The Sessions - June 2023
Tench, Barbel, Youtube and the 16th.
With May being a struggle just to find time to get out fishing and then not being overly successful on the sessions I did manage, I was really looking forward to June, with some late Spring Tench, the Barbel Society Show and getting back out on the rivers on the 16th
04 June 2023 - Barbel Society Show
The first weekend in June can only mean one thing, the Barbel Society Show, if you’re an avid Barbel angler I would strongly encourage you to attend as it is a great day out meeting friends and like-minded people from all over the country.
I was especially looking forward to this year’s show for two reasons, we had the book launch for the latest book by LEP in the Willow Pitch series, River Gold, A Passion for Barbel and I was doing my first talk at the show.
Julie and I travelled up the day before, checked into our room and went to meet the others that were there early. We met up with good friends Judd, Potty and Theo and the rest of the BS committee in the bar and a great afternoon and evening was had by all.
We were up bright and early for breakfast and went down to the show for the opening at 09:00 and the event was in full swing. The book launch was a great experience with photos, meeting people and a lot of book signings. I really enjoy my writing and having a chapter in a second LEP book is just brilliant and makes me very proud that people enjoy my scribblings.
It was soon time for me to go up for my talk, I’d done plenty of prep and was really looking forward to it and wasn’t so under pressure for timings as one of the speakers hadn’t turned up. After the early nerves it went really well and I loved it and want to thank everyone for the positive comments and emails I received afterwards. I will be doing another talk in November at the NPS Show in Newark so please come along for another great evening talking about our fantastic sport.
09 June 2023 – Rosewater.
Life was still impossibly busy with work, trips to see my dear Mum, Julie and I went to a Marillion weekend (which was brilliant) and then the BS show, so I hadn’t wet a line for nearly three weeks.
I always take the first week of the river season as A/L and wanted to maximize my time so went at the first opportunity arriving on Rosewater at 18:00. It had been a mad rush leaving work, travelling between two homes, road works, food and bait shopping and my van had died but I got there in the end.
It was 24 degrees, clear and sunny with the light north easterly that stuck around forever this Spring, but having really warmed up I hoped the Tench would be feeding hard. I went back on the road bank and luckily had the pick of the swims and got set up.
I made some slight rig changes moving away from the heli-rig to inline feeders as in my opinion they are much better as the water gets weedy, I set two up with inline feeders, chopped worm and worm kebabs and one on a method feeder and Pandemic wafter.
I thought a lot about my spomb mix, and after speaking with other experienced Tench anglers, I reduced the amount of hemp making it a much more even mix of casters, hemp and 2mm Krill pellets, and put eight spombs over the area.
10 June 2023
The first bite came on worm at 01:10 and quickly weeded me up, but the inline set up worked perfectly and an 8-01 slipped over the net
It rained a bit in the night and that soon cleared first thing and I topped the spot up with six spombs at 05:30. The next bite was on the boilie but the hook annoyingly pulled, and I then had a run of fish on worm at 7-04, 6-00 male, 8-01 and 6-02 before leaving at lunchtime, the fish clearly hadn’t spawned so it was worth planning another trip early in the week.
12 June 2023 – Rosewater
I’d been up to Cheshire to visit my Mum who continues to defy medical logic as she slowly recovers from a stroke at 88 years old…, and booked another 48 hours on Rosewater.
I went back into the same swim for 15:00, it was hot at 28 degrees, clear and sunny with an air pressure of 1014mb. The lake was pretty empty which was surprise so I did wonder if the fish were spawning and soon noticed small Tench in the margins going through the motions.
All the fish I saw were small males so I thought I was in that golden window when they’d be at their maximum weight so decided to stay.
I added some chopped worm to the mix and put ten spombs out to get a good bed of bait down. The rigs were already sorted the only change was I tried chopped lobworm on one of the worm rods.
The lobworm rod went very quickly with a 3-05 Eel that was followed shortly afterwards by another of similar size but then the activity stopped.
13 June 2023
Another two Eels slipped up in the early hours, but the Tench activity in the margins had increased with quite a few small ones going through the motions.
I was fearing I’d have to pack up and change plans when at 07:20 the Dendra rod went and I landed a 6 plus Tench, that was followed an hour later with another.
At mid-morning after watching the water and seeing a lot of Tench rolling a lot closer in I re-checked with the Deeper and found a shallower spot at 6.5 wraps, I then checked it with a bare lead and found it was solid so I changed the boilie rod to an inline feeder and worm and placed it on the spot with five spombs of mix, all three rods were now on Dendras. Three quick bites followed, one on each rod, another Eel at 3-01 and Tench at 6-05 and 6-11, it got very hot at 28 degrees and the bites died up again.
I changed all three rods to method feeders for the night with Pineapple Esta wafters hoping the bright yellow colour may trigger a response.
