Tees barbel (7)

Date fished 12/7/2026

4.40am until 8am

Yes, I watched the football. Yes, all of it. 

2.5 hours sleep and a 3.15am alarm. I must love my fishing!? 

It was always going to be an early start. In this heat, I wanted my discomfort to be more than that of the fish.  

After some minutes sleeping, not that much more than the match itself, I dragged my arse out of bed and headed towards the river Tees. No beers for the match helped, but it wasn't until I put the Argentina V Switzerland game on 5 Live and started to drink my cup of tea, that I felt ready. 

I picked a fast flowing swim and rolled some meat. People make it look easier than it is. A few runs through and I was not convinced. 

I cast the same weight to the slack water and put the rod down. Instantly it pulled round. Not the barbel I craved but a nice chub of about two and a half pounds. Released without even leaving the water! 

I decided to change to paste wrapped pellet next, it served me well on the Nudd. Constant taps, pulls. The lot. I just couldn't connect. I assumed crayfish, however when I finally connected, it was chublets. I managed two.

I had seen a kingfisher, heron, eel and otter and it was not even breakfast time for many. 

After a few more biteless rolls, I walked around an island and saw a big chub lethargically heading towards a tree for shade. It's back out the water, I could of just netted him. 

I took this as a sign that I should go find my own shade, it is likely going to be snory and sofa induced. 

Does anyone know if mobile speed cameras always get you??

Asking for a friend. Ffs 🤬

Mr Whippy

Date fished 5/7/2026

5.45am until 8.30am 

The house was quiet, people in the street were snoring softly. I crept out with Mr Whippy and the float rod and headed the short distance to Wydon. 

For those of you that dont know, Mr Whippy was my dads favourite rod. At a little over 5ft, he is diminutive in stature, but he is strong. My dad had caught carp to double figures on him a mere few inches from the bank. He is a perfect stalking opportunist rod, and seeing as most of my Wydon fishing is a few feet from the bank, I paired him with a hybrid feeder to do some close in ledgering for tench. Mr Whippy last featured on the blog in 2020 here. 

I arrived at 5.45am. I feed some hemp at 5.50am, cast ( well dropped in) at 5.51am. At 5.55am the float sailed away, two minutes in the fight and at 5.57am a tench lay in the net.

A roach on the float followed and soon the whole swim was alive with fish. I wanted to catch on Mr Whippy, so I dropped the feeder in the spot. It was 6.57am and Whippy pulled around. A short fight and a bream lay in the net! 

Wanting to get back to the float fishing, I swapped back. Two more tench, another roach and six rudd topped off a great few hours.

Long but skinny

The smallest, but equally welcome

The rain started and as I left a man and boy were just arriving. I told them the swim and where I was feeding, so I hope they could carry on where I left off. 

Getting home at 8.59am, I was annoyed it wasn't 8.57. The daughter was still sat on the sofa in her pyjamas. She said "morning dad, morning Mr Whippy'.

That made me happy! 

June 28th

8.50am until 12pm

Sadly, June 28th will always be the day Davey died. I remember dates, but try not to dwell. This year I wanted to fish.

Deciding to stay local, I opted to fish Wydon in Hexham. 

A late start and I drove up, very lazy!! I wanted it to be chilled though. Hopefully I would have a good few hours fishing the float, catch a tench, avoid the rain and all would be well. 

One out of three!! ( it also rained!)

Not long after I started, the float dipped and I struck. This was a big fish and it went out to the middle, not by the reeds. 

It felt breamy and to be honest, it felt foul hooked. I couldn't lift it and eventually it shed the hook. The hook came back with a small scale on it and the line covered in slime. I might of been correct!! 

Loads of silvers later and the float went again. Resistance for a nano second then up it popped. My first Wydon bream.

Chatting to a very knowledgeable child in the next peg, he said the bailiff said only eight were stocked. Who knows!? But it felt like a special catch on a day I wanted something. 

