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Friday, 16 September 2011 09:14

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139lb of Severn Barbel

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Steve has proved himself to be a master of the Severn, winning five midweek matches on the bounce.

Record net of float-caught barbel landed in midweek match.

The river Severn five-hour, float fishing match record has been broken with the capture of over 139lb of barbel.

Top river rod Steve Maher set the weight of 139lb 8oz during a midweek Kidderminster and District Angling Association match, one of five competitions he’s won in as many weeks.

The weight smashes the previous best for the club as well as the float-caught record for the Severn by in excess of 40lb.

Fishing a stretch of the waterway just above Bewdley, Steve amassed his net of fish, totalling 36 barbel to around 8lb,using one of his own, balsa wood wagglers after drawing the very same peg which just weeks early saw him net another ton up total of 106lb – up to that point the biggest KDAA match weight for 25 years.

“I knew I was in with a shout of making a very big weight when I drew peg number 9 again,” Steve told Pole Fishing. “It’s a great bit of water with a deep, fast running gorge of between 3 and 4feet with plenty of rocks and features in it where the barbel congregate, especially with the water levels being so low at the moment.”

Starting off his session on the feeder, Steve soon had fish feeding after filling his large Kamasan blackcap with caster and hemp.

“I started off on the feeder to get the fish going,” explained Steve who’s sponsored By WB Clarke of Evesham. “The trick to keeping the bites coming with the feeder is to keep ringing the changes, so I switch the weight and size of what I'm using around to vary the amount of bait going in and so I can let the feeder move around to find the fish. The only trouble was this time all I could get was liners so I soon switched over to the float.”

Converting bites to fish

With the 100lb mark firmly in his sights, once the fish had got their heads down Steve switched tactics to ensure he converted has bites to fish, and was soon filling up his net.

“In previous matches I’ve had the fish really going for it in the swim on the feeder, but it isn’t the best tactic for actually getting them out. The float is much better, giving you bites quicker and without the feeder on the line you can get the fish out easier and without losing as many to the snags.”

Fishing an ultra buoyant, 4SSG ‘speci-style’ waggler of his own design, Steve tripped his bait along the bottom overdepth by about 8inch, before shorting up so he was just touch the bottom once the fish were really competing for his feed.

“Fishing the float is a much nicer method allowing you to explore the swim and find the fish,” continued Steve. “I’d feed a pouch of casters and hemp every cast to keep the shoal in front of me feeding, but it was so hectic, with a fish every 8minutes (including around 5minutes to play the fish to the net) that I ended up feeding less than 3points of bait over the whole match.”

To show how effective Steve’s tactics are, second place in the match on the day weighed just 45lb of fish from peg 11.

Steve makes his own range of floats available from The Float Shop, click here to visit.

Last modified on Wednesday, 21 September 2011 10:57

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