Resurrection

Well hello all , before I explain why this has not been updated for a while I will give a final tally for the period mid october til seasons end , it consisted of 48 chub to 5lb 15oz and 27 barbel including 21 doubles to 11lb 11oz , the vast majority came to my own cheese paste recipe , which a few people have messaged me asking for but it's only been given to one person and that was a birthday present .

Right here we go , its been 7 months since the last update and to be honest up to a couple of weeks ago when 2 or 3 people enquired asking why there had been no update . I was going to scrap it .

WHY ? Well I did something that I never normally do and let someone get to me to the point that I just didnt wanna know .

I make no apologies for naming the person responsible , he is a guy named RAY OLDFIELD , who is a member of the same club . Now as most folk know I have had some mental health problems last year and this guy who had I given loads of advice on fishing a certain section of the Trent , decided to make 3 or 4 insulting comments about my intelligence on the clubs facebook page , which the admin let go but when I told him that if he approached me on the bank then he would be sorry , I received a pm from one of the admin telling I was in danger of been banned .

A couple of months later when I had been catching really well and as requested by the clubs committee I was posting my catches on the facebook page , unbeknown to me Mr Oldfield had blocked me , I then received a message from a friend saying he couldnt believe I had not responded to Mr Oldfield's latest post , I explained I hadnt seen it as it was obvious he had blocked me and asked the friend to screenshot it and send it to me . I was raging when I read it .

This was a comment during an exchange with my mate Jon Preen

" I have only ever had an issue with TWO people on here ........... you and your mate ....... basically for the same reasons .......................... both posting self promoting rubbish ................ and if you think its only me who thinks that ........................... wake up mate theres plenty ............. just that its me who speaks up "


The first thing I did was post a new thread saying that I would no longer be posting my catches or offering help and advice online but only face to face after had met them . Within 5 minutes the post was pulled , when I asked why , I was told it was because it was not fishing related and it would give new members a bad impression of the club , When I questioned why Oldfield's post had been allowed to stay , the answer was that he had removed it and apologised to the committee , I pointed out that it had been on 4 hours and he had not offered me or Jon an apology , not that I would have accepted it . Now I have had problems with certain members of the old committee in the past but this stank so I decided to leave the facebook page . Obviously I received numerous messages of support from those who know me well and told me all the comments made by this sad little man were out of jealousy , but unfortunately as I still have a few issues so the blog stopped .

So where am I now , well I was convinced to rejoin the club facebook group , unfortunately my request was declined and after a few pm's to admin and the chairman , I was told why and at the time just let it go but then last week I was allowed back on , so its the start of a new beginning so here we go.

To catch up on 7 months of fishing would take too long so here is a brief catch up . I spent the first few weeks of the close season eeling with plenty caught but the biggest was only 2lb 7oz .

Carrying on from my decision to spend all my time carping including weather permitting even during the winter , sadly to date the lake has fished harder than normal resulting in just 3 mirrors to 19lb 2oz and 3 commons to 14lb 8oz plus one lost , never the less I am thoroughly enjoying it .

I was also guested onto a huge gravel pit with the chance of upping my bream pb but just fell short by 2oz with this 11lb 8oz specimen

I have left the river until now for 2 reasons . firstly my urge to catch barbel has ebbed away and secondly and most importantly was antics of the anglers on the opposite bank ruining it .

I have also made changes to the groups I am have been a member of for some time , firstly I have left the Barbel Society for no other reason than I have stopped fishing for them , secondly I have left the Tenchfishers the reasons for this is that I feel there is now a 2 tier membership , where some are seen as superior to others but my main reason is that there is a growing number of extremely 2 faced members , who in public they come across as nice folk but are nothing short of shithouses .

The other changes have been on some of my rods , as many of you will know from my earlier posts I have been switching all my rods to Free Spirit , well going back even further some of you will remember I had an issue with a certain companies tench rod and was very unhappy with them , well it failed again and I decided enough was enough and I invested in a Free Spirit tench float special to date I have not managed a tench on it yet but have had numerous bream to 8lb 6oz on it plus plenty of roach to 12oz , next spring I have been put onto a lake that produces alot of tench to float tactics in the 6-7lb range .Also at this point i decided to sell my 2 avon specials made by the same company as the problem rod and have so far only replaced one this time with a Free Spirit special at 12ft and 1.5tc , which was given its first outing a couple of weeks ago and managed to land a chub of 4lb 7.5oz unfortunately I had forgot my camera and had to make do with this picture using my mobile .

