So on the 2nd of january I set off for the Trent which had risen a little with the rain and a bit of snow melt armed with a bag of liquidised bread , a loaf and as a back up some garlic meat . Arriving at the river the level was around the same as it had been for my last 3 trips , which all seemed to coincide with the river been high , the wind was the usual straight in your face . I settled into the swim and the first hour produced numerous taps and knocks that never developed but at least I was getting indications on the bread , I decided to try something different and reduced the hook size and tried smaller pieces of bread but it made no difference and after 3 hours indications stopped all together . Switching to meat for the last hour didnt produce a single indication and I suffered my first river blank of the season.
5 days later and I was back armed with bread and this time maggots as a back up , the river had dropped a little but still held a little colour , the wind was a horrible strong gusty in your face again and I have no idea but I selected a swim that I have fished numerous times and caught roach , gudgeon , perch , bream and barbel but never a chub but something told me to give it a go . the rig was a simple running cage feeder and size 8 hook with a piece of flake on .
The wind was really bouncing the quiver tip all over and I was doubting whether I would be able to see a bite but after 20 minutes the tip tapped then pulled round and I struck into a heavy fish that thumped and swam upstream as I played it the rod kept thumping and I took my time as thiss could be my first fish off the river on flake after 3 or 4 minutes a lovely chub came over the rim of the landing net . On the scales it went 4lb 13oz and was perfect .
My confidence in flake grew with that fish and gave me another bait for winter . Now I now that alot of times you get a chub on the Trent and put it back even if you walk it a few swims downstream yo have to wait for up to an hour for another bite but I was happy to do just that . Half an hour later and I made a mistake , I hooked a snag and a steady pull resulted in me getting all my tackle back and on the hook was what looked like a piece of bin liner , now I checked the last few inches of the hook link for damage but found none . Within 10 minutes I had a few taps and the tip started pulling round and I lifted into what felt like another good fish but 2 quick thumps and it was gone , on retrieving the rig I found the hook link had broke about 3 inch from the swivel , I can only think that it had been rubbing on something when I pulled out of the plastic bag . The wind was getting even worse and knowing that losing a fish could pt them off for longer than if you put one back I decided to move swims , a walk up to the opposite end of the stretch gave me a choice of 3 swims that the wind was blowing downstream in and not in my face , these swims are known for barbel , carp and chub but normally mid river to far bank which were not options given the extra water and light gear I was using , I took the decision to give one of them ago but fish the near margin . An hour on bread produced nothing . Off came the cage feeder and big hook and on went a blockend feeder and size 16 hook and I switched to maggot for the last hour . bites were instantaneous not form chub but quality roach , I took 9 all over 8oz with the biggest been these 2 of 1lb each .
I missed quite a few bites due to the wind but throughly enjoyed it.
My last session of this write up was yesterday and having complained about the wind if the last 2 sessions all I can say is that yesterday was the worst I have ever fished in and was more an endurance . I settled myself into a swim and out went my bread rig , the wind was supposed to be a south westerly so slightly downstream and in my face but was more like a north westerly upstream and in your face but this changed ever 10 minutes or so and with frequent drizzle it really was quite uncomfortable at times . Now I dont use a brolly for these short roving sessions instead relying on my thermal gear . After 3 bite less hours the tip banged and I struck into what was obviously a chub and without too much drama it slid into the net . Another scale perfect young looking chub of 3lb 2oz
At this point the rain stopped and I decided to have a roam up to the swim I had the roach from on my previous trip as the wind should now be over my head , half way to the swim and the wind got even stronger the the heavens opened , when I got to the swim the wind was in every direction and it looked unfishable so I dropped in another one that had a little tree cover but not a lot . I spent the last 2 hours on the maggot and lost what felt like a small chub and suffered so many smashed maggots where I never saw an indication due to the wind and I decided to take my leave , halfway back to the van and incredibly the rain stopped and the wind died down !!!!!.
My next session is in 2 days time and the forecast is for high winds and wintry showers , so it should be another interesting day .
