I managed to get a day off on the 22nd February 2007 and decided to visit the river Idle. I hadn't fished this river for about 6 years and had never fished the Tiln Lane section at all. Previously only managing to catch bream on the Chainbridge Lane stretch and roach above the weir by the old Bellmoor ponds near Hallcroft .

On arrival I found that the river was slightly up, the temperature was 10 ° C with a westerly wind and therefore conditions were favourable. I decided to fish a peg which had a line of trees downstream. Any fish in the area would probably be using them for cover and they would make good holding spots. The idea was to put in a few handfuls of hemp with some crushed halibut pellets to try and draw any fish upstream to my position. I would then top this up every 30-40mins with some more hemp, although I wasn't going to put in any more pellets as I didn't want to overfeed them. This is a mistake that a lot of anglers do in the winter, by putting in the same amount of loose feed as they would do the rest of the year. In the summer I would probably bait a few swims and alternate between them but I decided to stay put and see what happened.

Having not been for a long time and not having had the luxury of walking the river in summer, something which I aim to do this year, I really didn't know what to expect. I once lived next door to one of the Severn Trent fisheries officers who was involved in the original stocking of the barbel some years ago. I knew there were fish here but had no idea where to find them.

Anyway back to the fishing. After about an hour I had my first bite, a slight couple of taps rather than a big pull round of the rod tip. I was convinced this was a chub and not a barbel. However I might have been wrong. I re-baited with a fresh marine halibut pellet and re-cast to the same spot, putting in another handful of hemp. About 10mins later I again had a few quick taps on the rod tip and decided to strike, just in case a bait had been picked up but that the fish hadn't moved off. As I lifted the rod I struck into a fish and it took off downstream. I knew instantly that this was a barbel and quite a nice fish at that. With the water being up the extra flow made it feel like I had a bigger fish on than I actually did. I played the barbel for a few minutes before eventually sliding it over my net. I didn't weigh the fish wanting to return it as soon as possible but having caught many from the Lower Derwent I estimated it's weight at just over 7lb. It was in very good condition and I doubt if it had been caught too many times before.

Having caught that I then decided to move further upstream and try another couple of swims to see if I could locate any other fish. I didn't manage to get a bite anywhere else and maybe if I had stayed put in my original swim I might have caught more. However, I never go angling with the intention of catching lot's of fish and I was more than happy with the earlier result.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and I'm definitely going to put more time in on this river come the summer. Locating fish when the river is clear and low definitely improves one's confidence for the winter. It's something I do regularly on the Lower Derwent and has proved dividends for me when locating fish in flood conditions. Knowing where the deeper runs and holding spots are is priceless information.

Although I know that some angler's like to keep their catches secret and don't give away their knowledge of the best swims, however I have always found other DCAC members have been more than happy to share information. I remember years ago bumping into Harry Kirk at Ambergate and him sharing tales of bream & roach shoals that I didn't even know existed, as I was always catching grayling on the float. I don't believe you need the exact details of swim and baiting methods but a little bit of information on the whereabouts of fish on all our waters would assist in attracting more members. Perhaps a listing on the website of each water, showing images of the venues, notable catches, individual fish, etc. might help with this.

I have two more days off next week and will be concentrating on trying to beat my current barbel personal best of 9lb 12oz.