My 2nd outing was supposed to be after chub and roach , to this end I started fishing using hemp and pigeon conditioner in a small block end feeder with sweetcorn on a size 14 hook.

After 2 hours no roach or chub had showed up but then again neither had anything else but that changed in the blink of an eye when the rod hooped over and on my light chub gear the fight was intense but finally a 9lb 3oz barbel slipped in to the net .

!0 minutes after return the barbel and the rod went again and in to another fight with what was obviously another barbel and this 9lb 13oz specimen joined me for a pic .

At this point I decided both a move and change of tactic was called for , I settled into another swim and switched to cheese paste , the chub decided to play hard to get and after trying a few tweaks I finally managed one battered sample of 3lb 8oz .

Well we are now up to date so what are my plans my plans for the coming weeks , well during the day and leading into dark I will be roach and chub fishing and through the night I will be carping but on the river .

There is one final thing thats happened and thats 3 weeks ago I wrote my Red Pat van off and have now replaced it with a white one .

Well sorry for the ramble and chest clearing but hopefully things will return to normal next time .

Till then tight lines and I will leave you with this sunrise from last week .

Lovely chubbly

Well a few sessions and few fish to catch up with . first session was between xmas and new year . Lou wanted to catch a small fish , so sorted my old telesnatcher out and we went off to local lake after 3 hours and Lou getting chilly she had caught 3 roach around 4 - 6oz and lost what I think was a decent perch all on bread punch . Now it was my turn , Lou went home and I shot off to the Trent for a couple of hours , river was normal level and clear I only managed 1 bite ( which was to become a recurring theme ) but made no mistake with this 4lb 2oz chub .

A couple of days later Lou arranged to meet her mate for lunch , so I took the opportunity to sneak off for a couple of hours . After missing a couple of bites on cheesepaste I made a couple of minor adjustments and snared the next one resulting in this 4lb 13oz chub but yet again that was it .

A short trip in early January produced not a sniff on a river carrying 3 feet of flood water I would have bet on a barbel , A week later and back again , plan was to fish a couple of hours into dark but to stay overnight under brolly , the wind was shocking and swung everywhere and brought rain with it , I had to reposition brolly 3 or 4 times and ended up using van to aid as a wind break .

Mid afternoon and rod hoops over and battle commences with a january double figure barbel of 10lb 1oz

A while later and a couple of bangs on the tip and I added this 3lb 4oz chub .

I had a bite to eat and relaxed for a couple of hours and suddenly rod was off again and a 9lb 9oz barbel was netted , shortly after and the last fish of the session turned up in the shape of barbel no3 weighing 9lb 7oz

Well today aint gone to plan . Was slightly later leaving home , called at local Mcd's for breakfast but shut for maintenance so headed to Newark and looked everyone else had . Got to lake in time to help one of lads sort a fallen tree out . Go round to see another mate who had managed to get boiling water on his hand , out with first aid kit and germalene on it . Off to fancied river swim it was up about 2 foot and bits of dead weed coming through , get chatting to another guy . Hour later set off to swim just as someone else drops in . 2nd choice swim taken so in to 3rd choice got one rod around 1pm and within 10 mins had a chub do the i will leave you playing this tree branch trick . At 5pm upstream rod takes off and in the 6 or 7 steps it took me to get to the rod 30 yards of line gone , what followed was the hardest fight off any fish I have ever had , at one point it snagged my lead in an overhanging tree and I ended up perch precariously on margin of swollen river trying to free it and luckily it pinged off , the fight continued and I finally netted a 10.13 barbel after 20 minute fight !!!! I added a 7.14 , 6.02 and one around 5 .Guess the debris coming down 
put the chub off 

My next session was my 2nd blank of the year and another 1 bite day , unfortunately I was taking a pee , a bit like the fish that picked that exact moment to ram the tip round !!!!.

