Brief and to the point

As the year comes to an end I feel I should write about my last 3 sessions but 2 were practically write offs . The first was a short after work session for chub on the Trent , now as you will have read previous my style of steak and mince fishing is different to most as I only add predators plus and plug the feeder and use the blood and predator plus to seep out into the water , after having a chat with Lee Swords and watching his video I decided to try a similar approach in that I mixed the mince and predator plus with some groundbait to break up the pieces of mince which stopped it clogging in the feeder .I also moved to a swim new to me and spent 2 hours fishing before I had a savage take that found me attached to a large fish for all of 2 seconds when it came off , on retrieving the rig the hook had gone and on inspecting the line it looked like it had been bitten off , dont often have this happen but sometimes chub are good at it . that was all the action I got despite trying a couple more swims .

My next session was looking like a big bonus as my wife had suggested I have a few hours after work on xmas eve , now I was on an early start than usual which meant been at work for 3.45am but would be done for midday and at the river for 12.45 ish and planned to fish til 5pm ish , well the best laid plans and all that , now I can cope with fishing in high winds but I had been fishing in a gale force downstream wind for around half an hour and had one tentative bite that I missed and even had a couple of fish top in the area my bait was in but then the sky went black and yes rain dont bother me either despite no brolly but when the wind spins round to come straight in your face and the rain is horizontal straight at you its time to quit , the 50 yard walk back to the van was ok from the front as the wind and rain was on my back but god was I soaked .

Yet again the weather would play a part in my last session .I had a choice of 2 venues both involving different approaches . I have been a member of Newark and District Piscatorial s for the last 4 years and while I have fished some of the stretches of the Trent I have never even seen the stretch of the upper Witham but was hoping to change that unfortunately the weather again played its part , high winds greeted me when I left the house and not knowing the stretch decided not to risk been able to find a spot and took myself off to the small pond that I had my perch from at the end of last year and also some good roach , I settled on a swim that had the very high gusty wind on my back .

I had planned if I was on the river to fish liquidised bread with crushed hemp in a cage feeder with bread flake on the hook . I decided to stick to the bait plan but to float fish it and use bread punch , my choice of float would normally have been a bottom end only one to combat the wind but I had some floats that were made by Robert Lancaster of the ARA and decided to use of them . From the off I was catching small roach .

I had taken some prawns in case the perch put in an appearance but as the day wore on and the roach continued to come and get bigger I decided to stay with the punch .I must have finished with close to 100 fish with most 4-6oz but also a good number around 12oz and have since found out that some where roach / rudd hybrids .

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I had nice enjoyable day and will be out for my last session of the year on monday 30th december and again have a number of choices .
I have some decisions to make about what tickets I will be getting for next season as I am dropping my Ashfield ticket for a number of reasons including the fall I had fiasco . I have 3 or 4 options and will be taking up at least 2 of them .

High winds and a heartbreaker

What follows is been written early as out for another go tomorow but really wanted to get this out of the way . Thursday 5th december and 70mph winds forecast but was planning on an after work session on the middle Trent and decided to give it a go , now arriving at 3pm after battling side winds that rocked the van and dodging bits of tree on the village roads I found the wind coming straight into my face as expected .

I wasnt sure the picture would do it justice so shot a short video .

Now I'd love to say that my efforts were rewarded but unfortunately it was one problem after another , I had opted to try liquidised bread and flake in the hope of either a big roach or a chub . first cast and the wind is shaking rod all over but its supposed to drop around 4pm , the tip suddenly pulls slowly round and lifting into it thought for a second I had hooked a fish but no thumping just a dead weight and retrieving line by pumping it in a large plastic bag is wrapped round my feeder  because of the weight the hook trailing behind snagged and broke off , on getting hold of the bag it turns out its been filled with water and knotted at the top , some morons about !!!!!! . Now tying a hook on is usually easy but not in this wind and I end up going up th bank and sitting in the van to do it . On getting back out of the van I take the decision to move swims to where the wind my be coming at a slightly different angle , load van and a short drive down stream and set everything up just as the light starts to fade and I find out that I can find the isotope for the rod tip so its even more f a struggle . I gave it another hour and with the wind showing no sign of dropping and me starting to get a massive headache as a result of been battered by the wind I call it quits knowing I would have a full day tomorow .

