 A Guest on the Teme
My fishing time is limited at the moment so when I was invited to spend
three days in the company of one of the committee members of The Barbel
Society I jumped at the chance.
It all came about when I was at the Carp Show at Wembley in April, as
I was wandering around having a look, as you do and I heard someone
call out, I turned to see one of my members from Churchgate and he was
on the Barbel Society Stand, after a brief chat I found out he was on
the committee and he had seen a picture of a good double I had the week
before in Anglers Times and promptly offered me a session on the Teme
as his guest. I spoke to him a couple of times over the next couple
of weeks and within the first couple of days into the season he was
on the phone with some dates.
We had arranged to meet up at the Lakes after I finished Sunday afternoon
and drive straight up from there to Marks caravan that’s situated
a stones throw from the Severn with all private fishing. When we got
there, Mark sorted some grub, a glass of red wine and we were fishing
by 8pm from his private jetty.
I had my 1.5 and 1.25 Drennen Specialist Combos teamed up with my Shimno
1000s loaded out with 10lb Drennen Feeder Braid and my BJ Centre Pin
loaded out with 10lb Maxima, hooklengths would vary but I start with
8lb Fluorocarbon.
I fished the same on both rods and switched to the fixed spool when
I had to cast further than my pin allowed, I fished with as little shot
as I could get away with at first with meat over hemp and pellet.
We settled down to our evening session on The Severn and I was in to
a fish first chuck and it was an eel, Mark then informed me that I would
be plagued by them with the meat but I had brought enough so I decide
to feed them up and see what happened. I mashed up 3 tins of meat mixed
it with a tub of Dynamite Hemp and started loading it in, I cast straight
on top of it and had 3 eels on the trot.
On my forth cast it went a little bit quite and after about 15 minutes
I rebaited my hook with a bit of meat and put it back on the mark, after
a couple of minutes the tip slammed round and I lifted into thin air,
I put some more bait on making sure that the hook was sitting proud
and gently dropped it back in place, picking up the slack and letting
the pin have a turn back to give a bit of slack, I held the rod and
settled back with the line between my fore finger and thumb.
15 mins passed and I had felt the line lift a couple of times and I
knew I would get a tug soon and was more or less willing the rod to
go when I felt the line lift again and the rod surged round and the
hook was set. The fish immediately took 20 yards on its first run and
came tight to the inside bank and tried to go under the moorings, now
this was definitely not an eel. I applied maximum pressure to the fish
and she gave way and returned to the main flow.10 minutes later and
my first Severn barbel was in the bag and at about 5lb she was a nice
start.
It was gone Midnight and the chill had set in so we called it a night
and walked the 100 yards back to Mark's caravan and got our heads down
ready for a bright start first thing to fish the Teme.
Mark woke me up at 8 o’clock and I could have done with a couple
of extra hours as I was knackered, but after a couple of bacon sandwiches
and a cup of tea I was rearing to go with big barbel in my sights and
a journey into the unknown. We were in the car and 5 minutes later I
was in heaven, 40ft high banks, tree roots, fallen trees, deeps, shallows,
it was paradise. The first swim I looked down into had a dozen chub
over 4lb just milling about and snatching at anything that went past,
what a great vantage point, I could see everything they did and they
didn’t even know I was there.
We walked on and it just got better, there were huge chub all over
the place but no barbel, so after a hour I decided to drop into a swim
that was moving quickly and had a deep run on the far bank and over
hanging trees in the water that offered shelter for the fish. I decided
to try and draw them out and started loading in mashed meat over hemp
with a bait dropper into the main channel, I know the tighter to the
trees I got the better my chances of hooking a fish, but there is more
of a chance that it would do me in the snags before I had the opportunity
to do anything about it. The response was immediate and on my first
cast I had a chub of about 4lbs and over the next couple of hours had
another four of about the same stamp.
 At
about 12 Noon it went quite for about an hour, I was still putting the
bait in regular and at just gone 1 o’clock I had a massive take,
my pin screamed out and I was on it in a second as the rod bent and
the fish started taking line. I stepped out into the flow to get my
tip out as far as I could to give me a better angle, this worked a treat
and after 5 good runs the fish started showing signs of tiring and after
a gallant struggle the fish was in the net, the hook came out as I gave
it slack line in the net and she was resting in the edge while I got
myself together.
I called my host on the radio and asked if he would come down and take
a picture and verify the weighing.
The fish was weighed at just over 8lb and I was chuffed that I hadn’t
blanked.
