The Sessions - Sept 2021
Blank, Blank, Blank & Success.
I finished last month’s piece after catching some good Barbel and another big Summer Crucian at a shade over 4-00, and wanted to get back on track with my season plan after not managing to do any planned summer Rudd fishing.
6 Sept 2021 – Johnsons Lake, Marsh Farm
As we move into late summer and early Autumn the Crucians start to pack on the weight so I wanted to have another go and had been tracking the weather fronts waiting for a change to the constant high pressure we’d been experiencing.
I arrived on the Sunday evening to find the lake very quiet which spoke volumes and after speaking to the bailiff it was evident the fishing had been very slow for both Carp and Crucians. I don’t worry too much about that as they have to feed at some point and although the feeding spells may be small if you have your tactics and location right you will catch.
The weather was forecast to warm up with temps of 26 degrees and more importantly the wind was due to swing round to a southerly and would give me the all-important ripple on the water blowing into the area I wanted to fish.
With the lake being quiet I had the choice of most of the best Crucian swims so I went on the Railway Bank to my favourite area in anticipation of the wind change. I set the swim up, wrapped the rods to ten wraps, mixed my groundbait, put five spombs of hemp and caster on the spot and went to sleep with the alarm set for 04:45.
I was up and fishing by 05:00 with both rods on the reliable fake caster, the night had been warm and clear and it was a foggy start to the day. I had a number of small Tench straight away so put another five spombs of hemp and caster on the spot. Tony arrived and after a quick catch up he set up further down the Railway Bank.
Once the fog lifted it got hot as forecast but the wind had not arrived, I started catching Roach so being shoal fish I put two more spombs of bait on the spot at midday as I felt the Roach may clear the bait quite quickly.
The wind final swung round at 14:30 but it was not as strong as forecast and very stop start, however I felt this would be the best chance of the Crucians switching on, there had only been one caught during the time I’d been there with a number of day anglers setting up through the morning.
I put another five spombs of bait out at 18:00, it was very quiet and I’d only seen one Crucian roll at over 100 yards out, speaking to Tony before I left, he saw the same fish and again was the only one he’d seen.
I fished up to 20:00 and had a Tench on dusk that tricked me into thinking it was a big Crucian all the way into the net. I’d put in a lot of effort but sometimes it does just not happen and it was one of those days.
10 September – River Ouse
The low pressure arrived later in the week than forecast and we’d had rain and south westerly winds with a night temperature forecast to be 15 degrees, great conditions but I was late home from work, worn out and had no desire for a long drive in the hope of getting a swim somewhere just for the night. With a lovely section of the Ouse five minutes’ walk from me I decided to go there. Although a very tricky section with a very low stock of Barbel and a resident Otter the chances were slim but I was fishing.
The river level was very low with hardly any flow and the swims all overgrown, so I spent time with the shears cutting the brambles and foliage back just enough to be able to squeeze in. The Otter has been on there a number of years and is very brazen often coming up at your feet, I just hope it hasn’t cleared the place out as it is a lovely section, however there was little evidence of anyone fishing so that tells its own story.
I put both rods out on the OG test bait and pva bags and put a mixture of 20 Asbo / OG over each rod.
I had one bite in the night from a Chub at 4 plus before packing up first thing.
11 September 2021 – River Trent, Winthorpe Lake
My plans for the weekend changed giving me the night free to go fishing again so I had the dilemma of where to go, I wanted to make a start on some Zander fishing so decided to have a go and after sorting the gear I made my way up the A1.
I decided on Winthorpe Lake as I knew the river would be very busy and spent the first hour or so snatching some fresh bait from the river, once I’d got enough I set the swim up ready for the evening and night session.
I haven’t done much Zed fishing but have managed doubles in three countries and all caught very differently. I spent some time with the Deeper and with no obvious feature I picked spots at three different ranges. My experience of Zeds is minimal resistance is best so with this being my first trip I set up with running leads, I used 3oz to ensure they stayed put, Fox knottable wire to a size 4 Talon Tip single hook. I used drop-off indicators and open bail arms to try to keep the resistance down. I baited the rods with dead Roach, whole and halfs and cast them out onto the spots full of anticipation.
I’d love to say it was night of success but I didn’t get a bleep and left mid-morning.
17 September 2021 – River Trent, Girton
I’d lost my mojo a little over the previous few weeks, not because I wasn’t catching, it was more about having the time to plan and go fishing without having to rush around at the last minute. My job has been mentally really tiring, I don’t speak about my job to much but friends that know what I do would understand, this has been a tough two years and sometimes I just don’t have the time to plan and prepare as I would like and end up not getting out enough.
This was one of those days, I felt like I dragged myself out of the house and loaded the Barbel and Zed gear into the car, I took both as it was late on a Friday and I knew it would be busy everywhere.
The conditions looked good for both species with it being cloudy and warm, but my first choice was Barbel and I could use a third rod for Zeds. I went onto Normanton at 21:00 and was shocked to see seven cars in the carpark, normally I find none, as I got out of my car I could hear them all. They weren’t on Normanton but the section next door, as I walked up the flood bank they were setting up and clearly enjoying themselves with a few tins…..
