Lee Barlow's 2011 Barbel Catches

Lee has had a excellent season fishing the Ribbleside Farm section of the River Ribble below is a gallery of his captures

Another epic weekend of fishing on Upper Rivington reservoir – 06/07 August 2011 by Duane “Expat” Schmidt

I collected fellow SDAA member, Ryan Duncan, from his home at about 6am last Saturday morning and headed for Upper Rivington Reservoir where we were met shortly after by Danny Fearn who was joining us on day ticket. Ryan and I immediately set up camp, and started preparing ourselves for another 36 hour stint on our favourite SDAA water on which we are night syndicate members, while Danny got himself sorted for a day of tip fishing.
Ryan had committed himself to sitting it out for a Carp, and I had decided to focus solely on Bream as my target species for the weekend.

Danny was already well in with a number of cracking Roach and Skimmers before I had my first Bream but by lunch time I had them coming through thick and fast, and at times was having to deal with multiple runs as my alarms regularly sounded together. Ryan in the meantime, had set his traps and was patiently waiting for the elusive Carp to stumble upon his offerings.

Danny had a productive day on the tip gear and would have landed a lot more of his captures were it not for an opportunistic pike which had taken to nabbing every other fish in the margins of his swim as he was reeling them in. Danny packed up and bid us tight lines and screaming reels before heading home in the late afternoon. Ryan and I had a bite to eat and fished on until after midnight before being driven into our bivvies by downpours which can only be likened to torrential rain.
Sunday morning was marked by an early rise and it wasn’t long before I was once again into the Bream. Ryan, who had not yet had a nibble, persevered and stuck to his waiting game for a Carp.

We continued to fish until mid afternoon before calling it a day and commencing with the arduous task of packing down camp and ensuring that no sign of our presence over the preceding 36 hours was left behind.

Final scores:
Danny
Tactics – Cage feeder and tip gear
Captures – Numerous Roach, Perch and Skimmers
Bait – Maggot
Duane
Tactics – Cage feeder and Carp gear (c/w the newly developed and field tested “exPatRig©”)
Captures – 49 Bream (1½Lb – 6Lb) and 2 Roach (1Lb each)
Bait – Hair rigged maggots and worm with 1 No floating imitation corn for buoyancy
Ryan
Tactics – Orthodox Carp tactics with Carp gear
Captures – 0 Carp (but more determined than ever to get one on this water in the future)
We will no doubt be returning for another session within the next few weeks, and many times thereafter with the Pike season nearing, so will regularly keep everyone updated on our ventures going forward………
Regards
Duane “Expat” Schmidt

Member Bob Ditchfield visited the Frozen River Ribble .