A couple of days on the Trent sounded like an excellent idea for the IAC autumn fish-in. We had arranged the trip back in spring, just after our fish-in at the Blue Pool, little suspecting that a Trent pollution incident was to become headline news in the interim. We held our breaths and scoured the forums searching out any and every catch-report we could find, finally sighing with relief when it was discovered the pollution was not the total river-killer we all feared.
The water was low and clear when we arrived and stayed that way for the next couple of days. On previous trips it had been necessary to fish with feeders weighing 4 to 6 ounces – and that’s before they were loaded! The current is very powerful when there’s a decent flow of water in the river but this trip we didn’t have that problem. Quite the reverse, it was screaming for some colour and flow.
Only seven of us attended this trip and it’s fair to say that we all struggled in the daylight hours. The fish were just were not having it. By fining right down to a size 20 hook and 1.8 bottom Neil finally got a couple of bites – both of which almost ripped his rod into the river before smashing him up. Neil finally deduced that there’s a few too many rocks in the river to fish that light in this area. Going a bit heavier brought him a couple of perch and a 2lb eel.
Once darkness fell however things picked up a bit, with text messages and emails flashing from phone to phone up and down the bank, informing us that the odd fish were coming out. The odd barbel but mainly chub and bream with jacks and even the occasional zed on the predator rods. We all fished both nights till about 10ish before retiring; Brian and I to his caravan and the rest to comfortable bedchairs and bivvies. Overnight fishing trips these days don’t resemble anything like those I remember from my youth when it was an endurance test from start to finish. With our Indian Summer the evening temperatures more resembled June than October so there was little in the way of hardship.
My target fish were barbel but evenings had me looking for zander. A ditch flowed into the main river at the bottom of the meadow and I knew from previous experience that small livebaits were available here. Of course, that was when the ditch was a couple of foot deep – with a mere six inches of water things were going to be harder. Much harder! It probably took me about 2 hours to winkle a few silver fish from the ditch but one of these was put to good use after dark, landing me a zander of 7lb 10oz.
Postman Tim had organised the trip and on the second afternoon we all benefited from a social meal of his excellent chilli eaten around his bivvy. That camp-fire scene from Blazing Saddles comes to mind. Downwind of us the banks were soon clear of other anglers. I wonder why?
The barbel were a bit shy of me. I only managed the one at 8lb 15oz on the second evening but I was kept busy by a succession of bream to about 5lb and chub to around 4lb. Down the bank there were plenty of other fish coming out – not a bonanza of fish, just enough to make it rewarding and yet still keeping it challenging. Neil
was doing well the first day with 3 barbel, Mick probably had the most species with his best fish being a pike of 16lb+, Brian took the most barbel, and the biggest at 10lb.8ozs as a result of staying on an extra evening after the rest of us left, when of course, Sods Law, the river switched on! The rest of us had a lower degree of success but we all had fun and raised a few quid for Second Chance, the charity we support. The last day we helped the farmer herd bullocks in the car park – which was an education in itself. All in all, a fun session with a great bunch of blokes. And that’s what fish-ins are all about.
Geoff Maynard
