Getting a txt at 5.30am from Jon Preen saying he was at the fishery and when I would I be there , arriving about an hour later and after a look around settling into a swim I suddenly realised the season didnt start for another 15 hours , meant I could prep the swim and relax . Now the fishery has some over friendly cows and so precautions have to be taken and banksticks and tape or nylon rope are the order of the day .
The river was a little bit up but nothing too bad , Deciding to use a feeder on the upstream rod and straight lead on downstream I set about finding the right weight to hold bottom and settled on an 8oz feeder and 6oz lead .
As for baiting up my thoughts were get a bed of bait down using a bait dropper and top up as necessary once the season started with a spomb . My initial bait was a bucket of hemp and pigeon conditioner plus some of my chosen hookbait which were garlic spam and the Hookbait Companies amino crustacean boilies .
Things were looking good as I shared a brew with Jon but things took what was to turn out to be the start of our plans falling apart . Another member of the syndicate turned up and settled upstream of me probably 20 yards closer than I would have felt was comfortable and in the next half hour nearly caused the first disaster , while he was messing about setting his shelter the over friendly cows showed up and as he had no protective fence up , which is the first job , they got close , I gave him a shout and what he did next could really have caused me or Jon some serious problems . Now there was about 50 or so of the cows in this particular group and he promptly jabbed the front one with his landing net pole and all hell broke loose as they stampeded down stream at us , luckily there was a big nettle bed between us and the cows veered round it and kept going narrowly missing us both .
That obviously didnt go down well and when Jon went to check his permit things got worse as he was obviously planning on using 3 rods which is against syndicate rules as it is on most of the Trent .He wasnt happy and try to defend it but was told a straight no .
We continued to add bait through out the hours leading up to magical midnight . Grabbing a couple of hours sleep , I was woken by our friend upstream or to be more precise his super bright head torch shining through my bivvy door . Checking the time it was 10 minutes to midnight , grabbing 2 cans of Speckled Hen I headed to Jon's swim , we cracked open the cans and poured half in to the river as a gesture to the river gods and drained the rest of the can . Noticing the river hadnt actually dropped since we had got there . Jon launched his rods into the river bang on midnight and we watched as the leads that were static hours earlier swung round , retrieving there was weed everywhere , after several casts trying to find the distance where he could hold for any length of time . I returned to my swim and didnt make my first cast at 1am I dropped it just 4 rod lengths from the bank , realising all my bait was mid river I decided to spomb a few over the new short spot , heres where our friend proved to be a pain again , dropping the empty spomb on the line where the leads had landed I clipped up and when I started to retrieve the guy upstream rod started bleeping when he struck my spomb went up stream and then the penny dropped the muppet had cast right over the river and his leads had swung right across me . Getting my spomb off his line I watched as he retrieved both rods and the line was going beyond me and half way to Jon . By now my leads had moved and when I reeled on in to discover it full of weed in became obvious that the rising river on the middle was now coming through to the Tidal and bringing with it all the debris from the work parties that had been left on the bank . Me and Jon had a meeting and checking the levels online and the weather forecast it was obvious that come the high tide later in the morning would almost certainly cause us to be in bivvies full of water . We took the decision the packing everything into our vehicles except the bivvies and bedchairs and get some sleep for an early pull off . That done by 2.30am we settled down for a few hours sleep but yet again our friend was to intervene , first he was still trying to fish at distance and every time he retrieved he walked all the way down to the edge of my perimeter rope and dragging weed out and clearing the weed off into my swim and worse still having his super bright head torch shining all over my swim and lighting mine and Jon's bivvies up so down went the doors and off into the land of nod .
Now most of the waters I have fished have had the odd problem but to have all this happen was bad enough but when the guy upstream's mate turned up at 6am and walked passed out bivvies singing and shouting are you awake , well given my current health issues it made my piss boil !!!!!
