The Sessions - Dec 2023
Spain part 2 & a flooded Trent.
I finished last month’s piece half way through a two week trip to Spain having just landed a huge Catfish of 200 pound and I was really hoping for my target fish of 100kg but the weather was due to get colder making the task all the more difficult.
25 November 2023 – Rio Segre, Mequinenza, Spain
Fishing and sleeping right by a busy main road makes sleeping soundly past 05:00 pretty difficult as the traffic starts whizzing by, so I was awake early, the night had been much milder than forecast and it was a nice morning so I got the rigs baited up ready and then made myself as noisy as possible while making the morning brew to ensure I woke the other two up. That did the trick and we were all fishing by 07:00, the level had been raised at least a foot and I dropped my rigs on the spots at 14 and 15 feet.
I did the breakfast run which was on me after catching the big fish and after eating we all sat with a brew when my right hand rod went again, this was a really strong fight and powered off out to the plateau but with such strong tackle you just have to take your time and slowly win the fight, I really expected another big fish and we were all surprised when a 143 popped up for Colin to glove, but you can never be disappointed with fish of that size, they are just a stunning fish.
It was a nice sunny day at 17 degrees with a fresh wind and conditions looked good but we had no more takes. It was around 19:00 when we did the evening bait up and after finishing mine we all experienced something that makes you appreciate life and your loved ones and how it can all change in the blink of an eye.
It was dark as I got out of the boat, Colin and Dave were at the top of the bank and we all heard a scooter coming out of the village pretty fast, as they hit the bend all we could hear was the scooter sliding along the road and we could see the headlight all over the place, it all happened so quickly but is imprinted in all of us, a four wheel drive was coming round the bend driving into the village and hit them head on really hard, the sound was sickening!!
The vehicle pulled into where we were fishing and the driver jumped out in shock, Colin took him and his friend away while Dave and I went to the incident, it wasn’t good and without going into detail and with the greatest respect to the two deceased, it was like a scene from the film Final Destination. It was clear we could do nothing for the male and he was dead, the female was at least 15 paces up the road and in a bad way but still breathing, it was very hard but I went into work incident mode and stopped people from moving her until the emergency services arrived but unfortunately she died shortly afterwards, 30 and 24 years old with their lives ahead of them but taken in an instant, a very sad evening for their families and friends and all of us.
26 November 2023
The cold weather had arrived and the night temp dropped to 1 degrees, the morning was thick fog made worse by the warmer water hitting the cold air causing steam to rise of the river making visibility very poor but a spectacle to watch.
I had another take mid-morning with 10:00 being a regular bite time; it was a smaller fish at approx. 40 pound so didn’t trouble the camera man.
As you can imagine it was a very sombre day where we discussed what had happened but we couldn’t change anything and had to try to get on with the session.
I had another take late evening but it swam towards me and came off which I suspected was a Carp to end a quiet day.
27 & 28 November 2023
It had got very cold during the nights and the fishing had slowed right down, the water temp on the Ebro was 14 degrees and the Segre was 9.2 degrees, we discussed a move and decided to go back up the Segre and moved up to the top end of the Road Bank and all fished at different depths to try to work out where the fish were, the drop in temperature had certainly had an effect as very little was showing at all.
Monday passed without any takes and it got very windy especially through the night making sleep difficult as there were leaves being blown down the track making a lot of noise keeping me awake.
Tuesday arrived and the wind did not let up all day which made baiting up hairy and interesting, it got warm at 18 degrees and the water temp came up slightly to 9.6 degrees but it was another quiet day with the highlight being a huge murmuration of 1000’s of Starlings twisting and turning to evade the 14 Marsh Harriers smashing into them, a spectacle I never tire of watching.
I did catch a blank saver right at the death at approx. 80 pound. The other two did not hear me due to the wind being so strong so I gloved it and unhooked it in the edge and let it go, it stayed resting in the edge and made a good picture in the clear water so I quickly grabbed my phone for this great photo.
29 & 30 November 2023
It was a milder night but the wind had swung round to a north easterly making it feel colder as we put baits out for 07:00. By midday we were getting itchy feet again so I went for a drive round looking for a move, as you’d expect this time of year most areas were free but I had the nagging feeling to go back on the lay by again, and after a chat we all agreed and had moved again by mid-afternoon.
