The Sessions - Aug 2023
Kings Weir Barbel
My summer wasn’t going to plan due to regular hospital visits but I was managing to fit sessions in and had plans to fish the stunning Kings Weir on the river Lea later in the month following a recce trip with Julie in July.
05 Aug 2023 – River Trent, Collingham.
The rule changes made by Collingham AA have really worked in my favour, I joined the club in 2014 and have remained a member ever since, it’s brilliant now, I fish it more in the winter and turn up and there is hardly a soul there, additionally members can book the weir during the first week of the month as part of our membership and my first trip of the season was this one.
I drove up the night before and set the shelter up in the night fishing area, got everything ready for the morning and went to sleep, I wanted to be fresh for the day ahead so didn’t bother fishing the night.
The weather forecast wasn’t good and it was raining when I got up at 04:30 to move the tackle down into the weir swims and was due to rain all day and remain cool at 13-15 degrees. The level was good at .98m and there were 8m tides due so despite the weather I thought I’d be in for a good session.
I started by spooning in 8 pints of hemp, 4 pints of dead maggots and a kg of BBB to hopefully kick start the swim but the fish had other ideas. All we read on social media is how anglers are having fantastic days on the weir catching loads of good fish but you never read about the bad sessions and trust me there are plenty of them, and this was one of them. It rained all day with a cool north easterly wind blowing straight at me and to make it worse I stuck a hook in my waders so they leaked soaking my left leg throughout the day and my summer water proof jacket is no longer water proof!!
I finished the day at 21:00 with 21 Barbel with 7 being doubles to13-01, not a bad day fish wise but not great considering where I was fishing.
06 Aug 2023
I was fishing again by 05:30, the rain had stopped but the wind was stronger making casting to the spots difficult, additionally the level had come up to 1.13m and there was a huge tide at 14:00 that pushed me back to peg 3 (if you know Colly, you’ll know how far back that is). It was a much slower day that only picked up a bit after the tide turned and I finished at 17:00 with only 14 Barbel to 10-14.
It’s very evident how the wet July and higher river levels have changed things on the river this year with the Barbel on the middle and tidal being much more spread out down the sections than normal for this time of year and not up in the weirs where you’d expect to find them in the summer. But that’s the beauty of fishing, we never stop learning so it never gets boring.
12 Aug 2023 – River Derwent
With my mum now in a nursing home in Nantwich I wanted to keep visiting as much as possible so planned to see her on the Sunday, I normally travel up with my daughter but she couldn’t come this time so I thought I’d break the trip up with a night on my favourite river, the river Derwent. I haven’t fished it much for a few years now as I thought I’d caught all the bigger ones from the section but I do have a trip every season, it’s a stunning little river and with the coffee coloured water the Barbel are a lovely dark bronze and look great in the photos.
It was warm and sunny on the drive up but the heavens opened as I drove into the car park, so I sat in the car until it passed but was quick enough to capture a double rainbow over the track to the river. Once the rain passed I was in my favourite area for an 18:00 start. The last time I fished the section I had to cut the swim out but this season the club have done some great work and cut out all the swims and put steps in on the steeper banks. I fished upstream of a little depression that was always a reliable spot in previous years and cast one rod down into it, the other was lowered in under the rod tip with a good spread of BBB was put through the swim and I settled back onto the chair very confident.
I’ve fished the Derwent on and off since 2015 and have never seen a Crayfish but they are now there in force and love BBB…….and were even hooking themselves trying to drag the rigs into the holes. I upped the leads to 5oz so they could not move them and shortened the rigs down to 12 inches to hopefully stop them being dragged into holes, I was using hard hookers and they were lasting around 90 minutes so I wasn’t going to get much sleep.
It was worth all the hassle as at 02:45 the rod in the depression went over and I guided a lovely fish at 12-06 into the net.
I packed up at 08:00 to drive up to Nantwich with a breakfast stop planned on the way before visiting my mum who was doing very well, you hear a lot of bad press about care / nursing homes but I was pleased to find this one very good, it could do with a lick of paint and maintenance but the staff are very friendly and caring which is the important bit.
