As some will know I have been off work due to mental illness for 7 months and have been given counseling and in the last 2 weeks returned part time to work on phased return . Its going ok so far and have been told that my hours are in my hands and not to try and do more than I am comfortable with.
Prior to returning to work and on my return from my annual holiday in Newquay my mother was taken ill in the nursing home and sadly passed away with me and Lou at her side . It should have knocked me back but at the moment I am still waiting to grieve despite having to make all the arrangements with Lou's help with the funeral been held in my home town of Sheffield .
Now to the fishing I had a planned float session but it didnt happen due to the monsoon that came but did manage a few hours into dark with a lead rod and a new bait with a good result , I had 5 chub between 3lb and 4lb 4oz which is pictured below and 3 barbel which went 8lb 3oz , 8lb 15oz and first double of season at 10lb 9oz
The next session was a mix of good and bad , I was fishing the middle trent while Lou fished the lake behind me . Unfortunately Lou blanked despite having several bites but no contact with fish , not sure what happened but decided to look at the rigs before her next session . Me well first night was quiet as was building the swim but luckily with what followed I managed this 8lb 12oz barbel .
The second night that I thought would be better fell apart just around tea time when the circus on the opposite bank started to appear . In the end there was 5 bivvies , a shower tent, gazebo and of course the bbq all in a double swim , just on dark I knew my chances were ruined as they started a generator up and a flood light lit up the entire far bank and also most of the river , this stayed on til 6am and needless to say I and no one else had a sign of a fish . This was the start of what will come later .
Well my next session was when Lou told me to go fishing for a few hours and relax from all the funeral stuff so rather than drag all the gear I decided to just take heavy stick rod and half gallon of maggots , found the Tidal very low and had to drive a fair way to find a swim that didnt involve wading through loads of mud to reach river . Well after 3 hours of running stick through I finished with around 90 fish mostly roach to the 1lb one pictured all arty below and dace , also had 2 nice perch and couple of bleak , now the set up I was using has landed carp to 16lb and barbel to 8lb 6oz but yesterday I hooked something that went on an initial 20 yard run and then stopped , started bringing it back upstream and it just stopped dead and then shot another 30 yards down stream , this went on for a around 15 minutes where I would gain 10 yards then lose 20 in the end the fish just hit the bottom and wouldnt shift until the hooklink wore through and it was gone , a while later what looked like a cat fish swirled in the margin so whether thats what I had hooked god knows but it was 3 maggots on a 14
Again my next session was a relax on river so nipped off to tidal and stuck a couple of rods out , river was running off all afternoon and was bit low , had one rod with boilie on that never had a sign and other started with fake corn over a bit of hemp and pigeon conditioner through feeder plugged with damp pellet , after 2 hours of nothing decided to switch corn to a krill dumb bell and just use pellet in feeder within half hour had single bleep then a screamer on it and landed this feisty 7lber , stayed til midnight when the tide really rushed in and had 3 quick bream , interesting thing was that about an hour in to dark there was alot of fish crashing so may need to do a full night and see what happens
Well next was 48 hours on the lake and had this 11lb 8oz common and a bream around 5lb but star of the weekend was my wife Louise Beal who did the business with this 8lb 8oz common carp unfortunately she wasnt confident enough to hold it just yet but it was a bit lively after a couple of hours in the sack , she also added bream of 4lb 14oz and 4lb 8oz
On this session while setting the camera up Dizzy decided to get in on the act and wanted to know if I had a ghost carp
Just had 2 nights on the Trent but not the 2 I envisaged , Had a look at tidal and swims we fancied for some float fishing were a little to dangerous to get down to so after a drive around we settled on a club water on the middle , starting on the float I had 2 nice roach first 2 run downs then couldnt get through perch , after about an hour a pike about 10lb went airborne after a perch I had on and that killed the swim , Out went the lead rods and just on dark the maggot rod produced and eel of about 2 and a half pound that at one point grabbed my finger . Went boilies on both rods for the night one produced a roach of about 12oz and all was quiet til 2am when the other rod took on a life of its own and resulted in a fin perfect barbel of 6lb 11oz , I have decided anything other than a double is just piced on the mat .
After a conflab the following morning a move was on and we finished up back on the tidal is some new swims with the theory that we wont learn owt by fishing the known areas , well the maggot was getting nailed by dace after dace which would have been nice but not on 7lb mainline and size 12 hook with 6 maggots on . On dark and eel showed up on maggot only about 1lb , so boilie on both rods . Nothing happened til just after 2am again when the downstream rod gave a single bleep then the upstream rod over the space of 10 minutes gave either 1 or 2 bleeps every couple of minutes , out to investigate expecting a bream but found the line right downstream and quite heavy , it soon became apparent that it was a barbel as it plodded and thumped , after 5 minutes the fish came up in front of me and went nuts , into the net it went and on lifting it I discovered it had gone round the other rod and so had get that line clear before taking up to the mat , a superb fish of 10lb 15oz , now putting them back is always a challenge but this one took it to a new level , after it seemed to have fully recovered it went on its side , holding its tail again it tried to kick to let it go and again on its side but this time as I went to grab it , it broke free and splashed me and came up on its side just below me , now normally I have the net with me but couldnt manage net and sling so there was only thing for it I shot down the margin and just got hold of it and this time off it went the fact that I was now stood knee deep in the trent in a pair of shorts with only wellies on was immaterial , fish was safely returned and so what if I had 2 wellies full of water . I got back in bed and that was the last action of a very eventful 48 hours
Thats the last session I will report on for now as my last session was something very special and also a sign of things to come .
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