An evening on the Tees

I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours fishing tonight, arriving shortly before dark. The River Tees is really on its arse - desperately needs some extra water in.

As it was low, I opted to fish the chub rod with steak as bait, waiting until after dark before trying for the barbel . Letting it bounce around in the flow until it came to rest, it took a while before anything showed interest, but the rod flew round and I hit into a hard fighting tees chub - they really are fighting well at the moment. A nice start at 4lb 7oz.

I hooked another small chub which was snaffled by a decent pike - I played it for a minute or two before it let go of the now mangled fish. Noted for October onwards when i'll pop round with proper gear.

After this, I got the barbel rod out to see what boilies might bring - a slow and confident bite only meant one thing, bream! Not bad size though, and they do fight well in the flow. And that was that - happy enough!

A Tees 6lb chub is on the agenda for the coming months......

A River Tees double, and pb smashed!

Back on the Tees last night, turned up at 9pm ish and intended to fish until late. A little extra water had entered, not much but enough to get the whiskers twitching.

Double pellet was used to avoid the constant attentions of the chub (as in just ignore the pulls) and be patient. A big moon rose over the horizon about 11pm ish, and then the rod absolutely hoofed round. I struck into a solid fish, and knew straight away what was on the end. Unfortunately I just couldn't get its head up off the deck, and for 10 mins it was a tug of war that the barbel was completely dominating. I decided to try give it some proper welly, as I was using 15lb synchro, and this just annoyed the fish which went on a long and determined run.

I managed to pump the fish back towards me, and eventually and suddenly it appeared and was ready for netting, which fortunately happened first time.

At that point, I let the fish settle whilst I calmed down, knowing I had my first double in the net by some margin. Weighed in at 12lb 1oz, I couldn't believe the size and bulk of the fish I was holding up for the camera. Absolutely over the moon!

First trip of the year to the Swale

After a number of barbel blanks on the Tees, I decided I needed a couple of fish to get my confidence back! The fact that conditions were ideal, with water just receding from a bit of a summer flood, meant that my confidence was high.

I didn't get there until 9, and after putting out a dozen droppers of pellets, I let the swim rest for half hour or so. This worked well, as first cast the rod pulled round within minutes, resulting in this splasher that fought a lot better than its size.

Next cast and, after an otter had gone through, and a 20 minute rest, the same again as this one bent the rod round. Another small fish, but good fun. Showing signs of otter damage - at least they get away at times.

The contract between the tees and swale is very marked. The tees has very few barbel, but of a decent average size, however coupled with the large numbers of cub makes targeting barbel a big challenge. On the swale, it completely different, a smaller size on average, but with a good chance of fish.

Lets hope that Tees double comes soon!