The bite while peeing happened again the next session and it was made worse by the fact that the way the tip shot round the fish had to be on but it sprang back nearly as quick , thinking fish may have another go I left rod out for another 10 mins then wound in to find the hooklink had broke on my figure of 8 loop . Bearing in mind the 1 bite situation things didnt look good but 2 chub in half an hour saved the blank , fish of 2lb 11oz and 3lb 10oz.

February arrived and getting to river and finding it was up and rising it yet again became a barbel or nothing looking session . First fish I connected went mental and gave me a very hard tussle but turned out to be this baby of 5lb 7oz

With half an hour of session remaining my february double turned up in the shape of this pristine 10lb 2oz fish .

With the weather on the turn and the river dropping , I arrived to find ice in the margins and a cold foggy morning , I also had this buzzard for company .

This again turned into a 1 bite day and came 2nd cast and another pristine chub of 2lb 14oz.

The last session for this blog was a couple of days ago and forecast was for a high of zero degrees and an easterly wind chilling it to around minus 4 . I sat through rain , sleet , hail and snow all for 1 bite an hour before I had to leave , luckily I hooked and landed what looked like it could be a low 4lber but turned out to be empty and came in at 3lb 13oz .

Well thats it for now , the river season dont have too long left and I had planned to have a go for a big tidal barbel but the chub are about and conditions are right so its lovely chubbly to the end now . Next season I have decided to make a massive change in the species groups I am in , I will be leaving the 2 I am currently in and have applied to join the Chub Study Group , as I write this I have been informed they are full but have done an introductory letter to be printed in their next magazine to see how feelings are about me been allowed in .

Well thats all for this ramble . Tight lines to you all

Doing it my way and loving it

Well this is long overdue and unfortunately my plan to make regular notes fell through so this will start off with a quick update of my lake sessions which ended mid october and a few surprises were had as you will read .

First my health issues well I have now been back at work full time for last couple of months , I am limited to what I can do as I suffer from what the doc called " brain fog " , I cant work on moving conveyors with product on as my brain gets flustered and keeps resetting so I have been moved away from them and spend the shift in various sections trimming and deboning chicken sections or sorting and boxing products , it suits me just fine , very little pressure and nice and steady.

Fishing well after Lou's first fish on her weekly licence she decided she wanted to have a go at it full time , so full licence bought and a 2 rod set up sorted for her . To be honest am really proud of her as she has taken to it like a duck to water and while she only fished til beginning of october her results are astounding . Top rod on the lake finished with 50 carp but fished 3 nights a week from April til mid october , 2nd guy had 16 fish , 3rd was me with 11 and Lou 4th with an incredible 9 , I wont go into all the weights but they came in 8 commons from 8lb 4oz to her pb of 17.07 pictured below she also had 1 mirror of 13.01 . My 11 were made up of 6 commons and 5 mirrors the pick of which were a 16.05 and 16.06 taken within half hour of each other but the icing on the cake was my pb which came the same night as Lou's pb common and went 24.01 . In the same session as the 16lb mirrors I also had one of the lakes rare tench of 5.10 that came in the middle of a heavy rain storm .

So since mid october with the river been low my plan for staying on the carp changed as its been about 4 years since we had proper chub winter so back to the river now it was nice and quiet . Now my first 2 sessions resulted in my first river blanks in 3 years , the first was my own fault as I jumped in with both feet and used a single rod but picked the wrong bait , the second blank I actually missed 2 bites . My next session finally produced a chub 4.07 and ended the blanks but the next was another story , the river went into flood mode , now if you have followed my blog for a while you will know I love flood water fishing but despite fishing 3 of my favourite flood swims that have never failed me I never had a touch , no idea why but thats fishing . Then with the river only about 10 inch up I had one bite and missed it !!!!! So 4 blanks in 6 trips 3 of which could have been avoided . Since then I have had 6 sessions resulting in 15 chub between 3.06 and 5.14 plus a barbel of 10.04 all but one of these fish fell to my new recipe cheesepaste , I did have one heart breaker when the session I had the barbel and 3 other chub I suffered a hook pull at the net of a chub that was easily 7lb and would have been a new pb , on inspection I discovered the lobworm I had switched to had folded over the hook point .

