The Sessions - Oct 2022
New beginnings
I ended last month finally mastering rolling meat and had some brilliant fishing catching lots of fish to 15-05. My plans for this month came a lot earlier than planned, 3 years too early, and it was all down to Tony Shep, but now I’ve started I will carry on with a few sessions a season and see where it takes me…..
1 October 2022 – River Trent, Collingham
I ended last month’s blog half way through a 24 hour trip fishing two tods for Zander and one for Barbel and I’d had two Barbel to 11-00 and a Pike up to midnight on 30 Sept.
Two more single figure Barbel followed up to 03:30 and I reeled in for some sleep. I got up at 07:30, it was a clear and sunny morning, so much different to the day before and put the Zed rods out for the morning.
Mid-morning one of the dead roach was picked up and met with solid resistance; it stayed deep and had me going for a bit until a Pike at 9 plus surfaced and was unhooked and slipped back. That was the last bite of the trip and I headed home with a weekend on Collingham weir to look forward to.
7 October 2022 – River Trent, Collingham
Jerry and I made two bookings each on the weir two years ago and this was my first one, Jerry couldn’t make it so I was left with fishing on my own for the weekend and a hefty day ticket to pay too.
My long term plan is to hopefully retire in three years when I hit 60 and do some guiding to help supplement my pensions. I’ve had quite a bit of experience guiding friends and Catmaster clients for a week at a time on the River Ebro in Spain fishing for Cats and really enjoyed it, I learnt a lot about the challenges guiding presents and have made plans in how I want to move forward with it over here. Additionally I’ve done some charity sessions over here for Barbel and Crucians and they have all gone pretty well.
I was fishing at Gunthorpe in Sept and met Tony Shep, we got on straight away, had been chatting over the session and I told him of my long term plan and he was very keen to come on a session or two with me, so with Jerry not being able to make the weir booking I agreed Tony could come with me for a day session on the Sunday. After thinking about it I decided to offer up a trip on the Saturday and it was quickly taken by an old friend from the early Ebro days, Steve Dawe. We all agreed to split the day ticket and it was good practise for me for the future.
I drove up on the Friday; it was pouring with rain as I set the bivvy up in peg 6 but forecast to be a nice weekend. My plan was to fish until midnight and reel in to get some sleep so I was fresh for the morning. I got rigs out at 18:00 both on double BBB and put a good spread of BBB and Pandemic through the swim.
The first bite came within the hour, a small fish at 6 plus and by 19:00 the rain had cleared up leaving it cool and clear.
The next bite two hours later felt a better fish and was a double at 11-14, that was followed by two more singles before I reeled in for the night.
8 October 2022
I was up at 05:00 and walked up to the weir to set the swim up, I set my pod up in peg 1 and got the swims ready leaving Steve to fish 1a. It was cold and clear at 6 degrees with a light south westerly and the river level was normal for the time of year. It is well publicized how prolific the area can be in the summer months and I experienced it in July with a brilliant red letter session, but as autumn and winter set in the fish drift in and out of the weir and spend a lot more time further down the section, but it is well worth fishing as it can throw up some good fish as they pack on weight for winter, but you can’t expect to catch the numbers of fish caught in the summer months.
Steve is a very accomplished, well-travelled angler and owns his own fishery down in Exeter, and he has a healthy list of PB’s with Eels being his favourite species; he’s had plenty of experience fishing for Barbel on the southern rivers but has only fished the Trent on one occasion and wanted to experience fishing the weir.
He arrived as planned at 06:00, got his swim ready and we got the rods out all on double BBB with pva bags. Over the next couple of hours I talked about my approach, baiting strategies and my thoughts on reading a river and weir pools, and ultimately why we were casting to certain spots. I talked through my rig and why I use the different components and then coached Steve with making two for his rods.
The fishing was slow for the morning but look on Steve’s face when he broke his PB with a 13-09 was just brilliant and I was so pleased to have been able to help him achieve it. We’d had some smaller fish and as the day warmed up we hoped for a better afternoon.
I’m a big believer in instinct and if I feel I need to do something I do it, I’d baited twice with boilies but felt the swim needed more so at midday I gave the swim a good hit of four pints of hemp and two of dead maggots. It had the desired affect and Steve hooked a strong fish that was desperate to get into the weir, he got it under control and slowly guided it towards the net and it was another PB at 14-11, the look on his face was a picture that I’d loved to have captured but it was a brilliant moment and I was so pleased for him.
We carried on until sunset and both caught another four doubles each along with some smaller fish. It was just a brilliant day, good to catch up with Steve after at least 15 years and I loved helping him improve his fishing and we have made plans for a flood water session this winter and Crucian trips next summer.
After saying goodbye to Steve I went back to peg 6 and planned to fish until midnight and I had one fish at 11-07 to make it worth the effort.
