I’ve decided that fishing sessions are very much like beer in that each one is good in some way or another but every now and again one comes along that really tickles that sweet spot.
Some excellent weather, excellent company in the form of The Crow and another great craic. Add in a few fish and a well deserved, post session pint at the riverside pub and it bares all the hallmarks of a great day!
After fannying around putting gear together last night, choosing this float rod for this and that float rod for that, I decided to cut straight through the middle of it all and take just the fifteen footer to try and cobble together a one rod fits all kind of approach for a session on a day ticket stretch of the Trent today and we were waterside by just gone 6am after meeting up earlier.
Hard to imagine a day ticket stretch of river where there’s not another angler in sight but this was the case and the view was quite easy on the eye too…
Anyway…
The low and gin clear water was the sign that we might not have it all our own way but after rigging up an 8 x No.4 stick on an 8lb mainline to 5.6lb flouro bottom and size 16 B911X spade end for double red maggot, it was soon a fairly constant succession of fish once the feed was going in and these were made up of swinger roach, chub, some plump dace and perch with the occasional better stripey putting in an appearance…
I’m more for supple qualities in a trotting hooklength but thought that the low viz, stiffer flouro might just be an advantage in the clear water and help the bait to rise when holding back, which it seemed to do very well.
A few fish under the belt and it was time to alter the shotting pattern from strung out to bulk, just to see if a bearded one was hanging around, and it wasn’t long afterwards that the first came along and at around 8lb I was quite happy that I’d chosen a rig with enough strength to handle ‘em as well as being fine enough to winkle the smaller stuff out.
Plenty more silvers then followed before another morning barbel came along which belied it’s smaller size with the stubbornness and strength of the fight and Graham was on hand for a quick pic…
Nice fish, matches me hat!
mg:
That bulk shotting pattern helped in other respects too, especially when boat wash came rolling in from the occasional chugger…
Throughout the morning I fed regularly but held back the majority of the five pints of reds for the afternoon when I thought things would come good and after re-plumbing slightly further out into even deeper water I then began to rain in the feed and it did the trick.
Six more barbel, mostly upper singles to a couple of scraper doubles, followed in fairly quick succession…
I should say that one of my eight barbel was foul hooked but I’m counting it to cancel out the misfortune of losing two to hook pulls and bumping another one off… Not to mention the aggro it caused me getting it in from downriver backwards!
After a good ten hours stood trotting I’m about done for a couple of days, as far as handling the fifteen foot rod for that duration of time I reckon I could have gone another ten hours without a twinge.
Cracking!
Thanks for the company Graham, ‘til next time mate… :w