Thursday morning arrived and Colin and Dave decided to move further round into the deeper, warmer water coming down from the Ebro which was 14.6 degrees, I stayed put with my thinking being the area had seen regular bait so if fish were up for a feed they would look there for food and the temp had come up a bit to 11.6 degrees.
The day passed without and takes but when I went out for the evening bait up my confidence rose considerably, there was clearly water being let in at the dam from the Ebro as the warmer water was being pushed up into the confluence. I dropped my left hand rod at 15 feet and the temp there was 11.8 degrees, as I rowed to my right no more than 25m further down the temp there was 13.7 degrees and I dropped the rig at 13.8 feet, I felt sure I’d get a take.
An hour later the right hand rod went and it swam straight towards me and I was convinced it was a Carp and Colin got the net ready, then it turned and took 30m of braid of the reel and became a very strong fight resulting in a good fish at 159 pounds, a great reward for trusting my instincts.
01 & 02 December 2023
Colin and Dave had moved back to the shallower swims and I was convinced we’d catch more with the water temp staying at 13.7 degrees and we saw Cats rolling for the first time on the trip but it wasn’t to be and we ended a tough second week with two blank days.
It was a great trip and really good to catch up and spend two weeks with my good friends, I finished with 14 Catfish for the trip to 200 pound and was very happy with that and will be back in 2024 for my holy grail fish of 100kg.
22 December 2023 – River Trent, Cromwell
Julie and I had a good weekend break at Centre Parks with all her family and I then had a ten day stretch at work so was really looking forward to getting back on the river again. I hadn’t missed much while I was away in Spain as everywhere had been trashed with flooding with the river being as high as 3.5m at North Muskham. It was back down to 1.58m and fishable in certain areas so I knew where I wanted to be as I drove up mid-morning.
I was expecting it to be busy but there was hardly a soul out and I got the swim I wanted and got the swim set up for 13:30. It was mild at 11 degrees, with a strong south westerly so I set the shelter up right against the van to give me the protection I needed, as it was due to get worse with lots more rain during the night. The river level was at the top of the swim and heavily coloured but with a big slack in front of me I felt certain I would catch having done really well there previously.
I put one on a 15mm BBB hard hooker and the other on a 15mm Pandemic hard hooker and put a spread of 12mm Pandemic and 15mm BBB through the swim and expected bites pretty quickly.
I didn’t get a take until 20:40 in the rain, a nice start at 9 plus on the Pandemic, but that was it until the early hours.
23 December 2023
The night was very mild at 10 degrees with the wing getting up to 39mph, perfect conditions so I was surprised the bites weren’t coming. At 04:20 I had a take on BBB and the fish took off for Hull, I had to try and stop it or risk being cut-off on the beam, as I applied pressure the hook pulled.
40 mins later the same rod went again and was landed without any problems at 11-09.
With the fishing being very slow and the level rising I decided to move to another one of my flood swims, so packed the swim down and drove round to another section, loaded the barrow and was fishing again for 07:30, it looked perfect and worth the effort in moving, but by 11:00 I’d not had a touch so I moved again to another big slack area further downstream.
I did have another fish at around 7 pound but with the fishing very slow I packed up at 15:00 to get home and ready for xmas.
30 December 2023 – River Trent, middle.
It had continued to rain and the river had come right up again making most areas totally unfishable, it was 2.87m at North Muskham and still rising. There was an area Ian and I had been looking at on the middle Trent that I knew would be fishable and worth a go in the current conditions so I loaded the van and drove up for a look, fully prepared to go home again if unfishable.
When I arrived it did look the part, there was a huge slack and on having a good look with a Deeper and the leading rod, it was 14 feet deep and a clean bottom, I felt certain there would be Barbel there at some point resting out of the strong flow so I set the swim up.
It was warm at 10 degrees but wet and windy but great to be out fishing. I put one on Pandemic and one on BBB and put a good spread of bait through the swim.
Well it started raining at 20:00 and didn’t stop until 06:00 and I didn’t get a touch all night packing up mid-morning to end a brilliant fishing year, 2023 has been very kind to me with some special fish and I hope 2024 gives me the same, happy New Year to you all 😃
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😃
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