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
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 .
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