I fished on and after a few more roach and rudd, decided to call it a day. Happy, I drove home. Its not a sad day, its a day of memories. 

Enjoy making yours! 

Nidd nutter!

Date fished 27/06/2026

6am until 1pm

With the current hot weather, Ellis and I decided to fish early morning. I had caught barbel from two rivers from the Leeds book in two trips, could I make it a hatrick!?

Minimal kit as we were walking a little bit, plus it was a short session. Oozing meat my main bait, but I did grab some 6mm marine halibut pellets and matching paste as I left (at 4am). Either to be suspended under a twin 2SSG shot on a link ledger. 

We arrived at the Nidd, wow, it looked great. Swims cut in, loads of water in a small area due to river bends. It is my new fave stretch to fish!!

My rod

I won't bore you with the photography, I took loads  but this was my best picture. The fishing was quiet!! 

The river is small, like a stream in places. Deep holes, shallow glides and full of streamer weed. Perfect fish habitat but on a warm day, I just wanted to find shade. Eventually I did and a well placed cast was met with knocks. In hindsight it was probably crayfish but at the time I got interested. 

Ellis tried with worms too, in the hope a big stripey would be hungry. Plenty of fish were topping, assume perch chasing too but not our baits. 

My swim

We leapfrogged swims towards where we thought we had parked. We were wrong, the loop and river flow swapping but bank side staying the same had confused me! Am even confused now, not sure I am correct but I know what I mean. Anyway, I sat with pellets and waited. The rod pulled and I missed the bite. Gutted!!

What's funny though was Ellis was doing the same as me. Photography!!

Ellis's rod

I moved further downstream and came to peg 48. I cast in the middle of a narrow stretch, not near cover but just in a bit I thought I could leave it while I sat. The least fishy part of river in the least fishy swim I had been in all morning.

My rod twitched, I picked it up and it slammed around. I was in. The fish, assumed chub swam downstream, then swam upstream towards and under a bush. I manged to get it out and had it in the open water. I saw my chub, it had whiskers! It made for the snag again, but this time I steered it around and quickly in the net. 

My barbel from a third river in three trips. I called Ellis. We rested the fish well and took it out for a quick pic. No weighing, estimated 5lb. After another long rest, it swam powerfully away under the bush upstream. 

Ellis cast in the hot zone!! There were fish topping, splashing about but no more were caught. 

Gathering our bearings, we realised we had walked away from the cars, but we wanted to fish some more, so we crossed the field and we fished some great looking swims. In truth, all the swims look great on this stretch. I am going to struggle to fish anywhere else!!

Our remaining drinking water was back at the car, so we headed that way. 

We left as it heated up, atmospherically not metaphorically, but we had decided to fish today whilst being mindful of fishcare. Nobody told them Nidd nutters though!!

No, not really

Date fished 22/6/2026

9.30am until tooth hurty pm

GCSE's completed and one more day of holiday for me was a perfect mix for me to take Rupe to the Swale to see if he could catch his first barbel.

We headed to Topcliffe as we could not leave at the  crack of dawn and he had a dentist appointment (brace tighten) at 4.45pm which could be on our way back North. 

First swim

Second swim

The weir swim looked good, sounded noisy and ate two swim feeders in two casts! We moved downstream 100m.

This swim seemed better, we cast our ledgerd pellets just in the flow and waited. 

I like fishing with pellets, they are:

Easy

Cheap

Last ages

Stay on the hook

Different sizes, flavours

Child friendly

I don't like some boilies that I have. I won them years ago and have never really used them. I take them with me on many trips and they come home again. They smell like vomit to me. I decided they were going in the river or in the bin!! 

Suddenly, Rupe's rod wiggled and I let him know, just incase he didn't see it through his fringe. He was in. A cute little chub his prize.

I cast too close to the far bank and lost more tackle. 

Today's mission was to hopefully get Rupe his first barbel, so I changed my rig to a vomit boilie on a hybrid feeder, no respectful barbel would get caught on that! 

