Oh where are the Tench ?

Right well since my last blog I have had 4 sessions and failed to land a single tench but heres a very brief run down on the sessions . The first 2 wont have much content as they will featured in a future Tenchfishers bulletin . Right first session was to be a 48 hour session and my first ever visit to the once famous Sywell reservoir for the Tenchfishers Midland's region 60th Anniversary fish in and what a fantastic time it was . I fished on the west bank along with 6 others the result was none of us had a bite and on the east bank and a further 9 anglers suffered the same fate while 3 anglers in a row shared 8 tench while 2 had one each and the guy in the middle had 6 . the fish ranged in size from 5lb 4oz to 7lb 1oz . The weekend had loads of laughs and food delivered both nights in the form of chips and fish friday and a curry saturday plus a special cake made for the 60th Anniversary .

Heres my set up from the session

Think I am ok showing the cake but feel sure I will be told if not lol

My next session was a 24 hour midweek one back at Sywell , which has got under my skin as apart from the odd ignorant dog walker is a fantastic venue to spend time on all be it very challenging .

I changed my set up slightly for this visit by using tungsten tubing and flying back leads to pin my line down .

As the hours passed I still saw no sign of a fish and got my head down for some sleep unfortunately it was a full moon and a clear night , the temperature plummeted plus it was so light that the birds started the dawn chorus at 3.30am and at 4.06am this was the seen .

I made a brew and sat on my bedchair watching the lake for signs on life and shortly before 5am my left hand rod bobbin bounced and then pulled up to the blank I was in and lifted into what I thought was to be my first Sywell tench errrrrrrrrrrr wrong I had infact caught my first Sywell Coot !!!!!!!!!!!! and that was that .

I decided I needed a confidence boost so a few days later I was on the match lake but was to find out that the tench were in a very finicky mood and had been going days without been seen , I took a very slow walk round with my polaroids on searching for signs and finished up in a corner I had never fished before .

Out went the float and and I missed a bite first cast , the weather was red hot and there was loads of pollen and seeds in the air and in the water as you can see round my float .

In the next couple of hours I caught around 20 roach between 6oz and 1lb and then hooked a better fish which turned out not to be a tench but this fully scaled mirror of 8lb 11oz.

My last session for this blog was yesterday and things have not got any better . I fished a new venue that I have driven passed hundreds of time but it cant be seen from the road . Its a syndicate but they have day tickets so after swapping a couple of emails with the Syndicate organiser I was given information on swims and seemed that my method laying on with the float was the way to go . forecast for the day was for heavy rain all day but worse if all was the wind would be straight into the swims I had been advised on . When I arrived it was teaming down and the wind was making it impossible to fish in those conditions so off I went for a walk , after an hour of looking I settled on a swim in a small bay that looked ok and when a fish topped as I was about to get my gear from the van then that sealed the swim choice . On plumbing up I discovered it was around 4 and a half feet deep and so set up laid on and put a small amount of bait in , while plumbing up I also discovered there was a bit on weed growing up to with in a foot of the surface but had found a clear spot which negated me going back to my van for the weed rake .

The rain began to increase but under the brolly it was ok plus my confidence was still high as had seen more small fish show and also had seen some very strange bursts of large bubbles in various places in the bay which suggested fish movement . The rain was so heavy that the drops were bouncing higher than my float .

What happened next still has me shaking my head , my float slightly lifted and then slid away . I lifted into the bit and felt resistance but no kick and started to retrieve what I thought must be a  piece of weed but no it turned out to be what I have been told is a yellow bellied slider turtle !!!!!!

As you can imagine this didnt inspire me and less so when I released it and it absolutely shot off and caused the exact same bubbles from earlier and I decided to call it a day and go home . I loaded the van and sat and reviewed my last few sessions and came to the conclusion its was just a slight slump and it would end soon . I plan another go at this last venue and in 3 days I am having another 24 hours on Sywell which I doubt will be any different to my other 2 sessions but you have to try , I know to 5 guys who have done between 24 and 72 hours over the last 2 weeks and one fish has been caught but they have to feed some time :)

I have to appologise to John Mcadam as he actually took this picture of me with a common mudpig of 7lb 12oz though I deny giving it a kiss lol .

