The Sessions - August 2016

A month of highs and lows

8 Aug – River Derwent

After a week of nights at work I drove up the M1 looking forward to two nights on the Derwent. Unfortunately the drive up was a complete nightmare and a 90 minute trip took four and half hours due a minor accident at junction 23, when I finally arrived I felt like going home, for me there is no bigger waste of time than sitting stationary in a car.

The weather had been settled for a week, warm and sunny with a little cloud and warm nights but the forecast was for a chilly night down to 10 degrees. I arrived at 21:00 hours and went back in my hotspot, it still looked like no one had fished there so I was managing to keep the spot quiet.

I put two rods out on my standard Barbel set up, Pandemic boilies, pva bags and 20 freebies on the spots. My pva is supplied to me by Castaway PVA and I have to say it is an excellent product and great value for money. I had a take almost immediately a long spawned out Chub at high 4+. The levels were lower than my last visit and there was not much rubbish coming down which made presentation much better. I put another ten baits out and then walked the section and put a boilie in every ten paces to draw any fish up to my spot, this is a tactic I found to work really well.

Two Barbel came before midnight at 8+ and 9-09 and after each fish I put in another ten broken boilies. Jerry arrived at midnight and set up at the far end of the straight before it split round an island, he’d had the same travel problems as me but his were spending hours on trains.

9 Aug

In the early hours I had another single at 7+ before the rod smashed over and I met heavy resistance landing a good fish at 11-01. I certainly think the slight change I’ve made to my tactics with trickling in a few baits after each fish has worked, the pulling power of Pandemic is just brilliant. Jerry added an 11-02 to make it a good night for both of us.

By 08:00 hours the sun was up and it was lovely and warm, I wound in, had my breakfast and the essential for any session fishing, a good cup of tea. After a chat with Jerry we decided to move downstream to the area we had success in during our last session in July. So after a slow pack up and move I was settled in again by midday, by then it had clouded over and started to rain, for me these are perfect conditions so I was surprised not to get any action before midnight.

10 Aug

The temp dropped right down to 10 degrees again and it went very cold and clear by 02:00 hours.

02:35 hours – just when I was thinking we’d made a bad move the left hand rod crashed over and I was into a strong fish and disaster struck. I never have problems fishing two rods but that night somehow the fish had gone upstream around the other rod and then back downstream causing a right tangle!! I had to hand line it all in until I got to the tangle, sort it all out with the fish trying to pull me in and eventually I got in direct contact with it and landed another double at 10-05.

03:25 hours – the left hand rod went and this time there were no problems and I landed yet another double at 10-08, the River Derwent had been so kind to me this season.

By 06:00 hours it was 9 degrees and felt really cold especially as we had summer clothing on but we’d had another good trip both catching doubles and packed up for home. On my way past my hotspot I put out half a kilo of Pandemic to keep the fish coming back for free food.

River Trent

I spent the day at home, replenished the cooler box with food and drink and as planned drove up the A1 for a session on the Tidal Trent. It had soon warmed up and was 20 degrees during the day but when I arrived on the river at 21:00 hours it started to rain. I looked at three different sections and found the third with the least people on and my favourite peg on that section available so I dropped in there.

It didn’t take long to get bites and I had three Chub and a small Barbel.

11 Aug

In the really early hours I landed my first Trent double of the season at 10-03 but it was pouring with rain and the thought of self takes was not good so a quick mat shot and back it went. It was raining so hard I didn’t fancy jumping in and out of the shelter all night so reeled in and went to sleep, after two nights on the bank sleep was very welcome indeed.

When I woke up at 08:00 hours it was still spotting but clearing, it remained cloudy all day with a strong westerly wind.

Now the main reason for this Trent trip was to test a new test bait from my sponsor Madbaits, it is called CTS (crab, tuna, salmon) and smells the business. The Trent is generally good to me so a perfect place to try a new bait. So my plan was to fish CTS on one rod and Pandemic on the other and just pva bags as free bait.

The day was very slow and bites started coming at tea time up to midnight, I had a big Roach that wasn’t quite a two and six Barbel all 7’s and 8’s. The CTS taking an equal share, I found it work best by trimming it slightly allowing the flavours to leak out quicker. Early days, the Carp lads seem to be doing well with it and I’ll try it again on my next visit to the Trent. The night went without anymore and I packed up for home in the morning.

13 Aug – River Derwent.

I had nothing planned for the Sat night, all my mates were busy so I made a last minute decision to head up the M1 to the Derwent, the river had been good to me and I wanted to keep bait going on the spot.

