The Sessions - July 2023
Summer Barbel
It’s amazing and quite scary that June has come and gone already and we are already over half way through another year and into another season on the rivers. June was a good month for me with lots of early season Barbel with many caught rolling meat, a method that is very quickly becoming my favourite way to catch them.
06 July 2023 – River Trent, Gunthorpe.
I didn’t spend the previous weekend as I’d planned after being struck down with kidney stones while at work, being rushed to A&E and in MK hospital for the weekend, I had surgery on the Saturday and have more to look forward to later in September….., it’s left me very uncomfortable so I want the surgery asap so I can get back to normal again.
So the next chance I had to get out was the first weekend in July on Gunthorpe weir, weather depending, my plan was to roll meat all day and sleep at night. I had to work in the morning and drove up arriving late afternoon. It was a cooler day at 22 degrees, cloudy with a brisk wind, and more importantly the river level was good at .40m, so the conditions looked very good and gave me a lot of confidence.
I was far from 100% so took my time getting the gear into the swim and setting up and I was ready to start fishing at 17:00, my plan was to take it easy, have plenty of water breaks and a meal mid-way through the evening.
I changed the mainline to 18 pound to help prevent the cut-offs and tweaked my rig a little, using a bullet lead between two float stops fixed 10” above the hook with plastercine moulded around the lead. My thoughts were the lead would slide down to the hook when snagged and the plastercine would pull away freeing the rig a lot easier that fixed SSG’s.
The fish were definitely not there in numbers but I had a good start to the session finishing at 21:00 and landing five fish, two singles and doubles at 10-05, 10-07 and 10-09.
07 July 2023
I was up at first light after an unsettled night and fishing by 05:45, it was clear and sunny with a southerly wind and looked very promising for a few fish.
It was an uncomfortable day health wise and if you’ve had kidney stones you will appreciate how I was feeling, but I love my fishing and wanted to try and still enjoyed being out. I had plenty of breaks so that I didn’t overdo it but the fish helped with that as they were not there in numbers. I had long periods without a bite and then two or three fish in a quick burst as they drifted in and out of the weir pool, but all round it was a good day with 10 Barbel with the best ones going 10-13, 11-00, 11-02 and a season best at 14-03.
The tweaked rig worked very well, I had no cut-offs and only lost one hook so I was very pleased with that.
08 July 2023
I had another bad night and stayed in the bag until 07:00 and then fished for one hour from 08:00 before heavy rain moved in, I’d had two fish with the best one being 13-10 that put up an incredible fight. The rain was relentless and hammered down, with the forecast being rain all day I decided to move and packed the swim down and moved down river to the tidal.
I’ve started doing some short videos and publishing them on Youtube, and made one on this trip covering my tactics for rolling meat. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that has watched my videos and for the positive comments and emails I’ve received, I really appreciate it and hope you are enjoying the videos.
If you’d like to have a look my Youtube channel is: @JulianBarnes-ge5qi
River Trent, Cromwell
I arrived to find the section empty which was a surprise considering it was the weekend but the weather was awful, so I set up in my favourite swim, fortunately it was warm as I was soaked by the time I’d finished getting sorted and the rods were out.
I put both out on BBB dumbells, and changed tactics a little with my baiting, I wanted to hold the fish as they moved down river so planned to bait quite heavily to start with and put approx. 100 BBB and five handfuls of Elips pellets through the swim, and then crossed all my fingers the crabs did not move in.
It continued to rain on and off but once the bites started at 21:20 it was constant up until 03:00, I topped up with BBB after every fish and had 11 Barbel with some good ones amongst them at 10-01, 11-09, 11-13, 12-06 and 13-12.
The sun came out in the morning and dried the kit out to finish a good weekends fishing despite my health issues
14 July 2023 – River Trent, Collingham
What a summer we are experiencing, totally different to last year, with another week of heavy rain and cooler weather. I was due to fish my rolling meat swim again for the weekend but with the levels too high for that area I went back to the tidal. I went further down to fish an area I hadn’t fished before but found it to overgrown, now normally I wouldn’t worry about that as I always have a sickle and shears in the van during the summer months but I was in no fit state to be cutting swims out and it was pouring with rain so I moved back up to Collingham to find the whole club section empty and went to an area I knew I could fish in the conditions.
I was set up and fishing by 19:30 and baited quite heavily with BBB and Elips pellets, as I stated before this is a change to my normal approach but with no anglers on and no bait going in I wanted to hold fish as they moved up and down river.
I had one big long summer Chub at 5plus before midnight.
