Another week on club waters, SPAC

[toma]

Arrived at sunny Scunny on Wednesday 27th July after a pleasant train journey.

As ever Les met me at the train station bang on time. Handshakes and greetings over my bags were in the car and away we went. We called at the local tackle shop for bait, maggots and worms.!! They were supposed to be fresh. The maggots lasted TWO DAYS before changing to caster.

We didn't fish on Wednesday because Les had to business to attend to.

Thursday

Up bright and breezy for the first day of my fishing holiday. We decided on Wednesday to try Warping Drain, After a wash and few cups of tea we left with anticipation of the coming days fishing. We arrived at Warping and pulled up on the bridge overlooking the water, GIN CLEAR and covered with blanket weeds. We saw one angler on the stretch within eye shot. Another car pulled up with two anglers getting out. They were of the same opinion as us, not worth it, far to clear to tempt any fish. We left and went to our second venue. Trent Haven pond. Two other angler were there when we arrived.
We had a chat with them and they informed us that they had been there for almost THREE HOURS without a single bite !!. So we decided to head for Mill View fishery.

We jumped in the car and headed off. We arrived at the fishery in blazing hot weather, very hot and steamy.
We got our pegs sorted and tackled up. Feeder fishing. Nothing huge came to the hook bait, the usual skimmers, roach and small carp were the main capture of the day. A very hot day sat under the shade of the umbrella.
Les with the best fish of the day



FridayUp at silly o'clock, 3.30AM to get ready for our impending day on the River Trent at Lady Pitt farm.
We left Les's at around 4.20AM. We arrived at the river to find two other cars waiting to get into the private road, All of our club venues have private access through heavy gates and padlocks. I opened the gate and we had a chat with the two anglers. It turned out they were new members and wanted to fish the top meadow, we gave them as much advice as we could and off they went happy.

We went to fish the Weir pegs. But what a sight greeted us when we reached the spot. The water was very, very low,you could have walked over to the other side without getting your ankles wet. We decided not to fish because of the danger to any fishes health we may have caught. Pulling them over the pebbles and rocks would not be very detrimental to their health.
So we decided to fish peg 26 at the very start of the river. Even on this peg the water was very shallow. We could see the bottom without any problems.
We got there and tackled up. Both Les and myself set our barbel rods up. 10lb main line and 6lb hook length with a size 10 barbless hook.
I chopped some worm to add to my ground bait. Not a lot but enough to pack some into the open ended feeder. We both had 11mm halibut pellets, boilies and smaller pellets for hook baits. We both had about 10 successive cast to get some feed into the water.

We had a nice hot cup of tea brewed on the bank side to help wash down our cheese and tomato sandwiches. Then it happened, the rain, albeit very light, decided to come down. That very fine mist what you cannot hide from. It got to the point that it was dripping off the tree's onto us, LoL BUT NOT TO WORRY.

We waited and waited, and waited for the fish to come into our swim. We both tried worm, then maggot, then smaller hooks.
We managed to land some perch, but not a sight of any barbel or chub that the pegs are known for.

Les got up and went over to the next peg to chat with an angler who arrived not long after us. While they were chatting Les had to tell the angler that his rod was bouncing. The angler landed a nice barbel, not very big given the sizes that are present in the swim, a fish of about 5lbs maybe ?. But it gave a very good account of itself coming to the net. That gave us hope. Again we waited,waited and waited. A few more perch and some nice roach.

Here are our rods set up on the pegs


We decided to call it a day at around 12 midday, we had been fishing for 6 hours with very little to show for it.
Off to our second venue of the day, South Clifton. The venue is a tidal stretch of the River Trent, again this venue hold a good head of barbel and some very good bream. However none decided to show for us today. We fished the beach pegs, so called because of the very light sand there. Both of us fished the barbel rods again. We did get perch out but none of the elusive barbel or bream. One angler did fair better than us, landing 5 or 6 very good bream.

We called it a day and packed the car up at about 4pm. Off the the local bar for a very nice carvery meal.

Saturday.

We decided to fish Thornton Abbey today. We both fished the feeder with maggots and worms for hook baits.Another steaming hot day, but we were sheltered by the tree's behind us. We both faird well from the pegs, Rudd, perch, roach and the occasional roach. The fish were there, but they seemed more interested in rolling around and sunbathing than feeding
Here's one i caught on camera, the bloody thing rolled in front of me LoL, look on the top of the picture and you can see where it came and went. LoL



The water yet again as very weedy causing us to lose a few fish due to them heading for the weeds,LoL. One of the Rudd caught by me



My peg


The heat decided to turn itself up a few degrees, it was becoming very uncomfortable to fish. We decided to call it a day at about 3pm. Home for a nice refreshing tepid shower.

Sunday. No fishing today, i think we were both feeling the power of the sun today. A lazy day in the house and out in the garden, sitting drinking tea and chatting about where to go on Monday. We decided to try South Clifton again. I said to Les there was o way i'm getting up at a stupid time, LoL had a lay in bed until 4.30am, and hour more than when we went to Lady Pitt.


Monday

We got there and chose our swims, heres mine, well the first one.And here it is



I landed about a dozen perch from this swim, and the odd roach or two. I looked upstream a ways and saw a nice looking comfortable peg, so i moved to it.And here it is


Remember the tub of worms ? I decided to fish with some more chopped worm in the open ended feeder. I opened the carton only to find about 15 worms or so,!!! usually there are a lot of worms for £5 but not this time. A pint of maggots that went off after two days and a carton of worms for £5 for about 60 worms, never again :talktothehand:

I called it a day on that peg and moved to to fish the beach stretch with Les because the tide was coming in fast, i did not fancy getting caught out and having to rush to get my gear out of the rising tide. I carried my tackle down and greeted Les and another angler who was there. I asked Les what he had caught, NOTHING came his reply. oh heck i thought.
Anyways we both persivered throu8ghout the day, we did manage some perch. Again the heat was becoming very uncomfortable.
We decided to pack up and head off home. In the car the outside temp gauge was displaying 31 DEGREES celsius.

A pictures of South Clifton

Upstream


Thornton Abbey


In all yet another great trip to club waters, and another great time with Les. Oh we did manage to get to the club for a few beers, Thursday night, after that we had a very nice Chnese meal for supper.

Thanks again Les for your hospitality.

[djfarth]

Sounds like a cracking few days away

Gratz on the catches even if the barbel did not show !!

[Baz T]

Sounds like a nice relaxing few days. Great report and pics, well done.

[BoldBear]

Great report and pictures well done.
Shame the Barbel didn't show for you.