A short close season session

Well 2 weeks on from the river season closing and the withdrawal getting too much , I decided to venture out for a few hours after work , now given we are still suffering with sub zero temperatures , my planned tench session was shelved and it would be roach on the specimen lake . Due to getting a new shift rota at work my sessions will be a mix of 3 or 4 hours after work in the afternoon to full blown 24 or 48 hour ones on my long weekend off .

Now on previous trips to the specimen lake and knowing where I should be fishing I knew I would be fishing some really hard banks now bearing in mind I use defiant banksticks that screw into anything means its not usually a problem but given 2 things , the cold weather means handling cold stainless steel isnt good so I spent the previous 2 weeks searching for a pod as my Fox Horizon has had a couple of changes made to it for fishing the Trent which has rendered it useless for normal use , anyway after searching and taking advice I decided to do something different and search for spares for the Horizon , on accessing the Fox site I discovered I could replace the adapted parts for £20 , which is cheaper than buying another pod ( its a Yorkshire thing ) . So in went the order , arriving home on wednesday at 2.30pm I discovered postie had left the said parts in a secure place and I set about digging pod out now at this point things were looking good but after 30 mins of trying to find the 3 legs I dont normally use I reasoned that I better get off and just use the stainless for this session again .

I arrived at the lake to be greeted by the bailiff doing some work on the entrance to the complex and to be informed that other than the odd pike to 10lb been caught nothing else had shown for last 2 weeks and there was a few of the caravan and lodgers fishing and blanking just what you want to hear when its bloody freezing with an easterly wind and looking at 4 hours max fishing time . Now I should add I have never blanked on here and the reason will be explained later .

Quick scan of the lake and a walk revealed 3 anglers packing up on the far bank , who had blanked and were very grumpy , now a quick scan revealed the grebes feeding at this end of the lake , always a good sign plus the anglers who were leaving had been fishing in the margins and up in the water because thats were the fish are at this time of year , yeah but not when the temps are like this .

Off back round to the bank I favour for both been able to access the deep channel and less dog and bank walkers disturbing you . I cranked the banksticks in and then proceeded to launch my feeders to the required distance , clipped up and put the marker braid on , now the easterly wind was blowing straight into my face but I know was my best area for a fish or 2 . I sent 6 feeders of maggot onto the area and was just going to set the rods when I was joined for a chat by John Macadam my friend Jason's dad he left me to it and finally got the traps set by 4.15pm , now my plan was to fish til 7.30pm or just beyond , tat was my plan until I discovered I had left my head torches in my barbel bag Doh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Traps set with the nice refreshing easterly breeze in my face .

Now what happened next was such a shock that I nearly fell off my chair ,at 4.30pm the left hand  bobbin hit the floor and the alarm sounded and I lifted into my first fish or rather I didnt as nothing there , damn !!!!!!!!!!! quick check and rebait and cast out and decided to recast the right hand rod , half way through retrieving and the left hand rod starts going mental the bobbing is bouncing up and down and alarm screaming down with rod and lift into fish no nothing there again , double bugger !!!!!!!!!!!!!! . Get both rods back out and settle down , Now as I said earlier and mentioned in a previous blog I have never blanked on here and I put it down to the kingfisher , everytime I see it , within 10 mins I have a fish , so when it shot across the front of me I just went and stood net to rods and sure enough 10 mins later off went the left hand rod , no mistake this time and fish on playing it very gingerly on the barbless hook I netted a very welcome perch on the scales and a respectable 1lb 5oz

Blank avoided again , thanks to the kingfisher . I had just recast and my mrs arrived with Dizzy our little terrier after a quick update and greeting off they went for a quick walk round the lake they returned and no further action had happened , after a quick chat they were about to set off for home with me saying that since it was now 6.20pm and dark wasnt far away that I would start packing up as was calling at chippy for tea , now just as they were about to leave and the kingfisher flew back , I commented that would be another fish within 10mins off home went the mrs smiling about her insane husband . No sooner had the car pulled out of the car park the the right hand rod went off and fish on again after another careful playing an absolutely pristine roach lay in the landing net on the scales it went 1lb 7oz , I really dont think the picture does it justice but fingers were now starting to lose feeling and I didnt fancy setting the self take stuff up

I packed away more than happy with 2 fish from a day that was far from perfect and knowing nothing else had been caught , I actually only fished for 2 and a half hours . when I went back to retrieve the unhooking mat and weigh sling I discovered the water on them had turned to ice !!!!!!!!!!!

Called at the chippy on the way home for a nice large portion of chips , haddock and curry sauce .

I am planning on trying a few hours from first light this week before work which is something I have never done .

Seasons End

Well as we came into the last 2 weeks of the season I was both looking forward to it and of course dreading it , while I hope to be doing some tench fishing during the 3 month lay off I will miss my river fishing .