9 October 2022
This session didn’t start as well as planned as I woke up late at 06:00 and Tony was in the swim waiting for me, and even worse I had my phone on silent so hadn’t heard his texts. Tony was absolutely fine and we had a good laugh about it as we set up, a lesson learnt for me, I’d worn myself out the previous day and forgot to set an alarm, something I won’t be repeating.
Tony is another very experienced angler and has a PB of 16 plus, but he wanted a session with me to see my approach and wanted to fish the weir. It was cold at 6 degrees and cloudy with a light wind, much the same as the previous day. Once we had rods out I went through the same process passing on my knowledge and went through making up rigs for Tony.
The day started quite well but they were all single figure fish, the wind then started to gain strength and got very strong along with a big 7.5m tide. I gave the swim a hit of boilies, hemp and maggots at midday and we had a great afternoon with another 25 fish between us. Tony didn’t get a PB but had a few doubles with the best being two 12’s.
It was another brilliant day that I really enjoyed, Tony was great company, we had plenty to talk about and have made plans for another trip this winter.
16 October 2022 – River Trent, Gunthorpe
The weekend had been warmer with showers and the river level at .48m, just about ok to try rolling meat. I arrived late at 14:00, got the swim set up and walked up to the weir with the meat rod, the flow was stronger than I’d hoped and I needed a bigger lump of plastercine. I tried right up to dark without a touch, I don’t think the fish were there, I’d had no line bites and no plucks and seen no fish roll. The area hadn’t been fishing well with only three fish from the island in the previous 72 hours so it was going to be tough.
I went back to my swim on dark and got both rods out on BBB and put a good spread of BBB through the swim. We’d planned a social and Liam was set up next door, so we ordered pizza and had a catch up before hitting the bedchair around midnight.
I had four fish through the night but nothing to trouble the camera. The fish do move out of the weir in autumn and move down the section and it looked like the bigger girls had moved out already.
29 October 202 – River Trent, Hoveringham
A long overdue catch up with Lewis Baldwin was planned for the first night of my annual leave. We had both joined a new section on the middle Trent for winter fishing and wanted to give it a try so met there; Lewis was staying for 48 hours where as I had another guide session planned so would have to leave on the Sunday.
It was very mild and had been up to 20 degrees in the day, there had been lots of rain over the past two weeks and the river had been up and was fining down and looked lovely as I walked onto the meadow. It wasn’t too busy but we planned to start as far from the car park as possible so started at the top of the section which was quite a walk with the barrow.
Lewis was in the top swim so I got the leading rod out with the Deeper and looked for a feature to fish too. The section is 140 pegs and almost straight, I ran the Deeper through a few swims and found it all the same, a margin that dropped to 8 feet that went out to just over 9 feet in the middle, so I set up around 250 yards below Lewis.
I put both out on BBB and put a spread of BBB and Pandemic through the swim.
The Bream and Chub were relentless and kept me up all night, with one 5-09 Chub being caught twice, Lewis fared better that me and had two Barbel with one good one at 13-01.
30 October 2022
I always enjoy our sessions together and it was great to see him again, I loaded my barrow and was saying goodbye when the sky went dark, with no rain forecast I thought I’d be ok but I couldn’t have been more wrong, I got soaked in a freak storm that went as quickly as it came but left me with water dripping out of my trackie bottoms.
A trip to KFC was in order to dry out in the warm with a hot meal, to my disbelieve they had no chicken and it would be a 30 minute wait so I had to settle for battered fillets with chips!!
River Trent, Collingham
I had my second two day weir booking on 31 Oct so set up a base camp in peg 7 for 17:00. I got a rod out on double BBB and had a take before I could get the second rod sorted but the hook pulled, could my day get any worse??
The next three takes went to plan and I landed two 9’s and a 10-10 before reeling in at midnight.
31 October 2022
I was up at 05:00 and got the swim set up, it was chilly and very damp with all the kit soaked.
John Merriman, who I’d never met other than chatting on the phone, was fishing with me for two days and asked if Duncan Charman could join us for the trip to which I agreed he could. John got into fishing later in life and is making up for lost time with some impressive fish of different species caught in the southern waters near his home in Hampshire. He wanted a double figure Barbel so I hoped he would achieve that over the two days fishing with me.
They arrived at 06:00 and while Duncan was setting up in peg 2 I got John setting up in 1a. I put two rods out while John was getting ready and had three doubles in quick succession to wet his appetite.
I got him fishing and went through the same process as previous sessions explaining my rigs and approach. It didn’t take long for the BBB to work its magic and John landed his target fish at 10-09, to say he was happy was an understatement and makes the effort of helping people very worthwhile.
The fishing was steady with 20 fish coming to our rods, Duncan had three to 12-13 to make it a good trip for him but the highlight of the day was a very happy John catching a good fish and another PB at 14-11.
It was another enjoyable days fishing with like-minded people and we had day two to look forward to which I will tell you about next month.
That brought an end another great months fishing, due to work I hadn’t managed to get out much but had some good fishing, with 50 Barbel / 20 doubles.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😃
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