A Funny Thing Happened… Ade Kiddell

This entry was posted on 6th April, 2017

It seems like as the river season closed in the UK, over here in France the fish woke up and were hungry. Over the last few days, the barbel and chub have been on the feed and I have managed plenty of decent fish, breaking my river barbel PB in consecutive days.

There is always plenty of debate about the use of bite alarms when barbel fishing and for every angler that fishes with them there is one who wouldn't use them. For me, it’s horses for courses. When you’re stalking barbel on a small river with a single rod then the alarms don’t have a place but on a big river with rods positioned high then it’s alarms for me every time. However, I definitely don't rely solely on the alarms. Instead, I use them as an indicator, a way of attracting my attention if I am busy sorting out tackle or bait or, indeed, busy with the second rod. I have been using the new Korum Bite Alarm sets for a while now and can honestly say not only are they great value for money they are also very good bite alarms. In the set you get three alarms and a remote sounder, all in a presentation hardcase for £43.99 – you can’t deny that is brilliant value. If you are looking for a set of basic alarms for your fishing then these are well worth a look.

Often when fishing with two rods tangles can occur; a hooked fish will cross the other line and causing you no end of problems. A few evenings ago, for example, I was busy playing a fish on my downstream rod when the upstream rod also had a bite and then appeared to be tangled with the other rod. The worse thing that can happen when one rod has a hooked fish is if the other line is tight, as it can often lead to the fish being unhooked by the tight line. This meant that the first thing I did was to unclip the reel bale arm of the other rod. I could then play and net a very nice barbel, well over 8lb. With the fish on the unhooking mat I set about removing the hook and, to my amazement, the fish was hooked fair and square with both my hook baits! Whether this was a result of the fish tangling the second line or from feeding on both my baits I am not sure and I’ll leave it to you to decide!



That episode got me thinking about some of the other funny things that have happened over the years whilst fishing. I can remember another occasion when fishing with an old friend Barry a few years ago. We both were fishing the same swim for barbel, one rod each, fishing maggot. We had the fish in a frenzy and had landed a good few barbel already when we both had a bite within seconds of each other. As we played the fish, it was obvious something was not quite right and it turned out we both had a hook in the mouth of the fish! Our baits must have been close together and, as the fish fed, it must have picked up both baits at the same time. On another occasion, I was playing a barbel of about 5lbs and as I slid it over the rim of the landing net another barbel of almost identical size followed it in – two for the price of one on that occasion!

Barry and I fished a lot together a few years ago; we owned a small boat between us and spent a lot of time up on the broads chasing the summer bream shoals. It was on one such occasion, when we were fishing our favourite mark on Barton Broad and getting a few roach, that the bream moved in. I started to amass a nice net of bream whilst Barry could only get roach! No matter what he did, he could not get a single bream. What’s more, we were fishing identically and bait, hook, line and depth were identical. I even cast my rod and he cast his and we swapped over rods – guess what? Out came a bream for me on Barry's rod and a roach for Barry on my rod. Whatever he tried it didn't work, in the end I managed 22 bronze beauties to Barry's zero!



I really enjoy piking on rivers. Although the fish are not as big as their lake dwelling family, I have had some nice hard fighting fish whilst adapting a roving approach. A few years ago on the Wensum, I was having a good morning with a few jacks taking the float fished dead bait when I unfortunately lost a small jack – somehow it had managed to wrap my line around a sunken branch, which resulted in the mainline snapping and sadly leaving the fish with my hooks still in him. This was unsatisfactory but there was very little I could do. I carried on roving the stretch and, around 400 or 500 yards downstream of where I had lost the fish earlier, I had another run and landed a small jack. Whilst unhooking the fish, I was amazed to see that there, hooked in his jaw, was my set of trebles and bait that I had lost earlier that day!

A few years ago, I braved the River Severn on a very cold and damp afternoon. I fancied that a barbel or two might feed, as the river was in flood. My goodness it was cold and, to make matters worse, I had left my flask at home! I was gasping for a hot cup to tea to warm my hands and heat my core. What happened next, I have never managed to find an explanation for. An old man appeared from nowhere, carrying a tray with a mug of tea and a plate of biscuits! We exchanged only a few words; he told me that he could see how cold I was and hoped a hot cuppa would help – only asking that I drop the tray and mug back to the house behind me when I had finished. He was gone as quickly as he appeared! The tea and biscuits went down a treat and even a couple of barbel graced the net, so it wasn’t a bad result in the end. I cleared up and took the tray back to the house. A lady answered the door and seemed surprised I had her tray and mug. I explained that the old man had brought the tea to me and asked that she thank him again for his hospitality, to which she told me that the only man at the house was her husband, that he was still at work and had been all day. I am not sure to this day if she was winding me up or if a ghost really had made me a cuppa!



I was very lucky that I got the chance to fish the famous River Cauvery in India for the ‘Mighty Mahseer’. I have stayed at the Galibore Fishing Camp three times over the years and, once I got to grips with the river, I had some great fish. My best day was seven mahseer over 20lb, including an 83lb, 42lb and 37lb fish, as well as four other 20s. The most unusual catch I managed during my stay was something that made grown men run, leaving me on my own to deal with its snapping jaws and razor sharp claws. Fishing with the normal ragi paste, a slow deliberate pull resulted in a hooked fish and a long fight followed with what I thought was a good mahseer. When it finally surfaced, the biggest, angriest turtle you have ever seen appeared to be fairly lip hooked and not happy! Trying to snap 40lb mono is not easy, particularly as my fishing buddies and the guides had long since departed I was on my own. At the time, I didn't appreciate just how dangerous these turtles can be and this one was huge. The Indian guides were gone, along with Dave Plummer and my fishing partner they were up on rocks way above the river watching me struggle but fully aware if the turtle got on the bank it could easily cause me some damage. I managed to snap the line in the end and off he went – funny now but not at the time, that’s for sure.

I am sure many of you have some very funny and strange things that have happened to you whilst fishing; I have plenty more and will perhaps tell you about some more another day.