Well first session was to be a bit special as would my first session not only fishing with Mr Jon Preen but the first session of the newly formed Yorkshire Specimen Group , I was surprised and honored to be asked to be a founder member as consider myself just an average angler . Our first session would be fished on the Middle Trent on 5th march .
After driving around looking at various sections and swims we settled on a couple that an interesting look about them in that it was like fishing on Skegness beach due to the amount of sand that had been deposited by the seasons floods

The weather forecast looked looked promising with the early morning fog lifting to allow temperatures to rise to around 14 degrees , unfortunately no one told the fog on the Trent it remained for the entire session the temp never rose above 2 degrees and most of the time it became so bad we couldnt see the far bank and at one point we couldnt seen the river margin on our bank and the temp dropped to minus 4

I decided to fish one rod with garlic spam on a straight lead and the other was open ended feeder with hemp in after careful consideration I decided that using ground bait to plug it might attract the bream so scalded some elipse pellets . Once the rods were out we set about sorting all our gear out , we had decided not to use our bivvies and the plan was to just grab a couple of hours sleep in the front seats of the vehicles . Stoves sorted and after a sausage roll and a brew we set about discussing rigs and tactics . Jon's maggot rod was first away as he landed a an 8lb+ barbel . My rods remained quiet but suddenly the spam rod sprang into life and I battled what seems like a decent fish result was this 9lb 8oz beauty

Slip it back and kettle on , within an hour the same rod was away again and what felt like another decent fish after a short scrap and 8lb 9oz graced the net

Jon's rods remained strangely quiet but as darkness approached my pellet rod awoke as the baitrunner and alarm screamed in unison and after another short but hard fight my 3rd and final fish came over the rim of the net at 8lb 5oz the smallest of the session but no less welcome

It was now my turn to sit out a biteless end to the session as Jon added 4 barbel during the night his biggest been a new pb of 13lb 5oz and it can be seen here on the group website http://yorkshiresg.wordpress.com/

Trent barbel group social was to follow on thursday 7th march , it wasnt supposed to work out this way myself and Jon Preen were to be joined by Wayne Glossop another member of YSG but also the man who set up the Trent Barbel fishing Group on Facebook  but after running round for over 2 hours looking at swims on both the Tidal and Middle Trent , we had just decided on a section of the Tidal when Mr Glossop rang to say he would bringing his girlfriend Emma , me and Jon looked at each other and said bugger the section we were stood on was not the kind of place you would like to bring a woman so off we went to what is a very popular stretch of the middle and found where we would be able to get 3 of us in . We set up and awaited the arrival of the Glossop mobile , he duly arrived and having never met him wasnt sure if he would live up to the hype , I neednt have worried as he was indeed the tackle tart that he appears online ,I must admit this was to be the highlight of my season and that was meeting the lovely Emma , how she puts up with the tackle obsessed Wayne is a mystery , especially when he has her cleaning his gear before he puts it back in its original plastic bags , it dont look as if its been used !!!!!!!!!!!!!

While Wayne was setting up and me and Mr Preen offered him encouragement and advice , well actually we were taking the piss , we suddenly spotted a mystery van approaching but when it stopped out stepped Mr Graham Appleyard who was to be renamed by Wayne Applehead lol , some time after another member of Trent Barbel fishing turned up on the shape of Justin Martin who after having a chat and joining us in helping Wayne took his leave to fish further upstream , fishing wise it wasnt too bad but surprising ly no fish came after dark as I took a bream of around 2lb and a chub of 2 and a half pound before adding barbel of 6lb and 8lb 7oz , there were no pictures taken for 2 reasons it was raining all the way through and banks were treacherous so fish were weighed and returned very quickly . Jon managed 3 barbel ,2 around 6lb and one of 8lb 8oz , Wayne had 4 all around 6lb and Graham managed 2 of the same weight . Justin and his mate came past around 11pm having not had a touch between them . No bivvy again but did have stormshield brolly up next to van holding the wind off , decided to get my head down around 3am and was rudely awakened around 4.30am as for about half hour the wind spun round into my face and it turned quite cold but fortunately it swung back .

The session came to an end at 9am but we didnt leave the bank til 11.30am as we watched in amazement as Wayne and Emma cleaned and polished his tackle with wet wipes and clean towels and put it all back in its plastic bags . I would love to recount all that happened during the session but unfortunately I cant remember everything plus suspect it would be x-rated .


