by Tim Lennon
It's a difficult one this. Tim Lennon is clearly a skilled angler and on his local rivers he has found a technique that catches, catches very well actually. Unfortunately for me that's about the limit of this book. One method on one river, well maybe two.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, I did in fact find it a pretty interesting read and I guess I might be being a little unfair. Much of what the author writes about can be applied to other rivers.... on the condition that you can actually see the fish you are targeting. But then to be perfectly honest, if I can see a shoal of barbel then I generally have little trouble catching them. I'll put my tin hat on before I say this to protect myself from the tins of Spam about to come flying my way, but barbel are surely the easiest fish in the UK to catch, right?
As I said at the start this book is pretty much entirely about one method. I would have loved it as a guest chapter in another book but I'm not sure it needed an entire book of it's own. It reminds me of my school days when we had to write out our essays to a certain number of words. I procrastinated and rambled on, writing in circles to hit that word count when I could have said everything I needed to in less than half of that.
The major emphasis throughout is on finding the fish and then spending time building confidence in the shoal before you introduce your hookbait. I won't give away too much detail, you can read the book for the specifics. I'm not sure this warranted an entire book. I also think Lennon is guilty of crediting barbel with far more intelligence than they actually have but then maybe I'm just used to fishing for stupid ones. I've never fished the Hampshire Avon or Dorset Stour so perhaps he's right. If you fish rivers where you generally can't sit and observe the shoal you are fishing for then this book will be of little use to you.
This book commands a fairly decent price on the second hand market and I think that is mainly down to the low numbers it was printed in. There was a small hardback edition limited to just 200 numbered copies plus a paperback run too. The hardbacks usually just about reach three figures though they don't often come up for sale.
First published in 2004 by PICS Publishing Ltd. "PICS" stands for Paving Industry Contractor Support. No I don't understand why a paving company have published a book about barbel fishing either.
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I hadn't heard of this book until now. I sometimes fish the Hants. Avon but as it's a 2 hour trip so only once or twice a year. They really are as tricky as this book makes out... unfortunately. I know they're only barbel but they really do take some catching. It's ridiculously frustrating but you really do have to spend a long time finding them, then building their confidence etc. If you don't and just lob in a lead and start fishing they never seem to appear if they aren't already there. If they are in residence they just seem to... disappear... if you're gung-ho about it. I know, they're only barbel. But you have to play by their rules. Trust me. We've all thought "sod this" I'm fishing for them the 'usual' or 'my' way. But it doesn't work...
ReplyDeleteThough I must say, I don't think the word "Logical" should have any place on the title of a fishing book! Surely fishing is one of the most illogical of pastimes?
"My mostly random, illogical and flukey approach to fishing" would be my title.