18 Aug 2023 – River Trent, Gunthorpe.
The start of two weeks annual leave and I was really looking forward to it, with plenty of trips planned and mine and Julie’s anniversary in the middle weekend.
I finished work and went through the madness of food shopping, sorting the gear and bait, loading the van and driving up and arrived for 18:00. I set the swim up with the plan to fish the days and relax once it got dark and get a good sleep through the night. I had something to eat and was ready to fish by 20:00 and rolled meat for two hours, it didn’t start well with the first fish intent on making its way to the tidal without stopping, I applied a bit of pressure and the hook pulled. The second take cut me off just above the hook, the third was an Eel and five Barbel followed to 11-01 before getting my head down.
19 Aug 2023
It rained most of the night and the river level came up to .46m which was just about ok to roll meat in the swim, and it was warm and sunny but quite windy making line control more difficult.
It was a funny day with long periods of inactivity in all the swims, I spent quite a bit of time not fishing and catching up with my pal Paul Elt who was fishing in the next swim and when I was fishing it was a struggle with only five Barbel caught to 10-00 exactly.
20 Aug 2023
The night was dry and very mild but the level had come up again to .48m which may not look much at all, but it makes a big difference in the swim I was fishing. The spots I normally roll were very difficult to fish due to the extra water so I tried spots further out and had bites on the first three casts. I missed the first two due to getting used to the extra line out and a bigger bow in the line, but I didn’t miss the third and landed a lovely fish at 12-14.
It was another tough day with long spells without a take and I was struggling with the kidney stones so I took a break, went for some food and a trip to the tackle shop. When I got back early afternoon I had six fish in six casts and missed the seventh with the best two being doubles at 10-10 and 10-11. I was that confident I set the camera up to film some action footage and hopefully a take but the bites dried up and I finished the day on dark with a nine fish day.
21 Aug 2023
I was up and fishing by 07:00, it was a lovely fresh, clear morning and the level was back to .44m making it easier to roll the bait through, it all looked good for a good day. But by 14:00 I’d not had a touch, the fish were just not there so I moved to another swim to fish static baits for the evening and night. The area hadn’t been fished for four days so I was confident of some action.
I lowered both rigs in on 18mm BBB and put a some BBB through the swim, it rained all evening and the Barbel did not show up, I had four takes which were all Chub to mid 5’s, it was raining to much to bother weighing them so they were all slipped straight back.
The trip was not working out as I’d planned, but I don’t give up easily and am always thinking ahead for my next tactical or swim move.
22 Aug 2023
I had nothing more through the night and decided on another move to a swim that had become available and does generally fish well through the day if the fish are there.
I was set up and fishing by 09:30 with the right hand rod cast up towards the weir on a lovely spot I found last season, and the left was on a clear spot under the rod tip.
The key to weir fishing could be an article in itself but in short, you need to spend time watching the flow and recognising the flow rate changes, boils, flat spots and what they all mean, then the most important part is careful leading around to find the spots and how big they are, this then dictates rig length. I see it a lot on weir pools, pub chucking a rig out with a 5-6 foot hooklength and then wondering why they lose so much tackle!! My rigs for weir pool and what I would recommend are always 12-24 inches max, I would say always act on the side of caution and go shorter until you know the spot well and can cast accurately.
The move was a good one as I reeled in at 23:00 having caught 16 Barbel, the best two being 10-00 and 10-02.
The bigger fish just don’t seem to be up in the weir at the moment, I’ve been targeting a very big fish that is normally in the weir pool during July into Sept but this season it hasn’t turned up yet, it could be because of all the rain and higher levels in July or it may have passed away, who knows, but I’ll keep trying this season. I have joined a club further down where it has been caught in winter so will try there when the river is in flood #dontgiveupeasily.
23 Aug 2023
I was fishing again by 05:15 and fished until midday catching another eight Barbel for a good end to the session. I had both extremes with the smallest Barbel I’d ever caught at 3oz hooked fairly in the mouth on an 18mm boilie and finished the session with a double at 12-00. I check the rolling meat swim before leaving having three casts and had an average 8 pounder before heading home for our anniversary weekend.
