The Sessions - August 2021
A Summer of Bronze and Gold.
I signed off last month after a month of not much fishing but with some good fish along the way, the highlight was most definitely the certificate and letter confirming my British Record Crucian. August looked much better for time on the bank, I just hoped I could make it count.
1 August 2021 – River Trent, Collingham
Lewis and I got an unexpected 24 hours on Collingham Weir, love it or hate it, it is a prolific section of the Trent and well worth the odd visit. We were meant to be sharing the session with Mark Dutton but when we arrived he’d had enough after 24 hours and left us to it, one other angler was supposed to be coming but he didn’t turn up so we had it to ourselves.
It had been raining during the week and the temp had dropped to 18-20 degrees most days, on the drive up it had been raining a little with thick cloud and a very light wind so I felt very confident with the conditions as they were.
Lewis had not fished peg 1a before and had suffered a little on our last session so it was a no brainer for him to go in 1a and I fished peg 1. We were both ready for 08:15 and cast our rigs out onto the spots, I started with both rods on the Madbaits test bait OG and pva bags. After discussing my rational with Lewis we agreed we wouldn’t put any bait out until we could gauge how the fish were feeding. The weir is fished every day and sees so much bait, the amount some people put in is ridiculous and I do not believe you need to top up other peoples and potentially reduce your chances of a pick-up. Fish hook baits only for a start and see how things go, you can put bait in, but you can’t take it out…….
Lewis started catching pretty much straight away all from the one spot, the fish were not crapping out bait on the mat so by 10:30 we agreed to put 20 Pandemic through the swim, this definitely helped Lewis and by 14:30 he’d had 10 Barbel and a Carp.
I’d only had 3 Barbel so changed one rod to Pandemic and after a quiet spell I had three fish to that rod so changed both over to Pandemic.
At 15:30 I went up onto the wall and put 30 Pandemic from the weir sill down to where we were fishing, my thinking was this would get fish confident in picking up odd baits as they moved down.
It had the desired affect and we caught all afternoon and evening, lots of Barbel into double figures, we both had 6 pound plus Chub and lots of Bream. We were adding boilies to our pva bags to keep the area topped up and they were loving the Pandemic.
By midnight the action had slowed down so we decided to reel in, get four hours sleep and get the rigs out again for 04:30.
The fishing in the morning was not so hectic but we both had doubles to finish a great session at the change over time of 08:00, Lewis ended up with 26 Barbel and I had 18, great fun and well worth the time and effort.
The funny thing was the anglers coming on were in no hurry and didn’t get to the car park until gone 09:30, they stated they didn’t catch in the day and only caught at night. They were certainly missing out, if you get the opportunity to fish the weir make the most of every minute as it won’t be there forever.
6 August 2021 – River Trent, Normanton-on-Trent
After a week of lots of rain and warm weather I drove up the A1 with enough food and bait for two days arriving early evening, I was meeting Judd for the first night and if it went well I would stay for a second.
I went in a new swim further into the big bend as it looked deeper in the near margin. I got the Deeper to work and found a slightly deeper area just upstream from where I intended to set up, so I quickly moved the gear up 15m so that I could fish the area effectively, it was awkward with not a lot of room but I just got the shelter up with enough space for everything else, I would certainly need a rethink in this swim when the levels rise in winter.
There was a near bank channel at 10 feet deep that rose up to a sunken island in the middle so I planned to fish two in the channel, one at 10 feet and one as it started to rise at 9 feet, both were a two rod length cast which also ensured nice accurate baiting up.
I put one on a 15mm OG and the other on a 15mm Pandemic hard hooker and flicked them onto the spots. I’ve been experimenting with my baiting up this season, I’ve never been someone that puts lots of bait in and I’ve explained my rational for that previously, but this season I have consciously baited up with a mixture of boilies. It’s well documented I use bait from Madbaits and I’ve had great success on Pandemic, Asbo and Addiction, this season I’m testing the OG and it has proved very effective so far. So I’ve been baiting with a mixture of boilies each session and it certainly hasn’t affected my catch rate in a bad way, my thinking is it will reduce caution as the fish are feeding and constantly picking up baits of different smells, tastes and sizes. As the area doesn’t see a lot of anglers and bait I put a mixture of 50 boilies through the swim, 15mm Asbo, 15mm OG and 12mm Pandemic.
