The Sessions - March 2024
End of Season into Spring
In a month where we saw some huge fish caught that included a British record Pike and some very big Barbel from a number of rivers, I suffered a very poor month with nothing of any note gracing my net, I could only hope things would improve in one of my favourite months to be on the bank.
2 March 2024 – River Trent, Middle
The river had been up in the fields and surrounding villages again for the second time this winter and I hadn’t been near it in two weeks, I’m always monitoring the weather and river levels and noted it was dropping to a fishable level so planned a trip as soon as I could. I finished a long day at work on the Friday and didn’t fancy driving round in the dark looking for areas I could fish and as important banks that were safe, as they were treacherous, so I stayed at home with Julie and drove up on the following morning.
It has been warm during the week, but the weather had changed again and turned very cold with a frost and a lot of snow upstream in the Derby, so I really hoped it wasn’t going to ruin my chance of a decent session.
I considered three sections on the tidal but for different reasons didn’t set up there and went to a section on the middle, the banks were very muddy but reasonably flat which made it safer. The swim I wanted was free, there were only two other people silly enough to be out on the section, but the other side was quite busy. The first job was to make the swim safe, so I spread lots of dead nettle cuttings and flood debris over the swim and down to the waters edge and trod them into the mud which made it safe and then set up the shelter.
The level was at 1.49m and there were still bits of rubbish coming down in the flow but in the swim I was fishing it was a nice deep margin and I only needed to be three rods out and an 8oz lead held lovely. I put one on a 15mm BBB and the other an 18mm an put a spread of BBB and Pandemic through the swim and by 15:00 I was fishing and got the kettle on.
It rained on and off and didn’t get over 8 degrees and the temp dropped into the evening, it was nearly midnight when I had the first take and it was a good start at 11-04.
3 March 2024.
I thought that was the start of a good first night but I didn’t get another touch and woke up at 06:00 to a very cold frosty morning. I changed the 18mm boilie to a single banded Elips pellet and size 12 hook to try a smaller bait as that has worked for me in previous winters.
As the frost started to melt it got very misty and felt freezing and the river level had come up a bit to 1.52m.
By midday the other two anglers had gone leaving only me on the section when a car came through the gate and after driving down the section he drove back up and decided he wanted to be in the swim next to me, it was so close we could almost whisper to each other, that was enough for me so I packed the swim down and moved to the tidal.
The first two sections I looked at were to busy so I drove down to a third that fishes well when the level was at 1.50 – 2m, there was one day angler there, so I chose a swim I know well 150 yards upstream. It was a mud bath and needed a lot of work with flood debris to make it safe, but an hour later it was done, and I set up and got fishing for 16:00.
Both rods were cast out with 15mm BBB and I put a good hit of BBB and Pandemic through the swim.
An hour later one of the rods went over with a high single which was quickly followed by an 11-05 and over the next three hours I had two 9’s a 12-01 and a lost fish to hook pull. When I landed the 12-01 at 21:35 I had to peel the net of the floor it was so cold and frosty and the weigh sling had to be dipped in the river to defrost it, it was down to -2 degrees and freezing cold!!
It was two hours later before I had another bite landing another high single but the thing here was the reels were freezing up, I recast and got back in the bag but then thought about it and reeled the rods in for the night, I didn’t want to risk the reels freezing up and not giving line and the rod getting ripped into the river.
4 March 2024
I woke up at 06:00 to find everything solid with frost, it was bitterly cold. I recently upgraded my bedchair after 15 good years for a Fox Flatliner and it has to be said it is brilliant, very warm and perfect for cold nights like that one.
I got up to recast and the rods and reels were frozen solid, they were that bad it broke the gears in one of my Shimano Ultegra’s, fortunately I had a spare in the van. The morning view was fantastic and worth being out for that alone, note the Fox in the left-hand side of the picture. The sun came up and while the gear dried out, I fished until mid-afternoon without a touch before heading home.
11 March 2024 – River Trent, tidal
The river level had dropped to 1.20m, but we’d had 30 hours of rain over the weekend, and I knew the level would rise quickly and with 8m tides so I went to an area I’d recce’d but never fished before. The area was perfect for really high flood conditions as the flow pushes away from the outside of the bend towards the middle of the river leaving a nice deep slack close in. It was a long walk so I went without the tackle first, the bank was very muddy and slippery which put me off, so I went to look at two other sections which I just didn’t fancy with the level rising fast, so I loaded the barrow and did the long walk to the first section. It was a right mission but I got there in the end and spent the first hour making the swim safe with flood debris before setting up.
I tried to check the swim with my Deeper but couldn’t get it to link to my phone so did it the old-fashioned way with a lead to find a lovely deep margin with clear gravel bottom. I was fishing by midday with both on 15mm BBB with a good spread of BBB and Pandemic through the swim.
Its worth noting here that if I hadn’t gone to look and just used a map I wouldn’t have fished there, it is a very big bend and normally the main flow would follow the outside of the bend, but for some reason here it doesn’t and gets pushed off towards the middle so it’s always worth going to look…
I really fancied the area for Zander and with a lovely big over hanging tree on the left-hand margin it looked to good to miss so a dead Roach was set up on a third rod and flicked into the margin next to it.
