like it could be a low 4lber but turned out to be empty and came in at 3lb 13oz .

Well thats it for now , the river season dont have too long left and I had planned to have a go for a big tidal barbel but the chub are about and conditions are right so its lovely chubbly to the end now . Next season I have decided to make a massive change in the species groups I am in , I will be leaving the 2 I am currently in and have applied to join the Chub Study Group , as I write this I have been informed they are full but have done an introductory letter to be printed in their next magazine to see how feelings are about me been allowed in .

Well thats all for this ramble . Tight lines to you all