14 June 2023
The first bite came at 02:10 and clearly wasn’t a Tench taking a lot of line on the first run, I took my time on the lighter set up and it all went to plan and a Mirror at 23-00 rolled into the net, that was followed two hours later by a Tench.
I changed one rod over to worm and that went straight away with a lovely conditioned Tench at 6-08, and I got all three back on worm by 06:00. It was worth all the effort as I had two more takes with Tench at 7-00 and a very fat 8-06 to finish the session, head home and get ready for the rivers.
16 June 2023 - River Trent, Cromwell
Where does the time go, it doesn’t seem 3 months since we fished the rivers, let alone 12 months since I was writing about the 16th, but that magical day had arrived again and as ever I couldn’t wait.
The weather forecast was hot, hot and hotter so being a fair skinned chap I changed my plan where I intended to start, my first choice would have seen me sitting facing the afternoon sun with very little cover, so after meeting Judd and some of the Sutton lads at the pub in North Muskham for a meal I checked in at Cromwell at the 16:00 opening on the 15th to find it empty, which was just perfect!!
Early season there is always the chance of a PB before spawning so I wanted to put myself in with a chance, my first choice area and Cromwell would give me a good chance so I set up in my favourite swim.
It was as hot as forecast but I was completely in the shade and very surprised to see so few people out, the level was at summer level at .84m and there were fish showing as I trickled a few baits in during the afternoon and evening.
I had a good response from my first efforts at making and posting a video on Youtube so made a personal commitment to doing a few more and I started by making a video of this session, which includes my rig and some big Barbel
My Youtube channel can be found at @julianBarnes-ge5qi, and I want to thank everyone for the positive comments and emails received to date, it’s very much appreciated and makes it worth the effort making them.
Midnight finally arrived and I flicked two of my ever reliable rigs out with single BBB on the hair and put a few more BBB through the swim, it took 25 minutes before the first of the season tripped up and I landed a lean fish at 10-08.
I had regular bites up to 05:40 with a Chub, two Bream and another eight Barbel to 9-12 before the sun came up and the bites stopped.
I spent the day working on the video and did have one more small Barbel in the middle of the day.
Another angler arrived on the opposite bank and despite having the whole empty field to fish he decided to go opposite me, out came the mallet and he was hammering in bank sticks and pegs, he decided he’d fish two thirds of the way across, just off my baited line and then walked up and down on the gravel most of the evening and night!!!!
17 June 2023
As I expected I didn’t get much action with two fish to 9-02 and the character crunching up and down blanked and packed up first thing!!
Lady luck shone my way again, a swim on Gunthorpe had become available as the angler was struggling and leaving early, so I packed my swim down, loaded the van and headed up to the middle Trent.
River Trent, Gunthorpe
I took my time and set up a static bait rod (just in case) and the rolling meat rod, it was a little cooler at 22 degrees and we had an hour of rain as I was setting up but I felt very confident that if the Barbel were there I’d catch some. I had a catch up with Chris who was fishing further down, had a meal and started rolling meat at 13:30. The level was .40m but the flow did seem quite fast and it took two casts to get the weight right, I settled on 15lb Hydro Tuff mainline to a size 6 Talon Tip hook, and 3 SSG with plastercine moulded around them, and it was perfect.
I had a fish on the next cast and the afternoon took off from there, it was brilliant fishing, I spent more time resting and returning fish with a few photos and videos, meal and drinks breaks in-between than I did actually fishing, I stopped fishing at 21:30 and had landed 15 Barbel and lost 3, with the best ones going 12-15, 12-00, 10-06, 11-01, 10-13 and 12-02.
It hammered down with rain most of the night but I had a great sleep and got up when the rain stopped to have a quick go before leaving, I had a Chub and two Barbel and left at 08:00 to spend the day at home with Julie
25 June 2023 – River Trent, Gunthorpe
I didn’t think I’d get another chance to fish in June but the chance came up on the Sunday, I was going to go to Kings Weir for my first look but got the chance after a phone call at 15:00 to fish my rolling meat peg for the evening and early morning, I didn’t need asking twice and literally hugged and kissed Julie goodbye and flew up the A1.
By the time I arrived and set up camp for the night I started rolling meat at 19:00, the level was higher at .47m making it very difficult to control the rig effectively but by adding plastercine I got it working reasonably well and the bites started coming and I landed a Chub and 5 Barbel to 10-14 before stopping for the night at 23:00.
26 June 2023
I started again at 05:45 and with Rickie returning at 10:00 I didn’t have long, again it was tricky with the extra water but well worth the effort and rushing about, I landed another 3 Barbel with the best two going 12-00 and 13-04 to end a brilliants months fishing.
I had so many plans for this season but find it so hard to tear myself away from fishing for Barbel and I can see it being a challenge again season, so let’s hope I track down one of the really big girls soon.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😃
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