The Sessions - February 2015
Barbel or bust
07 Feb – Smeatons, River Trent
After a week of snow, frost and cold weather it had started to warm up, was cloudy with wind and not forecast to freeze during the night so I fancied my chances and headed back up the A1. After my last session I wanted to have another go at Smeatons and arrived at 14:00 hours to find one angler packing up after not having a bite.
The river was down some 3 feet and the colour coming out of it but still flowing very hard, I dropped in peg 5 again and got myself set up and fishing for 15:00 hours. With the conditions I didn’t think they would be feeding hard so my intention was to re-bait every 3 hours fishing with my standard set up, the MAD baits boilies and my special PVA bag mix (lots of smell but little solid food).
The weather forecast was wrong again, surprise surprise and by dusk it was down to 1 degrees, clear with no wind and very cold, not ideal conditions.
01:20 hours – always the optimist I’d kept at it and was just dropping of to sleep when I had a take resulting in a 7+ Barbel which I felt was a result in the conditions.
03:45 hours – the same rod went again and kept taking line despite the pressure I put on it, unfortunately it found a snag I wasn’t aware of and went solid. Eventually I had to pull for a break and lost the fish and my tackle, I was gutted as I’m never comfortable knowing I’ve left a hook in a fish.
I packed up in the morning, it was very cold and frost everywhere so I felt one fish was a result and went home happy.
10 Feb – Smeatons, River Trent
The day had been slightly warmer at 6 degrees and cloudy so I jumped straight in the car after work and headed back up the A1 arriving at 2100 hours. Unsurprisingly there was no one fishing so I had the choice of swims, I decided to go in peg 4 to fish the same run but avoid the snag should I hook a fish. It was down too 2 degrees and feeling cold by the time I had set up and was fishing. As I got there so late I made the decision to break up 20 boilies and spread them along the swim to get a sent trail going and then recast every 2 and half hours.
02:45 hours – nothing had happened then out of the blue the rod went over and I had another average Barbel at 7+
Nothing else happened during the night and I could see the river had lost colour and was quite clear so I decided to move to the tidal stretches.
11 Feb – River Trent
I made the 8 mile journey and was on the section by 08:00 hours. I went in a peg that fishes well in the winter and set up for the day. The water temp was up a little at 4.5 degrees and the colour had dropped out of it but you had to be in it to win it.
The day wasn’t too eventful but I enjoyed it catching 3 average Chub.
14 February – River Trent
The weather had continued to warm up and was 8 degrees in the day, cloudy with a light south easterly and the nights were staying above freezing so I was buzzing to go fishing. The beauty of not having a girlfriend on Valentines Day is you can go so I loaded the car and flew back up the A1.
I arrived at 11:30 hours and as usual during the winter there was no one there, my banker swim looked bang on so I dropped in there. I was so confident with the rig and bait that I didn’t need to change anything, the only thing to consider was how often to re-bait, with the weather as cold as it had been I figured on every two and half hours.
The weather was lovely for February and I sat there enjoying the day when a fella from Sheffield turned up. Introductions were made and we got chatting and he told me he was a Carp angler and the lakes in his area were all frozen so he thought he’d try Barbel fishing. I couldn’t believe it, his first ever trip and he came to the tidal Trent in February!!
15:30 hours – I like to think I’m a good judge and I liked the guy straight away so I offered any help he wanted, we had a good chat about swims and like clock work my rod crashed over. The fish felt heavy but hung in the flow like a big Bream so I wasn’t expecting much until a big Barbel popped up, as soon as it saw the net it tore off and gave a great fight until I got it in the net. I could see it a was a good one and Mick couldn’t believe how big it was, it went 13-09 so I was obviously buzzing, I got my Feb double in the month I thought would be the toughest.
We did the photos and put her back none the worse for where, it’s worth mentioning here that in the summer months you have to hold Barbel for some time before releasing them as they tire themselves out during the fight, but in the winter months with lower water temperatures they go back strongly pretty quickly.
Mick asked if I minded him looking at my rig which was no problem and gave us both a laugh as a Carp angler looking at a 5 foot hook length was alien to him. I gave Mick a hand full of the awesome MAD baits test bait and he went and set up well upstream of me.
22:05 hours – I’d had another at 9-08 during the evening and had changed my hook to a Gardener Talon Tip in a size 10. The reason was the Drennan hooks lost their point after every fish and quite often when just reeling in so I had gone through loads of hooks over the season. So I trialled a beaked point and liked the Gardener pattern from my Sturgeon fishing. I had a take on that rod a landed another good fish at 11-15.
The temp stayed quite warm at 5 degrees through the night with cloud and light rain and surprisingly I didn’t get a take. I recast the rods at 06:15 hours and got the kettle on. Mick came round and was smiling big time and told me he had his first ever Barbel at 12-04 during the night and couldn’t thank me enough, to be honest that gave me as much pleasure as catching them myself…..well almost.
Disaster had almost struck though and it’s worth stating you have to be so careful when fishing the tidal, the banks are steep and rocky and it’s easy to slip, if you fall in it’s deep and fast flowing and in winter you don’t stand much chance. To stress the point the bailiff’s dog fell in and drowned during the winter. When putting his fish back Mick had slipped and fell in, luckily he managed to hang on to a rock and stop himself going right under and away…..a lucky escape indeed.
07:35 hours – the rod with the Drennan hook went over and I landed another good fish to finish a great session at 10-13, three double in a night in Feb was fantastic fishing.
21 February – River Trent
I’d had a few emails and texts during the season from people wanting to come fishing with me, one was from my friend Glenn Patterson who lives in Tamworth, a good angler in his own right and some one I like to spend time with so it was a no brainer and we arranged to meet in the village at lunchtime.
The weather had changed again and following quite a bit of rain during the week it was clear and cold, not the best conditions. We drove down to the river and when I saw it my confidence soared, it was up a good 5 feet and chocolate brown. After a season on the river I knew the pegs to fish in the conditions and we were set up and fishing by 15:00 hours. When fishing in these conditions on the tidal make sure you set up well back from the waters edge as with the tide and fluctuating levels it can come up quickly and catch you out.
By 16:00 hours it was windy, cold and frost was forming on the ground but the Barbel went crazy. We had a good catch up, good food and a few nips of vodka that were interrupted by regular takes, I had 2 Bream and Barbel at 6+, 9-09, a double at 12-03, 5+, 9-07, 9-11, 9-02 and 8+. Glenn had a Bream and his first Trent Barbel at 10-01 so although the bridesmaid on this session he was really happy.
We had to peel the landing net off the floor each time we had a fish it was so cold, but with all the action we didn’t feel it and sat out talking till gone 01:30 hours.
In the morning I had another two Bream and a small Barbel, Glen had another Barbel at 9-07 to finish an enjoyable session. We arranged to meet again in March……
A very difficult start to the month but it ended with great success and I could see the end with my season target very much on, surely I couldn’t fail now………
Feb – 4 trips to the Trent, 14 Barbel / 4 doubles