The Sessions - March 2017 — Julian Barnes Angling

A difficult end to the season.

3 March – Fenland Lake

I’d taken the day of work to go to the Trent and rang Ky the bailiff to check the state of the river, he laughed and said not to bother as the weir had disappeared as the river was so high, with more rain forecast for the next 24 hours I knew it wasn’t worth the it and abandoned the trip and went perching.
I arrived at midday after first calling into my local tackle shop, Ouse Valley Specialist Angling to get maggots and have a cup of tea with Laurie and then calling into the gun shop in Ramsey to buy a Crossman Rat Catcher (air gun). I hate rats and plan to wage war on them but that is another storey.
When I arrived it was raining and showed no signs of stopping, I dropped in my hot little corner swim and set up two rods on floats with King Prawn for hook bait. I then fed maggots and pieces of prawn little and often to keep the silvers flashing around to attract the Perch. It was slow going due to the cold rain in the shallow water but I did eventually tempt two into feeding at 1-12 and 2-01, not massive but pleasing in the conditions.

11 March – River Derwent

I booked the last two days of the season of work and planned and four day trip to the Trent. I had a feeling it would be busy on the Sat so rang Ky to check, it was packed and that’s not for me so a re-think saw me driving up the M1 to the Derwent, and beautiful river and my favourite.

The weather had been mild and cloudy all week, perfect conditions, but I’d been away on a course so was unable to get out. I arrived on the river just before dark and it was much the same, mild with a little cloud and my confidence was sky high. I went in the area that had done so well for me during the summer / autumn and lowered two Pandemic boilies and pva bags into the deep margin. I left them for 30 minutes to see if fish were there and then baited the spots with 10 boilies and down the section with another 10.

The levels were rising with rubbish coming down which was a little problematic but I was surprised not to have any takes. I’m told it doesn’t fish well in the winter but wanted to try myself as the fish must feed, so it’s a case of trying to find them, maybe a plan for next season as I had the section to myself.

12 March – River Trent
The blank night put me on the back foot and I knew my club section of the Trent was busy so while having a morning brew I was looking through FB and saw a pal of mine was fishing way down the tidal Trent. Garry Mortimer, a guy I met through my fishing in Spain who lives in Scotland, I hadn’t seen him in ages so a catch up was on the cards. A couple of texts later and I was driving across the midlands for a social.

I eventually found him after driving two miles down the flood bank, not a great idea in my Saab estate and I think a 4×4 could be in order before next winter. The river there was a lot wider and I spent a bit of time looking and casting a bare lead about checking the depth and the bottom. To be honest we weren’t in the best area and we both knew this but we couldn’t drive any further down as the bank was treacherous.

I started fishing at 15:40 hours, the swim was approx. 12 feet deep with a clean bottom but featureless. Due to this I put more bait in than I normally would and fired out 40 Pandemic over the spots, followed by two pva bags of my special mix. I was using my Ridgemonkey bucket for the first time, it’s amazing how such a simple piece of kit can be so good, the trays that clip to the side are ideal for my made up bags, baiting needles and spare rigs, brilliant!

The river was high with rubbish coming down and I was recasting every hour.

18:10 hours – we were stood talking and I’d just recast when one of the rods went over, I was hoping for a Barbel but up came and 8+ Bream which looked very pale in the muddy water.
We stood well into the night putting the world to rights, as Garry described us, “two grumpy old men”, we saw a lovely sunset but that was all we could report as we didn’t get another bite.

13 March – River Trent
After a cold night and a clear sunny morning Garry packed up for the long drive back up to Scotland and I headed back upstream to the top of the tidal. I got there mid-morning to find a lot of people had gone, on speaking to the anglers still there it hadn’t been fishing well with only the odd fish caught along the section.

I didn’t get the swim I wanted but was in the right area so I thought…….

The river was dropping and the colour coming out of it, it was sunny and lovely and warm and just nice to be out. I cast out two pandemic with pva bags and baited up with 20 boilies.
13:35 hours – the right hand rod smashed over and it felt a good fish but wasn’t quite a double at 9-12, but I wasn’t worried as I thought that was just the start.

Matt Marlow arrived well into dark and set up just down from me, we had a good chat and made plans for next season but all we caught was Bream.

14 March
It was cold again through the night and the only action had been more Bream. Only one angler had caught Barbel and even his pal fishing next to him had blanked, definitely not the end to the season I had planned.

By midday it had warmed up a bit at 13 degrees but the river was dead, Matt tried the float but couldn’t even catch any bits.

I started to catch Bream again late afternoon and into the evening but no Barbel. The anglers in the weir packed up at 20:00 hours so we moved up for the last little bit of the season. I started to catch Bream straight away and then hooked a good Barbel, this felt heavy and was clearly a double but somehow it had got into a snag. I have fished the swim before and never known any snags to be present but the fish was in something and I could feel the line grating as I tried to get it out. I tried all my tricks but was eventually cut off, on inspection my fluorocarbon boom was damaged all the way up. Matt commented straight away “that was a good fish, it was taking line”, very disappointing!!

40 mins later after Matt had caught an 8 pounder I had another good fish on, again it felt heavy and even though I thought I’d guided it away from the snag it got in it with the same result.

I spoke with the bailiff and it turned out some idiot had been spooled off with braid, leaving a fish tethered and approx. 300 meters of braid in the swim, why people use braid for Barbel is beyond me, especially on a snag free swim. There is a bit of work there for the bailiffs trying to drag that lot out before next season.

18 March – Fenland lake
With the river season over for another year it was back to the still waters, Carp and Tench will be the targets from April leaving me enough time for another trip out for Perch, I’m still searching for the elusive 4 pounder and the species appears a real bogey one for me.

I woke up with a terrible hangover but made myself drive over for a 07:45 start. It was mild, cloudy with a north westerly wind that was a little problematic as it kept moving the floats. I lowered two King Prawns on floats into the margins and fed maggots and pieces of prawn. The corner was full of silvers again so I thought it was only a matter of time but it took until mid-morning before I had a bite.

I then caught three Carp, 2 Tench 2 good Rudd and 4 Perch at 1-15, 2-00, 2-03, and 2-09 and by 14:00 hours had run out of bait.

13 March – River Trent After a cold night and a clear sunny morning Garry packed up for the long drive back up to Scotland and I headed back upstream to the top of the tidal. I got there mid-morning to find a lot of people had gone, on speaking to the anglers still there it hadn’t been fishing well with only the odd fish caught along the section. I didn’t get the swim I wanted but was in the right area so I thought……. The river was dropping and the colour coming out of it, it was sunny and lovely and warm and just nice to be out. I cast out two pandemic with pva bags and baited up with 20 boilies. 13:35 hours – the right hand rod smashed over and it felt a good fish but wasn’t quite a double at 9-12, but I wasn’t worried as I thought that was just the start. Matt Marlow arrived well into dark and set up just down from me, we had a good chat and made plans for next season but all we caught was Bream.