End of season blues

My plan for the last day of the season was my normal one , I usually fish the same stretch til midnight then grab a couple of hours sleep before leaving , it usually turns into a social more than anything as the bailiff and a couple of his mates fish , this year would different for a number of reasons . Firstly Jon was doing the last 3 nights and didnt like fishing alone overnight , he had plans for the 2 nights and I was joining him for the last night . His first night produced and blank as conditions took a turn for the worse the temp plummeted and we had snow showers .His planned fishing buddy for wednesday cried off and so after speaking to my Mrs I said I would join him for the last 2 nights instead .
Things started badly and went down hill , we met near the stretch we planned on finishing on and it was apparent that was going to happen as for the previous 4 days angler had been driving down the saturated banks in the same tread marks and had made the bank impassable in fact the local farmer was loving it as he charges around £50 o pull people out and had been and pulled 8 people out on the previous saturday and had done the same with 4 people this morning before they had even tried to fish and they left without wetting a line , no common sense some people , when its like this I usually park in car park and barrow my gear down , this was out for 2 reasons today , firstly I was intending on sleeping in van to avoid using bivvy and secondly the snow was hammering into your face on this bank and it was so boggy even the barrow would have struggled plus setting up and landing fish would be impossible .So after driving around for 2 hours again and trying to find somewhere that wind was kinder and the river was right we settled on a stretch towards Nottingham , on arrival we spoke to a local who was a regular chubber on there and he aint had a touch which he said was unusual .

Yet again brolly was set against the van and then the snow started , I tried taking a pic and these are the best

The 2 white spots are actual snow flakes !!!

What was to happen in the next few hours was quite unbelievable given the half decent forecast we had heard , basically it snowed on and off for the next 3 hours and around 5pm I set off to walk up to Jon and caught my unhooking mat and discovered it was set solid as was the weigh sling and on checking my brolly that was too worse was to come when I discovered the whole of the inside of my van was thick with ice !!!!!!!!!!! I was so deflated I couldnt even be bothered to take any pics . On checking the temp we discovered it was minus 3 and dropping , it became obvious that we were fighting a losing battle !!!!!!!!!! we stuck at it til 2am and decided to just throw everything in the back of the vehicles and grab a few hours sleep in the front and move off at first light ,we finally got in the vehicles at 3am and the temp had dropped to minus 7 , I have fished in colder conditions and caught but for some reason it felt a different kind of cold .

The last day dawned and we were met with cat ice in the margins and thick ice on the outside of the vehicles , start engine put heater on and take in the morning while they cleared .

We decided we need to find a deeper stretch stand half a chance of avoiding a last day blank which would be a first for me but then again dont remember a colder finish to a season .

Yet again we drove for over 2 hours looking for somewhere , alot of the stretches had become inaccessible due to the lanes been too boggy to risk , we took a gamble and went down a lane that had vehicles stuck on it a couple of days previous after we saw a car on the bank , after a very nervous drive and some careful judging of pot holes we made the river bank and had a good look and picked some likely looking swims mine seen below had a channel 12 feet deep on the edge of the reeds to the left and it cut in front towards the bend that was on the right

It seemed like it was a case of avoiding a blank and fish for a bite , with this in mind a maggot feeder with a long mono hooklink to a 16 hook was dispatched to the edge of the reeds and clipped up , the 2nd rod was pellet hook bait and hemp plugged in the feeder with scalded pellet . During the course of the day 7 or 8 other cars arrived stayed for 3 or 4 hours and left , the only good thing was that while we were there everything that was still soaked or even in the case of the brolly still part frozen was defrosted and dried out . We couldnt think of anything to try that would make a difference on went the kettles and the food and have a meeting , we took the painful decision that even though we wanted to stay til midnight it would be futile also we noticed the river had rose a couple of inches and it soon became obvious the snow melt was entering the river so at 5pm we packed away and reluctantly end what has been a strange and frustrating season on the rivers . As we pulled away the heavens opened and the rain that had blighted the season began .Over the following few days I spoke to numerous anglers and out of around 30 who had fished both the tidal and middle Trent only 2 anglers caught one had 3 zander and a pike on the tidal and another had a chub of 6lb 2oz off the middle . Hopefully we will get a decent dry spring and things will be ok for June 16th but as I have been typing this it has been raining constantly !!!!! Well mt attention will now turn to the still waters and hopefully a few tench but am taking a couple of weeks off to recharge.

Another 2 blanks

Well thinking the weather and river were perfect for a chub I decided to have a go after work on Tuesday 26th February , didnt get to the river til 3.30pm though a mix of having to go home and sort the dog out and get my winter gear on . The river did look perfect and an overcast sky with a very fine misty drizzle all seemed well .

Deciding to start on my usual tactic of a drennan gripmesh feeder and a 18 inch hook link to a size 10 carbon feeder hook , feeder was loaded with mince that had predator plus added to it and a slither of steak that had been treated to the same . After an hour and no sign of any fish I decided a change was in order so off came the feeder and a 3 swan shot leger link was added , the hook bait remained the same after half an hour of casting and allowing the  bait to bounce round with the current and still no response out of nowhere a fish crashed 2 rod lengths out and 15 yards above my position rather than move a made a bold move and removed all the weight and cast a freelined piece of meat upstream and allowed it to trundle back towards me , at this point I should be saying how the line tightened and I snared a fish to save my blank alas this failed as well . Decided for the last half hour to revert back to the feeder and sit it out .

