The Sessions - September 2015

Barbel and too much work

03 Sept – River Ouse

I got to the river for 21:30 hours, the weather was unchanged, cloudy and warm with showers. The river levels were still up but the swim looked like it was getting to much attention, a lot of the foliage had been cut back opening the swim up to much inviting others to fish it.

I’d been trickling bait in so I decided to fish it and despite my usual regular bait ups through the night it proved a blank, I packed up at 05:00 hours for work thinking it may be time to move on.

04 Sept – River Derwent

I had the weekend off so planned a road trip heading to the Derwent on Friday and then over to the Trent to meet Glen Patterson on Saturday.

I arrived on the Derwent at 19:30 hours and found the car park empty. The sky was clearing and there was a chilly wind, despite the recent rain the levels were good so I felt confident of a bite or two.

I headed for the swim I fished on the ABF challenge and was pleased to find it free along with the whole section. I got set up and cast out my tried and tested rigs with pva bags attached and catapulted out 15 broken 18mm Pandemic (MAD baits) boilies.

23:55 hours – I’d moved my margin rod out to the same line as the rod cast just over half way at 23:00 hours, this rod crashed over and I was soon attached to a good fish. It went solid in weed so I had to walk two swims downstream to tease the fish out, everything thing held and I netted a good fish at 12-02 along with nearly 10 feet of streamer weed.

04:05 hours – after catching the first fish cloud came over and it was noticeably warmer. The weed coming down in the flow was a real problem and the result was more regular casting which i felt was costing me more bites.
Eventually the same rod went over and I netted another Derwent double at 10-03.

That was the last bite and I managed a few hours’ kip before packing up and driving across the Midlands to Collingham on the River Trent.

05 Sept – River Trent.

It was still cloudy, windy and feeling chilly for the time of year, I got to the river mid-morning after stopping for a KFC and to my dismay found it packed.

I wanted to try a new section and found every swim was taken with a bait testing team, two further sections were booked for matches and my favourite section too busy for me.

The only section without an angler was a field with a huge Bull minding half a dozen cows and their calves. The bull was huge, muscle on muscle but from experience I knew he was ok and shouldn’t be a problem. So to get away from the crowds I set up in the middle of the section and rang Glen to tell him where I was.

For people that haven’t read my pieces last year I’ll introduce Glen, real nice guy always smiling, good angler, Blues (Birmingham) fan and boy can he drink!! Everyone that fishes with Glen gets “Pattersoned”, he has legendary status for it and I have been a victim before and was determined not to do it this time.

Glen and his nephew Regan arrived and set up in swims down stream of me and right on cue I had a small Barbel of about 6 pound to get us on the board.

This was when Glen showed me what he’d bought with him, two bottles of home brew wine along with cans of beer.
Another two fish came to my net up to 8 plus and by 18:00 hours I found myself standing there with a glass of wine despite trying to resist.

Glen had one and lost a good fish, then Regan had one, I had another two and it was looking like being a good session. Then it happened…..

I was stood by Glen’s shelter keeping warm in my Jack Pyke gear, with a glass of wine looking at a 2 litre empty bottle with Glen laughing at me…..he’d done me again!!

The night turned cold with no wind and the big tide turned with a strong flow. Lots of weed was coming down causing presentation problems so I reeled in and went to sleep. However I was disturbed by two EA baliffs which was no issue but they had 8 policeman with them!!! I’m all for checking rod licences but 8 policeman……..

When I woke up I hadn’t missed much as they’d had one each but I felt terrible with a hangover. True to form Glen cooked us Spam rolls for breakfast and I was good to go and packed up for home. Really enjoyable session and we’ll have tales to tell through the winter with some Zander trips planned.

12 Sept – River Ouse

Due to work I hadn’t been able to get on the bank so I needed to get out, against my better judgement I went in the weir swim again and was set up by 18:30 hours. With low pressure, wind and rain the conditions looked perfect.

I re-baited every 90 minutes and eventually had a take at 03:30 hours landing a Barbel at 7-10, not huge but any Ouse Barbel is special.

18 Sept – River Derwent

This would be my last session of the month, again due to work commitments so I arranged with Jerry Gleeson to meet on the Derwent and fish the lovely Earl of Harrington section at Borrorwash.

It’s a 96 mile drive for me and with the A14 / M1 road works it took for ever but I arrived at 16:30 hours and we chose our swims. My swim had a good gravel run half way across but was a little snaggy, Jerry went in a swim upstream of me that was a lot deeper with good far bank cover.

I stuck to my usual method and cast out my pva bags followed by some broken boilies. Jerry started to bait drop hemp and caster at regular intervals and fished over that. Phil Smith joined us for a while and we all had a good catch up before it got dark.

23:20 hours – the temp had dropped quite a bit and it was feeling cold for Sept and I was fearing the worst, Jerry and I were talking in front of my shelter when my downstream rod crashed over and I was into a heavy fish. The fish was strong and fought really well but came to the net at a pleasing 13-06.

Jerry had a 6-02 PB Chub in the night that unfortunately jumped out of the net prior to being photographed, my rods remained quiet for the rest of the night.

19 Sept

The day was warm and sunny but not a lot happened all day. I tried a rod in the margin on a lovely little clear spot and we watched fish from the bridge drift in and out of the section. I identified a deep pool to fish next time but it will take some getting too……hopefully next month I will have tales of success from there.

As it got dark it started to cool down and was colder than the night before but I was still hopeful.

22:30 hours – my downstream rod nodded over but didn’t really develop, a little line was taken so expecting a small Chub I picked up and was surprised at the heavy resistance, the result being another good Barbel at 12-15.

We fished on until morning without any more and packed up for home. Another enjoyable session with a good mate that we will be repeating soon.

That completed my months fishing with more good Barbel caught on the Derwent, looking at my notes I’ve had 10 Barbel in 6 sessions on the Derwent with 7 being doubles, brilliant fishing by any standards and I can’t wait to get back.
However Spain beckons in Oct for 19 days and I’m hoping for more successful tales from there.

Barbel – 9 fish / 4 doubles – 1 trips to the Trent 2 trips to the Ouse 2 trips to the Derwent