River Trent

8 October 2013

Drove up for my first visit of the season to the River Trent arriving at 16:30 hours, it was quite warm at 15 degrees, cloudy with sunny spells. I went to an area I know quite well to find the river very low and clear, however I got my first choice swim and still felt confident.

Due to the low levels and clear water I thought little and often was the best baiting approach so I opted for pva bags of small mixed pellets and recasting every 30 minutes. My set up was my normal 15 pound mainline, I went for the lightest lead possible which on this occasion was a 3 ounce gripper on a lead clip. Hook lengths were 4 feet of 12 pound ESP ghost fluocarbon to a 3 inch piece of 15 pound Drennen Carp Silk, a size 10 Drennen Barbel hook completed the set up. My hook baits were the excellent Quest Baits Raja Spice in 10mm.

The session started really well with a 10-09 Barbel an hour after starting, this was followed by Barbel of 9-01, 8-02 and a 5-03 Chub. I then had a quiet spell and dropped the recasts to hourly until 02:00 when the tip went over and I had a real good fish for the Trent at 14-03.

12 October 2013

Drove back up for another session and started at midday. It had been very windy and raining all morning but when your lucks in…
I set up in a new area approximately 2 miles downstream on the outside of a big bend with deep margins. I used the same approach as the first session and fished a rod length out. Within 45 minutes of casting I had a take so violent it nearly pulled the rod in, I just caught the butt and landed another good fish at 10-02.

It continued to rain all day until I packed up at 23:00, I think the cold rain may have put them off so another trip will be planned soon…