                                             willing it to go round wasnt working either

Just as the light finally went 2 barbel rolled mid river 20 yards upstream . My hand began to feel cold so put them in my pockets , what happened next was incredible , my hands suddenly felt warm , I took them out of my pocket and as I did I noticed my tip tremble slightly then 2 quick jabs on it and I struck but hit nothing , oh no or words to that effect . Another cast was in order and landed pretty much in the same spot after 15 mins it became obvious that my chance had gone and I looked behind me to see the silhouette of my van bathed in the glow of railway lights . I tried to catch it with my camera and below is the best I could do .

As I drove home I reflected on the session and came to the conclusion the missed bite may well have been an eel as I have had eels from this swim on a few occasions and the bites have been similar .

Thursday 28th February a similar session to the one above with the addition of trying maggot feeder for the first hour to no avail . I left without even sign of a fish and was very disappointed not to have had an success in 3 trips after chub . I have come to the conclusion that the high water levels we have had on numerous occasions this season has altered the river in some way and moved fish into new areas and away from old established ones . I spoke to one angler who been on the river all day and was just leaving he hadnt seen a sign of a fish and told me 4 other anglers had arrived just after midday and said that they had been on the Tidal Trent for 5 hours without a sign between them .
I'm now on holiday for the last 2 weeks of the season and am planning 2 overnight sessions among other things for barbel and will hopefully have some fish to report .

                                                                                             

3 sessions to update

I desperately wanted to keep my blog up to date but seems time is against me so will keep doing them like this till I can do individually .

1st session was last tuesday 12th feb , this was to be an after work session and as river was looking near normal at time of planning then it would be chub and this was the way I planned it on the sunday , I got the steak and mince ready and the back cheese paste , I got home monday afternoon and was shocked to see the levels rising rapidly , took the decision to still got for chub but to base it round lob worm and cheese paste . Right first problem no lob worms , so on finishing work at 2pm tuesday I made a quick dash to the tackle shop , no luck there he didnt have any either . Off home grab gear and came up with a plan that involved trying to dig some on river bank . Didnt get to river til 3.30pm and after digging around for half hour no sign of a worm !!!! So had to try my back up artificial ones .

Has anyone caught these ? I have had them 2 years and managed one chub of around a lb .
On picking my swim and after careful consideration I choose one with a near bank crease with slack water down the inside .

I would normally be sat 8 feet down below the surface !!!!


Decided to use my usual running rig

 After giving it an hour and dark approaching decided on a change of bait to my home made cheese paste , not I have 2 lots I carry one is from 2011 and is in 2 plastic bags and even reeks through them !!!!!!!!!!! the other is this years batch which is already starting to go that way .

Cheese paste rolled into balls around 14mm diameter , it was put in the grass to avoid making anything else stink !!!!!!!!!!!!! Result fished it for another hour and no sign , I called it a day at 6.30pm and my first blank of 2013 . There was one other angler there when I arrived a local fishing for barbel , he had been there since 9am and left around 5pm biteless , one thing of note around 5.30pm as the light was fading 3 barbel rolled mid river 30 yards or so upstream .

Friday 15th february .Decided to visit specimen lake for another roach session with the Trent still way too high . On arriving I was greeted with a nearly full car park and discovered 6 anglers already on the bank I fancied but with one swim left I dropped in and set up the usual 2 rods on heli rigs . Now all the other anglers were fishing either ground bait or maggot feeder on a ordinary paternoster but what was their real undoing was fishing around 30 yards into about 8 feet of water all remained biteless while I fished at 65 yards and into 13 or 14 feet of water the result was I had 7 roach 5 of which were over 1lb including this one of 1lb 6oz

but this one was topped by this 1lb 10oz beauty

My final session of this update was yesterday tuesday 19th february and finally back of a fishable river Trent , now given it was still carrying a little extra water and the slight warm spell we had just had , I decided on my first barbel session of 2013 .

Now this was going to turn into a session to remember and very eventful !!!!!

I arrived at the river around 10.30am and discovered 4 cars already on the bank , now normally when we have had some rain I park in the car park and lug my gear down to my swim but seeing the cars down on the bank and it looking ok I went for it and drove down , my normal favoured swims were already taken so drove bit further down , on stopping and climbing out of the van I noticed the ground was quite solid and the heavy frost was still evident . I took a walk to the nearest anglers and despite having never met them before ended up chatting for over an hour and shared a brew , they had been fishing for just ove an hour and not seen a sign of a fish , they alos told me the 2 anglers below them hadnt had any action either . I took the decision to drive back past them and settle about 30 yards down stream of them . On returning to the van I was some what shocked to discover that the frost had now gone and the ground was a little soft ,to be honest thats an under statement as one try to move van it sank 3 inches !!!! oh no or similar words , 10 mins of attempting to get out resulted in vast amounts of mud sprayed all over my van and going nowhere !!!! At this point the 2 anglers I had spoke to came up and offered to help , I will be forever grateful to Darren and Pete as Pete took the wheel and me and Darren packed the wheels with all manor of rubbish left over from the floods and after half hour of forward and reversing and pushing and rocking we managed to get it out and Pete drove it down to where I intended on fishing and parked it on some proper solid ground . I went back after and took these pics of the mess I made of the bank .

