The Don Valley Specimen Group Diaries

I hope this will be the first of a series, and other articles will be written by the other members of our group.

We arrived at a well known spot on the Tidal Trent and noticed that the river was very low. I thought we might be fortunate to get a fish or two yet Matt Brown had managed a fine 13lb 10oz specimen the week before in this area so most of us were quite optimistic.

I arrived a little later than Matt and Adam who were both in the prime pegs. Matt Suggested that Adam help me down with my gear.

It didn’t take long before Adam was thumping out fish; first a fine barbel and then a good bream. He kept at it for several hours, whilst Matt and myself were content to wait for evening when hopefully the fish would start spreading out a bit.

A little later Mike arrived. By a little judicious shuffling all three of us were able to fish in a line. It’s surprising how close a group of experienced anglers can fish without causing problems. Still, sitting by that gravelly shingle reminded me of the nights spent on estuary mouths in different climes far, far away fishing for saltwater species.

It shortly got a little darker and it was Matt who started to get fish – bream, and lots of them. Still, what do you expect, Matt is a true bream expert.

Then it was my turn, only the bream were smaller!

Then along came a barbel, about shoal size which is around 5 lbs in this part of the Trent.

As the night wore on we all caught barbel, except that Mike was really suffering. He only managed one, but that was nothing to do with any lack of skills. You can’t catch fish which are not there.

Adam however continued caning the fish. It really was a bite a chuck and some of them were lost in the snaggy bottom of the weir.

I had a look at the baits both Adam and Matt were using. They were pellets I had not seen before from Barbel World. Named Elips pellets, I lost no time in cadging a couple of handfuls for the hook.

Onto the hook they went, out they were cast and bang, a good barbel of just under 8 lbs. Shortly after I had another one that quite honestly did feel like a double, and it was too – 10lbs 3oz, a truly beautiful fish without a mark on it.

The tide turned and started to rise. As usual in these conditions the bites dry up a bit and on this night the tide was a fairly big one. Yet I could not sleep.

At about this time I had a fast run and hooked into something that appeared unstoppable. I clamped down on the spool as hard as possible, yet the fish made it into a snag of some kind. After heaving and hauling for some time, the hooklength snapped.

As morning broke we reflected on what we had achieved. A total of about 36 barbel to 10lbs 3oz and dozens of bream up to 61/2 lbs. Our sum total must have been getting on for 500 lbs of fish.

An excellent result, and as I write I hear that another of our members, Lee Swords, has also had a fabulous session on a rising Tidal Trent. Best fish – 11lbs 10oz.