Up the next morning and sort flask out and make sure my only spare isotope is in my bag I set off for the bait farm as want some maggots to give the float ago as the wind had dropped . Now the bait farm is about 25 mins away from where I live so you can tell that when I arrived 45 mins after leaving home that I had problems . The main one been that as I approached the slip road to get off the A1 a car transporter in front of me was indicating it was going to pull out in front of me so slowed down only to see the slip road going passed and then spotted that the transporter wasnt indicating but one of the cars had its hazzard lights on , surely illegal ?. Eventually got to the bait farm and picked maggots up and had a good chat with owner and then on to the Trent . On arriving I had a quick look and picked a nice glide with the intention of fishing the float until an hour before dark and then move to chub swim . Set stick float rod up and on went the bait apron .

My last few trips have led to some great bags of roach on the float but today whether it was a severe drop in temperature the previous night but 2 hours of running the float through and altering depth and using pin to vary speed I couldnt buy a bite and took the decision to try the feeder to see if they wanted a static bait . After 3 or 4 casts I started getting quick jabs on the tip that were unhittable but on retrieving rig maggots were either stunned or smashed completely so started altering the length of the hook link and immediately had a chub of around 12oz , in the next hour I added 12-15 roach of around 6-12oz and one specimen of 1lb 4oz .

Now after a couple more raoch and the light is starting to fade so its time for a move to one of my favoured chub swims , after loading the unhooking , weighing and photoing gear into van I go down to get the landing net , ait , chair and rod and decide to have one last cast on maggot feeder , my history on this stretch is that it has produced nearly all my 5lb +chub and also  my pb off here and had decided that I want my first 6lber from here and know to 4 definite 6's coming off it so spent the last 2 and a half winters on here although last year was a write off with the floods . Out goes the feeder and within a minute of it settling a couple of taps a a slight pulled round and I strike into what feels like a good fish that has a good shake of its head and then a short run and I think small barbel but after a few more shakes and 2 or 3 mins of fight the fish is nearing been read for the net as it surfaces I see a big bronze flank and the unmistakeble big white lips and its in the net lifting the net out I gaze at the biggest chub I have ever seen in he flesh in fact after unhooking in the net I check its not a common carp !!!!! Now I have a dilemma in that all the weighing and photoing stuff is in the van behind me , normally I would place the fish in the margin in the deep specimen landing net I normally use but due to having a lot of hooks snagging in the mesh recently I have switched to a rubber pan net , so do I take the fish with me and leave it on the grass while I sort the stuff out risk it in the margins in a shallow net , well its a no brainer fish welfare comes first and its placed in the margins and I go off up the bank and just as everything is ready I turn to see ripples coming from where the landing net is and my heart sinks as I see the chub as done what chub do best a escaped !!! Gutted dont do justice as to how I feel , I sit down on the wet grass and sulk in disbelief  for about 20 mins . I eventually shake myself from this and reason that moving seems pointless given the fish i have just losted from a swim with no form of chub this size .
In to the back of the van again and out with the isotope which it turns out I should have checked as the holder is broken but today I refuse to give in and after using one piece of rubber tubing to hold the holder on and then super gluing another piece that will hold the isiotope into the first piece I have something that looks awful but that works .

Change my maggot feeder for the cage feeder on goes a size 12 hook and a 15 inch 4lb hook link and its steak and mince time . Takes me another hour to get an indication , which is normal on here if you return or lose a fish , I'm now at the point where one fish and I'm off as I'm still numb from losing what must have been a new pb and probably that first 6 . suddenly the tip pulls round and I'm connected to another chub and its soon in the net and no messing about this time , its weighed and photoed at 3lb 6oz not massive but heals my wounds a little .

I pack up and leave and vow that it wont change my challenge despite offers of information as to where I have more chance of that 6 or bigger , I will nail one from here .

I get home and find loads of commiserations on my facebook wall plus the odd comment describing me in terms that I had already called myself , thanks everyone yeah I'm a knobber Stewart lol but given what the fish did I hate to think what would have happened if it had done its escape trick at the top of the bank .
Fish Welfare comes first !!!!!

I was hoping to make this a separate blog but for what it was worth , I decided just to add it briefly here .

