As expected the rains came on Saturday, leaving most rivers high and cold. The Thames will be out of condition till the New Year and the Stour till next week so as expected the first part of the week the rods remained in the shed.

Looking at the forecast for the latter part of the week reveals a warm front coming in on Thursday so the barbel rods were dusted of and I headed for the Loddon on Thursday evening, as soon as the milder air descended on us. The trip was probably premature as the rivers temp wouldn’t have risen but I hoped that the atmospherics might just have the odd fish beginning to look for a dinner. Arriving at the river at 2pm I was amazed that no one had ventured out since last weeks rain as the river had dropped back to its normal level, leaving silt spread over all the swims and a stain, which showed it had risen some three and a half feet.

With no one else around I put my father in the deep water, an area that the big fish drop into when the water temperature drops. It also stopped him moving around, as all the swims were dangerous due to the silt, especially once darkness descended. Dropping in a few swims upstream produced nothing so I headed for the banker swims upstream taking just a moderate chub from one of four, before trying one more in the deeps. Apart from one sharp pull dads rod stayed still so I decided to drop some bait in two deep-water swims and return the following morning before daybreak. The first swim drew a blank whilst a bite was missed in the next, a strange bite that might have been from a bream. A couple of knocks followed before it was time to leave. The fields were white with frost and the standing water in the fields had frozen over, so much for the milder weather.

The temperature rose steadily throughout the day to a high of 10.5 degrees so after a visit to Broadwater where a few pictures were needed for Anglers Mail I sorted things in the office and headed back to the Loddon after dark hoping that after such a cold spell the barbel would have switched on. Unfortunately not as after four hours roving just one bite developed, again from a chub. Five other anglers failed to bank a barbel in what can only be described as spot on.

That’s it regarding the barbel, as the weather looks settled over the weekend so it’s of to the Stour on Monday.