Eh up what d’ya reckon…
If fishing was a tonic could they bottle enough of it up to go around?
I say that because I was feeling a bit green around the gills meself this morning and didn’t rock up on the riverbank until gone 10.30, any later and I could have met Jerry on his way home
More so than anything I wanted to test out the rod repair and so I picked up four pints of reds en route for a silvers session running a stick down the Trent, nothing elaborate just a black topped 4 x no.4 wire stem stick which I’d shotted with 7 x no.6 and a no. 8 dropper and being as I’d left my bag of hooklink material at home it looked like I was fishing the 3.6lb mainline straight through to the size eighteen hook.
With bait apron fully loaded it was time to get settled in…
I started off just tripping bottom and had a few bits but it was slow going and so I sent it through a couple of inches off bottom and it seemed the fish wanted it running straight at ‘em full pace and that’s how I caught for the rest of the day.
As per someone’s comments in another thread this morning the river is stuffed with chublets at the moment…
I had a nice mixed bag in all of mainly chublets, small roach, swinger skimmers and a few decent netter perch put in an appearance too…
I’d had well over a hundred fish by late afternoon and although mainly small they were enough to put my mind at rest that the rod was still good despite being an inch shorter and I even got to test the other end of the spectrum when the tiny size 18 hook held out until I could get a nicely conditioned barbel of around 8lb safely over the lip of the landing net after a right royal tussle on the 3.6lb line.
Pro Gold, quality every time…
By 7pm I was fast running out of bait and I fished right until the very last maggot, as I was about to call it a day some light drizzle began to dapple the surface of the river and the final maggot became too mullered for yet another "last run through" and so I called it a day and a good one at that.
One thing that did amaze me was how many of the large boats kicked off the throttle when they saw me in the river before increasing their speed again once passed, I did get caught out a couple of times with those that didn’t and ended up with a drink down each wader but it was small change and nice to exchange a wave and a smile with those more considerate.
Despite the barbel being a bit special on the light’ish gear it didn’t quite make fish of the day, that accolade was awarded to…
The juicy great haddock rocking on the top of a big pile of chips which I scoffed in the open air outside the chippy on the way home!
Luvvly jubbly :w
Might sneak a barbel session in tomorrow…