Tench time

Well  after the season it was time to think about my plans for the close season . A year ago I joined the Tenchfishers a great set of guys and full of knowledge and only too willing to help fellow members . Last years tenching was a struggle due to the cold wet spring and only managed a handful with the biggest was only 3lb 14oz so given the slightly drier and milder spring I felt the chances of better tench fishing looked good . My first session was on my usual tench water the match lake , I have fished the float numerous times but fished a delicate fixed float and have had some success and also fished method feeders with similar results , the thing about this venue as with most still waters these days is that you have to out up with carp turning up and just keep at it til the tench show . This season I have decided to fish a little different in that while still fishing the float I am using a drennan drift beater on a sliding set up as the swims are between 13 and 16 feet deep and laying on 2 inches of line so and having a large shot that takes the whole of the insert of the float down to sight blob so that bites will be either the usual sight blob disappearing or if the fish lifts the bait up the float will rise out of the water .

I was originally intending on fishing hemp and sweetcorn but after missing several bites and then landing 3 skimmer bream to around 3lb I decided to try a 3 maggots on the 14 hook and after again missing a few indications I connected with my first tench of the season and after a spirited fight I slid the net under this 2lb 3oz specimen .

I carefully weighed and photographed it and gently slid it back into the lake I rebaited and cast out and quickly added another skimmer bream , there then followed a brief quiet period before the float disappeared and I was attached to what felt like alot better fish and it gave a good account of itself but eventually another tench succumbed and slid over the net and what a fabulously immaculate looking fish it was and pulled the scales round to a satisfying 4lb 10oz .

I was now happy with both my set up and with what I had caught already , my time was running out and despite adding 2 more skimmers no more tench showed and I packed up and left for home .

My next session was to be a short morning session on a new venue the Grantham Canal , I had previously only walked the venue once and had been given information about my prospects .
My first job was to drag the swim as had been warned about the weed and that it attracts the tench .

I had mixed a small amount of ground bait consisting of grilled hemp and Sensas Tench ground bait and put 4 tangerine size balls into the swim . My tactics again revolved around the float and laying on but switched to a smaller insert waggler . I spent a very frustrating 3 hours trying to avoid hordes of rudd between 4oz and topped with this 10oz sample .

As you can see in the picture it had escaped a pike attack which the canal is full of and I even had what looked a mid double laid in the margin at my feet for a few minutes before it startled as I moved and roared off . Suddenly the rudd vanished and my thoughts were the pike had spooked them but whatever had happened it allowed some skimmer bream to move in and I added half a dozen before again it went quiet . With my time running out I finally connected with what was obviously something a little better and my first canal tench slid over the rim of the landing net . On the scales a weight of 2lb 9oz was recorded .

Time for one last cast and the float disappeared and I was connected to another tench this time a smaller sample of 1lb 10oz

My last session for this blog was yesterday and after just completing my first set of 3 x 12 hour shifts I had decided on a dinnertime til teatime session again on the Grantham canal but a different section , however I was greeted with heavy rain and the forecast was for most of the day and the thought of driving for 35 mins to sit in the rain for only a few hours , I did a quick venue change and went back to the match lake , now I had over heard talk of an 8lb 7oz tench coming out since my last visit from only a few swims away from where I had been last time , however on arriving and walking the lake in the rain the strong gusting wind was going straight into those swims , now while I dont mind wind or rain together they are pain and so ended up in a area I had not previously fished . I got my gear to the swim and put the brolly up which seemed ok until the wind began swirling and the brolly looked in danger , oh well the rain had stopped and I felt it worth the risk so took the brolly down . Now the 3 pints of maggots I had left from my previous trip had now become 3 pints of casters but teamed with the 3 pints of hemp I had brought I felt this wouldnt be a problem . I set up the slider and off we went , now I was still unwinding from my shifts and so spent the first 3 hours or so fishing like a noddy , double caster was producing bite after bite , which I was missing and getting shelled . I eventually started connecting with the culprits and they turned out to be roach between 6oz and 1lb 3oz .

I upped the feed and finally got my head going and put a buoyant fake caster on the hook and then added a real one which meant if I missed a quick indications there would still be bait there , I added a couple more roach before they disappeared and I soon found out why as I pulled out of carp , oh bugger had hoped to avoid them again . Next cast and I'm in to a another fish but this time its my intended quarry and a tench is soon on the mat and weighs 3lb 6oz .

Within a few minutes I am attached to another carp with again sheds the hook which didnt bother me til I remembered I needed a mirror and common carp for the rod race . After a 15 minute period of nothing I add a 2nd tench of 3lb .

I then added a skimmer around 3lb before getting broke by a carp and so reluctantly upped my hooklink from 3lb 3oz to 5lb 14oz and promptly added a common carp of 3lb 1oz and the next cast a mirror 6lb 15oz

It suddenly started going dark and decided it was time to leave , within seconds of me beginning to start to pack up the heavens opened and by the time I made it to the van you couldnt see and I was drenched .

