Quick recovery

Well after the blank on my last session I was pretty deflated and despite having a session planned just 2 days later it was in doubt for 2 reasons , firstly my head was all over the place with what had happened and I have problem with my ear , secondly and the one that was the biggest problem was the impending storm , now I will fish in any conditions if there's a chance of a fish but my wife Lou was giving me daggers with the thought of the predicted winds so my decision would be made on the morning of the session . We awoke to the sound of heavy rain but not much wind , seems we had missed the storm as it had veered more south and while it had done some damage and cost 5 people their lives it was'nt actually as bad as predicted . Confirmed with the wife that I would indeed be venturing out at some point and was asked if I could walk the dog before I left .

The first thing was to sort some breakfast out in the shape of 2 slices of toast , tin of plum tomato's , 2pieces of black pudding with brown sauce on . Proper Yorkshire food !!!!

   

After that and the rain had eased so out me and Dizzy the dog went , half hour later and were back and its time to sort the tackle out and get on my way . Now it was never going to be a long session due to working early the next morning .

I arrived at the river just after 12 noon and had a quick look round , I was somewhat surprised to find the dredger still working on the stretch as it was supposed to have finished 2 weeks ago , picked a swim that looked to be quite steady and since the river was down by around 2 feet from friday I knew the swim would be ok even when the tide turned .

I got both rods set up and cast out just before 1pm one rod had a big piece of garlic spam on it the other 2 x 10mm `boillies and attached a pva bag of pellets to this one while putting 3 or 4 pieces of spam at the top of the swim , there was a little rubbish coming down but nothing too serious to start with .

Things took a turn for the worse when the dredging barge that had gone to empty its load returned as the dredger started working again it became clear that they were removing more than we believed and had disturbed all the old smelly silt and the rotting old weed and this was now mixing with the leaves and sticking to my line , I was starting to get that sinking feeling and preparing for a blank .I decided to change the boillie rod over to my favourite pellet combination and 2 x 8mm went out , within 5 or 10 mins the rod tip nodded and something dislodged the lead at first I thought it might be weed but it continued to nod and so lifted into my first fish a bream of around 3lb which was , as has now become a custom unhooked in the water and released , this was quickly followed by another closer to 6lb  . I recast after the 2nd bream and awaited the next one as usually when they show up they show up on mass . For 10 mins nothing happened then the rod bounced over and the lead started rolling I lifted the rod expecting the nod of another bream but got a thump of what suspect was a decent chub unfortunately i was not to find out as it did that old chub trick and transferred the hook to a weed bed !!!! I quickly rebaited and recast and soon had bream number 3 on the bank again around 3 or 4lb .

Things went a little quiet and while concentrating on the pellet rod was totally taken aback as the spam rod went mental as something tore off downstream after a short and spirited fight in the extra water a barbel rolled into the net and on the scales it went 7lb 10oz .

Suddenly it went a little dark and the heavens opened and as it did bream number 4 showed up this one was around 5lb . I slipped it back and noticed a rainbow over the far bank .

Now my luck seemed to be taking a turn for the better as I cast to the point of the reflection of the rainbow and put the rod down . I checked the time and decided since the dredger was still working and the rubbish was increasing I would pack up at 5pm as it went dark . 15 mins after I had cast it out the spam rod gave one bleep then rapped over but for some reason the baitrunner did'nt give any line , now what happened next just proves how your luck can change , I lifted into the fish and disengaged the baitrunner I tried to turn the reel handle but it felt solid , looking up to the end of the rod I noticed the line had wrapped round the end and I could neither give or retrieve line , I dont know why the barbel hadnt gone on a run but a I slowly and carefully fed the rod backwards and  unraveled the line expecting at any moment the barbel to take off and break me but it didnt I played the fish to the net with only one small run and when it went into the net it wasnt until I had a look I realised it was a good fish on the scales it went 11lb 7oz which is a season high , not massive but very welcome .

