Chemical assistance… Chemicals. No, not the numerous illicit substances much loved by some anglers of ill repute to modify their ‘human’ mindset and draw them into the murky aquatic mentality of their quarry, but the correct application of the wide assortment of chemical substances reputed to illicit a frenzied response from all manner of fish species. I have to admit that I love chemicals; I always have done, even when I was a young lad I was totally enamoured by the fragrant smells of such classics as Scopex, Brasem and Tutti Frutti.
Even though I cannot really say hand on heart they caught me a single fish more than I would have caught anyway. It was more of a confidence thing! And confidence is absolutely paramount when it comes to fishing, especially in connection to bait. Success always boils down to confidence at the end of the day. So what do I have confidence in? Well, when I am fishing for barbel (which I most generally am) I have absolute confidence in several substances to give me a bit of an edge over the fish. And during this year’s final fishing session in the final week of the season, confidence was going to be everything as I chose the two coldest days of the week to try my luck at breaking my ‘doubles’ duck!
A whole year’s fishing without catching a single double figure barbel from the Trent must be about as hard to achieve as going to the moon wearing nothing but a purple thong and a pair of golden cowboy boots. it’s a ridiculous feat of enduring bad luck! A few years ago my old mate Phil Smith set himself a target of catching double figure barbel from 10 different rivers in a single season. He eventually caught doubles from far more rivers than that. His achievement was an extraordinary feat of angling ability. What I have done has been its antithesis. Loads and loads of fish from one river with no doubles amongst them. Not even one scraper!
Two hundred plus barbel, caught both during the day and night on the mighty banks of the double-packed tidal and non-tidal Trent during conditions that varied from the most favourable to the insanely extreme! Quite ridiculous! I was about to set a benchmark that would never be equalled, a record for sure! A record I really did not want. A record that I only had one more chance to duck away from before I would be forced into putting away my gear and watching other more legally adventurous anglers fishing for ‘Salmon and Sea Trout’ from their small boats moored up in places like Collingham Weir using such all-time classic Salmon baits as Ellips pellets, dynamite source boilies and chopped pork and ham. This new breed of game angler with their unconventional choice of baits for the king of the Salmonids is a proper hardcore fisherman, they have a high tolerance to disappointment in so much that by the very actions of their choosing a half tin of spam instead of a tube fly means that they have to endure the constant failure of snagging a silver tourist for the pot. Instead they have to endure being pestered by barbel, carp and chub, on the off chance a Salmonid with an educated taste in processed pork produce or flavoured fishmeal swims along and picks up a choice little morsel that just happens to be hair-rigged from a Drennan Barbel Super Specialist hook. The closed season. Isn’t it great how it gets people thinking outside the box! Anyway, less of the acrimonious bitterness and cynical sniping from me, I am just jealous as I cannot afford a boat! So let’s drop the illegal/legal fishing aspect and get back to my session. When I arrived on the bank I was met by two mates who were already there, Tony from Sheffield and Mark from Leeds, both had struggled in the conditions, with Tony yet to catch and Mark having caught nothing over 8lb. And so I found myself on an extremely chilly River Trent that was proving to be playing its cards close to its chest with just 48 hours to fathom a way out of the impending doom that is a season devoid of doubles! And what bait did I choose for the job in hand?
The humble maggot! Maggots will always catch fish, even when the water temperature dips right down onto the very edges of what is considered acceptable in the pursuance of the bronzed warrior. And even though it was nice and bright the air temperature was very low! As I had already decided that it was going to be a ‘numbers game’ that I would play, rather than a ‘one hit’ deal, they offered me the best chance of success and yet even though the humble maggot is a simple no nonsense bait it does not mean the angler cannot add a little sophistication to its miserable carrion eating existence! And this is all done with chemicals and an open mind when it comes to rigs. My rigs would be medusa heads on long hook lengths to 8oz leads/feeders (the upper rod would be a feeder and the bottom rod a lead). The hook length would be a 5-6 foot length of my ‘string of choice’ for cold clear conditions, 9lb b/s Kryston Incognito! A softer than average fluorocarbon that would nestle down onto the riverbed and not cause anything in the way suspicious wafting hook lengths for the ever so cagey barbel to shy away from…..That’s how the plan works inside my head anyway. To get the very best out of the humble maggot I gave it a dosing with Teme-Severn’s Lamprey essence, a mixture of potent flavours that may or may not render the maggot identical in favour to a fresh lamprey; that is something I cannot say having never eaten or smelt a lamprey in the wild. I was put off by the fact that King Edward VIII was killed after consuming a surfeit of Lamprey! (I suppose that is historical evidence that they taste nice) and the King being a bit of a ginger-haired tub of lard according to the numerous pictures of him ate so many that his liver must have resembled that of a Foie Gras Goose and so the blubbery old chuff kicked the bucket and dropped into an early grave. And what bait did I choose for the job in hand?
Anyway, less of the history lesson and back onto the river bank. The feeder would be filled with a low-food content mix and a few 2-3mm pellets, the feed would not be dampened with water but rather a mixture of Lamprey essence, Teme-Severn Corn Steeping Liquor (CSL) and Barbel Activator, which would make it PVA friendly. The free form amino acids and the soluble sugars of the CSL coupled with the ultra secret ingredients of the Barbel Activator would ensure that the free offerings would stink to high heaven and remind old ginger fatty Ted the VIII sat up on his cloud polishing his royal halo what had put him up there in the first place. Lobbing out to the boat channel I did not have to wait too long for a chub to hang itself on my rig. It settled my nerves no end. But not as much as the fish Tony landed shortly afterwards, a lovely near double figure barbel that had a bunch of maggots wedged firmly in its big leathery bottom lip!
So the fish were here and they were feeding! Tony landed another three good barbel in the next hour. Things were looking good! The rest of the session, as they say, is history. The barbel came at regular intervals throughout the session with fish up to 9lb 14oz caring to grace my net, along with a big slab sided bream of 9lb 1oz. The fishing improved even further as we moved into the latter parts of the session with Mark bagging a trio of doubles to 11lb on the nose. I was still double free. Until… You guessed it. The very last bite of my river season. The fight was long and dour with neither party willing to give too much away but eventually I won over and slipped the net under a fish I was sure would push it very close. and it was close. 10lb 1oz. I did not fail – thank the Lord!
And with that done everything else came away from me, I could have stayed on another day but when my good mates Dan and Dave came down for a day session I blagged a lift home and took myself off for a good hot bath, a nice dinner and a big whiskey! Here’s to next season! It cannot come soon enough for me. Now, where is that boat catalogue?
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