My next session is in 3 days and feel I must do the match lake again . I have also got the Tenchfishers fish in to look forward to at the end of April which is 2 days at Sywell Reservoir .

Well I decided to add a brief  update to this as was out yesterday for my last session before Sywell . I decided to try an afternoon session and again fished a sliding windbeater rig . After getting a little bait in I had my first fish this lovely roach of 1lb 4oz

I then started suffering bites that I could connect with and so made various adjustments before landing a tench of 2lb 15oz

I quiet spell followed and I then hooked a carp which I managed to lose at the net but as anyone reading this will know is not a great loss to me . I then had a perch off 1lb 1oz but unfortunately didnt get a photo of it . With time running out I managed to add another tench of 2lb .

I am still hoping to catch one of the alleged bigger tench but have now been told that there aint as many in there as people are saying but will be back on there after my visit to Sywell for the Tenchfisher 60th anniversary fish in .

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 .

Just like the old days

Well with the river out of sorts again I decided to go on the lake complex again but this time would be doing something I hadnt done for nearly 20 years . having just taken delivery of a new matchbox seat box .

I also went in my tackle store and dug out my old Dam telesnatcher whip thats has a 2m telescopic top 4 and then 4 x 1m add on sections and also dug out what was left of my pole rigs , now the whip I have had around 30 years and won me alot of money on matches on the canals of South Yorkshire in the early 80's to around 1990 . At that time been single I was fishing matches saturday and sunday on the Witham or Trent and midweekers on the cut .

My choice of bait was to be liquidised bread and bread punch and so on the morning I got up and to prepare my bread I cut the crusts of 6 slices and microwaved each of them for 10 seconds and then lightly rolled them with a rolling pin and then placed them into a plastic bag and seal it . As I was planning a trip to the Trent on monday , flooding permitting , I also had my match and tip rods in the van and drove to the bait farm for some maggots both for the river and as back up in case the bread failed .

I got to the complex and had a look at a couple of the smaller lakes and decided on the 1 acre one and Set about getting my gear on and getting my gear out , I took the decision to only take the whip , reasoning that way I would have to give it a good go but if it didnt work I could return to the van and get the match rod .

As I was about to set off to my chosen swim I met up with the Owner of Woodland Waters Malc and one of the bailiffs Dave and had a chat about what I was planning to do and how I would be both reporting on various web pages and of course on here and was given permission to use a keepnet which they dont normally allow on the smaller lake which I thanked them for and assured them the fish would be looked after and wouldnt be keeping them in it long .

I got to the swim I fancied ( purely on the cold wind be less obvious there and got my seat box level and got everything sorted round it .

Setting the bait tray and getting all the bits needed on it , including my old Image punch board and Drennan bread punches out I also put some maggots in a bot tub just in case .

The one thing I hadnt manage to locate was my ground bait punch with is great as it punches liquidised bread lovely into a small pellet about the size of a small egg and on landing on the water floats for a few seconds then explodes and sinks slowly through the water column . So I had to squeeze small nuggets by hand . On plumbing up I discovered I had the usual 3 feet with little variation and decided to fish at 4 meters and also feed a little down the margin for later .It took all of 30 seconds for the first bite and action was constant for the first hour but I wasnt fishing as efficient as I used to and started to adjust things and change it . I was picking roach up regularly , nothing massive mostly fish of 4 - 6 oz . The second hour I was getting more and more happy with how things were going but would have liked a rig to hand set up but didnt have one but will next time . I suddenly started to get strange bites that  couldnt hit and made a slight change to the depth and immediately started to make contact with the culprits which turned out to be skimmer bream in the 6oz to a pound . after taking around a dozen of them they just disappeared and I quickly added 2 rudd . I then lifted into something that was obviously something that was a little angrier and thought perhaps one of the stocked carp had shown up and with no elastic but a very flexible and forgiving flicktip I took my time and to my a surprise a tench of around 1lb came to the net , which looked very upset about it .

After 10 mins of no further bites I put another nugget of bait in and decided to see if anything was at home in the inside and was only using the 2m telescopic sections but had 3 quick roach and then was attached to another angry fish that I seemed to sense was one of the perch I had targeted last year that I had caught to 2lb 4oz but know have gone over 3lb and after another tense tussle I netted a lovely fish of 1lb 10oz .

I took half dozen more quick perch from the inside all around 4oz -6oz and then went back on the 4m line and began adding more roach but slightly better fish in the 6oz -8oz topped by this 10ozer .