I returned to back of van and surveyed my chosen swim , it looked ok with a nice crease at around 2 rod lengths from the bank and despite never having fished it knew there were no snags , assessed how I would land and return any fish and had a good area to do this , the river was around 2 feet up on normal and dropping with not much rubbish coming down . I set up my pod with no problem and took out the first rod sleeve and removed the rod and the top section slipped out of my hand and landed with the female spigot straight in the mud resulting in it been plugged , managed to use baiting needle to remove most of it but didnt fancy chancing it so took it to the edge of the river to rinse it , now on a rod thats not already made up this wouldnt be a problem after rinsing I turned to return back to van and discovered the hook had come out of holder and stuck in my salopettes leg and rest of line wrapped round my leg and boot now this dont sound too bad til you realise you cant free it with one hand as its stuck in the tread with mud so had to hop back to van and sort it , I was beginning to wonder whether it was going to be my day !!!!! Eventually got both rods out at 1.30pm !!!!! the upstream rod was running 4oz lead with a combi rig hooklink with the now sadly demised Teme Severn crustacean softee pellet lassoed on the hair and pva bagged elipse pellets , the down stream rod was again a running 4oz lead on a combi rig but with a 1 and a half inch cube of my favourite high coloured water bait garlic spam !!!!

It was now bright and sunny and not the sort of conditions you want plus there was no wind at all .

I spent a pleasant afternoon drinking tea and chatting ( so glad I took my stove ) .
Learned a few things from Darren and Pete who came from the Peterborough area . Around 6pm the temp began to drop but still I felt confident , the 2 other guys who were at the bottom of the stretch left not having had a sign of a fish . When it got to 7pm and I hadnt seen sign of a fish topping which even at its coldest is unusual on this stretch I was getting worried . Then at 7.30pm as I wasin the back of van getting another tea bag , a train rattled on the track 50yards away and I noticed the alarm light on my downstream rod on , now it had been on a couple of times but when it didnt reset and the noise of the train was replaced with a one toner and the baitrunner screaming I was in , after a very sluggish fight my first barbel of 2013 slid into the net , on the mat the fish looked quite short and another angler who had just turned up after 5 hours of no action on the tidal commented it was only about 7lbs but on the scales she went 8lb 7oz and on looking at her while Darren did the honours with the camera we noted she was really wide !!!

                                                   My first barbel of 2013 at 8lb 7oz

She went back perfectly without any problem , kettle on and and a celebratory brew , around 8pm and Darren and Pete left and after thanking them again for the umpteenth time . I settled to watch my rods again , I decided to give it another hour , I dont know why but sometimes you just feel something . At 8.45pm the upstream rod went tearing off and after a more spirited fight I netted my 2nd barbel and one taking it to the unhooking mat found it had become one with my weigh sling and both were totally rigid . I managed to sort them out and weigh the fish at 7lb 3oz , now normally my camera is set up and ready to go but not this time and after Darren ahd done the honours thought I would be ok to have help again , however the angler who had turned up earlier was far from obliging and didnt think it was worth photoing , oh well proves were not all the same so I slipped her back .
I decided I had had enough and packed up and de-iced my van and left my cheery friend alone .

Tomorow thursday 21st february I intend to go again to the same stretch but this time as we have had 3 days of cold temps and still dropping plus the water dropping and clearing I will be trying the waggler and maggot for a couple of hours before changing to the feeder with mince and steak for the chub into dark

Decided to update here as not much to tell , went on Middle and it looked great for a chub or 2 , temp was ok but there was a cold easterly wind , session started badly as when I was getting settled in my swim a slipped while carrying heavy duty bankstick and trapped my finger between it and one of the rocks which made me say a few words that I cant repeat here in case any kids read it ;) , obviously apart from the pain the pressure split my finger open so back to van to get a plaster , discovered box with plasters in was in my barbel bag back at home so I improvised as seen below , with a tissue and some insulation tape

It worked , anyway back to the fishing started on the waggler and maggots ,  tried everything , up in the water , full depth and running a foot over depth but after 2 hours not a sign . Went back to van and got stove going and had a brew and a sandwich and sorted my tip rod out with a gripmesh feeder for the steak and mince , 3 hours later and 4 swims still no sign , spent the last hour and a half in a banker swim and still no sign , stayed an hour into dark and nothing and unusually never saw a fish top which is very rare on this stretch .
Can only put it down to the easterly wind , heard from a mate who did overnighter further upstream and had a small bream and chub during the night and that was it , he told me one barbel had been caught and 5 others never had a bite