I released the fish and it swam off strongly , I decided to call it a day and made my way back to the van , by the time I was ready to leave it was 5.30pm and dark but still the dredger worked .
As I write the river is rising again and the fish will be feeding again , I have a planned after work session in a couple of days so will be watching the EA website to keep an eye on the river levels.

Poor Session

Well after been at work all week and seeing all the fish coming from both the Tidal and Middle Trent with the extra water in it I was looking forward to putting a few fish on the bank but sadly it was to be .

My original plan was to fish a swim on the Tidal that had been very kind to me over the last few seasons and was so very confident , however following a phone conversation with a friend who told me that the swims were under water and given the nature of the swim I intended to fish meant it was unlikely I would be able to but decided to drive to the swim and make an assessment . Speaking to another mate who was intending to fish when he finished work a decision was made that I would meet up with him on a stretch of the middle when he finished .
I woke friday morning to find the forecast rain falling but with the promise of drier weather a little later I had a leisurely breakfast and got ready and loaded the van and the rain subsided . Setting off  the drive was slow due to the surface water and the endless stream of lorries .

I arrived to find the swim just fishable but knew that when the tide turned in a couple of hours it would be under water again I stood and surveyed the river and a barbel rolled just below the swim , that was it I decided to fish one rod and minimum gear until the tide turned .

With the river up and coloured garlic spam was despatched with a pva bag of pellets , a couple more fish showed and things looked good but alas after an hour and a half nothing took any interest and the river was starting to back up and rise . With regret I got my gear back to the van and reflected on the fact that given a couple more hours was confident I would have added a fish or 2 .

I drove to the stretch on the middle , this particular stretch has only seen me twice , once about 30 years ago in a match and the last time was the last day of last season in very cold conditions which resulted in absolutely nothing !!!! Little did I know that despite this also looking good for a fish it wouldnt quite pan out that way .
I set up and just got my rods in as my mate arrived .

Now while the river was high on the tidal , there was little rubbish coming down but it was a different story here as there was countless leaves and dying weed coming down and the fact that the wind was getting very strong throwing even more in meant you was reeling in every 10 minutes to clear the line .
I yet again never had a touch but my mate on the next swim down managed 2 barbel of around 6lb and 8lb respectively , he is using what must be the most amazing bait , he has put this together himself and had it rolled and is pulling fish out of nowhere including a lot of double figure fish .

We decided to call it a day as the leaves and wind was getting worse . The view on the far bank was something else .

Now my next planned trip is monday which should be interesting given we may be having gales lashing the country .

Best laid plans

Well this will be a little brief and short on pictures . My first session after finally breaking my double duck for the season was with Jason and his dad John on a stretch of the tidal trent I hadnt fished before but was assured they had never blanked there and had caught some good barbel there . Well that changed as despite the river looking good and conditions not been too bad , though we did get some rain at one point , the fish flatly refused to play ball . My swim was a nice looking one with a nice holding feature in it but was too tight for the pod so single stick it was .

We stuck it out til just before dark with out a sign until about half hour before we packed up when I managed a bream of around 3lb . Now since i had planned to stay out overnight I decided to stop off on the middle trent on the way home and see Jon and have a few hours on there . But even that didnt produce a barbel but I did add 4 more bream through the night all around the 4lb mark .

Now me and Jon got invited to fish a rod race with a few other lads from round the Sheffield area and we both tied for first place but I needed to add a pike and zander to my list , Jon already had both fish but wanted to try and improve on them . So off we went to the club lake that has plenty of both in to good sizes . Now I dont do pike or zander fishing other than a bit of lure fishing so put myself in Jons hands , after having a chat I decide to fish one legered deadbait rod and the other rod would be legered prawn as there are some large perch in there too . Jon went with 2 deadbait rods and a live bait . After an uneventful few hours Jon who had a float rod out to catch live baits hooked an eel of about 4lbs but lost it . Now I wouldnt normally fish for eels but since little else was about I changed the prawn rod over to a maggot feeder with 7 maggots on a size 10 hook and through the night I had 19 eels between 1lb and 2lb 8oz , my one regret is not putting my keepnet out as the picture would have been something else .Now the swims we fished are one of only 4 that you cant leave your vehicle behind and I fetched mine down to load my tackle and then had a brew with Jon , when I went to leave the van battery was dead !!!!!!!!!!!! I have to say a big thank you to the guy off the river who tried to help we start it and an even bigger thank you to Rescue my Car for finding me in the middle of nowhere and getting me going .

