Coming to a close and targets for the coming year

  With this weekend being the last weekend before the river season comes to an end i have hastily booked Monday off work to make the most of the rivers this weekend.  This weekend will see me taking in my three favourite river locations, the River Dee at Farndon (if i get up early enough lol) and the River Dane at Holmes Chapel with a afternoon trip to the small River Alyn if i can squeeze it in, this trip will depend how well i do on the Dane as if i get into the chub I'm sure my car will be back there on Monday for more.
 
Looking forward to the year ahead, my target is going to be a Barbel from the river Dee, i have already caught one of these but at just over a pound it doesn't feel like it really counts to be honest.  The trouble i face with this is my methods for fishing rivers and still waters is either on the float of a feeder so moving over to setting up rigs and using PVA bags etc is all going to be new to me so to get it right i will be targeting mainly the still waters where i can use two rods, my Shimano Barbel purist rod will be used as a sleeper rod on a buzzer while i float fish as i normally would. 

The venues i will be targeting in the coming three months will be Rixton Clay Pits and Grey Mist (for method shown above as you can use two rods),  Cicily mill, Ackers pit and no doubt there will be a few trips to Woodshaw Reservior now the road is fixed.

Photo of a nice swim at Rixton Clay Pits

  Hopefully by the time the river season opens again i will have my rigs to the point where i have confidence in them and will get comfortable with using PVA bags and casting with them and will get on with trying to catch one of these elusive barbel from the Dee.

 If i get some time this week i will get together some of the better catches I have had this last year on WAA waters and post them up on here as well.

Tight Lines

Danny