28th January , 30th January and 1st February 2013

Well my early shift week and would normally be going straight to the Trent for either a chub or barbel session but due to snow melt and rain over weekend the river was once again revisiting the fields . So on monday I left work at 11.30am and had to take a diversion to pick my van up , which had been in the garage over the weekend then it was off home to load van and then off to meet Mark Reid for a roach session on the specimen lake , I arrived at 1pm to find Mark settled in a swim he had fished a year ago and he had already had a 15oz roach but no other signs . I settled in the swim next to him and got myself sorted and made a couple of quick casts to get a bit of bait down , both rods as usually on heli rigs but set the hooklinks at different lengths from the feeder , one was about 8 inches and the other 12 inches .
After an hour Mark had a 8oz hybrid so fish were about , about 20 mins later with Mark stood in my swim having a chat , I got the classic bleep and the indicator dropped quickly back , a quick lift and a fish was on ,as usual I took my time keeping steady pressure on as was on the obligatory barbless hook the fish went into the net first time and on lifting into unhooking mat decided to weigh it and the scales confirmed a very satisfactory 1lb 5oz roach . Mark went back to swim muttering something about jammy fucker . A quiet hour followed and then Mark had another take resulting in another roach of around 10oz . As the light started to fade Mark was in again and just as I was wondering what was going on my left hand rod came to life as I played my 2nd fish Mark called that he had another roach of around 8oz , I netted my fish another roach which I weighed at 1lb dead just as I slipped it back and went to rebait rod the right hand rod signaled another clear drop back this lead to the final fish of the session and another roach of 1lb 3oz .

On the Wednesday Mark was returning to London so decided to return to try again , my start was delayed as a fall out with a section leader resulted in him making me start work half hour later than usual and hence finishing half hour later , last laugh was on him though as the guy doing my job fouled the machine up and they lost half hours production . I didnt get to the lake until 1.15pm and had a quick walk and decided to go to the bottom corner as the wind was getting seriously strong and while the water was taking a hammering the swim had room for me to sit back out of most of it .I tried to take a photo of the effect the wind was having but this was the best I could get .

I decided to do something different and clipped one rod up and proceeded to put 12 feeders full of maggots out and fish one rod on it and the other just to the left and that was the way the undertow was going . I put 50g feeders on as it was obvious that there was a bit of tow on , actually there was a lot of tow on !!!!!!!!!!!!

In the 1st hour I had 3 roach topped by a biggest of this 1lb 4oz

When I was netting the fish it was incredible to see the tow pulling the landing net to the left , it was just like fishing the Trent !!!!!!

At the end of the 4 hour session I finished up with 15 roach 6 over the lb mark between 1lb and 1lb 6oz , I also had 2 hybrids around 8-10oz and a perch of around 8oz , I also lost a carp but no real surprise on 2 inch 2lb 6oz hooklink .

                                            roach 1lb 6oz

Friday turned out to be a bit of a disappointment the temperature had dropped remarkabley and results suffered which seemed strange as it was the first drop and thought the water temp would hold up anyway after getting to the lake even later and not getting fishing til 2.30pm and fishing a new swim as there were people on my usual bank a blank was looking on , I have been fortunate that I have yet to blank on here , the bailiff came to see me at 4.30pm and told me there had only been one small roach out on the entire complex and he was mystified as to why as well , he left me saying I still had an hour left as you have to be off by dark , worse still for me I had to be off by 5pm as it was the weekly shop day . Just as it seemed I would blank the right hand rod signaled a fish and I was very pleased to net a roach of 13oz and incredibly just as I recast rod the left hand rod was away and a 10oz roach was soon netted and that was the end of the action .
3 interesting sessions in differing conditions resulting in very differing results . As I write this the Trent has returned to near normal and I am on my late shift week which means I cant get on there but have a few holidays coming up before the end of the season and hope at some point it will be fishable , I am planning an early morning session for either a tench or perch session before work this week and hope to report some more success.


20th January 2013

Finally up to date on the 15th January finally managed to get back on river for a short chub session ,weather was a bit chilly to say the least and temperature was never going to get above freezing in fact it hovered around minus 5 all day and this is the scene that greeted me.

I started off fishing a running maggot feeder rig with a long hooklink and after 2 and a half hour of no bites and temperature dropping further I decided to try the mince and steak for the last couple of hours , as dusk approached and no sign of a bite fish started topping , a decent carp head and shouldered mid river and a couple of barbel rolled and even a few roach showed . At 4.40pm with it starting to get dark and even colder I took the decision to pack up everything was away and as I reached for the rod the tip banged round and a strike resulted in that nod that only chub give and after a short tussle I netted a very welcome fish . When I started to get stuff ready for the unhooking , weighing and photo I noticed that everything was frozen to the bank . The fish went 3lb 10oz . I slipped it back and finished packing up and made my way back to the van and had to scrape ice off it before returning home

 chub 3lb 10oz

20th January 2013

Following the success of my perch sessions I decided to have a couple of roach sessions on the specimen lake just into the New year before returning to work .

Specimen lake 2 rods both fishing heli rigs

My first session was a decent one , I used the now standard heli rigs with 50gram feeders on and red maggot flavoured with curry powder . I finished with 15 roach and only one under a 1lb at 12oz and the largest going 1lb 9oz .