I am pretty good at guessing individual fish weights but always have been useless at estimating my total weight much to the annoyance of folk fishing in matches near me and so after 4 hours and using 4 full slies of bread and guessing 80 bites or so to a slice a thought perhaps I had 12lb or so in the net but on going to lift it out I found it nearer 15-20lb !!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed the session and know I could have had more but was out of practice , I had discussed this time of fishing during the summer last year and how much I used to enjoy it and I was right . I am currently trying to find out if the stories I have been told about a canal near here are true and if they are I may be be back on a familar style again .

January's gone hope things improve

Well the first month of 2014 has been and gone and am glad to see the back of it .
Usually January is my favourite month for chub as the rivers are low and clear and of course we have frost and cold weather . Not this year as we all know winter has gone mental and its mild for the time of year and very very wet . My first session of any description didnt happen til the 14th , I couldnt get my barbel head on and so decided to risk a session on the Trent after work , knowing the river was about to supposed to start dropping I chanced a cheesepaste session but as soon as I arrived I knew things were not right . The river was a good 2 feet above what the last station reading off the EA site which is strange as the stations further upstream were dropping . On looking at the river things began to take shape as the river was carrying a very brown colour and had great lumps of brown foam on it .

I have fished the Trent in severe flood conditions and seen all sorts come down it from dead animals to whole trees and even fridges and still caught but today even though it wasnt as high it really didnt look right and I could only think of 2 possible causes , 1 was the sugar beet factory had flushed its tanks out which it aint supposed to do but does and 2nd they had flushed the sewage works upstream and released all the extra water from Nottingham . Either way after 2 hours and the river coming up a few more inches I never had a sign and my first session of the year was a blank !!!!

My next chance of getting out was a few days later and the river was still high and didnt look inviting and I decided to have a session for roach on the specimen lake . I decided on a new approach , while sticking to one rod with the maggot and heli rig on my other I choose to try some 8mm pineapple boillies and a ground bait mix consisting of roach 2000 , crushed pineapple boillies and pineapple frenzy liquid .

The swim I choose was the one I had shared with Mark Reid back in November thinking that since the fish appeared t lay up there for the day I had a good chance of finding a fish to take the boillie . However things didnt pan out to well and when it got to 3.45pm and I hadnt had a sign my first ever blank on this venue looked like happening but then in 45 minutes I had 9 roach all on the maggot rod ranging between 10oz and topped by a 1lb 2oz one , I also had a single drop on the boillie rod that never developed .

3 days later and I am back at the specimen lake and on arriving we have a sharp frost which had me thinking it could be a good day for roach .

I choose to fish the opposite end of the lake where I know in these conditions the fish can come at any time due to the deeper water . While setting up I saw 2 kingfishers and my confidence was sky high . I went with the same 2 set ups as previous session and settled back and waited and waited and waited , all the time a pair of grebes worked my end of the lake and despite not seeing them catch anything its usually a dsign of fish been around but it had finally happened and I blanked for the first time on here and never even saw a sign of a fish , shouldnt complain after been on here for the last 3 winters . The only things that took and interest in my bait was a cheeky wren who helped itself to my maggots and this pair that waited for me to throw them some .

My final session  of the month was an after worker on a yet again rising Trent .The journey there was something else , I left work with light winds and broken blue sky , as I approached the hill that lead to the Trent valley the sky darkened and a few large spots of rain hit the windscreen as I hit the hill the wind went mental and sleet and hill bounced down and visibility dropped to 20 yards , it stayed like this for the next 4 or 5 miles and then stopped and on arriving at the river I was back to blue sky and no wind !!! This time I decided to fish for a bit with the red maggots I had left . I picked my swim with care and found the nice crease and slack I was looking for .

Knowing this swim from normal levels , I knew I could fish the margin just beyond the reeds sticking out and it would be snag free and fish would be laid up in that area . For an hour I cast the feeder and no sign was forthcoming I then had what can only be describes a a tremor on the quiver tip and then nothing on retrieving the rig both maggots were smashed , this happened on the next 3 casts and on the 4th I took and chance and struck and my blank was avoided as a roach of around 4-6oz was landed , not huge but welcome .

The very next cast and a slightly more deliberate bite brought me another fish but this time it was one of the all too rare now Trent gudgeon .

Thinking I might have a few more I recast and thought I felt a spot of rain and noticed the wind was picking up which would make spotting the tremor bites harder to spot but that was to be the least of my worries and the wind again went mental and spun into my face and the rain turned to torrential hail !!!!!!!!!! Now I must start using my brolly or at least taking it on these sessions and I may have been able to continue , as it was I beat a hasty retreat to the van and by the time I got there I was drenched and couldnt feel my hands . So there you have it January gone and lets hope the rest of the year improves . My next session is penciled in for 2 days time on a very high Trent but this time it will be barbel rods and garlic spam .