I arrived early evening, it was still warm and cloudy with a light westerly wind and I dropped on my hotspot feeling really confident. This was dampened slightly as the reeds had been clearly parted and it looked like someone had been standing down there by the water’s edge, as the reeds were flattened I reasoned that someone had been trotting the straight or lure fishing rather than Barbel fishing so carried on with my now well practised plan.

22:05 hours – the right hand rod crashed round and I knew straight away the effort had been worthwhile, I could see the fish in the clear water just holding in the flow trying to bore down to the bottom, I knew my set up was well balanced and the rod soft enough so I held firm and allowed the rod and clutch to play the fish, after what seemed ages she slipped over the net and it was another good fish at 13-05.

I had two more bites in the early hours, one being a Barbel at 7+ and the other a small Chub and I packed up first thing to head for home. On reeling in the right hand rod had a 4oz Chub on the hook that could have been on for five hours or more so that explained why it went a bit quiet.

16 Aug

This was a bad day for a number of reasons, close friends know why and I don’t really want to put it into print but let’s just say I had my pants pulled completely down, very disappointing and I won’t be making the same mistake again……

25 Aug – River Derwent

After brooding for nine days, enough was enough time to get back out there so I drove back up the M1 for an evening start. After a hot week we had two days of rain putting two foot on the Derwent and making it a dark coffee colour, when I arrived it was muggy, cloudy with showers, all made for good conditions but the Derwent carries a lot of dying weed in a flood this time of year that causes presentation problems.
I lowered my rigs onto the spots and put 20 broken boilies over them and then my familiar baiting down the section. It then just poured with rain nonstop. The weed was a real problem and I was having to re-bait every 45 minutes.

Eventually the rod went over but there was so much weed on the line I had to hand line it in to get the weed of, reel in the clean line and hand line again, after what seemed like an age it went in the net, a double at 10-09, there was no way of setting up for self takes so a quick mat shot was done before returning it.

I had two more singles and went through the same process getting soaked each time so by 02:00 hours I’d had enough and reeled in for some sleep.

26 Aug – Warwickshire Avon

The weed was so bad on the Derwent I decided a move across the Midlands to the Avon would be better so packed up and was on the road by lunchtime. It was clear, sunny and 25 degrees and I arrived mid-afternoon.

I’d only made the one trip so far and quickly realised the members all had their favourite swims so as with the Derwent I wanted to find one that didn’t get much or any attention and do the same baiting approach on the Avon. So I spent the afternoon with my leading rod looking at awkward swims, I settled on one I’ll call “the willow”. It features a large willow tree that had been trimmed right back to the trunk and a reed lined margin with a small gap on the far left by the tree. The reeds were three feet plus high giving cover and the small gap was enough room to land fish if any were hooked. The bottom was gravel and four feet deep throughout the swim, it looked perfect.

Out came the long bank sticks to lift the rod tips above the reeds and I was perfectly camouflaged from any passing fish. I put the rigs out at 17:00 hours and 20 broken Pandemic and sat back with anticipation.

All went to plan, I followed my now usual routine of more bait after each fish and caught Barbel at 9-13, 9-12, 10-00 and 6+, I did suffer one loss, a hook pull after it had been weeded for nearly five hours but that being my first loss of the season I wasn’t complaining.

It is worth some discussion on Barbel losses, I see a lot of people on social media talking of many lost fish and can only think the tackle is not balanced correctly. Without wishing to sound controversial Barbel losses should be at a minimum, they have tough, fleshy mouths and if the hook is in they rarely pull. It took a while to get mine right but by using balanced tackle and playing them correctly my losses are at approx.2% and there is no reason why yours can’t be too.

28 August – Warwickshire Avon

I’d had an awesome Sat evening at my friend’s boat mooring and was a little worse for wear when I woke up so after hugging the sofa all morning I sorted myself out and drove over to the Avon for 18:30 hours. Again it was hot at 25 degrees with heavy showers that had brought the level up a foot, added a tinge of colour but no rubbish coming down. I went back in “the willow” and followed my normal approach, the baiting was started to weave its magic, I had three Barbel to 9-14 and a Chub before packing up first thing in the morning. I felt confident one of the big girls was not far away.

On a not so positive note I saw my first Otter of the season and hoped they were not going to ruin this lovely section of the Avon.

A month of different fortunes, four nights on the Derwent, two on the Trent and two on the Avon, resulting in 26 Barbel, 7 being doubles  but I couldn’t get rid of that sour taste…..

Until next month tight lines.

Julian Barnes