I went out again on monday 9th and I thought things couldnt get worse but they have , I called a stretch of the Tidal Trent to have an hour lure fishing and going down one of the swims I slipped and finished up going up in the air and coming down on my back and on to the top of a scaffolding pole that the club use to construct steps from which was lucky because had I gone the other way I would have gone on the top of a wall and dropped 6 or 7 feet into the river !!!!! At the time I didnt feel lucky as it knocked the wind out of me and left me feeling nausea's . After resting for 15 mins or so I had a go at luring and nothing . Driving onto the middle Trent I discovered a guy who had done an overnighter for barbel and he had managed one chub of around 4lb . I started on bread flake and after an hour switched to maggot feeder and for 2 hours I tried everything I could to convert the bites into fish all to no avail . I moved swims for the last 2 hours and switched steak and mince which produced 2 tiny taps . Speaking to a couple of other anglers who had dome the full day revealed not a single fish had come out which given decent conditions was a real surprise .
I feel on reflection that the fall knocked the stuffing out of me and am now still struggling to sit back as my back is very sore but hey ho as someone said its better than been dead lol

So many sessions and need to catch up .

Since my last update after roach I was shocked to see I had done 6 more sessions !!!!!.
The first was to be an after work session on the Trent after chub and also had my new scales to christen which a delayed birthday present from my wife Lou .
Arriving at the river just after 3pm I had a chat with one of the regulars who was barbel fishing , he didnt have any but lost 2 and netted 2 bream . I settled above a fence end with a small raft off it .

You can just make it out where there is a flat spot to the right middle . As the weather had turned a bit cooler it had to be steak and mince with my usual feeder set up . First cast and within 10 mins I had a decent rap that I managed to miss but next cast I made no mistake and my new scales showed a chub of 3lb 3 and a half ounces .

My next cast was to turn my session upside down and actually nearly ruin it . A few minutes after recasting I seemed to get a slight tap and then the tip pulled round about 2 inch and held there , only one thing to do HIT IT !!!! there was definitely something on the end but no thump suggested it was not a fish and as I had to pump and reel whatever was on the end grudgingly came towards me , now when my feeder appeared and there was some line round it things started to become clear , grabbing hold of the line and getting it from round my feeder I started to hand line it in it went solid now this line was about 6lb at most and whatever was on the end was snagged solid . I had to get up and walk down the bank to almost where I was fishing and eased things towards me it suddenly freed itself and large branch suddenly bobbed to the surface with all manner of leaves and rubbish on it and off it went downstream straight through my swim !!!!! A few expletives later and I retrieve the last of the line , which ended up been about 40yards and on the end a lead clip with a 6oz gripper lead on and a mono hooklink of about 3lb and 6 inch long with a tiny hook on it , I had to take the pliers to the lead clip to get it off and get the lead free . The bailiff was just down the bank with the other guy and off I went to show him the sort of idiots fishing , he wasnt surprised .

I decided to have a walk and leave the swim as all that rubbish going through it would have moved anything that was still there . Half hour later and into dark I make another cast and after several more and an hour without a sign its looking bad as I have to be leaving in the next 10 mins or so . Just as I'm thinking about reeling in a guy who had been fishing well upstream suddenly appeared at my side and as he did my tip pulled round and held again I lifted in to the fish and it gave 2 thumps and just held there I began reeling in and it just started coming towards me as a heavy lump , thinking I had lost it and got some more rubbish I stopped reeling in and got another 2 thumps and then nothing again I began winding in again and it just kept coming , now I was thinking this could be a good chub , I pushed the landing net out and as the feeder appeared was all set to net a special chub , now I never put my head torch on until the fish is in the net but the guy who was stood with me stuck his on and all hell broke loose !!!!! my chub had turned into a barbel after probably 4 or 5 mins of mayhem into the net went a nice barbel that pulled the scales round to 8lb 3oz and was a nice finish to an eventful session .

My next session was to be the following day and after thinking it through I decided on a stillwater session after roach on the specimen lake . On arriving I was to find half a dozen of the local season ticket holders were already on including the guy who was complaining about lack of fish on my last visit and yet again he was complaining about there not been enough stock in the lake , he didnt seem impressed when I said its a specimen lake its not supposed to be stocked to the gunnels . A quick wander round and all the others were blanking and added to this there were 6 carp anglers on the same bank so I took myself off to the opposite side at the end I hadnt fished before .

