Slipped up yesterday and copped for death by bank holiday boaters. So today I headed for a non-navigable stretch below a weir. I'm starting to feel like I post the same report every time, so let me fast-forward to the interesting bit.
Pacey water, stick float blah blah, hemp and tares blah, roach lined up blah blah, pike eat roach, destroy net blah blah. Came up with answer – fish tare on size 14 611 hook and wind them in faster than pike can catch them. It's not pretty, but I have 10lb of hand-sized roach in first two hours.
It's going well.
Then I notice an object passing me in the brisk flow. What's that? Oh, it's my landing net, which has slid in and set off downstream. I follow it down, hoping to arrest it with a priceless spliced -tip float rod but fortunately I remember which is the more valuable item before I snap the tip poking at it..
The landing net wedged itself about 12' out from the bank in the raft of branches and rubbish under the tree you can see at the end of this wonderful swim in the pic. It's still there now.
So in two visits to the Trent I've had a reel self-destruct, and managed to sabotage a promising session by throwing my landing net in the river.
Naturally the net was on a classy carbon handle, and was itself a favourite ( if that's sad, I don't mind), a Colmic model made from a kind of stiffened net curtain fabric in an inspiring sky blue colour.
I think I need a break from Trent roach fishing. It's great, but I like a bit of variety, and several things have militated against that: my favourite lake has been closed all summer; the deep lake bream fishery has banned nets, a no no for me; I stupidly gave up my ticket on the brilliant Trent waters where barbel actually work the day shift, and some kind of wrist tendonitis has stopped me fishing the pole. And I've seen enough roach for a while.
By the way, the tree with the net stuck in? A friend caught a 16lb carp from under that tree last season. It's good to know you're never far away from one :wh