Mark went back to his swim and I put a nice carpet of hemp and meat
out and decided to have a bit of lunch and a walk and a closer look
at the fishery, after an hour I returned to my swim and put some more
bait in and flicked a lump of meat out, felt it settle and sat back
with the rod in my hand. After about ten minutes I had a no-warning
rod-bender that brought me to my senses very quickly. The edge of the
pin was spinning on my thumb as another Teme barbel was making its way
up the river. I waded out to get a better angle away from the snags
and after a little to-ing and fro-wing, the fish was in the net, weighing
around 4/5lb, she was rested and returned none the worse for her trouble.
Over the next three hours I had a steady stream of fish mainly Chub
of the 4lb mark one was just under the 6lb mark, just after 5 o’clock
I saw some fry scatter through the swim and it all went dead, I knew
there was a pike in the swim so I decided to put out some big lumps
of meat and went for a walk.
Some of the swims are treacherous; it is well advised that you take
some strong rope to tie off to some thing solid especially if you are
on your own! Make sure you’ve got your mobile in your pocket,
inside a waterproof bag because they don’t work when they're wet!
I returned to my swim and put some more meat out and rebaited my hook
and gently let the flow take it to the desired spot, as it hit the bottom
I felt the tip shudder and then again I just lifted gently and the rod
ached over very slowly and on the other end was a pike in the high doubles
just coming to the surface, as it reached the upper layers of water
it flicked its tale and the fight was on, it was crashing about making
a right song and dance on the surface -I was glad when it bit me off
and slipped away down-stream, hopefully as far away as possible.
As I was baiting up for my next cast when Mark called me on the two-way
and reminded me of the time and we decided on another thirty minutes,
as I slipped the meat over the hook, I looked up and saw five barbel
cruise past my feet, turn and drop straight down over the baited area.
I was stunned and it took a couple of seconds before I realized I was
still holding the hook in my left hand and the rod in the other, so
I let the hook go and swung the meat down in front of them and held
the rod expectantly waiting for the inevitable.
One of them was sure to have a go and 10 minutes later I had the most
viscous take I have ever experienced while holding my rod and the fish
charged off down-stream so fast that I ended up pointing the rod at
the fish and back winding so fast that I thought I was going to lose
it. I managed to get the bend back in the rod and I knew this was a
nice fish as it went on fast run after run and held bottom like a 30lb
carp, my arms were aching and my thumb hurt like hell and the fish just
kept fighting. After a good twenty minutes I felt she was nearly ready
for the net but she thought better of that - dived straight under the
snags at the side of me and it was stale mate, the line was solid and
I could see that I was wrapped around some thick old willow branches,
so I grabbed my machete stuffed it down the front of my waders and waded
out, when I got near I could see the fish moving about just under the
snag, I removed my machete a with one swift blow the branch was cut
and the fish was off with the branch wrapped around the line.
At this point I thought it was all over as the branch slid down the
line and covered the head of the fish that had now doubled its weight,
I was expecting the fish to go ballistic and snap me off as I am sure
 the
line must have been damaged, but the total opposite happened and the
fish came to the surface and I managed to wind the fish and branch close
enough to get the net under them, but the branch got all caught up so
I took a chance grabbed my scissors and cut the line about 10 inches
above the hook and the fish just fell into the net.
I don’t know who was more tired me or the fish, as I looked down
into the net the hook had come out and I removed it and lay the fish
in the margins and picked up the radio to call Mark, after ten minutes
Mark turned up all red and flustered after running the all the way from
his swim that was about a 3rd of mile down stream.
We sorted the mat, scales and sling out ready to record the capture
and the result of my battle with this brute was a truly magnificent
'Double from the Teme' and I was thrilled to bits to get one on my first
visit.
After we had done the pictures we decide to call it a day, so we packed
up and headed for the Fox Inn for a big slap up and a couple of beers
on me.
Tomorrow the plans to fish The Severn have been put on hold so we can
go back to the same areas we fished today and I will spend most of the
day roaming so I can get a real good look at what might be my river
of residence next year - but I will tell you about that another day.
I would like to thank Mark Fox (Youth Development Manager) from the
Barbel Society for his very kind gesture and his hospitality which was
second to none.
This is defiantly my kind of river and I will be coming back as soon
as possible.
Next week I am off to Cornwall for a family holiday, but I will definitely
be taking my rods, so I will let you know how I get on,
Tight Lines
Tony Runnalls
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