15 July 2023
It was strangely quiet up until 03:40 and then the bites started with three singles to high 9 and then at first light I had a double at 11-07 which was followed two hours later with another at 12-05. With the swim building nicely and baiting after each fish I was looking forward to a good weekend only to be told there was a match booked on the section and I’d have to move…..
River Trent, Cromwell
A pal of mine was on Cromwell and packing up so after few text messages I packed my swim down and drove round and moved into the swim. With bad weather and 45mph winds coming in, it was a perfect spot to be in as the wind goes over your head.
My plan was to fish for Zander during the day and swap to Barbel at night, so I set the swim up and put two rods out on dead Skimmers at 11:00, and started baiting the Barbel spot with BBB.
The storms moved in as forecast and it poured down with very strong winds hammering the other bank, and to make it more amusing two of my friends were fishing the weir and getting battered by the weather
I had two takes with a greedy 2plus Perch and a low double Pike that really had be going until I saw it but no Zeds on this trip.
I swapped back to Barbel rigs at 20:00 and had a small one straight away so it looked like the regular baiting through the day had worked. The bites were regular up until 01:30 with 12 Barbel with the best ones being 10-11, 11-01 and 11-04.
16 July 2023 – River Trent Gunthorpe
After some sleep and breakfast I felt I needed to move again, I just didn’t feel the big fish were up in the area and certainly since the rule changes at Collingham the fish seem much more spread out down the tidal in the summer months, I think due to lack of anglers bait going in.
I packed the van and drove back down the tidal, the level was rising so I had to consider that when choosing the next swim but it was a nice day, warm with showers so there was no rush. I looked at two different areas and checked both with the Deeper and a bare lead and did find one area I liked but with two anglers opposite I decided against it. The beauty of modern day angling helped me again as I have three river level pages saved on my phone and looked at them to check the middle Trent. It was certainly too high for my rolling meat spot but there was another area I could fish with static baits and avoid the debris coming down so a quick phone call to check it was free and I was on the move again.
I was set up and fishing by 15:00, the level was high and pumping through but my lines were clear and holding well, I had one under the rod tip with a 5oz lead and the other two rod lengths out with an 8oz with approx. 20 BBB over each spot.
I had a take within 10 minutes with a 10-02 followed by two more singles in the evening then a shoal of smaller Chub moved in which was frustrating, so I upped the bait size to try to deter them.
I carried on getting regular bites with singles and bigger Chub until at 01:40 the fight was a lot heavier and stronger resulting a in a season best fish at 14-04 (photo disaster).
By being adaptable and knowing the river well, a tricky few days with weather and rising levels turned into a really good session with 23 Barbel and doubles from three different areas.
I’ve stressed this before but will say again, the groundwork and effort in summer pays of hugely in winter, with all the moving and checking areas in summer, when you arrive in winter and its bank high you can fish confidently knowing exactly where you’re fishing.
27 July 2023 – Johnsons Lake, Marsh Farm
I had a guide trip diarised in but due to unforeseen circumstances Steve had to cancel on the morning, I was gutted for him and hope he is ok and we are rescheduling the trip for later this year.
I’d bought the bait and had got everything ready so thought I may as well have a change and go anyway and have a relaxing session, I knew due to the time of year a big fish would be unlikely but 3 pound Crucians are still beautiful fish and I never tire of catching them.
The journey was a shocker and you have to question the people that plan road works as even the diversions had road works going on…who plans stuff like that!! What should have been a two hour trip took four hours and when I got to the car park it was packed so this wasn’t looking like a good trip.
I went for a walk to find the better area in summer pretty full but the areas I fish in spring empty so I went back to the van and loaded the barrow. I got to the first of the three swims I fancied and noticed a lot of weed on the windward bank in the edge so before setting up I got the leading rod out to check the spots. It was soon evident why there were no Crucian anglers on that bank as it was pretty solid weed up to 50 yards out, so I started checking the other swims. The first three were the same and I checked a fourth to find that ok but just didn’t fancy that peg. I stood in the swim a while looking for signs of fish and did see Carp but no Crucians, after an hour of looking I didn’t think I had much choice and that was my best option until people started leaving so started to set up, and then I noticed a guy packing up on the Railway Bank so quickly reloaded my barrow and headed round there and was eventually fishing by 19:30.
My plan was to fish the daylight hours and reel in for sleep at 22:00 until 04:30. I followed my normal baiting approach of 5-10 spombs of hemp and caster morning and evening and re-loading the feeders every hour or so.
The fishing was steady without being spectacular and I packed up at 11:00 on 29 July and had caught thirteen Tench, five small Carp and six Crucians, with five high 2’s and a 3-07.
The one notable problem was Crayfish, I’ve never had an issue on the lake until this trip but was getting baits snipped off on the hair and this happened four times and all on fake caster!!
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😃
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