The Sessions - Sept 2023
Highs & Lows
Last month was a good one with lots of fish caught and the highlight being two fish from the stunning Kings Weir on the river Lea, I had trips planned for this month but also had surgery booked to remove my kidney stones so that will keep me house bound for a bit.
I’m sat at home post-surgery on 16 Sept and have just finished and published my Aug blog so with time on my hands I started Sept’s, to say I’m uncomfortable is about right, my left kidney feels like I’ve just lost to Tyson (Mike, not that dillio Fury) and its murder to wee, but it’s all part of the recovery and I’ll be back to normal soon.
So I finished last month’s blog here and this is how the rest of the session unfolded:
31 Aug 2023 – Gunthorpe, River Trent.
I went back to Gunthorpe to finish my annual leave period and started at 16:30 fishing static baits for the night, the main write up for this session will be in September’s blog, but it started really well with a 12-07…..
01 Sept 2023
I’d landed two singles and another double at 11-01 before midnight, but the Crayfish were being a pain, they seem to be growing in numbers on the middle Trent and it will be interesting to see how that develops over the next couple of years as the Crabs are definitely moving up river too.
I had three more to 10-06 in the early hours and wound in at 09:00 and went for breakfast with my pal Danny and his guest John. I was considering a move to the tidal as the fish were not in the area I roll meat and the swim I was fishing had to be vacated by midday, but how things can change very quickly at times.
I went up to try rolling meat for a couple of hours, it was a little high but I could fish the area slightly further out ok, the first three casts didn’t produce the slightest knock but on the forth roll through I felt the slightest pluck and on the second pluck I struck and hooked a big fish, the fight was a good one and I knew it was big, it all ended well and I landed a season best and middle Trent PB at 16-07.
I got a call at lunchtime from Tammy to say I could stay in the original swim so with bigger fish now in the area I decided to stay put. I carried on rolling until 16:00 but only had one more at 8 plus before going back to the first swim to fish statics for the evening.
I lowered baits into position and baited up with the brilliant BBB. It was quiet until just into dark when I landed another good fish at 13-04, this was followed by another at 11-08 and an 8 plus and with that I reeled in for some sleep.
2 Sept 2023
I was up at 06:30 after a good sleep and lowered baits back into position and was sitting on my chair with a brew when a Squirrel came round from behind the shelter, I expected it to bolt away when it saw me but it didn’t and came right up to my foot, I thought it was going to hop up onto my lap but as I went to give it food it shot away, but it will get tamer if it stays in the area.
It didn’t take long for the left hand rod to bang over and I landed a stunner and brute of a Barbel at 14-03 that looked a lot bigger than it was, and that was followed by four more with doubles at 12-12 and 11-03 before packing the swim down and moving back to the rolling meat area.
The level was now perfect at .40m so I tried rolling for a while and had three singles but the bigger fish didn’t seem to be there again. I’ve not tried statics in this area but thought I’d try to see if they had wised up to the rolling baits, I used the short Kings Weir rigs as it is very snaggy in the swim and placed the baits carefully in the clears spots at 18:00.
It proved a good decision as I had a take straight away with a 12-02 and another five to 12-00 before reeling in at 22:30 to listen to the boxing.
3 Sept 2023
I put rigs out again at 06:15 after a good sleep, it was chilly and clear and the level had come up again to .42m, it only took 15 mins and I landed another good one at 12-03, this was followed by three more to 10-09 before I packed up for a shower, some food and a move to the tidal.
It got really hot through the day, way too hot to be sitting on the bank in the sun, so after a shower in one of the C&RT buildings by the lock I chilled out, went to the tackle shop, had a KFC and went to the local sports club to watch Arsenal stuff United and went down to the river in the evening. I was on Colly Weir for my second booking of the year so went down and set the bivvy up, got the gear ready for the morning and went to sleep.
4 Sept 2023 – River Trent, Collingham
I was fishing by 06:30, the level was good at .80m with big tides due, but it was going to be very hot and sunny, not ideal especially with my pale skin, luckily Kia had found a brolly he kindly gave me to keep me out of the sun as much as possible. I planned to bait up boilie only this time and did three bait ups through the day. Unfortunately I’d picked the wrong time again with the weather not helping, the fishing was at best slow and only picked up a bit as the tide ran off, I had 21 Barbel with the best three being 10-00, 11-10 and 12-09.
5 Sept 2023
The second day was much the same as the first, very slow, I tried a big hit of bait first thing but it didn’t have the impact I was hoping, I just don’t think the fish were there in numbers as they usually are, I had 13 Barbel but no doubles and packed up for home at 17:00.
It was then back to the grind on the 6th after a brilliant two weeks annual leave.
22 Sept 2023 – River Trent, tidal
I did a 9 day stint at work, had my surgery and was recovering at home over the weekend and was back to work on the Monday to Thursday, I wanted to get out fishing again but have to be honest was questioning myself as to whether I should be going so soon afterwards. The urge to go over rid the caution and I was heading up the A1 with Zander being the primary target during the day and Barbel at night.
I arrived at a section way down on the tidal and it looked perfect after all the rain, the level was up to 1.16m with a tinge of colour with 6.3m tides due, it just looked lovely and was good to be back. Now here’s where my problems started as I’d picked a section where I have to barrow the gear down the field which generally is fine but looking back wasn’t in my condition, but I think I’m bullet proof so did it anyway.