A missed bite on that, it must work. I kept with it. 

My second of the week (ish). Big smiles all round! On the vomit too!!

Another angler came to fish this swim as I was releasing the barbel, he warned us of some snags. We had none in this swim so far. 

We reeled in. Snag! 

Another lost feeder. Am going through feeders quicker than............ (fill your own answer in here)

The sun burst through the clouds and although we liked the warmth, the fishing died. We watched birds, river critters and a little mouse having his lunch.

It was lovely to spend time with the boy. 

Oh, the title. I nearly forgot. Speaking of things that annoy me. Ask my son any question and his reply is usually "No, not really".

It doesn't even make sense!! 

Love him though!! 

What is this hair!?

Desmond

Date fished 19/6/2026

7.30am until 11.30am

Ellis owns the Tees. Well, not really. But it's in his blood, his heritage. Today he smashed it. A pb perch and a cracking chub on the float. I, well, I have a sore thumb/wrist. 

A great evening of chat, football, not too spicy chicken wings and a few drinks and we headed to bed about 11pm. I slept like a log and woke up ready to fish again.

After a hearty and healthy breakfast, we headed to the Tees at Sockburn. Two days this week of sitting watching the rod tips, we fancied some trotting. 

The usual June jungle warfare was inevitable but our chosen swim is not too far upstream. We often fish here, its fairly non descript from a features point of view, but always seems to deliver.

As we started, two other anglers started fishing downstream of us. Three of the four of us did well, (we asked when we left and they had caught a 2lb perch, 1lb 14oz perch and lost a chub) and one angler ........ has a bad thumb!! 

Ellis and I started feeding and casting, it was slow going. We usually start to catch little silvers straight away but not today. I had a few bites but missed them. We were starting to think today was not right. 

Suddenly Ellis hooked into something decent, I grabbed the net to help and saw the tell tale dorsal of a big perch. Nightmare as the hook pulled and the perch got away. Remember the dorsal. 

Ellis started catching chublets and I soon got a few too. Sadly, my thumb and wrist was hurting too much for trotting, so I was not doing it with my usual vigor. Ellis  however, stood and fed the line and soon when his float buried a much bigger fish pulled back. Not the perch we were expecting but a chub. 3lb 8oz of Tees magic, a beauty (chub not Ellis) on the float rod.

A few fish later, I had tapped out and was a spectator at best. I saw a good sized perch swimming to my right where Ellis was just about to fish. I enjoyed the best seat (stood mid river) while Ellis hooked, played and landed a different perch, this one had no dorsal. At 2lb 2oz, or two two (Tutu) it was a new pb.

Worth a second pic!!

We have both been after a 2lb plus perch for a while now, and while that still eludes me, it's great to be with, and see a mate catch one! 

Ellis fished on and caught more fish, but again my discomfort was apparent. We decided to call it a day and head home for a bath or rosè or whatever a pb catcher deserves!! 

On a separate note, I had a perch with no dorsal on June 19th 2024 from that same swim. It weighed 1lb 6oz. I wonder......

Shared my blog with my oldest (non fishing friends, their response!!) This is why I love them. 

Two barbel, five bream, six perch!!

Date fished 18/6/2026

7am until 3pm

Ellis and I went to the Ouse today. We had a great, great session. 

Two rods ledgered mid river or towards the tree lined far bank proving to be the tactic! 

I will let you into a secret, the bait today that worked was worms! Many other pellets laid unmolested, but not the worms!!

I actually can't remember the sequence of what we caught when. But I know, I did catch a couple of bream then a barbel and Ellis caught his barbel whilst I had my third bream in the net!! 

3lb 12oz

4lb 12oz

We have never both caught a barbel in the same session,  plenty of chub but never barbel. We wondered if we could top the day off with a chub each from the Nidd. This proved a touch too far for our luck, so we headed back to Ellis's house for a celebratory beer!!