Big barbel hunting - A cracker of a start to the season

So the season began on the 16th of June and work had me tied down unable to fish, however I have managed to get myself a few short sessions to kick off the new season off.

having had my name down on a waiting list for a stretch of river for over a year now, this year I got the call to tell me I had my membership accepted. It did not take me long before I had the bait and rods at the ready waiting for a good chance between work and family life to explore my new fishing grounds.

That chance came last week and so my campaign began with a current pb of 13.5lb barbel from my river to beat.
I went for walks along the river looking for likely swims that should hold a fish or two and started to pre-bait some areas. Over 3kg of home made boilies and mixed pellets have been spread across 5 nice looking swims in the aid to get the fish feeding confidently ready for my return.

It was clear on my first fishing session that my efforts had paid off with 9 barbel and a chub between me and a friend. I had three and he had 6 along with losing a few between, the biggest going on for 8lb. No big monsters yet but a great start.

The second session was by far the session of a lifetime and a great achievement.

I set up on a peg that i had pre-baited and trickled in a few baits here and there for a few hours before putting a rig into the water. I wanted to get the confidence up and have them sucking up my free offerings to ensure a solid take.

The rod was in the water for no less than 15 mins when a savage bite broke out stripping line from the reel. My heart jumped into my mouth!

The barbel really started to feed hard on the bait as i could see the constant banging into the line where the fish were feeding around my hookbait and the water became cloudy from the silt. I fed some more baits into the swim and gave the fish some more time to get their nose's down.

After a good hour of waiting I introduced both rods back into the baited area.

I started to pack my stuff away ready to move in the event of nothing happening when a full on bend in the rod screamed off downstream on the far bank. Quickly leaping to the rod and lifting into the bite i could tell this was if anything a long fish by its big head movements beating side to side. There was plenty of overhanging trees that the Barbel could snag me in so I had to be the bully and not give any line. After a good 15 mins battle with the fish I had developed a tremble knowing I had a real prize of a fish here.

I slipped the net under a golden bar of pure adrenaline pumping barbel and it was big!

The scales died on me as I tried to zero them with the net so its unfortunate I have no accurate weight to give it but speaking with others that are professional anglers with plenty of big fish under their belts gave me a good 14.5lb to be conservative.

I have now made getting a new set of scales that dont need batteries as my priority after this event but nobody will take away the flood of excitementbI experienced landing such a great fish on my local river where the average good size is about 7-9lb.

Thanks for taking the time out to read about the start of my season.
If you have enjoyed the story of my fishing adventure then feel free to follow me @callmecrypto and be sure to resteem and upvote me.