The Sessions - August 2019
Mixture of Crucians and Barbel
I signed off last month after a having my landing net stolen on my second trip to Gunthorpe Weir. Hopefully Aug would be a better month…..
1 Aug 2019 – Johnson’s Lake, Marsh Farm
Following another ten day stretch at work I was heading round the M25 for my first trip to Johnson’s, a lot later than planned but I was really looking forward to it. I’d been watching social media and the angling press and it hadn’t been fishing as well as years past and there were rumours of fish being moved to Harris Lake during the close season. I’d been in contact with one of the club committee and this was denied so I went down full of confidence as my methods had worked there before I just hadn’t caught one of the monster Crucians yet. I had a good walk round and had a choice of probably the best Crucian swims on the lake so I went on the railway bank and got set up. One of the bailiffs popped round to tell me I’d missed it by a couple of days, it had fished really well with fish to 4 pound being caught but it had gone very quiet for 36 hours…..great!!
None the less I was there and am always pretty confident in my fishing and put two rods out on my fake corn and method feeder rig at 22:30. My plan was to fish up to midnight, reel in get a few hours’ sleep and start again early morning. The place is full of small Tench and unfortunately it is now full of 4-6oz Commons as well and they can be a right problem, I had a few of each before calling it a night.
2 Aug 2019
I started again at 06:00 and was having problems with my groundbait mix, I just couldn’t make it sticky enough and was not confident of having bait on the feeder for long, this continued all day.
The weather was warm, muggy and cloudy with a light northerly wind, the wind was blowing away from my bank, a sign I should have re-acted to really and moved. People were coming and going all day without success, the fishing was very tricky. I stuck at it and eventually caught two Crucians at 2-08 and 2-15, there was only one other caught while I was there so on reflection it wasn’t so bad. Even the small fish were not really feeding as I only had four Rudd and four small Carp. I packed up at 21:00 and drove home for a weekend with Julie.
9 Aug 2019 – River Trent, Sutton
What a change with the weather, all week had seen warm cloudy days at 27 degrees with lots of rain and strong winds coming in from the south. The forecast for the weekend was 40 mph winds and rain…..
Julie wanted to come for the weekend even with the bad weather. I normally fish under a light open fronted shelter that collapses in seconds to make setting up and moving easy, it’s a shelter make by Chub called a Cyclone, but they no longer do them, they are a great shelter so it’s a shame. With Julie coming I had to get the Trakker Pioneer out so that she was comfortable in the bad weather and obviously another bedchair and her sleeping gear. So clearly fishing out of the back of the car was the best option so I headed for Sutton. I headed to the end of the section arriving at 20:30 and was disappointed to find the river at summer levels, I thought with all the rain it would have been higher but we set up and got the shelter behind the car for protection from the wind.
I put both rods out on single 18mm Pandemic and pva bags and put some 12mm Pandemic through the swim just in time before the rain started and it poured and poured. The Bream then started and I was getting one after another, by 00:30 I gave up as I was getting soaked every time, so I put both rods out on half a tin of meat for the night.
10 Aug 2019
I changed both back to boilie in the morning and had a 7plus Barbel first thing. The big winds were on the way and the rain kept stopping and starting but we were enjoying ourselves and both love being outside, I cooked egg and bacon butties and started getting the instinctive urge to move.
I made a couple of calls to people on the river and made the decision to move to Cromwell to a peg that was about to become free. I quickly broke the camp down and it wasn’t easy as the wind was 40 mph plus, threw it all in the car and we were on our way.
It’s only a short drive and we arrived in perfect time to get the peg, it’s a good area but does get busy at times. The beauty of the swim is the big wind was going over our heads and the swim is down the bank with trees behind it so we were perfectly sheltered. Once I got set up it was lovely and amusing at the same time as people on the opposite bank were getting hammered by the wind and rain.
I had to use 8oz leads as the level was rising bringing down lots of rubbish and I fished a closer line than usual for this swim, so baited up at 18:30 with fifty 12mm and thirty 18mm Pandemic to draw the fish onto the spot.
The tactic worked and by midnight I’d had four Barbel to 10-06 and lots of Bream.
11 Aug 2019
I kept the bait going in after every fish and to try to stop the Bream I changed to double 18mm Pandemic, this worked and I had another three Barbel to 11-10.
The bites stopped at around 02:30 so after breakfast we packed up for home just before the rain started again.
17 Aug 2019 – River Trent, Sutton
We’d had more rain through the week raising the river levels to winter level again. It was pouring Fri night so I waited until morning before driving up and looking at another section first. When I saw the level I thought the top section on Sutton would be a good bet so headed over there.
It was warm at 22 degrees with strong south westerly wind and broken cloud. I put both out on 8oz leads, double 18mm Pandemic and pva bags, the rigs lasted 90 mins before being moved by rubbish in the flow so I was happy I could fish effectively so I recast and put some 12mm and 18mm Pandemic through the swim.