The last session for me to write about is a farce from start to finish . Me , Jason and Jon were attending the ABF AGM and had been given permission to fish a syndicate stretch of the middle Trent for free . Now how often do the forecasters get the weather right ? well they did for this . It rained then rained some more and then just for good measure rained even more .

The meeting went well and so to the river now this is where Jon made a sensible decision and chose not to fish . Me and Jason set off with out bivvies and walked to the river and wandered about in the rain and found what looked good swims , up went the bivvies and back to the car park load the barrows and push rest of our gear to the swims .
Things started badly for me I set off down the bank with my pod and slipped hlaf way down and slid the rest of the way on my backside and only just managed to avoid ending up in the river but that was just the start of it next I discovered I had left part of the pod at home from my previous session , back up the saturated bank and access things . Decided on single sticks and fish from to of bank and if I hooked anything then life in my hands and slide down to land it and still it rained !!! Next disaster was just around the corner set the rods up , now I usually have 2 barbel rods and my marker rod , now as I knew we would be having to keep our kit to a minimum I took the marker rod off unfortunately I hadnt I took one of my barbel rods off . Got the one barbel rod set up and rigged a straight lead with 2 x 10mm boillies on and a pva bag and banged it out . Now my next decision was to set the marker rod up to fish normal , a gamble given that my reel was a big pit but sorted the clutch out to free spool and got it adjusted to give line if needed , out that went with a pva bag and piece of spicy pepperami on the hair . By now Jason had already been fishing an hour and had 2 barbel and a chub but he was fishing like a pro .About half hour after a casting out the barbel rod sprang into life and I was attached to my first fish which turned out to be a barbel around 7lb which due to the bank and conditions I unhooked and released in the water . At this point I had a brain wave and managed to get my pod set up using a bit of thought .

Single stick set up

 travel light and sleep on my recliner

Dodged up pod

As it got dark Jason gave me a shout he had a decent fish on and finally I had some light relief as I got to his swim he was holding his rod and making his way down the bank and was sliding like a pro down it when his front foot hit a rut and he did some kind of pirouette flipped in the air did a back flip and landed backwards in the rushes pmsl , now to be fair all through that he kept hols of his rod jumped up and landed the fish a barbel of 10lb 5oz .

I returned to my swim and quickly landed a chub of 4lb 14oz , now since it had stopped raining , all be it briefly so took the opportunity to get a quick snap of it .

The rain returned with a vengeance and to his credit Jason kept catching , to be honest I fished like a prat and for the first time ever let the weather beat me , I did add another barbel of about 8lb at 2am but the river was rising rapidly and if UI could have got my head straight would have caught more . I think Jason finished with 7 barbel including 3 doubles the biggest going 11lb 14oz , 5 chub around 4-5lb each and 2 bream . the session ended with another disaster , I decided to fish one rod while we started packing up and put it well across the river now about 10 minutes later a boat turned up and proved that some of them are idiots as he got to me he was well away from my line in the boat channel and for reasons only know to him he cut across the river and went straight through my line and cut me off DAMN or words to that effect !!!!!

A few days later things got worse when the van failed to start and i had to get a taxi to work , result new battery . As I finish this we have just had 3 or 4 days of rain and the Trent is high and coloured so am off out tomorow with some big smelly bait and hope to report some arm aching action next time .