My last trip was yesterday but was only for 3 or 4 hours , firstly Lou wanted to try and catch a roach so took her to Woodland Waters with a whip , fishing bread punch and liquidised bread , she managed 3 roach around 6oz , lost what looked like a decent perch and missed a few bites , which given the conditions and getting used to fishing that style she did well and enjoyed it . I then went off to the Trent and discovered 2 guys already on blanking , I later found out one of them was getting unhittable lightening quick bites , if it had been me I would have changed something . I only managed one bite but it was typical of the chub bites this winter , an initial tap followed by the rod hooping over and the line peeling off the baitrunner , they have also been fighting hard in fact until yesterdays went over the rim of the net I thought I had hooked a small barbel but was a pristine chub of 4.02 .

Well thats all the sessions for now but a few final words , my bait is nothing radical just with a bit of a twist , the thing that is radical is my terminal gear and method for delivery , now I am not gonna say anything else about it but one other person has hit on the same idea and getting same results , all I will say is if you have fished the Trent tidal or middle for alot of years then think back how we fished it before big feeders and heavy rods .

To finish one of the clubs I am in run a photo comp for the adults and kids , the winner of the kids gets a couple of donated prizes , I think this year it was a digital camera from one of the members and a rod from another . The adult winner gets a years free membership and the picture is used on the membership card for the following year . The committee pick 2 photos each and then the members vote for the winner . I think you can all guess that I won the adult one with this photo.

Its a good job I did win as Lou will be joining the club next year and we all reckon she will out catch me and only the bailiff will catch more .

My next session will be in the next couple of days and may involve me fishing a small local river that up to now I have only walked .

So until next time Tight Lines everybody

Controversial Chest clearing and a new dawn

Ok so now I am on the mend , its sort all the crap out . First work have been brilliant with me , given me all the support and time I needed and now on a phased return plus away from my old job , yeah I took a pay cut but also a massive cut in stress .

Over the last few months as I have fought this condition , I have taken stock of a lot of things and come to some decisions .

After fishing for 48 years through all disciplines and after a divorce 13 years ago  I relocated to sunny Sleaford and married Lou and its the best thing I have ever done . 9 years ago I decided to so down the route of targeting different species based on time of year and conditions . The only species I refused to target was carp but more of that later .

Now for the chest clearing , firstly lazy and lying anglers , as most who know me will know I despise the weeklies for posting and giving awards to over inflated weights , The lazy anglers are a different breed that come in various forms but these are the ones that I have encountered over the last couple of years , Guys moaning that they have turned up to fish a river and the swims have over grown and they expect them to be cut daily in case they decide they want to fish them , even to the point of wanting most of the vegetation that provides cover on the near margin removing so they can get their rods through and lines not catching , this week I encountered something that melted in to both categories , one lake that I havent actually fished yet on my club ticket gets weeded up bad for 6 weeks or so at this time of year with only 3 fishable swims , now I always carry a weed rake and sometimes use it just to colour the water but yet again the guys who fish it want swims raking , this week 2 of them turned up on the lake I am on , seems they saw a pic of a fish I had caught and even asked the bailiff where I had caught it , when I spoke to them they moaned about the weeded up lake and when I asked if they could rake a swim they said " we aint got time to do that " yet they spent an hour and a half walking round the lake , pure laziness and then we comes on to the lies ,This lake has seen off some good carp anglers yet this guy claimed to have caught 3 during the day when no one else was even seeing them, sounds like jealousy right ? no not from me anybody who catches a carp of this lake earns it , here comes a couple of slam dunks , one of the bailiffs went to see him and he claimed to have just had another fish not 5 minutes previous yet his landing net and unhooking mat was bone dry , add to this he hadnt bothered with pictures of any of the fish , later in the evening another bailiff approached him and again he claimed to have just put a 14lb plus carp back , no pictures and dry landing gear , now this bailiff is always in the case and asked him why his landing net was still dry , the reply was priceless his mate in the next swim had brought his round to net it for him , yeah ok mate and then the slam dunk then why is your unhooking mat dry did you carry the fish to your mates swim to unhook it ? , no answer , nailed you lying cunt !!!!!

