Steve Pope Barbel Fishing

 

TENNIS FROM DOWN UNDER

Oh well!  We haven’t witnessed the second coming of  Robert The Bruce, the prince in waiting is going to have to wait a few months more, perhaps years before this majestic Swiss king fires blunt arrows from his oh so accurate crossbow.

Watching Federer tame and ultimately destroy the young pretender was to watch a true champion deliver the ultimate masterclass and there can be no tears or recriminations. Although poor Andy did shed one or two at the very end. Federer when he plays as he did today and thats pretty much all the time is simply unbeatable, sublime perfection and it would have taken a display of epic proportions to deny him another crown and that was never likely to happen.

So the wait goes on, I’m sure Andy Murray will eventually win his Grand Slam, lets hope Rafa gets over his injury problems and that the day arrives when those two rule the tennis world although I can’t see either of them emulating Federer who simply has to be the best player ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A WALK ALONG THE RIVER

Last Thursday along with Rich Frampton and Jez Evans, two local lads, I went for a nice late afternoon stroll along the Severn starting out near Buildwas, taking in Ironbridge and ending up at Coalport.

The beauty of the Severn is the obvious fact that there is such a lot of water to go at. Most of my fishing has taken place on the lower stretches because for the past twenty years that has been the place to target a big fish. That still holds true but the upper middle stretches are now challenging that claim.

A few dedicated specialists are working hard at unearthing the secrets that these stretches hold and it will be interesting to see if their techniques targeted at the bigger specimens produce a barbel to test the river record.

We ended up in the Woodbridge Inn with a couple of other super keen Severn addicts and wiled away the evening hours discussing the potential of this area of the mighty river.

If I can just pull myself away from the lower river I will definitely be looking at spending time on the more scenic and possibly productive stretches nearer to home.

The trouble is it’s still too cold, the snow arrived once again on Friday and laid a white carpet all around. Incredible weather, one minute heavy snow falls, the next bright sunshine and then a downpour of sleet to finish, not exactly promising when we are all desperate to get out for some serious barbel fishing!

 

 I simply refuse to put up any more snowy pictures but couldn’t resist this one! The bear and her cub have felt right at home these past weeks as they keep a watchful eye over anyone entering the Tuffins emporium. There is a blog in itself talking about my favourite local store, a place where you can buy just about anything, but I’ll save that for another day.

As I’m still unable to put any current barbel pictures up I thought I would include this pic of my nephew having fun in my pond back in the spring. I reckon he’s about ready to catch his first barbel now so let’s hope the opportunity arrives during the summer.

 

Back now to finish writing my article on how much bait we should use.

Steve.