The Sessions - June 2018

A real mixed bag

Well I signed off last month after emptying Fields End fishery of Crucians on a simple but very effective method and taking the plunge to join Johnsons. June looked like being a very different month with the plans I had in place.

3 June 2018 – Gingerbread Lake

After a lovely warm weekend of clear sunny days at 23 degrees I got to the lake at 16:00 hours for an overnight and into the morning stay with Carp and Tench being the targets.

I was really pleased to find only one person fishing and after a look round my first choice swim free so I drove round and got the tackle into the swim.

I had a few casts with a light lead to check my spots from last season, two were light weed as usual for this time of year but the third was solid so a few more casts were made and I found another area slightly further back on the plateau that was clearish. I marked all three up and cast them onto the spots, all on my favourite stiff hinge rigs and little fruity pop-ups. I baited with 18mm Fresh Fish and 14mm Pandemic, putting 30 baits over each spot.

4 June 2018

As quite often on this lake I had no takes in the night but did get a few liners so fish were in the area. Due to the line bites and the possibility of the hook being covered with weed I recast them all at 06:00 and put another pouch of Pandemic over each.

06:50 hours – that proved a good decision as the rod on the new area went and I was into a Carp that turned out to be a very spawned out 21-02.

10:45 hours – fish were showing over the spots so I was confident of more, the same rod went again and this felt like a Tench and was a lovely looking fish at 8-04.

13:00 hours – I’d had another Tench on the margin rod at 5plus and was starting to pack away and did something I never normally do. I put the rods on the floor and packed everything else away first. You couldn’t make it up, I’d packed everything away and was left with one rod in while I was packing up the second and thought I heard the baitrunner, I turned and looked but all was still and quiet. I kept watching convinced I’d heard it but nothing. I packed the rod away and went to pick up the last one when sure enough a fish was on and a beauty it was, a fish called the Big Orange and always a mid-thirty, alas not for me, she was spawned out at 29-15!!

With the river season on the horizon that was probably my last Tench / Carp session of the Spring, work has really messed up my fishing so I was pleased to put a couple on the bank before getting on the rivers again.

7 June 2018 – Oban, Scotland

Sea fishing is not my thing and I’ve never really been that interested but after reading stories of the huge Skate of Oban I just had to have a go, a 100 pound plus fish from British water was definitely on the cards.

Julie and I planned a four day trip with two days “walking” and two days fishing and it didn’t start well, we got to Luton airport to be met with a four hour delay! Obviously on a short trip with lots to pack in we were not happy at all. We eventually arrived at lunchtime, got the hire car and started the first leg of the trip which was drive up alongside the historic Loch Lomond. I’ve never fished it but want to even more now after seeing parts of it, a truly stunning place to visit, we kept stopping at the viewing points which made the drive to Oban a long one but worth every minute.

We got to the village late evening, had a meal and then when in Oban did the natural thing, went Whiskey tasting. We started with a look in the whiskey shop and some were £5000 a bottle so you wouldn’t want to drop them. Next stop was a traditional pub and sampling the local whiskeys which to my surprise was very nice as I’m not a whiskey drinker. With our heads spinning we got our heads down for our big “walk” the next day.

8 June 2018

We were up early for breakfast and hoping to get out early as we had a 40 minute drive and a long day ahead. The weather was beautiful and to be honest we couldn’t have wished for better, it was 24 degrees, sunny with patchy cloud and some 8 degrees warmer than home in Cambridgeshire!! We were heading for Ben Nevis, a place I’ve wanted to visit for years and with Julie loving her trekking now was the perfect time. The one problem with this part of Scotland is its beauty, the drive up was unbelievable and truly stunning, a 40 minute drive turned into nearly 3 hours as we kept stopping but we loved every second, it’s a place you must visit once in your lifetime, I’ve been to so many places in the world but this was right up there.

We arrived at Ben Nevis at 11:30 and got ready for our “walk”, again it was a stunning place and photos do not do it justice.