The weed continued to be a problem but I managed to catch four Barbel to 10-04 before leaving at 09:00.
19 Aug 2019 – Johnson’s Lake, Marsh Farm
The weather looked perfect for a Crucian trip so I booked two days off work and headed down there arriving late evening. The strong wind and rain had passed and it was 24 degrees, sunny with light south westerly winds.
Again I had a choice of the better swims, although this told me a lot about how it was fishing, if the fishing was good it would be tricky getting a decent swim. I tried fishing under the rod tips for the evening but only had small Tench, Carp and Rudd and reeled in at midnight.
20 Aug 2019 The morning was clear and sunny but chilly for Aug, I was fishing by 06:00 with both rods at the 20m range. I’d looked at my ground bait and changed to Ringers Micro Method Mix for the feeder with my special ingredient, this was nice and sticky and staying on the feeder. I put one rod on pop-up fake corn and the other on balanced fake corn, the balanced went quite quickly and I landed a 2-15 Crucian and was hoping for good day.
After an hour of no bites I decided to put some bait in and mixed up 2kg of brown breadcrumb and Sweet Gold at 50/50 and mixed some liquid molasses into it and balled it onto the spot. Not my usual approach to any fishing but heavy baiting is a tactic that has worked well for people I know there.
Within half an hour the pop-up corn went and I landed a 5-14 Tench but that was a false dawn. The day was lovely at 24 degrees with the wind blowing into the corner but I didn’t get another bite from anything until past 20:00. I changed one rod to double fake caster and balanced them perfectly by trimming the top one down. This worked and I started catching lots of Tench, small Carp and Rudd to 1-12 but no Crucians. I fished up to 00:30 but the bites were all small Carp and Tench so I reeled in for the night.
21 Aug 2019
I put the baits back out for 05:00, one on the fake casters and one on balanced corn. I’d had two Rudd when the caster rod flew off but any hope of a Crucian was soon dashed when it was obvious this was a good Carp. It felt nice on my one pound test curve rod and 6 pound line and it all ended well when I coaxed a Common into the net at 20-12. I packed up soon after and walked round the lake, everyone was having the same struggles and the locals were telling me how well Harris was fishing…….
24 Aug 2019 – River Trent, tidal
The weather had continued to be good and had warmed up more to 28 degrees most days and the weekend forecast was good, not the best Barbel conditions but I’d arranged a social on the Sunday night so went up any way.
I arrived on the Friday night after driving round different sections looking for a spot, I wasn’t feeling well and wanted to sit behind the car but had no luck so had to load the barrow and do the long walk to a good area I fished through the winter. I was soaked with sweat and finally got the swim set up after midnight.
I’d boosted my pellet mix with some Madbaits Robin Red liquid and some liquid liver and it smelt lovely. Instinct was telling me to bait up more than usual so I put a mixture of 100 Pandemic and Addiction through the swim and put two rods out on double 18mm Pandemic, there was loads of room for a third rod so I put one out on double 14mm Asbo. This is a bait Mark at Madbaits has relaunched after giving it a few tweaks so I was keen to try it having caught my first Trent Barbel on it in 2013.
I caught Bream on all the rods, they were driving me mad. The first Barbel came off but the second came to Asbo at 10-15 during the morning. This section fishes well during the day and this continued through the morning with six more to 9plus coming to the net. I topped the swim up with 12mm Pandemic after every bite and the Bream just kept coming. Then at 13:20 the rod banged over and the best of the session was netted at 12-06, this one came to Pandemic. The Bream continued all afternoon and evening with the odd single figure Barbel to keep it interesting.
25 Aug 2019
Every time I looked at the rods through the night a Bream had hung itself it was a nightmare, as most were around 3 pound and not registering a bite, even double 18mm baits did not stop them, I dread to think how many I had, I lost count at 25.
At 11:05 I was packing down the swim for a move to meet my pal Jude when one of the rods smashed over and I finally hooked another good Barbel at 11-03 to finish this part of the session.
Middle Trent
I met Jude at a pub in a lovely little village on the middle Trent and we had a lovely Sunday roast before walking down to the river. This section is only available to people who live in the village and they can guest friends up to three times for free so his would be my first trip there.
It is a wide section with the deep water in the village side margin and the bank was covered by mature trees so plenty of shade from the sun, I have to say I fell for the place straight away and we hadn’t even cast out.
We chose ours swims and I had a feel of the bottom with a light lead, it was nice and deep under my feet and clean gravel so looked perfect. There us a lot of Bream on the section so I didn’t want to put any pellet mix in so spoppered out 3 spoppers of 12mm Pandemic and 14mm Asbo and then put 10 18mm Pandemic through the swim in my usual fashion. Two rods were then flicked out onto the spots baited with double 18mm Pandemic and a pva bag for a 17:00 start.
The night went well for me and I caught six Barbel to 10-04 with most of the others being high nines. Jude unfortunately blanked but we were both keen to get on there again as it certainly has the potential for a big unknown fish.
Until next month tight lines and be lucky😊
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