The Sessions - September 2018

Long drives with mixed results

I signed off last month with a long drive home from the River Mersey in Stockport after not completing my mission of a new river double, plans were hatched for September but work and the weather changed that.

5 September – River Ouse

The weather had been settled with temps of 20-21 degrees, cloudy and feeling warm with night time temp of 10-12 degrees, perfect conditions for this time of year, the only thing missing was a little extra water.

I’d tried to get down the previous two evenings but it was surprisingly busy but third time lucky I got down to find it empty and I got set up for a 20:30 hours start. I put one out on double 14mm Pandemic and the other on a 22mm pellet, both with pva bags and baited the spots with fifteen 12mm boilies over each.

The boilie rod was trembling straight away as the small Eels attacked the bait so I knew that would need checking every hour and sure enough on first check the bait was gone. They really are a problem on this section of the Ouse right up until its gets a bit colder.

After the second check and no bait I changed the rod over to a 22mm pellet as at least I knew I was fishing.

02:00 hours- one of the pellets was taken and the fight was really strong in the deep water, but all went to plan and I slipped the net under my fourth Ouse fish and first double of the season at 10-02. That made the 05:00 alarm call for work worth the effort.

7 September 2018 – River Mersey

I really wanted to get back to the Mersey and with the weekend free decided to make the long drive in one hit. This was always a risk on a Friday and so it proved with a nightmare 3 hour 40 minute journey, it was awful but thankfully there was somewhere to park when I arrived which is always an issue with urban fishing.

I eventually dropped my tackle in the railway bridge swim for a 19:00 hours start. I put two rods in the deeper run with pandemic dumbbells with pva bags and put twenty 12mm over the spot. Although not a big river there is a lot of room and areas to fish in the swim so I set up a third rod on a big lump of Garlic Spam and cast it to the end of the deep run.

8 September

The night was cool at 9 degrees but cloudy and the river looked bang on. I re-baited the boilie rods twice before midnight and then got my head down.

I had nothing through the night but made the decision to stay in the swim for the second night and made a little change of tactic. I reeled in the meat rod for the day and bait dropped 7 droppers of my pellet mix in the swim to encourage small fish to start feeding, this would in turn attract the bigger fish. I repeated the bait dropping three times through the day.

It started to rain at 07:00 and continued all day really heavy at times and by 16:00 the level started to rise rapidly to the point I couldn’t hold bottom with 5oz leads.

The level had come right up, the water was coloured and carrying loads of rubbish a lot of which was baby wipes and tampons, it was not pleasant. I made another change of tactic to combat this and fished a lot closer in just of the main flow and changed one rod over to a big lump of meat and the other to double 18mm Pandemic, both on big smelly baits in the coloured water.

19:45 hours- the meat rod had only been out 10 minutes when it crashed over, finally my first Mersey Barbel but not a double at 7plus, I just do not know how it got the bait in its mouth!!

The good thing with small rivers is the levels drop as quickly as they rise as the evening went on the level started to drop but that wasn’t until I had landed over 30 used wet wipes and a few used tampons, it was pretty disgusting and needs looking into.

Midnight – the boilie rod went over and I was the bridesmaid again with an 8-13 but at least I was catching Barbel.
05:40 hours – the meat rod went again and I was thinking surely this is it, the fish felt strong and heavy but it soon became evident the rubbish on the line was contributing to that and I landed another big 8plus.
I packed up at 09:00 pleased I’d caught but knowing I would have to come back…

18 September – River Trent

I’d done another quick overnight trip to the Ouse, the eels were a nightmare and I blanked / camped.

I got the chance of a day of work so was in the car and up the A1 arriving on the Trent at 20:15 hours. It was windy, raining and warm with night temps forecast to be 16 degrees. The swim I was in was sheltered and comfortable, so setting up in the dark was fine. I wanted to maximise my chances after not getting much fishing in of late so set up three rods. Two on double 18mm Pandemic and one on a lump of meat, all were cast to the spots and thirty 12mm boilies put through the swim.

