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Gents,

The last time I was out on the banks was 4th August due to home and work commitments, so as you can all imagine I was itching to wet a line again. Finally managed to 'escape' for a short evening session on Saturday (10th), arriving at my chosen destination just shy of 21.00. Imagine my surprise (and if I'm brutally honest, happiness) to find that I had the place to myself. Considering the conditions (mild, overcast and windy and a Saturday evening) I thought I'd be drawing tickets for swims! In light of this I decided on a psuedo-mobile approach (well as mobile as you can be when you've only got three hours to realistically catch a fish). First thing was to throw some freebies into three diffreent swims. Leave them to settle whilst I set my kit up. I then started with a well known swim into which I had not put any pre-bait at all. My thinking being that somebody may have been there through the day and been feeding the swim up for me. Plus as the resident fish see so much bait in this swim, a single bait introduced may be taken with a little less caution. Despite giving the swim a good 45 minutes to no avail, the prospect of trying my other self-prepared swims became too much.

Moving, found me ensconced in my next swim. Again, despite spending an enthralling hour or so methodically searching the swim, I didn't have a sign of a bite. Mindful of the time, I decided to move to my last 'banker' swim. Carefully moving into position, I cast out and across, letting the bait swing inwards across the current. Within 5 minutes I had a very definite fishy indication with the bait moving off and the tip nodding downwards in a slow confident pull. A strike was met with thin air, but at least I was happy that I had found a fish. Next cast was to exactly the same place. Again within 5 minutes of the bait alighting on the gravel, there was a distinct pluck on the line, followed by a confident shifting of the bait and a slow deliberate pulling round of the tip. The strike, this time met with resistance and a fish erupted at the surface. Not a barbel, but obviously a half decent chub.

In accordance with my stepped up barbel gear the fish came to the net quite quickly. Heaving the chub up the bank reavealed the fish to be one of the most pristine chub I have ever caught. The scales pulled around and gave me a reading of 5lb 11oz, beating my previous pb chub, caught almost 10 years to the month of 5lb4oz. A absolute cracker of a fish. OK so it's no monster, compared to the size of some of the fish that are coming out of the Ouse nowadays, but I was incredibly pleased with that fish. It was a long time coming, and I think on balance I probably deserved it!!

That was about it for the fishing for that night. I packed up by about 01.00 and headed back East along the A428.

In addition to my chub, I experienced the most amazing light show I have ever seen before. Looking West towards Northampton, I watched a meteor storm. It carried on throughout my time on the bank, and was still going on when I left. Also I watched at one point what can only be described as 'ripples of light pulsing across the sky directly overhead. Quite trippy!!! I was wondering if anybody else was out on Saturday and saw a similar thing? No, before any body asks, they weren't fireworks and no mind altering substances had been consumed!!!!! Let me know as I'd be really interested to hear of anyone elses experiences?

Regards,

Mark

Thanks for that Mark,

Hopefully this time, there wont be such a long gap until my next trip!

I appreciate it's a bit late off of the mark (no pun intended), but well done on your recent big barbel and your subsequent bfw home page appearance. Fantastic fish and great photos!!

Hope your good form continues.

Mark