The Sessions - December 2014

Barbel, Perch & and a ploughed field!!

5 Dec – River Trent

I had the Friday of work and was hoping to get the Dec double in early so loaded up the car and drove up to the Trent which was fast becoming my second home.

I arrived at 16:15 hours; it was clear, cold, and high pressure winter was definitely coming.

There was only one person on the section, a local I had got to know quite well named Dave. He is retired and fishes the river most days so is a great source of information, he was well aware of my Barbel challenge and always full of encouragement but on this occasion he stated I would struggle to catch. We had a few laughs and I walked away thinking he was wrong, full of confidence and I would catch. The levels were down since my last visit so I went in a swim I’d done well in before in November.

I got the rigs in for 17:00 hours and within 30 minutes there was frost forming on my shelter but the water felt warm so I was still pretty confident.

Unfortunately there is not much more to tell about this trip other than it was a very cold night and I blanked for the first time on the Trent.

As I was driving away in the morning I was thinking about Dave and that he would have a chuckle next time we met.

7 Dec – River Ouse

With the weather as it was I went into my garage and set up light link ledger with the intention of fishing for Perch. My mainline was 6 pound, a two swan shot link, 5.8 pound Drennen Supplex hooklink to a size 6 Drennen Barbel hook. The plan was to rove around a new area I hadn’t fished before dropping lob worms in likely looking areas and letting them trundle round in the flow.

I went out for a 14:00 hours start and fished until dark trying a number of spots for one small Perch of about 12 ounces.

11 Dec – River Trent

After a period of high pressure the weather changed, it was warmer at 6 degrees, cloudy, a south westerly wind and had been raining all day. I didn’t finish work until 17:30 hours and to be honest did not fancy fishing at all with the weather as it was but I just knew I would have a great chance so I was soon packed and heading up the A1.

It rained all the way there and I got to the village for 20:00 hours and went straight to the chippy for dinner. Once that was done I went to the river and looked at two sections before deciding to go to my banker area as the levels looked perfect with a bit of colour. The weather was awful which was probably why there was no one on the river at all.

This is where things started to go wrong. I drove to the section and got up by the river, to get to the area I wanted to fish you have to drive down a farm track between two ploughed fields. Normally this is not too much of an issue but it had been raining all day and the track was well worn from the traffic during the season. I put the lights on full beam and the windscreen wipers on double speed and crawled down the track.

I got two thirds of the way down when the driver front wheel slipped off the track, I braked straight away and put the hand brake on and got out, I thought I would be ok and put my Albert Romp (nostalgic) unhooking may under the wheel, I reversed slowly and it worked and I was almost back on the track when disaster struck and the car spun 90 degrees and you’ve guessed it I was in the field, I tried everything but all I did was dig the front wheels in further.

What a nightmare, but I’m pretty level headed and knew there was nothing I could do till the morning so I made three trips in the rain to the swim. I was set up by 21:30 hours, was wet and cold and sat on my bedchair asking myself what the hell I was doing. The rigs went in well and I was holding with 5oz leads but when your wet and cold the doubts creep in.

At 22:50 hours I was thinking about a rebait when the left hand rod crashed over, it was still pouring with rain but it felt a good fish so I knew I couldn’t rush it. The fight was epic and it would not give in but eventually it popped into the net and I could see it was a good fish and definitely a double. Only an angler can appreciate that feeling, it went 12-00 exactly and I was over then moon, after all the problems I still caught it.

The night was horrible, really wet and windy but I didn’t care. I picked up another at 8-10 in the morning but to be honest wasn’t putting much effort in as the weather was so bad.

I’m always friendly when travelling around with my fishing and this is another occasion when it paid off. The first person to walk round in the morning was an old fella with two Jack Russells who found my predicament very funny. I told him my storey and we had some laughs but the problem was obviously getting my car out. I’d heard all sorts of stories about £150-200 to get a tow out but I don’t carry lots of money when fishing. I had £20 in my pocket and here’s where I got lucky, the fella turned out to be the fishing club president and after a lot of fishing tales and banter he said “give me 40 minutes”.

True to his word the local farmer, all 74 years of him turned up on his tractor and towed me out for £20 and I went home a very happy man.

13 Dec – Chestnut Pool

With the Dec double in the bag a cold frosty day was not the time to go Barbel fishing so an afternoons Perching was in order.

I arrived at Chestnut Pool for midday; it is a lovely commercial Carp water of about 3 acres with a large island in the middle, the Carp here go up to mid twenties and there are loads in the lower double range, it’s a great little winter water if you want your string pulled. There are a few Perch with a 4 pounder having been caught in the past.
The lake was mostly frozen over but the area I like to fish is slightly deeper and was clear of ice.

I set up well back from the bank as I planned to fish two floats right in the edge in approx four feet of water. My set up was 6 pound main line, a small waggler, 5.8 pound Drennen Supplex hooklink to a size 6 Gardener Talon Tip hook.
I fed red casters and broken prawns little and often and fished a King Prawn on both rods. It was really cold and the lake continued to freeze over. After a couple of hours feeding I started getting movement on the floats which indicated fish in the swim, shortly after the float dipped under and I had the only Perch of the session at 2-07.

18 Dec – Chestnut Pool

I arrived back in the same swim when the gates opened at 08:00 hours. The weather had changed; it was warm at 12 degrees, cloudy with a strong south westerly wind.

I set up the same way and fed dead maggots and chopped prawns with the King Prawns on the hooks. With the dark conditions I thought I would be in from the off but that was not the case.
After three hours without a take I tried a lobworm on one rod and it was away straight away landing a Perch at 2-05.

Unfortunately another lesson learnt as I had no more worms, always take enough bait.

I carried on baiting with the maggots and prawns and started getting movement on the floats. The bites started coming and I finished with a big Roach, a Bream and four more Perch at 12oz, 1-09, 2-04 and another at 2-05.

23 Dec – Chestnut Pool

I finished the month with another Perch session on Chestnut and it was a poor day. I fished one on King Prawn and one on a live Roach all day for no Perch.

A difficult month but it should never be easy, the MAD baits test bait was still doing well and my season target was still on.

Dec – 2 trips to the Trent, 2 Barbel / 1 double.