Written By Neil Smith – https://www.westpennineanglingsolutions.co.uk/
A big part of a season’s journey is the river conditions. Too low, too high, each morning’s routine over breakfast is to check the River App and a glance at the RFCA cameras – https://www.ribblefisheriesca.co.uk/cams/ River Levels – https://www.ribblefisheriesca.co.uk/river-levels/
As the season came to an end, sadly conditions were not great for a chance at Barbel. Cold northerlies and easterlies seem to be the theme from the turn of the year.
However, as we have read recently on this blog, there are some dedicated anglers setting out to catch a given species throughout the year. Nick Ince, Rebecca Ecuyer, Ashley Stocks, these anglers have highlighted what depth of stock we have and give us all the inspiration to get on the river throughout the year.
One other angler to achieve quite a landmark is Dave Pickering. Dave succeeded in catching Perch from the river in every month of the season. Quite a feat considering how fickle Perch can be and testament to how well this species has done over the last few seasons. A lot of these captures were lure caught including surface caught fish earlier in the year. Dave’s attention to detail gives him the edge with these fickle feeders. Dave also caught a number of other species along the way including some huge Ruffe, Chub and even Flatties!!
I enjoyed a number of back end trips that had me swapping techniques including stick float and a centre pin, feeder and of course static legering into the dark. The problem I very often have is what to concentrate on, I really enjoy running a float through given half decent conditions. I managed Roach, Dace and Chub on the stick with a few barbel after dark fishing over my float fished spots. It won’t be long before we are back on with all these choices to go at again! Bring it on…
