The Sessions - Jan 2024
Floods and very little fishing
I finished last month’s piece having returned from a session on a very flooded River Trent fishing a new section for me on the middle, the river was thick chocolate and raging through, but the swim I was fishing had a big slack in front of me where I felt sure I’d catch, but it was a blank to finish a brilliant 2023.
Flooding at record levels.
It continued to be a difficult winter for fishing with more extreme weather bringing several named storms causing havoc with flooding that reached record levels across the country, with the Midlands being very badly affected. I use the North Muskham river level gauge as a marker for my fishing and it reached 3.78m which is ridiculously high and closed the A1 leaving a lot of Newark and the surrounding villages with flooded roads and water entering houses in a lot of places. Collingham made the national news with houses flooded and the sign on the wall near the church indicating the level had exceeded the record levels from 2001/02. Here are few photos taken by other people with drones and show how much water there was covering the Winthorpe / Collingham area.
13 January 2024 – River Trent, Cromwell
Having only fished three nights in December I was itching to get out but had to wait until near mid-January for my first session. The weather had changed again and was very cold with no more rain so the levels had dropped quickly to 1.31m, over 2m in a week which is crazy. The question my friends and I were asking is what impact the floods will have had on the fish and their whereabouts; my theory has always been they don’t move too far and rest up in a depression or slacker water while the river is raging through but with levels reaching record highs that could have changed everything.
I wanted to fish all weekend but after finishing work on the Friday and making a few calls it was soon evident that the area I wanted to fish was busy so I decided to wait until the next morning.
I loaded the van for an early start and headed up the A1 and was doing well until five miles from the area I wanted to fish, I’d driven over the A1 pits section and heard a funny noise and the van lost power and I had to pull over into a layby. An amber engine management light was on so it wasn’t looking good. A lorry had also broken down in the same layby and as luck would have it his recovery vehicle turned up soon after and they needed me to move to be able to sort the lorry, so he had to help me 😊
He convinced me it wasn’t a major problem and after leaving it 15 minutes and re-starting it would be fine. I did as suggested and it started and I was on my way again and made it to the river for 13:00 to find the swim I wanted free so I felt things were looking up….
The level looked good for the swim, but it was very muddy and treacherous near the rivers edge so I’d have to be careful, it was sunny and although only 6 degrees felt quite warm.
I started fishing for Zander with both rods on dead Roach and dropped them in the slacker water at 14 feet.
I had a Pike quite quickly and then just on dark the first Zed of the session at approx. 8 pounds.
I’d been trickling BBB through the swim through the afternoon and changed over to Barbel at 21:00 for the night. The first Barbel of the year came a few minutes before midnight at 11-04.
14 January 2024
I had another just after midnight at 11-00 and was hoping for a busy night but that was it, two quick bites and nothing more.
I changed back to the Zander rods at first light fishing through until 13:00 and had another three Pike and another Zed at 7 pounds.
My van started fine first time but 29 miles into the journey it broke down with the same fault, I tried the same trick leaving it 20 minutes and got another 10 miles further and the third time I only got 4 miles before I decided to call a recovery vehicle, they arrived within 20 minutes and took me home, not a great start to my fishing year.
20 January 2024 – River Trent, Cromwell
The weather had been extreme again with temps down to -7 degrees with most lakes and canals frozen over and with no rain the river had dropped to 1.13m but did still have a little colour to it.
My bad luck had continued:
• The fuel injector had gone on my van and was looking an expensive job.
• The pipe work in my pond had frozen and the pump almost emptied my pond leaving them in 8” of water when I checked on them.
• The hose pipe had frozen and that took some sorting out to be able to refill the pond.
• Lots of my gear was in the van that I’d already had recovered to the garage for another £80 so I had to detour there to get my cold weather gear and unhooking mat and still forgot stuff.
But I wanted to be out and thought it would be worth a go for Zander so drove up in my car arriving at lunchtime. I didn’t expect to see a soul as it was so cold but there was one angler on the section and in the swim I wanted, he was Barbel fishing so wouldn’t affect me if I dropped in when he finished. I looked at the other swims, three were unfishable and the others a mud bath and treacherous so I set up for a few hours in another swim and put both rods out on dead Roach.
Just on dark I was able to move into my first choice swim for the night and was fishing for 18:45 with both rods on dead Roach.
It did warm up a little through the night with three hours of rain and strong southerly winds but with a water temp of 4 degrees it was always going to be tough, and I blanked.
26 January 2024 – River Trent, Cromwell
I got my van back with a bill of £1115.86 which wasn’t the best just after xmas and Julie’s birthday, but it had to be paid and it was back on the road again.
The weather had changed again with cloudy dull conditions and daytime temps of 12 degrees, the river level had risen again after the previous week’s rain but had started to drop again to 1.26m so I knew which swim I wanted to be in, and I knew it was free when I finished work at 17:30.
From leaving work to getting to the river it is generally a five hour turn around and a lot of effort especially when it’s dark and cold but I wanted to be out and felt the warmer temps would make it worth it, so I made the effort and was fishing by 23:30.
I’m a big believer in Barbel being very habitual and you can often track where they will be at certain times of the year. There is a fish on the section I want to catch at its winter weight and I know she likes a lot of bait, in particular boilies, so I baited up with this fish in mind as it is normally in the area at this time of the year and gets caught in the swim I was in. I baited with a mixture of 100 12mm Pandemic and 15mm BBB, that is a lot of bait for winter, but I knew it would give me my best chance of that fish if she was in the area. Both rods were then baited with 15mm BBB hard hookers and pva bags a flicked onto the spots.
27 January 2024
It was very cold and clear with a full moon when the rod went over two hours into the session, it was a strong fight and the longer it went on the bigger I thought the fish might be but when it slipped over the net I could see it wasn’t her…. but you can never be disappointed with a fish at 13-02.
I fished on until the morning of 28th without another touch but woke up to a stunning sunrise to finish the session and a tough month’s fishing.
The river does seem out of sorts after the floods with not many fish being caught anywhere, just odd ones but a couple of big ones have turned up so there is always a chance, I’m always glass half full with my fishing and long may that continue.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😃
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