My second session saw me move to the opposite bank as the local old folk decided to have a knock up match and instead of going on one of the 2 match lakes decided to fish the specimen lake and use the best roach swims but they insisted on using 11m poles despite been advised not to , only 2 of them caught a small roach each . I fished from 11am til 3.30am without a fish and then in the space of half an hour I had 5 roach of 12oz , 1lb 1oz , 1lb 2oz , 1lb 6oz and a venue high for me of 1lb 11oz  . There is supposed to be some 2lbers in to  biggest reported of 2lb 7oz .

My last session to date for the roach produced 15 fish between 12oz and 1lb 6oz , which considering temperature was minus 3 and freezing fog wasnt bad .

My roach of 1lb 11oz

20th January 2013

Well come the beginning of December and the river is up 16 foot and unfishable so decide to visit some local lakes to search for some big perch . On arriving was met by bailiff on the specimen lake and when I told him I was after the perch he told me I'd be better off on the small carp lake that the beginners fish , I gave him a funny look but he assured me that despite none ever been stocked in there it had produced a couple of 3lbers to someone fishing pellet for carp earlier in the year .

Back in van and round to the small lake which is only 3/4 of an acre .

swim that produced my biggest perch to date of the venue at 2lb 3oz

My tactics involved making things hard for myself in that I was using a 15ft float rod coupled with a Okuma Sheffield centerpin loaded with 6lb line and a small porcupine quill float that took just 2 no6 and 1 no8 shot and terminated in a size 12 hook , my bait was to be chopped prawn and red maggot , this

resulted in a dozen roach to 1lb , a couple of gudgeon , a common carp of around 5lb , a crayfish and 5 perch with the 2 biggest going 1lb 3oz and 1lb 7oz .

I have made 3 other trips and fished a different swim everytime and have had 17 perch all over 1lb to one which is just an ounce of my pb at 2lb 3oz , I have also caught numerous roach , rudd , a couple of crucian carp and just one mirror carp . I will be trying for these lovely perch again .

My 2lb 3oz perch

20th January 2013

Well its November and chub time , to be honest its been very frustrating so far with floods and coloured water but I have managed a few and even managed a couple of 5's the biggest of which was just 2oz short of my pb at 5lb 10oz , they have been backed up with few 4's and 3's but not in the numbers of last season but given so drier colder weather who knows I may just manage my first 6lber

biggest chub this season so far 5lb 10oz

20th January 2013

My barbelling to date has been moderately successful

I only started targeting barbel in feb this year (2011 ) , my first session was with my mate who was also just starting out , we fished Winthorpe in the hope of upping our woefull pb's , mine was 3lb 12oz from the river Don at Stocksbridge about 20 years ago , its remarkable to think that despite fishing the Trent for the best part of 20 years or more ( mostly matches ) I never caught a barbel .

Anyway back to the first session dont think we could have picked worse conditions to do a night in it was freezing and the river temp was around 0 ( according to mates thermometer ) . Around 5pm mate had a take and landed a 5lb barbel which upped his pb from 4lb 8oz , we had no further action til 4am the following morning when my mate was in again this time he landed another pb of 9lb , after weighing , photoing and returning it we decided to have a brew at which point we realised that the temp had dropped quite a bit , the biggest clue been my line frozen in the rod rings and the grass been crunchy , on checking the thermometer fastened to the side of his bivvy my mate said it had bottomed out at -9 !!!!!! . We had no firther action and despite blanking I had thoroughly enjoyed it .

A week later I returned alone and despite the temp falling to -4 managed to net 2 barbel weighing 4lb and 8lb 10oz . I managed to do an overnighter every fortnight and a few hours after work between til the season ended .

We had planned to do the first 2 opening nights of the season on Winthorpe but speaking to other peoople and fate lending a hand we found ourselves on a syndicate stretch of the tidal , while we were informed that it wasnt an easy stretch it didnt matter as we informed and so it proved to be that Winthorpe would be rammed full . I managed a 7lber and my mate caught 3 with the biggest going 8lb 6oz .

Come forward to the end of my first season  and my tally so far is 46 barbel and other than two just over 4lb and a one 5lb numerous 7's and 8's , six 9lbers and 5 double of 10lb 14oz , 11lb 2oz , 11lb 11oz , 11lb 14oz and my current pb of 12lb 8oz . Obviously I couldnt have dreamed of having such results so soon but the most rewarding thing is the fact that i have shared these catches with 3 or 4 guys hwo up until I fished the tidal I had never met and who have been quick to offer advice and give me pats on the back with my success and words of wisdom when things didnt quite go to plan .

After this first season of barbelling I have had some great fish and made a few new friends and after spending the previous 2 and a half years chasing big bream and carp on another venue where people are frowned upon for telling anyone anything and that includes the baliffs its been a very refreshing time and long may it continue .

