Nice little surprise

[neil r 1,872]

Went down on the Calder this morning for a few hours to see if I could get past the minnows and get anymore big chub on the stick . Put 4 balls of thatchers original in when I got there with some hemp and maggot and then loose fed maggot and hemp for a bit before starting and was in to grayling from the off on double red . After about 30 of them plus half a dozen brownies I switched to double white to see if it made a difference and had a few more brownies and some chublets around the 3/4-1lb mark and then had this small barbel . I know they are in there but they are nowhere near as common as on the ribble and you hardly ever hear of them coming out these days so I was happy with it even though it’s probably the smallest barbel I’ve ever caught . Had an otter swim 2ft in front of me with a grayling in its mouth and get out on the bank with it aswell  

[Mr Wilkes 3,066]

Lovely little fish. Do you see many mink ? Whilst fishing the Calder .

[neil r 1,872]

I see them further up around altham even though there’s otters there aswell but not seen any down by the abbey stretch for a while . I do see them occasionally on the ribble aswell around balderstone/ribchester areas but not like you used to years ago 

[Mr Wilkes 3,066]

I just wondered as they say that the otters keep them away.

[hambone 950]

1 hour ago, Mr Wilkes said:

I just wondered as they say that the otters keep them away.

I've been told that otters eat them, do not know if that is true but there are a lot less mink on my local river than there was before the otters made a comeback 

[neil r 1,872]

It’s probably true that there’s less mink about because of them  . Used to see them all the time but it’s a lot more common to see otters than mink now and other than altham , and I’ve not fished there for about a year so it might even have changed there , it’s only in a few areas I still see the them .