Well one thing I can say; it was not a walk, it was a climb, and it was hard. I’m 52 but in pretty good nick but it was hard and never ending. My years of body building did me no favours as at least an hour from the top I started to get cramp in my quads, I kept stretching off but the cramps returned time and again, I ate all my food and drank 3 and half litres of fluid to replenish what I’d lost but it appeared to no avail. It was when Julie started laughing about me being airlifted off the mountain, she would take loads of photos and tell all my friends (obviously the intake of food and water worked) I got a second wind and the cramp eased and I made it to the top. Julie had no such trouble and made it look easy, any how we made it and it was well worth the 3 hour 40 minute climb, the view was breath taking, it was warm but the top still had plenty of snow, we had a snow ball fight wearing shorts and the temp was 21 degrees!

The climb down was a killer on the knees and took 3 hours but well worth the effort, we drove back had a meal and were in bed exhausted ready for an early start the following day… back to fishing.

9 June 2018

We met Ronnie Campbell who was aboard Laura Dawn II waiting for us and after the introductions we were away and motoring out of Oban harbour, to say I was a little excited is an understatement and the best thing is Julie just gets it and was buzzing although terrified of being sea sick. Again it is just a stunning part of our country and we took so many photos that I could print here but I think Ray would kill me for using all his data storage.

It took about 30 minutes to get to the mark on Ronnie’s GPS and he lowered the anchor and we set about getting baits out. I’d booked the boat for us, it wasn’t cheap but worth it as you get all the takes. So Ronnie got four rods out and we lowered baits over the side, all were baited with a whole Mackerel and Octopus on each rod and lowered down 450 feet to the bottom with a pound of lead, it takes over a minute to get the bait down there, incredible really.

It wasn’t a prolific day and by lunch we hadn’t had a take, but it was peaceful, plenty of chatting, drinking tea and watching the birds. We had George the Herring Gull, a Skeeter and a Black Backed Gull all jostling for position for a free lunch. Ronnie is a cracking bloke with loads of local knowledge and great company so the day was flying by. We were chatting about Dolphins and the likely hood of seeing one when Julie spotted a Porpoise over my shoulder, what were the chances of that and believe it or not it happened again the next day.

The first take finally came while Ronnie was panicking a bit as it was looking like a blank, I picked it up but it was clearly a small fish so I gave it to Julie who pulled up a small Sting Ray for her first fish. The next and last take of the day came with an hour to go, this one felt like we’d hooked the bottom it was immovable. I have friends who have done this and all said it was brutal I can now fully agree!! It is just a tug of war, once off the bottom you gain an inch a time and at least twice it dived back to the bottom to a stale mate again. Eventually I got it moving although really slowly, I can only describe it as pulling up a dinner table in its normal position, it is a back killer! 40 minutes later we saw it coming up into the clearer water and it was massive, straight away Ronnie was saying “this is big” and it was huge. With a lot of effort we got it on board and it was massive, the weight is done on a measuring scale that all the charter boats use and this one came out at a huge 211 pound, I went hoping for a 100plus fish and doubled it, I’m never lucky with my fishing but that day I won the lottery.

We went out that night to celebrate in a lovely fish restaurant and it felt surreal to get one that big for my first one, to make the holiday complete we just needed Julie to catch a good one.

10 June 2018

We had our sea legs so Julie didn’t take the sea sick tablets and was looking forward to going out again, we set off and went to a new mark this time fishing 550 deep. As the previous day we had our feathered friends aboard to pass the time while really hoping to see a whale, unlikely but it has happed in Oban.

By lunchtime we’d had no takes, Ronnie was getting worried so we moved, he doesn’t normally do this but we moved to another mark fishing 500 feet. This proved a good decision as the final two hours of the day were hectic. The first bite was Julie’s and it looked like our trip was complete as it was a good fish, she did so well and did it without help, just quiet words from Ronnie, eventually I saw it coming up and it all ended well with Julies first Skate at 127 pound.