21:20 hours – the first take was to a boilie rod and a great start at 10-10.

21:25 hours – while I was getting ready to photograph the fish the other boilie rod went so I slipped it in retention sling and played the fish to the net, as I netted it the meat rod whacked over so I quickly played that one and lane dot in the same net. It didn’t take long to sort out, I slipped an 8plus back and took pics of the 10-04.

By midnight I’d had two more both average singles and then surprisingly it went quiet for 7 hours when I had another small fish in the morning. I thought I was in for a busy night hut it just shows you never know what to expect.

21 September – River Derwent

After a few days of rain it was always a risk going for the Derwent this time of year as there is always lots of rubbish coming down if the water is high making presentation very difficult. But with it being Friday and the Trent likely to be busy I took the risk.

The drive up was going really well until I got to junction 22 when everything slowed down to a crawl, I hate traffic queues there is no bigger waste of life and it took an hour to do the next two junctions. To add to that the forecast rain was two hours later than it was due and it poured making the thought of my walk to the river not a good one. When I eventually got to the car park there was a car there which is never good as the section only has two good areas. Could it get any worse?? I drove down into the town to get some food and sat in my car eating fish and chips as the car was getting hammered by rain.
I went back after eating a loaded the barrow in the rain, I knew where the other guy would be which left me my second choice area so got my head round it and walked to the river. When I saw it my heart sank, it was very high and steaming through, normally I would rub my hands with excitement but as I’ve stated the Derwent carries so much rubbish this time of year I knew it would be difficult.

I’ve leaded this section extensively in normal conditions and know it so well but it looks different in a flood so I set up the leading rod and went for a walk. The spot I normally fish in this straight is where the flow hits the near bank creating a great hot spot but in a flood it’s terrible for rubbish. I was looking for a slightly slacker spot just of the main flow and walked all the way down checking every little area without anything tugging at my instincts.

I walked back upstream and past my barrow to an area that comes of the back of an island and straight away noticed a little slack, out went the lead and I was stunned to find a nice little deep spot I hadn’t noticed in normal levels. I left the lead in place and held the rod for 15 mins without any rubbish gathering on the line, perfect, so I set the swim up feeling pretty confident.

I’m a massive believer in following your instinct and can honestly say I would have driven the 90 miles home if I hadn’t located that spot.

By now it was gone 21:00 hours when I lowed two rigs onto the spot, one on double 18mm Pandemic and the other on a big lump of Garlic Spam. I felt good, on went the kettle and I sat back to wait.

00:05 hours – I was asleep when the meat rod whacked over and straight away it felt a good fish but came in quite easily, as it rolled I could see it was a good one so was careful as it went in the net, a fish I felt well deserved at 13-03.

06:40 hours – I’d had an almighty tussle in the high water with an 8-15 two hours previously when the boilie rod went again. This one was no different and went flying downstream, I landed it nearly 100 yards down the section at 10-04. Three fish well worth the hard work.

23 September – River Trent

I had planned to fish Johnsons as it was my last chance this autumn but the weather turned against me, it had rained all weekend with north easterly winds and a frost forecast for the evening and more rain forecast for Surrey. With that in mind and Newark had seen less rain a Barbel trip was planned.

I hoped on a Sunday all the weekenders would have gone home leaving the section free but I was wrong, I arrived to find only one swim free!! However this was a swim I’d done well in and with everyone else struggling to catch I set up. There is a snag at the end of the swim that definitely holds fish so I was pretty sure they would be there.

The level was up so I didn’t fish as far out as I normally would and needed 6oz to hold bottom. I put two rods out, one on double 15mm Pandemic, the other on a lump of Garlic Spam and put thirty 12mm boilies through the swim.

Well the swim didn’t let me down, everyone else blanked and packed up early leaving me on my own, and I had eight fish, seven on boilie and one on meat. I left one on meat all night and that probably cost me fish as they were on the boilies, however I was happy with three doubles at 10-01, 10-07 and 11-07 along with three 9’s to finish the months fishing.

Until next month tight lines and be lucky

Julian Barnes