I walked down the section to the area I wanted to fish, it was a good few 100 yards down and available so I walked down into the swim, it looked lovely but all I could hear was shouting and laughter, that was not for me, each to their own and I hope they had a good session but I went back to the car and headed back upstream.
After speaking to Judd I drove onto Sutton, he didn’t think it was busy but after driving down the whole section all the good swims were taken and I didn’t want to drop in between. I considered Cromwell but knew the Collingham side was full so dropped that idea and then thought about just sleeping on Sutton and looking again in the morning in daylight.
Eventually I made myself drive round to Girton and found no cars in the car park and set up in a new swim for 01:00, this swim gave me plenty of room either side if more people came down the following day.
The level was very low, as low as I’ve seen it since fishing the Trent, and with small tides so it wasn’t going to easy, to add to that the Mitten Crabs had been very bad making it hard to keep baits on and fishing effectively.
To combat the Crabs I made some rig adjustments, instead of my small section of 15 pound Barbel braid and size 10 hook, I changed it to 35 pound Quicklsilver and a size 6 hook and double 18mm Asbo hard hookers soaked in food dip. I felt the Quicksilver would be hard for them to snip and the bigger baits would take longer to whittle down.
18 September 2021
I didn’t have a touch through the night and the Crabs had been very active with the baits whittled right down.
The swim was quite tight and did not lend itself to a third rod so I decided to Zander fish through the day and changed both rods over using fresh Roach as bait. I recast every two hours putting on fresh bait as the flow was washing all the fluid from the baits. It was very quiet and I didn’t get a touch.
At 18:30 I changed the rods back to Barbel and spoppered out ten loads of hemp as it would attract Barbel but not the Crabs and put 20 OG through the swim so there were odd baits and not one big patch of boilies. One rod had the double 18mm Asbo, the other double 15mm OG, and I checked the baits every two hours.
At just after midnight I finally had a take, it felt a very strong fish and had me going for a while but a 9-07 Barbel popped up and went into the net, still very welcome after the previous few trips.
The Crabs had been very active and constantly whittling the baits down making the fishing even harder, I had no more takes and packed up at 08:00 before the rain arrived.
24 September 2021 – River Trent, Gunthorpe Weir
Lewis and I had the weir swim booked for two nights and I was really looking forward to it and hoped my luck would change after a difficult month of blanks.
I left work just after lunchtime and had the car packed and left home at 15:00, my first challenge was fuel, the fuel fiasco had kicked in and the three stations in St Neots were all dry. I have to say what a joke it was, the media kicked up a totally unnecessary shit storm of stupid people panic buying causing chaos across the country, I see the latest one is kids toys, so beware if you’re planning a trip to a retail park this weekend.
The forth station I tried had fuel and luckily I got straight in, I soon found out why at £1.59 a litre……but I was on the road after fearing I may not get there. The journey was good until I was 8 miles out on the A52 when a lorry wiped out a couple of cars, everyone looked ok but that was the road closed for the foreseeable so I found an alternative route through the villages finally arriving just before 18:00.
Lewis was set up and fishing and had caught one small Barbel so I got my gear into the swim and set up on the right hand side. The island is fished every day through the summer and mostly in the same spots, I gave that a lot of thought and got the leading rod to work. I wanted to find and fish new spots that don’t often see hook baits in the hope the fish wouldn’t be as cautious when picking up baits.
I found what I was looking for, one small patch of clear gravel amongst the rocks fairly close to the wall and a bigger patch closer to the weir, I also had a third as back up.
I set both rods up on double 15mm OG and slightly shorter hooklinks and lowered the left onto the close in spot, I wanted shorter hooklinks to ensure the bait and hook were on gravel as the spots were quite small. As I was getting the second rod ready the first went within 5 minutes and was great start at 13-10, finally I had something to write about and a picture for this month’s blog.
After the photos I got both rods out and put a mixture of 25 Asbo / OG over each area, two more followed on the left hand rod before midnight with the best being 12-14.
25 September 2021
Bites came regularly through the night on the left hand rod and after each fish I topped up the spot with 15 Asbo / OG, the best three fish being 11-01, 11-07 and 11-10. The weir rod started to produce from 07:30 and I was picking up smaller Barbel on both rods.
In the morning I set up a Zander rod with a Dyson rig without the float, I then lowered a dead Roach in and tightened up the line so that the bait was suspended mid river, it worked perfectly with the bait fluttering in the flow. Four Pike nailed the baits but no Zander, however I felt the presentation was good and watching the rod top for a tap and striking worked well and gave me something to think about when fishing for them again.
The Barbel fishing continued to be good with odd bites to both of us through the day and as it got dark it got better, I had the luck again with regular bites and some good fish at 14-05 and 14-09 finishing the session in the morning with 22 Barbel altogether.
Lewis had fish to 10-14 and as always was great company, we always have plenty to talk about and put the world to rights and we have more trips planned for this season.
It was good to finish the month on a high after a few blanks that are all part of the journey and learning process.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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