A couple of seasons ago l recall moving onto the rivers at the start of September, and knew straight away that it was a month to early, however after the months of June and July had passed with very little in the shape of big fish on the stillwaters l decided once again that l had little to lose and started to look at running water.

This time though l decided that l was going to concentrate on eels on a un-pressured stretch of the Loddon that had produced a massive 6lb 7oz fish a few years ago but instead of packing up at 5am when the nuisance perch moved in, l would cast a barbel bait out just in case.

The end of July saw plenty of extra time spent on the banks of not just the Loddon but also the Blackwater and Thames and over the last two weeks have been baiting a spot on each of these as well as a lake in the hope of a massive crucian. It’s a lot of extra work but after the first week the rewards started to show themselves.

Monday, with eels in mind l headed to the Loddon, and the session was what can only be described as eventful. I tried for barbel up till 11pm using the method lead where l moulded scolded Sonubaits 4mm hard pellets around the lead and hair rigged a 13mm hard pellet as hookbait, then switched to eel rigs, catching a modest chub in the night plus experiencing a couple of twitchy bites, probably from eels. At 5am the eel rods were replaced with a single barbel rod, which at 6-45am ripped off. It’s a long story, but basically l must have still been asleep when l got to the rod and my momentum plus tripping on my bankstick and the force of a barbel headed downstream on a tight clutch saw me leaving the bank in what felt like dramatic style. One-minute l was seeing sky the next l saw dirty brown water, as l was completely submerged. The rod was gone and l was out of my depth and feeling heavy, as my waterproof trousers were full of water. I managed to get to the bank, drag myself out and finally retrieve the rod with my eel rod. I must have looked a sight pushing my trolley across the mist covered fields in my underpants as well as getting a few strange looks from lorry drivers that pulled along side the car at numerous sets of traffic lights on the way home. It’s a funny story but if this had been during darkness or in the depth of winter when the river was cold and flowing harder then it might have been a completely different story. Not worth thinking about really!

Tuesday afternoon l visited Harley Mauditt, the pond that my father taught me my very first angling skills, so it was pleasant to help my girlfriends sisters sons do the same. James came out on top with around 70lb of carp, most taken off the top using Sonubaits Floating pellets and Strawberry hookers from his floater kit, which included a personal best 11lb 2oz mirror. Thomas was as eager as ever and fished the pole for around 25lb of carp.

Undeterred and remembering a big fish turning over in the swim that night l returned and although the barbel rod remained quiet till 11am the eel rods certainly made up for things as a 2lb eel was followed by a very big eel that certainly didn’t want to be landed. After the fish taking quite a lot of line then a few minutes of stale mate l eventually felt the fish glide a couple of feet my way but then the rod sprang back and she was gone. Checking the hooklink, the 25lb Quick Silver had parted from a bite off, only the second time ever that this has happened to me. I knew that the fish I’d lost was certainly a Drennan fish and sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking of what could have been. Impaling three more lobworms and attaching a PVA bag of dead maggots and Sonubaits crushed Halibut Pellet l repositioned the rods and at 3am one ripped off again and from the bite it was always going to be a barbel and soon a 12lb 11oz beard lay in my net. At 5am the eel rods were replaced with my barbel rod and soon a 5lb 4oz chub fell, then at 7am the rod was away again resulting in a barbel of 13lb 3oz. Not a bad night!

Thursday night l returned, but decided to fish the swim that produced the big eel a couple of years ago. Unfortunately no fish came, just a couple of twitch enquiries during the early hours, however a very big fish did stick its noise out at dusk to keep my hopes high.