Big Barbel - Attempt No 1 (River Ribble)

Less said about today the better. A 2pm - 10pm session on the River Ribble at Preston with the river looking absolutely spot on yet not one bite all day. My river fishing mate Andy fished immediately above me (to create a combined large peg) and shared the same fate but actually fished from 9am - a 13 hour blank...

Rigs were a 3oz feeder and a 3 oz bomb with pellet, source boilies and maize all tried. A marine halibut pellet/groundbait stick with tuna and hemp added to each bomb as an attractant. Andy tried caster; smaller pellet and maggot so all the bases were basically covered.

To add insult to injury, some bright spark sat a cheeky 10 yards below me from 6pm and winkled out 3 barbel which looked to be up to 5lb. A much better fish also came out about 1/2 mile further up the stretch to make any excuses look as hollow as a Barrack Obama election promise.

This is down as my first barbel attempt but in reality it's No 3 having picked up a great Dace and a good chub on previous sessions.

The only two things I can think of are that I either overfed (unlikely on a warm summer day) or we are just fishing too heavy with 10lb mainline and 10lb fluorocarbon bottom. Going lighter is a risk with the abrasive bedrock bottom but that's about 7 Ribble trips with no barbel and it really is time to try something else...

Blank No 10 in the bag then - magic!

Interesting that I have never caught a fish when using the water from boiling up hemp to mix my groundbait....

Cheers

Mr Fish