His first visit to a commercial - Cedar lake, Decoy

 Alan lives in the same village as me, and a long time ago we agreed to go fishing together. Of course lockdown intervened, but decent weather this week meant we could finally make it. He had never been to Decoy, in fact he'd never been to a modern commercial, and had never caught a barbel, nor fished with a pole. The nearest I have been to a virgin lately!

Alan's first-ever barbel. That one fish made the
whole day worthwhile.

After several recent blanks in a row at a carp fishery, Alan no doubt wondered whether he was going to actually catch anything. In fact, everything worked out pretty well. I sat him in Cedar Peg 3, where I had caught barbel two or three weeks ago. I sat on Peg 4.

Alan doesn't have a box - he fishes from a chair, and that presented an unusual problem, because the chair has arms. That meant that when he put it on the platform, he had to walk right to the front of the chair - to the edge of the platform - to sit in it, or to get out. With a box I can sit on it sideways and just swing my legs round.

His tackle was typical 'non-match-angler', but to his credit he took notice of what I said. He was surprised that I started right in the side - he had imagined he would need to fish a long way from the bank. Anyway, here's what we caught:

Within half an hour he'd hooked his first barbel on maggot. It was about 2 lb and he were reet chuffed! Out came my phone for a picture.  More barbel followed, and we weighed the first big one, which I said went: "...perhaps 5 lb". In fact it weighed 6 lb! He changed to a pellet, and in came a 7 lb carp. Things were looking good.

Action Stations! 

With a couple of hours to go Alan said we wouldn't mind trying a pole, so I rigged up one of my spares - a put-in Browning Sting. He was surprised at how light it was, and because it was easier to pull the rig accurately towards the side, where the barbel were feeding, he got on better than with rod and line. Three more big barbel- the last of which also weighed 6 lb - followed, together with some smaller ones. He finished with a couple of small carp, and  some F1s. His total weight was probably around 45 lb.

We weighed this barbel at 6 lb.

He said he'd had a great day and learned a lot. And we expect to go back to Decoy next week. He even said he wouldn't mind trying match fishing. 

We estimated this common at 7 lb-plus.

I had a good day, interrupted quite a lot, obviously. The highlight was a 14 lb carp foulhooked in the tail! I probably had 60 lb-plus, with some carp around 8 lb, and my best barbel taking a grain of corn at the end.

I had fun and games with this one...foul hooked in the tail.

My verdict
Alan played the fish very well, and listened to what I said. I was impressed.

Fishing next door, I had several barbel like this six-pounder on maggot.

His original waggler rig was not good - four inches of float showing, and the shot scattered about on the line. I hope, though, that I impressed on him the importance of accurate plumbing - at the start he had no idea how much line he had laying on the bottom, nor where the deepest holes were. He watched as I plumbed up with the pole, and could see how much easier it is to get accurate readings than with rod and line.

He was also not used to putting in loosefeed regularly, but when I kept on to him to feed, he eventually picked up on it. I would regard that as a fairly typical mistake by many non-match anglers. He also was not used to feeling his way around the depths - I explained that all fish often prefer to pick up food from a slight incline, rather than at the bottom of a shelf. So it's always worthwhile dragging the bait up a slope, which is much easier with a pole than with a rod and line. 

Finally, he also realised that lifting the bait just an inch is also easier with a pole rig, and that so often it induces an immediate bite. I guess he will start on the pole next time we go.