The first bite came just before dark and was 7plus Bream, I then lost a very big Bream under the rod tip, the area has thrown up good doubles last season and I’m sure this was one of them, although not the intended target it was disappointing.
The Barbel started to feed and I had regular bites through the night catching six with the best three being doubles at 10-00, 10-09 and 10-15 along with a few Bream.
Since the levels have been low the Mitten Crabs have been more active and a real pain, I like to top up the swim after each fish but that definitely attracts the Crabs and they make short work of a boilie so regular checks are needed to ensure you are fishing effectively.
7 August 2021
Judd had caught similar to me with fish to 11 plus and just as he was packing up at 13:00 he had a huge Bream that he regrettably didn’t weigh but was convinced was a 12plus, so the big Bream were in the area.
It rained on an off all afternoon, I had quite a few Bream but the Barbel didn’t start feeding until late evening again and I had three singles before 22:00.
I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 03:45 to find a small Bream had hung itself and the Crabs had taken the other bait, I was tired but disappointed in myself as the conditions were very good and I felt I’d missed out by not waking up and checking the rigs.
I had one more high single before packing up in the dry at 08:00 before the forecast rain arrived.
13 August 2021 – River Trent, Normanton-on-Trent
Following another week of heavy rain, with warm sunny days and south westerly winds I drove back up the A1 feeling very confident of a good 24 hour session. It was cloudy, warm at 20 degrees with a south westerly wind and I arrived at 18:00 to find the car park empty and walked down to the white post peg.
It was the start of my two weeks annual leave and Julie and I had a few plans so I prepped for two nights in case they changed.
I put both rods out on 15mm OG and baited with a mixture of OG and 12mm Pandemic. I made a slight change to my pva bag mix adding Liquid Krill, I’d done this during the week to allow it to soak in and it smelt very good.
20:50 - I was just thinking about my first recast when the downstream rod crashed over and what a fight, the fish had me thinking I was into a very big one but you can’t be disappointed with a 12-11.
I then had regular bites up to 01:10 landing another six Barbel with most being over 9 pound and then the Crabs moved in and became a real pain, I couldn’t stay awake and the Crabs pinched my baits.
14 August 2021
It had been a warm cloudy night and that continued all day apart from a brief shower mid-morning. I tried swapping to Elips pellets through the day without success and the first bite didn’t come until 18:30 with a 9-13 on a 15mm OG.
The section then became busy with two people dropping in above and two below me which I felt would definitely affect the fishing.
19:55 – the right hand rod on OG crashed over and I landed another good fish at 11-11, but then very similar to the previous week the Crabs moved in and the bites stopped. I tried baiting a little more heavily as although it attracts the Crabs it should also fill them up leaving some for the fish, but it didn’t work and I didn’t get any more bites until it got light when I had two more 9plus Barbel and a mid-double Mirror Carp to finish another good session.
20 August 2021 – River Derwent
Julie and I had had a lovely week away in Southwold with her daughter and a friend, the weather had been cooler but still nice and it was good to get away and relax. It’s always nice to walk along the beach and get sea air and we hired a boat for a day on the River Waveney which was a lot of fun.
I took the opportunity of a nights fishing and drove up the M1 arriving at 19:00 knowing I would have the section to myself. The journey was painful with lots of traffic on the road but it was nice to drop into the empty carpark knowing I wouldn’t have to rush for a swim. I went back in my flood swim and it was noticeable how low it was, we desperately need some rain to fill the rivers and reservoirs up, but it was still very fishable and one of the deeper spots along the section.
I walked the straight and dropped a single OG every 10 paces, I’ve written about this before but will say again it is a very effective way of drawing the fish to the area and has worked very successfully for me.
I then lowered two rigs with a 15mm OG onto the spots and put a mixture of 20 OG / Asbo through the swim.
I had two bites in the night, an 8plus and a scraper double at 10-02 before packing up first thing and heading back home again.