I got set up with two rods fishing for Zander baited with dead Roach and set the camp up for the session. My kidney was aching and if you’ve had this type of surgery you’ll understand what I say, I needed to pee literally every 5-10 minutes due to all the activity and after a while it starts to where you down, makes you tired and probably dehydrated. But I soldiered on regardless as I really wanted to be out there.
As it got into early evening the small Eels where hammering the deadbaits making it impossible so I changed to Barbel at 17:00, I’d been trickling boilies into the area so expected bites pretty quickly and was rewarded with a 9-03 straight away. I hoped that was the start of a good night but I couldn’t have been more wrong as the Bream and Carbs moved in and hammered me, if I didn’t get a Bream the bait was nibbled off by a Crab, they are adept at taking the boilie stop off by snipping the hair loop leaving you with no bait. I did get another three Barbel amongst the carnage but gave up at 02:00 as the Crabs were a nightmare and went to sleep.
23 Sept 2023
I got up knowing I needed to move but did not feel I had the energy, after two hours of pondering I recast the Barbel rods and had a Bream straight away, so changed them to deadbaits again. The river level had dropped to1m which made a big difference and the colour had gone, it was like the plug had been pulled out, but after a chilly start it was warm and sunny.
I’d had a Pike and was stood talking to my pal Mark when the rod went again with a typical subtle Zander take, I struck and could feel resistance but not what I expected and when I reeled it in I knew I had to move, it was a Flounder with the Roach’s tail still hanging out of its mouth and the single hook in its top lip. I cast a Barbel rod out as I was packing down the gear and it went straight away, it was a good heavy fish and found a snag, now generally I almost always get them out by holding the rod with slight tension and as soon as they kick lift them out, but this one would not come out. I put the rod in the rest and it was there an hour, with the fish powering away from the snag and when I thought it was free I was reeling it straight back into it and eventually it cut me off, I hate leaving tackle in fish and it is rare that I do but on this occasion I lost and it was turning out to be a poor session.
I barrowed back to the van and was exhausted and knew then that I should go home and recover, but the drive to keep fishing was strong so I convinced myself to call in at Cromwell where I may get lucky and be able to park behind my swim.
River Trent, Cromwell
I arrived at 16:15 and the swim I wanted was free so I set the swim up only taking down what I needed. I put two Barbel rods out and a good spread of 100 BBB through the swim and sat back on the chair to make some food and a drink as I was feeling tired and drained.
The first bite came at 20:10 and was a good one at 11-03, and that was followed 40 minutes later by another at 12-03 and I was thinking it was going to be a good end to a bad trip.
I continued to keep peeing constantly and did feel very tired, I put the 12 back and went to climb back up the bank and slipped and fell three feet onto the rocks, I’ve done this climb many times without any issue and am sure I slipped as I just wasn’t right and should have gone home, a very painful lesson learnt for me. I fell heavily on my right elbow, jarring my shoulder and right hip, the pain in my elbow was intense and I was convinced I’d broken it, my body went into shock and it took me 90 minutes to sort myself out. There was no way I could hold a rod so I couldn’t fish and no way I could pack up, so I took some pain killers and plenty of water and tried to get some sleep.
I’d arranged with Judd to help me pack up in the morning if I needed help but I managed it somehow and drove home, and on to A&E. Thankfully my elbow wasn’t broken but very swollen and an appointment with the fracture clinic was made for later in the week.
I’m a massive believer in following your instincts and all mine said “don’t go fishing you’re not right yet” and I paid the price with a poor trip and a very painful injury, lesson learnt!!
The next few days were spent icing my arm up to six times a day and regular anti-inflammatory tablets to get the swelling down along with two visits to hospital, one to the fracture clinic and the other to have my stent taken out, which was not nice at all but such a relief the following day and my water works are now back to normal.
28 Sept 2023 – River Trent, Gunthorpe.
I had arranged for a friend to come over from Holland to fish on the Friday and couldn’t let him down, so my plan was if I couldn’t fish I’d get him on the section and set the shelter up and stay in the swim with him without my tackle. My arm wasn’t good but I thought I may be able to fish if I chose swims where I did not have to cast very far so with Tim arriving on the Trent at 08:00 on the 29th I drove up the night before to ensure I’d be able to meet him on time, I looked at my first choice section on the tidal to find it busy so drove back up to the middle to Gunthorpe and met up with Potty for the night.
We fished in swims next to each other, had a pizza delivered and a good catch up and caught a few fish between us with my best being 12-10 before packing up first thing in the morning.
29 Sept 2023 – River Trent, tidal
I’d managed to pack the swim down and meet Tim on time and we drove down the track to the chosen section for a 24 hour session. Having looked at the section the weekend before, and with the current river level and 8m tide I knew where I wanted to be, with only one person on the section we had no issue and did the long walk with the barrow down the flood bank. It took me a few trips as my arm wasn’t good but it was manageable and there was no rush, my plan was to fish for Zander while Tim tried to break his UK PB with a Barbel of over 13-08.
The conditions were good with it being warm and cloudy with sunny spells and it was only two hours into the trip Tim had two fish at 9-05 on 18mm BBB to give him a good start. He continued to get regular bites into the night with eight fish to 12-05.
I fished both rods on dead Roach and had the frustration of lots of taps and pulls before losing a Zander close in and then landed two Pike at 12 plus and 17-13.
It was really good to finally meet Tim in person after chatting online for a few years and we have made plans for further trips at home and abroad next year.
In the morning the Mitten Crabs finally got the better of me destroying my dead baits so I packed up for another move for the final night of the session and I’ll tell you about that next month.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😃
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