The bivvy , a decision I now regret , I have been using a JRC sti 1 man that I bought as an ex demo model off ebay , I managed to get it for £35 delivered and have to say after 4 years of use and sitting through some truly horrendous weather , including some severe thunderstorms , gale force winds and freezing temperatures it has never let me down and never been reproofed ( though it will be getting done this coming close season , anyway after doing some homework and hearing people supposedly having problems with a couple of the big names I found a new British company who had a growing reputation of quality and great design so took a punt and spent £375 on their top package which included their , the rainincluded heavy duty ground sheet , pegs and a full winter skin , its rated a 1.5 man and wouldn’t fit in my garden so didn’t put it up til the opening day .I arrived at the syndicate stretch of the tidal Trent at lunchtime of the 15th june intending on having a roam and getting everything ready before getting my head down ready for the midnight start , the car park was deserted which was a surprise even given the rain we had been getting . On walking the stretch the river was up quite a bit and so settled on a swim that gave room to get bivvy and gear set up in a position that would allow me to get everything to safety should the river decide to rise quickly . So bivvy went up and looked the business had just got everything sorted and got my dinner on when a guy appears from nowhere , now this stretch is miles out of the way but you do get the odd dog walker from the village but this guy was just out for a walk from Collingham which is a long way off , thought not a problem quick chat and he will be gone , wrong !!!!! over 4 hours later and the dinner turned off and he is rabbiting for England when the heavens opened , now he has to go , nope he puts his hood up and continues the rain started to ease and he finally decides to leave after been there for over 5 hours !!!!!!!!!!!! Finally got my dinner and managed couple of hours kip , woke to find it throwing it down and then spotted some water dripping down front of bivvy it was leaking down one of the seams and then discovered also leaking on the toggle anchors for the rear vents , oh great or words to that effect , luckily and really don’t know why but had winter skin with me , on it went and no leaks . Around 10pm and 2 barbel crashed right in front of me , was on phone to one of my mates when it happened and he said have a cast no one will know , came off the phone and picked one rod up and cast out the bait hit bottom and I reeled it straight back in !!! I just couldn’t do it ,at bang on midnight the rods were out , at 12.15am the downstream rod with straight lead and spam ripped off and after a dogged fight in driving rain I netted my first barbel of the season at 9lb 7oz a great start , in the next 4 hours I had 6 more between 7lb 11oz and 9lb 4oz . I decided to get my head down so reeled the rods in . It rained all night and when I stuck my head out of bivvy door around 9am the rain had eased and I ventured out , now I was supposed to be doing 3 nights but looking at the river and the tide table told me the river had been running off for 3 hours but was rising , an hour later and the river had incredibly risen about a foot and still coming . Took the decision to leave , found out later that 4 bivvys had one in at Collingham due to anglers getting caught out .

First of the season 9lb 7oz

Before I continue with my barbel season review will finish the bivvy saga

When I got in I rang the bivvy company and was told never had a problem before and really sorry , we are awaiting new stock but will swap it for an ex demo til new stock arrives .Great that’s not a problem and thanks , within week the swap has happened and my first chance to do an overnighter was on the middle trent , well session went well fish wise , the weather was warm and dry so no issue with leaks but the bivvy has a zip off front that you can replace with a full mozzie net which given the weather seemed like a good idea and off it came , when it turned cool later decided to swap them back , zipped front back on and noticed it was splaying apart at the connection end , thought must have missed the connection but on inspection discovered the metal strip on zip had fell apart , on ringing company more appologises and still waiting stock , they told me to use it best I could , next session and it rains and bivvy leaks on the rear vent retaining straps again and on a seam just above , took pics this time and emailed them with a strong letter of complaint this has now gone on for 6 months and they have fobbed me off constantly with no new stock and despite asking for full refund they said I could either have a credit note , await new stock or have it repaired and telling me how good they have been , right that’s enough contact dispute department of credit card result 2 weeks later letter saying we cant do owt !!!!!!!!!!! complaint now lodged about their handling of it . I now decided to up the anti and emailed bivvy company telling them that I had contacted the Trading Standards and they informed me that I was entitled to a full refund , did the trick in a way as Owner of company rang me and after saying how we werent impressed with each other came to an agreement , I will get a part refund of £187 and they will repair zip and reseal seem and waterproof the vent retaining toggles , while sounding like a bit of chance came to 2 possible moves , sell bivvy when repaired for £200-£250 thus giving me my full refund or keep it and use it as a winter bivvy .

Right a quick recap of my barbel exploits to date .With the river up and down its been tough my sessions have involved hit and run doing a few hours and getting home . Had plenty of fish during the floods mostly to garlic spam , including a pb equaling 12lb 8oz which was one of 7 fish taken in 12 foot of flood water , In October I beat my pb with a fish of 13lb 2oz and have taken several 9’s since up to the end of November when my barbel gear has been put to one side for now while I chase other species .

My at the time pb equaling 12lb 8oz