23 August 2021 – Johnsons Lake, Marsh Farm
I spent a lovely Saturday night and Sunday morning with Julie and then headed home for a planned trip for a day’s Crucian fishing on Monday. My problems started straight away, I phoned Apollo Angling to ask them to save me a pint of casters and they’d sold out and had none being delivered until Wednesday, I text a few match fishing friends who’d all used theirs that morning. I had some dead maggots in the freezer as a back-up if all else failed.
I loaded the car and felt in a rush and unorganised but headed down the A1 to Godalming late Sunday afternoon, as I was pulling away I realised my travel mug was leaking tea everywhere and as I was 20 miles into the journey I realised I’d forgotten my gate key so had to turn around and go back home to collect it. I very nearly canned the trip but made myself set off again.
The journey was long and tedious with so much traffic on the road, it seemed to take ages and when I eventually pulled into the fishery and drove round to the car park it was packed, I couldn’t believe my luck as it looked like I may struggle to get a swim let alone a good one.
I was there so was going to try my best what ever happened so I went for a walk round to see what was free. The Chicken and Road banks were packed with nearly every swim taken by Carp anglers but as I walked to the end of the Chicken bank I could see my favourite Railway bank swim was free so I quickly got back to the car and loaded my barrow and got back round there, I thought then maybe my luck had changed.
It had been raining, but was warm at 20 degrees and the forecast was good so I only took my light summer shelter. As normal practice for my Crucian trips I set the swim up on dark, had some food and planned to get some sleep for an early start. It started raining and it got heavier, my shelter is old and not the best in heavy rain and was leaking with the drips coming down onto my head as I lay on the bed chair…..what a trip this was turning out to be. Eventually it stopped and I got some sleep before getting up at 05:00 to start fishing.
I’d been lucky when walking round and was kindly sold a pint of casters by Zen Bojko, so my first job was to wrap the rods and spomb six loads of hemp and caster onto the spot. I’d tweaked my ground bait mix again to make it really nutritious and I’d mixed that up before going to sleep so it was perfect and ready to go straight away in the morning. My rigs were as I’ve described before in recent blogs so I won’t cover that again here.
The lake had not been fishing well so I was not expecting a lot of fish but I was very confident of one or two. The first Crucian came at 11:25 and was a nice start at 2-15.
Other than small Tench and some Rudd it was very quiet but I kept up with the 40 minute recasts. At 17:30 I put another five spombs of hemp and caster on the spot and that seemed to generate interest as I started to see Crucians roll over the area.
It took two hours and just before dark but the rod rattled off and I hooked a good fish, I took my time and was really pleased to see a lump go in the net. I quickly unhooked it, left it in the net, rewrapped the rod and recast. As I was weighing the fish the same rod went again, so I slipped the first one back in the landing net and played the second, it all went to plan and I had two in the net at once. The second went 3-07, a fish I recognised from Spring, the first was the biggest and another cracker for me at a shade over 4-00.
That was it other than small Tench, a quick feeding spell you have to make the most of.
I reeled in for the night and started again at 05:00 following my normal baiting routine. Tony Gibson arrived and it was good to finally meet after a lot of social media conversation. He set up next to me and we had a good morning chatting about everything fishy, I then headed home at lunchtime and wished him good luck for the rest of his session.
27 August 2021 – River Trent, Normanton-on-Trent
The period of high pressure and warm cloudy days continued and we desperately needed some rain with the river very low.
I drove up late after work and expected all the other venues I like would be busy so dropped onto Normanton and was happy to find it empty.
I was hoping for a good night and it started well with a 10-10 first cast on the OG, then the Mitten Crabs moved in and I couldn’t keep a bait on the hair, on the plus side I had a lovely sleep and left first thing Saturday morning brining my August fishing to a finish.
During the spring I’d written a plan for the season to ty to catch my target fish at their maximum weights, in terms of species caught it was going well until July when my planned Rudd fishing for July and August just didn’t take place, some of it was simply down to time and then when I thought about a recce trip to the fenland area the weather was against me. Now we are moving into the Autumn I hope to get back on track.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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