I hooked one and again the fight was incredible, while I was playing it Julie hooked a monster that eventually broke 60 pound mono, with mine the fight went on forever and when it came up it was surprisingly smaller than the 211, but was a male and Ronnie said they fight a lot harder which explained why, it went 121 pound.

Julie finished the day with another smaller Skate to end a brilliant two days, not prolific but brilliant just the same. We finished the trip sitting in Oban harbour drinking red wine watching the sun go down to end a perfect four day holiday.

16 June 2018 – River Derwent

The last couple of seasons I’ve started on the Derwent, I’ve said before I just love the place and that hasn’t changed, it’s just a stunning river to visit and be beside. It’s been kind to me the last two starts so I was hoping for similar and travelled up at midday on the 15th as it was a weekend, I needn’t have worried there was no one there so I loaded the barrow and walked up the field to my chosen spot.

It was lovely and warm with a gentle breeze, the river level was normal with the summer weed, it all looked perfect so I set up camp and spent the afternoon tying rigs and making pva bags full of my special mix. For my regular readers my rig hasn’t changed since I started to target Barbel 4-5 years ago but I’ve made one slight change. Being part of the RidgeMonkey Pro Team I changed my small piece of braid to the RM-Tec soft in brown,25 pound tc and really like it, it holds its colour and is just soft enough without being to limp like some other braids, other than that it’s the same and reliable as ever.

As the evening drew on my favourite British bird the majestic Barn Owl put in an appearance hunting along the hedge line, it was great to see and wasn’t bothered by me at all.
I then got a phone call with some sickening news, one of my good pals affectionately known as Fat Al had died suddenly at home, it was a sledgehammer blow, we’d been through some great times over the years, many of them spent on pub doors through my thirties and later when I took him to Spain Catting, great times and will be missed.

I stood there stunned and upset and to be honest just wanted to go home. He wouldn’t have wanted that and would have called me a c… and told me to stay so I did with a heavy heart.
Midnight arrived and I flicked two rigs onto the spot followed by twenty 14mm pandemic and sat back expecting a take quite quickly. But other than a very small Chub it didn’t come.
I decided to move up to my old hot spot where it is a little deeper and made it just before a torrential down pour at teatime.
My heart just wasn’t in it but I was there so baited regular and eventually it paid off with two Chub at 4-14 and 5-01 and a Barbel at 10-07 to get the season started.

I went out a few times over the next two weeks with mixed results. I did a day Crucian fishing following a day of rain and it was a lot slower with only six coming to the net.
I did a night at Sutton-on-Trent that was a complete blank along with everyone else and two nights on the Ouse losing one to a cut-off and landing an 8 pounder.

29 June 2018 – River Derwent

The hot weather had really kicked in at 30 degrees, great if you like sun bathing but crap for fishing. Rivers up and down the country were starting to struggle with little being caught.

The Derwent is controlled and the levels maintained and it stays cooler than the Trent so with a night free I drove up the M1.
I went in my hot swim and swung two rigs in for 2100 hours and put twenty 14mm pandemic over the top and a few down the section. Putting a few down the section is something I’ve covered before but it’s worth stating how effective it is, give it a try, one boilie every ten paces.

22:40 hours – I’d already had a 4-10 Chub when another went in the net at 5-06, this is generally a good sign on the Derwent, so I put another 15 baits on the spot.

30 June 2018

01:25 hours – the right hand rod smashed round and I was in to a good fish, this one felt heavy and put the Free Spirit HS to the test, I could see it in the clear water and it looked big, it eventually went in the net and was a cracker at 13-07.
I had another a little later at 9-14 but the thirteen was the one I wanted and I’ve named her Fat Al, she’s very easy to recognise as was he, so it was a good choice and a great end to a brilliant month mixed with a little sadness, sleep well big man.

Until next month tight lines and be lucky

Julian Barnes