The level was rising and the water highly coloured with large branches coming down in the flow, it was dull and cloudy at 7 degrees and looked great conditions so I was surprised it took so long for a take but I had two high singles before midnight.
12 March 2024
I had another single in the early hours and then at first light the right-hand rod slammed over and straight away I knew it was a good fish, it felt heavy and slow and just wouldn’t come up, I played it for what seemed like ages to get it right into the margin but it was still deep and then I felt the line rub on something, I tried to lift the fish over it and it was gone, a cut-off and inch above the hook. I take losses in my stride but that one stuck in the gut for a while as I just knew it was a good one….
It started to rain soon after and didn’t stop for five hours and right on cue the right slammed over again with the first double of the trip at 10-15.
I carried on all day between the rain showers without another take, the river continued to rise and even the bailiff rang me worried the ditch behind me may cut me off from getting out. Potty called me late evening to say a swim had become available on another section where I knew I could carry on fishing in really high conditions and not have the risk of being stranded so I packed the swim down for the move, it took two and half hours and I was dripping in sweat but I was fishing again by 21:30.
13 March 2024
The previous angler had been Zander fishing for three nights so I knew no boilies or pellet had gone in and felt very confident, so I was surprised it took until 05:40 for the first take, but it was worth it at 13-14.
The conditions were perfect, a rising river at 1.80m, warm at 13 degrees, cloudy with showers, I felt sure they would switch on, but other than one more at 12-00 in the afternoon it didn’t happen.
14 March 2024
I made the effort to pack up in the early hours, drive round and barrow down to my favourite flood swim for the day, the river was still rising and again it looked perfect but sometimes a lot of effort doesn’t bring reward and it didn’t for me on this occasion and I packed up for home mid-afternoon to finish another great season on the rivers, despite being a poor winter.
I finished the season with 297 Barbel with 97 doubles, in 33 nights and 16 days fishing 😊
22-24 March 2024 – Johnsons Lake, Marsh Farm.
After a weekend sorting and cleaning all my gear it was time to get back to the still waters and my early Spring Crucian fishing. My Feb session was a blank and on speaking to the bailiff they hadn’t woken up with none being reported but my experience there over the past three springs I knew it wouldn’t be long.
The session started well with me arriving mid-afternoon and getting the swim I wanted and meeting Jamie Stanley who was fishing next door and had just landed a 34-10 Common on Crucian gear it looked like being a great start to Spring.
However the fish had other ideas, we suffered two very cold nights, didn’t see any fish show and other than a Tench and a Roach each we didn’t see a Crucian.
To add to my pain the M25 was closed on my route home and a 90-minute trip took 3 and half hours!
29 March 2024 – Beds Reservoir
I only had one night I could fish and didn’t fancy the M25 / A3 roadworks and delays for such a short session, so I got the Bream gear ready for a night on a local Reservoir, the fish there are said to go to low doubles so worth a go to get my monies worth out of the ticket.
The weather had been very unsettled with cold days and nights followed by heavy rain and 50-60 mph winds, the wind was forecast to drop through the day with a warm afternoon.
It wasn’t busy when I arrived, and I wanted a swim central so that I could watch all the water and hopefully intercept patrolling fish. After a walk round I went in a swim with the strong wind behind me and set the swim up.
It took a while to get the rods set up and the bait mixed and ready and then I put out 30 spombs of a mix consisting of; 2,4&6mm pellets, sweetcorn, boilie chops and casters, all soaked in a sweet sticky liquid.
The rigs were 70g method feeders, a 5” braid hooklink to a size 10 Talon tip, one baited with a Pineapple wafter, one a Pandemic wafter and the third a trimmed down Asbo topped with fake corn. The rods were wrapped to ten wraps and cast onto the baited area.
It took two hours before the first take which was a Bream that promptly came off, that was quickly followed by a Carp at 25-14.
Three hours later the rod was almost ripped from the rest as the Pineapple wafter was taken again, I recognised the fight pretty quickly and took my time on my lighter Bream set up, the funniest thing was getting it in my Barbel net which I had to do by hand, a Catfish at 39-00.
30 March 2024
The target species finally arrived at 02:00, it was very cold, but they were feeding, and I landed four between 7-8 pound, no monsters but a good learning experience with all the bites on the pineapple wafters.
I carried on until mid-afternoon but had no bites in day light. It will be back to the Crucians in April until the lake closes on 15th and then hopefully some Bream and Tench before I head back to Thailand in May.
I would like to thank everyone for the positive feedback for last months blog, it was the most read blog I’ve published, almost double the normal readership which has given me food for thought with the content being heavily rig focussed.
So, although I do like to keep everyone up to date with what I’m doing, is there anything you would like me to write about and share with you?
I do respond to all emails and am happy to share my knowledge, so please email if there is something you’d like me to write about and I’ll do my best to fit it in.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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