| In recent years, satisfying work commitments and the demands of a young family have been my two main priorities. This has meant that time spent fishing has become a very precious commodity indeed. The last few seasons have therefore followed much the same pattern. I have dabbled with fishing for various species, but I had never undertaken a sustained campaign to sort out the bigger specimens, preferring to fish venues where I knew I was guaranteed numbers rather than size. At the beginning of June 2004 I therefore made a conscious decision, I would set out to catch a double figure barbel, more specifically one from the River Trent close to my home in Nottingham. In the two weeks before the beginning of the season I made up a list of suitable venues. The Trent has seen an upsurge in the numbers and the size of barbel caught over the last few years and place names such as Radcliffe on Trent, Stoke Bardolph, Burton Joyce and Gunthorpe immediately sprang to mind. However, following a bit more intelligence gathering at a local tackle shop and a bit of bank walking, I settled for a day ticket venue literally 10 minutes drive from my home. I had already decided to fish short evening sessions after work, so this was ideal. I could get home, have dinner with the family and be on the bank for about 8 o’clock in the evening. A few hours fishing into full darkness would hopefully give me a chance at the fish I was after, but not leave me too worse for wear for the school run and work the following morning! The first few exploratory sessions were encouraging. I caught barbel to 9lb 10oz, together with a bonus chub of 5lb 11oz. I was encouraged by the higher average size of barbel I was catching compared to other venues I had fished on the Trent and felt sure I was in the right place. However, I was still only getting to fish one session a week. I felt that, with just a little more effort, my goal would be realised. My chance came in the last week of July. The wife and kids went off to her sister’s house down in Somerset for a week, leaving me to free to fish every night if I so wished.
I therefore decided to try and fish the same swim on consecutive nights, with the thought that the continuous baiting up would draw and hold fish in the area. The swim I eventually opted for had a steady walking-pace flow with a depth of 8 feet within about two rod’s length. The bottom was clean and free of weed and debris, and clear of any snags apart from a band of rocks extending approximately three feet out from the bank. The bankside vegetation indicated that the swim had already received some attention, but as I had only seen one other angler on the stretch, I was not unduly concerned that it had been overly pressured. Certainly, nobody else appeared to be bothering to fish into darkness.
I used conventional feeder tactics. Rods were 12 ft Drennan Big Feeders, coupled with Shimano Baitrunners loaded with 8lb Maxima Chameleon. Home made, 2oz cage feeders were used to carry a mixture of scalded pellets and hemp, stiffened with a proprietary ‘active’ hemp-based groundbait. The feeder was attached to the main line with a safe feeder link from Enterprise Tackle, which are designed to release the feeder in the event it gets snagged up. The set-up was completed with a hard oval bead, a rubber shock bead, a swivel and the hooklink, made up of 12 inches of Kryston Merlin with a size 8 ESP T6 Raptor attached at the business end using a knotless knot. The hooklinks were tied up and baited and attached to rig board at home, so they could be changed over quickly at night in the event of tangles. Bait was either a single 14 mm halibut pellet, or two 10 mm halibut pellet boilies, both from Dynamite Baits. My first job upon getting to the venue each night was to bait up using a dropper with a mixture of trout, corn steep liquor and halibut pellets. Approximately four pints of pellets were droppered two rod’s length out in an area about the size of a snooker table. One rod was to be fished in the middle of this area, with the other slightly downstream to hopefully intercept any fish moving up to the feed. The swim was then left to rest for about an hour while I got my rods set up and my tackle organised before it got dark. The first evening was slow apart from the half-hour period between 11 – 11:30 pm where I had three barbel to 6lb 15oz, all on the halibut boilies. The second evening was a slight improvement with four barbel to 7lb 5oz, this time all on the pellet and all coming in the hour after midnight! On the third evening I was seriously contemplating trying another swim. The lack of fish of any size and any pattern to the captures over the previous two sessions had me a bit nonplussed. However, I decided to give the swim another try and by 9 pm I was settled in once again. At 10:15 pm, the tip of the downstream rod pulled round and I was into my first fish. This turned out to be a barbel of 8lb 2oz, not a bad start. No sooner had I recast, the rod was away again. As I made my way down the bank to play out the fish I checked that the baitrunner on the upstream rod was on. This proved to be a wise move, as a couple of seconds later I heard the reel whiz into action signalling another fish. The fish I had on already didn’t feel that big, so I bullied it into the landing net as quickly as I could, bit off the line and left it in the net in the margins while I dealt with the other rod. Winding down I felt that the fish was still on and a few minutes later I was looking at two barbel in the landing net, one a 5-pounder and the other 8lb 5oz. It was 10:30 pm! Three fish in 15 minutes had understandably made a bit of a mess of my tackle, so I took some time to sort out the tangles, re-tackle one of the rods and cast both out again. The next couple of hours saw three more barbel come to the net, another 5-pounder and two 7-pounders. The double I was hoping for had yet to materialise. This, however, was about to change. At about 1am I had a couple of knocks on the downstream rod. The subsequent strike was met with solid resistance. However, the line suddenly fell slack. It was a couple of seconds before I wound down and realised that the fish was motoring rapidly upstream towards me. Once I regained contact the fish stayed deep and plodded around under the tip, resisting the full test curve of the rod. I had learned not to jump to any conclusions at this stage, as even 5-pounders appeared to be adept at using the current and their big pectoral fins to nail themselves to the bottom. Therefore, it was only when I successfully landed the fish a few minutes later and lifted the net to carry it up the bank that I realised how heavy it really was.
When I parted the folds of the net I was met with the sight of a thick set of shoulders and a big grey-blue head. I knew from the depth and breadth of the fish that it was probably a double, but how big exactly? The fish was quickly into the weighsling and up onto the Avons. I watched in anticipation as the needle spun round to a satisfying 11lb 3oz. “YESSSSSS!” I’d done it! After dancing a quick jig along the bank, I pulled myself together in order to get some photographs. Then, after admiring the fish for a moment longer I carried it down the bank, held it briefly in the current and watched it kick off strongly in the beam of my headtorch. I was still in a bit of a daze and had started packing up when I realised that the other rod was nodding in the rest and the baitrunner was whizzing round. As I picked up the rod and felt the fish on the other end my first thought was, “Surely not?” However, at 9lb 12oz it wasn’t quite another double, but it was very satisfying end to the session. Eight barbel and a couple of chub, but more importantly a Trent double. Mission well and truly accomplished! |
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