Julie and I had a lovely few days together, we had a nice pub lunch in Ampthill on the Friday and a night in a lovely restaurant where we had our first date seven years ago. It’s been a fantastic seven years darling, I love our life together and long may it continue.
28 Aug 2023 – Kings Weir, River Lea
I joined the syndicate this year after being on the waiting list for a few years and was looking forward to getting started. I was a little torn as I really want the big middle Trent fish I’ve been chasing for two years and as stated above it is prime time, but after a recce in July I wanted to have a go on Kings Weir, with the Trent not fishing well I decided to go for it.
After a few message with Andrew and Loretta I was able to fish the weir until 08:00 on Wednesday morning so I loaded the van and was on my way arriving at around 16:00.
I got the swim set up and then spent an hour with the leading rod looking for clear spots, I’d been given all sorts of advice on how to fish this weir pool as it is so snaggy but I catch everywhere on my tactics and did not think it would be different here, I just needed the right spots.
My leading rod set up is very simple, a marker rod and a 3oz lead attached to braid mainline so that I can feel everything, after a lot of casts (I didn’t lose any leads, braid helps hugely with this) I found two spots and a third as a back-up, with the spot by the weir being quite small.
I shortened my rigs to 12 inches, a nine inch boom and 3 inches of braid (a new test braid for Gardner which is proving very good), to ensure all the rig was in the clear area, on the left hand rod I used a size 10 Talon Tip and an 18mm BBB with a pva bag, and on the right a third of a tin of spam, the rigs were flicked out at 18:30 with a spread of 30 BBB through the swim.
A problem soon arose with lots of drifting weed, this had been cut up by the boats in the canal and had come over the weir and was drifting round in the back eddy where my lines entered the water, so much so I had to move the left hand rod to the back-up spot so it stayed in place longer, the weir rod seemed ok.
29 Aug 2023
I had nothing through the night and had to recast the rigs three times due to the weed, but I knew this would be a one bite trip if I was lucky so wasn’t concerned.
It was a nice cool overcast morning, great conditions and I was confident of a take. The first one came at 10:10 on the left hand rod and I quickly realised it was a Bream, there are some good doubles in the weir pool and when netted I thought this was one but it wasn’t thick enough and was a Carpers double at 8-12
That gave me confidence as I’d found a feeding area and I always believe Barbel happily feed alongside Bream, so I recast and topped the spot up again with BBB.
The meat had no Crayfish marks when I checked at 08:00 but I’d not had a touch on it, so after a bit of thought I changed it to a boilie rig at 14:00, the same set up as the other rod and flicked it back onto the spot and topped up the spot with 30 BBB.
This proved an inspired decision as at 17:50 I was chatting to Judd on the phone when the rod went over and this clearly was not a Bream. I applied pressure to get it away from the weir sill and then gently coaxed it into the net, what a result, a Barbel on my first trip I was over the moon. The weight was irrelevant I was just pleased my tactics worked and I’d caught one but it was a good one at 15-12, a great way to open my account on a new river.
It started to rain in the evening and carried on most of the night, the weed continued to be a pain with regular recasts but it was all worth the effort at the weir rod went again at 23:40 with another good on at 14-13, I really thought this fish was huge, it had a big head and shoulders and in the net looked massive, but on the mat I could see why, it was slightly deformed and had no weight in its back end, but still a lovely fish I was privileged to catch her.
I packed away at 07:30 in the morning and spent a few hours walking the section looking for likely areas for the winter. It’s a stunning venue and one I’d recommend people having a look at, you can day ticket the weir swims and although not easy the rewards are there if you get your tactics right and are lucky enough, give Loretta and Andrew a call on 01992 468394.
31 Aug 2023 – Gunthorpe, River Trent.
I went back to Gunthorpe to finish my annual leave period and started at 16:30 fishing static baits for the night, the main write up for this session will be in September’s blog, but it started really well with a 12-07…..
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😃
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