Usually January is my favourite month for chub as the rivers are low and clear and of course we have frost and cold weather . Not this year as we all know winter has gone mental and its mild for the time of year and very very wet . My first session of any description didnt happen til the 14th , I couldnt get my barbel head on and so decided to risk a session on the Trent after work , knowing the river was about to supposed to start dropping I chanced a cheesepaste session but as soon as I arrived I knew things were not right . The river was a good 2 feet above what the last station reading off the EA site which is strange as the stations further upstream were dropping . On looking at the river things began to take shape as the river was carrying a very brown colour and had great lumps of brown foam on it .
I have fished the Trent in severe flood conditions and seen all sorts come down it from dead animals to whole trees and even fridges and still caught but today even though it wasnt as high it really didnt look right and I could only think of 2 possible causes , 1 was the sugar beet factory had flushed its tanks out which it aint supposed to do but does and 2nd they had flushed the sewage works upstream and released all the extra water from Nottingham . Either way after 2 hours and the river coming up a few more inches I never had a sign and my first session of the year was a blank !!!!
My next chance of getting out was a few days later and the river was still high and didnt look inviting and I decided to have a session for roach on the specimen lake . I decided on a new approach , while sticking to one rod with the maggot and heli rig on my other I choose to try some 8mm pineapple boillies and a ground bait mix consisting of roach 2000 , crushed pineapple boillies and pineapple frenzy liquid .
The swim I choose was the one I had shared with Mark Reid back in November thinking that since the fish appeared t lay up there for the day I had a good chance of finding a fish to take the boillie . However things didnt pan out to well and when it got to 3.45pm and I hadnt had a sign my first ever blank on this venue looked like happening but then in 45 minutes I had 9 roach all on the maggot rod ranging between 10oz and topped by a 1lb 2oz one , I also had a single drop on the boillie rod that never developed .
3 days later and I am back at the specimen lake and on arriving we have a sharp frost which had me thinking it could be a good day for roach .
I choose to fish the opposite end of the lake where I know in these conditions the fish can come at any time due to the deeper water . While setting up I saw 2 kingfishers and my confidence was sky high . I went with the same 2 set ups as previous session and settled back and waited and waited and waited , all the time a pair of grebes worked my end of the lake and despite not seeing them catch anything its usually a dsign of fish been around but it had finally happened and I blanked for the first time on here and never even saw a sign of a fish , shouldnt complain after been on here for the last 3 winters . The only things that took and interest in my bait was a cheeky wren who helped itself to my maggots and this pair that waited for me to throw them some .
My final session of the month was an after worker on a yet again rising Trent .The journey there was something else , I left work with light winds and broken blue sky , as I approached the hill that lead to the Trent valley the sky darkened and a few large spots of rain hit the windscreen as I hit the hill the wind went mental and sleet and hill bounced down and visibility dropped to 20 yards , it stayed like this for the next 4 or 5 miles and then stopped and on arriving at the river I was back to blue sky and no wind !!! This time I decided to fish for a bit with the red maggots I had left . I picked my swim with care and found the nice crease and slack I was looking for .
Knowing this swim from normal levels , I knew I could fish the margin just beyond the reeds sticking out and it would be snag free and fish would be laid up in that area . For an hour I cast the feeder and no sign was forthcoming I then had what can only be describes a a tremor on the quiver tip and then nothing on retrieving the rig both maggots were smashed , this happened on the next 3 casts and on the 4th I took and chance and struck and my blank was avoided as a roach of around 4-6oz was landed , not huge but welcome .
The very next cast and a slightly more deliberate bite brought me another fish but this time it was one of the all too rare now Trent gudgeon .
Thinking I might have a few more I recast and thought I felt a spot of rain and noticed the wind was picking up which would make spotting the tremor bites harder to spot but that was to be the least of my worries and the wind again went mental and spun into my face and the rain turned to torrential hail !!!!!!!!!! Now I must start using my brolly or at least taking it on these sessions and I may have been able to continue , as it was I beat a hasty retreat to the van and by the time I got there I was drenched and couldnt feel my hands . So there you have it January gone and lets hope the rest of the year improves . My next session is penciled in for 2 days time on a very high Trent but this time it will be barbel rods and garlic spam .
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