After a quick lead around I found a nice area to set my stall out and awaited action and waited and waited . Now I know that when its like this that dusk can usually bring a fish or 2 . The guys in the other side did what they always do and left before 3pm . To be honest even I was getting worried when my mate rang to fill me in on his predator exploits on another lake but while we were talking the kingfisher shot passed , now if you have read my other blogs about this lake you will know I dont blank when seeing one and sure enough 10 mins later one of the rods signaled a take and I was soon netting a roach of 1lb .

I had 2 more takes that I managed to miss before calling it a day and I still aint blanked on this lake .

The reason I choose the lake for this session was that I had monday free and was off to the middle trent to show what its capable of  regarding roach and so took myself off to the bait farm and bought 4 pints of red and white maggots and then on to the trent to have a day trotting the stick .

I choose a swim with a nice even steady flow but my only problem was going to be the wind which was downstream and into my face .

I set up my stick rod and choose a 6 no4 one of the new Dave Harrell ones I recently got and cant praise them or the wagglers he sells highly enough . A couple of runs through adjusting the depth til the float dragged under . I fed a pouch of maggots and sent the float down the run and was immediately was into a roach after several more the wind increased and controlling the float became difficult so I started experimenting with back shots and settled on a bb which worked a treat . roach came constantly for the full 4 hours I was able to do and other than one bream of around 2lb and 2 x 6oz dace the rest of my catch was all roach of between 4 and 12oz which resulted in around 15lb of roach plus the bream . Not bad on a river that has no silver fish left in it .

A couple of days later and onto the trent again after work for another steak and mince session .

The session went like a dream and resulted in 4 chub of 1lb , 12oz , 2lb 5oz and 3lb 11oz , I also lost a small one and missed a few bites .

Things at least quietened down for a few days as work took over and I was able to take stock of these sessions but the respite didnt last long as I had 2 days booked off for fishing related stuff including 2 sessions of fishing and a charity night .

1st session was to be a social with Mark Reid , now Mark had been down to the specimen lake the day before and was told that there had been no fish caught for weeks , when he told the guys telling him this that his mate had not blanked they all replied "I bet its the guy in the red van " Lol . Needless to say they all blanked but Mark had a run of fish on dark in a 45 mins period .

When we arrived the following morning the lake was flat calm and we had a good look round , we spoke to the bailiff who offered the advice that the swim we were stood in would produce but we needed to cast 90 yards now as the bailiff left we looked at each other and then the lake and saw a roach roll just about where he had said to cast , now hitting the distance would be no problem but signs suggested the breeze starting to blow would be in our faces and it had a chill to it , so we did the obvious thing , we drove round to the opposite side of the lake which meant a gentle lob of 50 yards would see us reaching the spot . We shared a swim as it was easily big enough for 2 and it was a social .

Now I had never fished this area or even close to it and so didnt know what to expect , what happened was quite unbelievable given no one was catching , Within 10 mins of casting in we both had fish and for the next 5 hours we could hardly keep our 4 rods in the lake as bite after bite came , we missed a few and had between 40 and 50 roach between us , most where 8-12oz and around 8 around 1lb 2oz . The session was so hectic I dont remember sitting down once !!!!.

The following day was to be something of mixed bag as I was attending the first Yorkshire Specimen Group charity night a write of which it on the link below . As this was to take place in Doncaster I had to take a shift off work and as I didnt have to be there til 6pm I took myself off to the Trent with a couple of pints of hemp and maggots and just my tip rod and bag . Now I expected a few fish but nothing prepared me for the 3 hours that were to follow .

Set up a small feeder and filled it with maggots and fished 2 on the hook and first cast a roach of around 6 ounces came to the net . I continued fishing this way but also started putting a pouch of hemp in front of me on the line my feeder was on down the margin , fish after fish came to the net between 6oz and 12oz and finished with around 60 plus a bream of around 1lb and this absolutely pristine roach of 1lb 7oz .

I have 2 sessions planned for later this week , the first I intend to do an after worker with liquidised bread and flake as I feel it could produce some better roach and even the much sought after 2lber , I will also be taking the steak and mince as a back up for an hour or so into dark . the following day will be another go with the stick float and maggot . Till then thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the write up for our charity night .

http://yorkshiresg.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/the-y-s-g-anglers-evening/