Seasons End

Well as I sit and write this the river close season is here and to be honest I'm relieved as I have found myself making bad decisions and chasing the wrong species .

So how did my season end ? well I didn't blank but it wasn't the ending I wanted . I had planned to go out on the thursday dinner and stay til midnight on friday but it didnt quite go right . Me and wife Lou had spent 4 days in Newquay and returned home on wednesday dinner time and had woken with a sore throat by that night it had got on my chest and having had bronchitis a number of years ago I couldnt take any chances so dosed myself  up and went to bed . Thursday morning arrived and I wan't much better and decided to leave the fishing til friday morning if I felt up to it .

I awoke at 5am friday morning and felt much better and so loaded the van and headed out into the thick fog , the journey to the river was horrendous visibility all the way was about 20 yards and at times less . I was thinking that when I arrived I would park in the car park and get a picture of the fog for this piece but on arrival I found no fog and just a light mist on the river . An even bigger surprise was that there was just one angler already there and after a chat and a brew with him I found out he had been fishing for bream and was leaving shortly .

Here I made my first mistake and settled in a swim at the start of the stretch instead of driving down to the road bridge which as it turned out may have been a better option .
2nd mistake was not bringing my float rod or picking up some maggots as the river was alive with roach topping some of which looked to be good quality .

I set up my gear and everything was ready to go but I decided to have my breakfast and another brew .

I opted to fish pellet on one rod for the entire session as it would give me the chance of most of the species that would be around , the other rod was to start on the krill boillie and half of pop up .

2 hours in and the pellet rod started bouncing and what was obviously a bream was on the other end and after a surprisingly spirited fight what was to be the biggest fish of the session was in the net , a bream of 5lb 10oz.

This was to be the pattern for the entire session as bream came at varying intervals and phone calls and txts with friends on other stretches revealed that nowhere was producing though by mid afternoon a friend on the opposite bank and nearer the bridge managed 4 barbel while 2 other friends on the pegs next to him were struggling as one managed to 4lb chub and the other was bite less til he cast to a spot closer to the bridge which resulted in the funniest incident for months and thats when he hooked into what turned out to be a pb frying pan !!!!!!!.

I was lucky that one of my facebook friends who has a weekly slot on Chepstow radio got in touch to tell me I could download an app to listen to show while fishing which was most welcome as it runs from 7pm-9pm and since I was alone it broke things up between bites .

While it was obvious that something was happening with regard only bream been about near me it was at least something as anglers were packing up all around me without even had a bite . On dark I switched the boillie rod to a big piece of garlic spam and sent it mid river and there it would stay unmolested til midnight .

I have never been happy fishing a full moon on a clear night as my session on the Tidal earlier in the season had proved when it appeared and bites ceased . Well when this appeared I knew the writing was on the wall .

As midnight approached I was resigned to it been bream and nothing else and at 11.50pm my pellet rod signalled my last fish of the season and bream number 8 arrived , all 8 had weighed between 5lb and the 5lb 10oz first fish . I was a little disappointed not to have added a barbel but given 95% of the people round me and some I had spoke to by phone had not a had a sign I wasn't too unhappy . There was one thing that happened around 11.30pm and thats the biggest splash in mid river 50 yards downstream of me I have ever heard a fish make . I left the river and arrived home at 1am .

I am now planning my sprint tench campaign which may start in just one weeks time .

What a Mixture

This was meant to be a brief post about my last session on the Tidal Trent on my Ashfield ticket but as you will read thats now changed .
I took the decision to make one last visit to Cromwell on my Ashfield ticket and it was to be 3 hours after work session . Now I had a half decent drive from work and arrived to find no one there , so I parked in the car park and had a walk down to what has been a kind swim to me on there and the track seemed solid so drove down to back of swim and took my tackle down the bank and opted for one rod on pellet with hemp and pellet feeder the other rod was to be baited with a Sticky Baits Krill boillie dunked in the matching glug which as someone commented looks like a toffee apple , I won these boillies in the YSG charity raffle .

The rods were cast out and I settled back in my chair and took a picture and sent it to my Facebook page and titled it one last time .

