Afternoon session on the Trent

[Maddison_Twatter]

After a pretty crap start to the season last Thursday I decided to catch an afternoon/evening session now that the first manic week was over.

My intentions were to park up and walk around 1/4 mile to a bend in the river, a spot which is rarely fished as its a fair hump with full kit, but when I arrived the hype of the new season had obviously faded as all pegs were empty so I decided to fish one of the parish pegs right in front of me. bone Idle you say ? I know !!

The first thing I did was chuck out about 3 pints of hemp and pellets with the bait dropper, this sounds like a lot but by the time it settles most of it will be 3 miles down stream.
Last season my tactics were rather large scale and a bit too carpy so I decided to scale right down to a number 11 hook and I ditched the braid and flurocarbon and replaced with a 4 foot mono hooklink.
I was still using 4-5 ounce feeders but thes are needed to hold bottom. My hook bait was two 8mm elips pellets glued on to the hair and on the other rod I had a halibut crab high oil pellet.
All was quiet for about an hour then suddenly the right hand rod began to shake and the drag was being torn off, I struck and hit into a nice lump.
After a well fought fight I landed this Barbel, the first of the season.

At 5lbs 8ounces it wasnt a monster but I was still shaking when I scooped the net under her.


Back in it went strong and fighting.
The rod went back out with the same hook bait and not too long later I had another bite not as strong as the first but a definite take. As I struck I thought the fish had pulled the hook but as the feeder reached hte surface I saw a flash of silver and to my suprice Id caught a nice roach !
My first Trent Roach at 8 ounces, just goes to show what you can get when you scale down


not too long after another roach about 5 ounces (on the same two elips pellets ! as Id forgot to bring the bag with me)



Again all was quiet for a few hours when the right hand rod went off again and again I struck into something solid.
Another barbel I thought as it was putting up a great fight, but as the fish neared the bank it crashed on the surface and was actually a bream !

Whoever said these fish dont fight have obviously never caught one from the Trent.

I thought it was going to be bigger but because these fellows are really flat it weighed in at 5.lb 5 ounces. but never mind the weight as it was a cracking fish and I liked the really dark bronze colors.


As the dusk drew closer the fish began to show on the surface but I was
ready for home but totally happy with what Id caught.
This is only a fraction of the potential this stretch has and look forward to hitting it again for a full session. !

[pingu]

cracking session well done there

dave

[Maddison_Twatter]

cheers. Im pretty certain about the species this time lol

[fishypaul]

well done MT some lovely fish there

[blackwater]

Well done MT, that was nice fishing.