On getting up I went down for a quick brew with Jon before the final pack up we sat amazed as upstream guy started to retrieve his rigs again only this time he didnt stop at my tape but ducked under it and walked through my swim and under the downstream rope and stopped mid way between me and Jon and retrieved what looked like a washing line of weed , at that moment my mobile rang and it was my mrs , while I took the call Jon had a word but seemed to get nowhere , when I returned the debate had gone back to using 3 rods , I know Jon has written the conversation down for possible later action but this guy was verbally abusive about someone who had complained about others using 3 rods , I stuck my final words in by saying you cant fish 2 rods what sort of mess would we be in if you used 3 !!!!! He got the message and buggered off .
I think there will be more to come on this story as the guy obviously has little regard for other anglers or the rules .
Anyway we packed the rest of the gear away and left the fishery , calling at Mc'ds for a breakfast wrap we then carried on to have a look at a club water , finding only one person on who had caught 2 barbel in the first 2 hours and then lost 2 due to the weed he had reeled in and was waiting to see if it cleared . Jon took the decision not to fish but to go home and wait for another day . Me been me I picked a swim I know I could hopefully have a chance of at least a bite .
I decided my best chance of a fish was to go steady , I put 4 or 5 broken pieces of spam 2 rod lengths out in front of where my bucket was and also a handful of cheesy garlic halibut pellets , single rod swim so a 4oz lead with a 2 foot hooklink with a cube of spam hair rigged this was cast so it was rolling under the tree branches . Within 20 mins the rod hooped over and the alarm let out the sound we all love , lifting the rod I connected with a very angry fish that gave one of the best accounts a barbel ever has , 10 mins later I lifted the my prize onto the mat and my first fish of the season was pristine 9lb 9oz beauty .
I gave it another 3 hours but my only other bite resulted in a hook pull .
My next trip I ended up in the same swim for a quick overnighter . This session proved to be another eventful one but this time for the right reasons .
I went with one rod again and decided to try meat again as a starter and quickly had 2 chub around 3lb each . I felt having avoided a blank so soon it was time to switch bait and give the Hookbait Companies Amino Crustacean a proper try . The result gave me this barbel of 8lb 1oz .
After dark I think I found my winter chub bait as the amino boilies produced 15 chub between 3lb and this 4lb 2oz fish .
My last session to report was a bit different as it was my wife's birthday weekend and she had asked for a fishing license and to try fishing , so I took her on the club lake we fish and she usually just enjoys the relaxation and wildlife , I took the decision she would be best trying for the lakes bream while I stuck my rods out for a chance of the carp . Now my wife Lou has only had about 6 or 7 goes at casting with my carp rods so I was a little surprised and impressed when she hit the same spot at 35 yards with my 1.5lb tc specialist rod every time and even more so when I got her to spomb over the top .
The weather at times was challenging as we sat through light and heavy showers , around 6.30am Lou was into her first ever fish and landed this 5lb 1oz bream which Dizzy our dog wanted to get in on the picture of .
During the night she unfortunately lost a fish , I managed to have a bream on my left and right hand rods and then my middle rod which I had launched to a weed bed 70 yards out with a small pineapple chod rig livened up and I had another of the hard to catch carp in the shape of this 10lb 2oz common.
I added 2 more bream and Lou lost 2 more though I have no idea why .
Now since my initiation to carp fishing last year and Lou starting to come with me my cooking has had to take on a new dimension as the single stove just cant cut it for 2 so heres the new kitchen .
Our meal was this and I'm sorry for the ketchup , consists off minted lamb steaks , new potatoes , peas and carrots .
The fishing was slow and we had the mother of all thunderstorms , which Dizzy hated , at one point we couldnt see the lake for rain , it then hailed and the aftermath resulted in this rainbow .
We packed up and on getting home Lou came out with , I would like to do it again and so now we are sorting her a full license and she is on the waiting list for club membership .
The last hing to add to this blog is one for the train spotters as Lou wanted to see the Flying Scotsman come through Newark , so we went to another club water next to the railway line and I managed to capture this short video .
Well thats it for now but am sure will have more to say soon .
Tight Lines everyone