All was quiet and no sign of any activity anywhere , I continued to cast the feeder rod but left the boillie rod where it was and just fed half dozen boillies every so often . An hour into the session and without any warning the boillie rod tore off and I found myself connected to what felt like a good fish that was just holding station and occasionally going a a run but eventually it began to tire and came to the net while the fish didnt look very long it looked deep and wide , I thought it could make double figures but just fell short at 9lb 10oz

Thinking I might pick another one up I recast and awaited developments . At 5.30pm my wife Louise txtd to say she was home and I gave here a quick ring , now I mentioned that a couple of my mates had rung earlier and my phone battery was low so she said " I will let you get off so if you get stuck you will have your phone " . Oh how that turned out . At 6.30pm and been up since 4.30am I decided to call it a day as I had to be up at the same time the following morning . I loaded the van and set off down the track , now during the summer British Waterways had dredged the river round the lock and dumped all the sand and gravel on the field on the left of the track , it was dark and raining plus I was a little tired and misjudged where I was and turned too early and half way across the field the front end of the van hit the floor as the front wheels hit a serious soft spot , I spent 10 minutes trying to dig it out but it was obvious that I needed help , couldnt see anyone else about so I set off to the lock keepers house a way up the river , the door was answered by his wife , who told me he was in Newark til 9pm but that she had seen another angler at the other end of the stretch so off I trekked to find him , he was just packing up and said he would give me a hand no problem . Well after digging some more and find some carpet and bits of wood that had been dumped in the wooded area we got no where , now this guy did something that I had insisted he didnt and he tried to reverse up to me and was about 15 feet away with about another 3 to go for his tow rope to reach when his front end found a similar but slightly shallower soft spot . Ooooopppps not good , I told him forget me we will get you out and I will sit out half hour later and just as we get him out and the lock keeper returns home and eventually gets hold of the local farmer who turns up 20 minutes later with a JCB digger and a wire cable and pulls me free . He only asked for £20 which was a bargain since I know another one that charges £55 !!!! Obviously I couldnt take any pics as it would look like a piss take , so I took the ones below 3 days later . I eventually got home at 11.30pm and sulked to bed and thanked my good lady for the " in case you get stuck " comment .

As I said at the start this was to be my last session on my Ashfield ticket as I had become disillusioned and angry at some things that have happened this season , some of which has been detailed in my blog but also some that have not . The deadline for renewals was the 28th of february and now at the 26th after having a major rethink and a chat with a couple of mates who are also members I came to the conclusion that I was only spiting myself and with a waiting list of 250+ it was doubtful I would get back in so unusually for me I did a u-turn and renewed and actually felt good about it .
So on the 28th I headed back to Cromwell and after speaking to mate fishing and witnessing him landing a barbel around 7lb so off I went to a swim downstream . My choice of bait was the same boillie on the downstream rod and on what was the pellet rod I changed it to straight lead and my home made boillies , which are a base mix of Nutrabaits Trigga and 50/50 mix with a special extra bit of Archie Braddock Spice  that was added to 6 eggs , monster crab , olive oil infused with garlic . The rods went out and I settled back to enjoy the tranquility . My mate called to see me and told me he had added a 2nd barbel of the same size as the first . Was I worried ? a little but theres always a chance , when it got to 5pm I felt it was looking bleak and went to see my mate who was just packing up and had added a 3rd barbel just under double figures . I bid him farewell and went back to my swim , rods back out and a call of nature and as I finished the rod with my home made on nodded once and then went into meltdown I hooked into what was obviously a barbel that in a matter of seconds had gone downstream and then back up and round my other line so it was pass the rods over each other to get them free which actually went quite easily at this point I made a mistake by standing on what looked solid ground but was actually silt form the floods and I found myself sliding down the bank and feet first in to the margins , luckily I landed on solid gravel and was only ankle deep . The fish didnt cause me any more trouble and into the net she went and on the scales 8lb 10oz.

To bring this up to date my next session was 6th march after worker and another 3 hours planned but it didnt pan out like that , on arriving in slightly milder conditions the car was a little full and the stretch only has 8 or 9 swims and I discovered only 2 spare and those there had shared 1 bream between them so after a good look at the free swims I settled myself in and set the rods up , now I dont know why I do this but again I altered my baits , the home mades were left at home and I opted for some ready mades that had been lying in the shed a while which were Squid and Black Pepper , the other rod was again to be the Krill ones but I added a twist by sticking half of matching pop up on . The rods didnt go out til 4.10pm and it was just looking like been a chill session after work when at 5.20pm the krill and pop up rod dropped back and then began nodding , I lifted into what I expected to be a bream but it felt heaving but the fight was a little strange as the fish seemed to have hidden power but didnt seem to be able to sustain a fight , I was surprised to see a barbel that looked a good 8lber come to the net and on the scales went 8lb 6oz , the reason for the strange fight is evident from the photo as you can see it has a deformed back . This is the first fish to be photoed using my new camera and isnt the best . One strange thing here and thats that these 3 sessions have been over the space of 8 days and resulted in 3 bites and 3 fish that have all come between 5.05pm and 5.20pm !!!

Well thats up to date now and as the river season draws to a close I will be out on thursday 13th March and fishing til midnight of the 15th somewhere on the Trent and will bring you up to date with that and a reflection on my season and my plans for the close season .