The next chest clearer is sponsorship , bait testers and so called bait companies . Over the last 2 or 3 years or maybe more bait companies have been springing up all over and most have seen infighting and splits which created even more companies and of course they needed testers or in most cases customers , now how do you get testers , well to my mind a company does its homework on anglers and invites the ones who can bring something to help the company but no these companies just stick a post on Facebook and ask folk if they wanna be a tester , now comes the sting most of the bait makers charge ridiculous prices for what amount to unproven baits with no track record and give the testers a bit of a discount one little bunny bait guru was charging £11 a kilo for his so called super bait and gave testers a 10% discount , now if they are happy to pay that just so they can wear a little hoodie with theirs and the companies name on it then you are really sad add to this that said test bait is been sold to any fool who wants to buy it again before its even been tested . Some bait companies still run themsleves right and while I have always refused to be involved with anything along these lines I did relent a few months ago but for me it wasnt working out so I left , I recently considered selling my soul to be involved with a terminal tackle company but had a change of heart earlier this week due to something that I read .

Right now for the guides , Now dont get me wrong I can probably name half dozen quality guides off the top of my head who not only offer value for money and will guarantee you will learn loads . Sadly we now have some who think that knowing one swim and have caught in some cases very average fish taking people out and in lot of cases charging well over the odds and doubt passing much info on , now I would never use a guide and its not through any superiority its just that if I want to catch pb or any big fish I want to do it with my own work so it really is my fish , Like I said not for me but there you go if again if people wanna pay these guys then good luck to them ..
If I was to guide I would pick a largest stretch of river and fish as many swims as I could in all conditions and levels and then come the day I would have the knowledge to not only help my client catch a few or the big fish they want in any given situation and explain to them exactly whats we were doing and why .

Finally where am I and where am I going . Well as I said earlier I have never really targeted carp , my reasons were that I didnt like the way the carp scene was going , I am not a runs or easy venue angler , never have been and never will be but the club lake I am on is far from any of those . The carp while not massive are very elusive and seem to break all the rules that normal carp follow but when you catch one they are immaculate and thats all thanks to the bailiffs who police the venue and ensure all fishing have the correct landing , unhooking and weighing equipment and that they use it . I fished it a few times last season as you will have read about in my other blogs , I didnt intend to do it again this year but with my health issues and antics of other river anglers I decided to chill on the lake but now have decided to go all out for these carp and keep updating my targets as I achieve one , I will of course come winter or floods enjoy the odd barbel and chub session but you will read about that in the blogs that will follow .

The final piece of this is only been added with the news that has come out this week and thats the British Record Carp , now if any of you have followed this story will know the captor has received death threats , now that is well out of order , The owner of the fishery has reportedly admitted to a national newspaper that the fish was farmed to its present weight abroad and shipped to the fishery only 2 weeks ago , this morning its been reported that it may now not be accepted as the record and in my mind rightly so , its a shame that angling has come to this where the size of the fish is most important and that alleged well known carp fishery owners now think its acceptable to go to these lengths to get anglers in to fish the lakes , this is by no means limited to carp , as the same has happened to trout and catfish and I suspect it wont be long til the barbel record goes to a stillwater fish . Sad but true . I will from now on refrain from getting involved in posts that in the past I have waded into . One particular angler has taken exception to 2 of my posts this year which were not that bad while posting and liking things far more wrong but I will get away from that .

Finally ( thank god I hear you all sign ) is what was accepted by most for what it was but for 2 anglers , cant call them friends , who took a almost vicious attitude to my posts regarding my new angling mate Trevor , now am sure that some found it wrong but said nothing but its one thing to think its wrong its something else to give me abuse , call me a liar and generally give me grief . Trevor has been out with me on nearly every session since I got him , yes if you call him by what people were then it seems wrong but also we since found a website run by a black lady from the Congo who is now trying to bring them back as she and other people from the Congo and other black nations see them as nothing more that toys , which they and she also commented that the people who were causing the problem were white people who were been over sensitive and finding offence where there shouldnt be any .

Well thats it other than this pic of me and Trevor trying to decide what to try next to fool a carp . In a couple of days when everyone has had time to read this and scream at me I will put a proper fishing blog up

Another long overdue update

Well my plans to update more regular has come unstuck . Its been a busy few weeks , not just fishing sadly but as I type this things are finally looking up and stablising .

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 . 

Tidal wash out and redemption

Well my head has been in a half decent state last couple of weeks so am going to do another update starting with an opening night wash out on the Tidal Trent .

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