The Sessions - Feb 2026
Another month of floods & struggles.
2026 had started very poorly for me with only two trips and both were blanks to start the year, I did some planning for spring and two venue recce trips so it still felt a productive month.
I hoped February would be better but with constant rain and flooding it wasn’t looking good.
6 February 2026 – River Trent, tidal
Originally, I had planned to go to Linear for Roach, but the complex was shut due to flooding so other plans needed to be made.
The winter was starting to look like a wash out for me, I’m restricted when I can get out due to work and home life, so it’s not been easy with all the wet weather we’ve had this winter. I’d just come off a ten day stretch at work and really wanted to be out, I’d been watching the weather and river levels all week, it looked wet again and the levels very high but I have places that have been successful in the conditions so with Linear shut I made the decision to drive up the A1 on the Friday morning.
When I arrived it was 7 degrees and raining with the air pressure at 989mb, and the river level was 1.64m and rising so I knew which swim to head for and it was free, and I set up for 13:00. The first job was to clear the swim of debris, branches and dead nettles that covered the surface, the only way was with a landing net scooping it out and it took an hour, once completed I started with two Zander rods on dead Roach. With the river rising the debris was going to be a problem and I had to keep clearing any new that came into the swim throughout the session.
By 18:30 the level had flown up to 2.11m and was heavily coloured and I was already thinking I would have to cut the session short if it continued. I swapped over to Barbel for the night and put both rods on 15mm BBB soaked in food dip with a pva bag and no freebies.
I had two singles in the evening which was encouraging but the level continued to rise and I had to move the rods further up the bank twice during the evening.
7 February 2026
The rain finally stopped in the night, and it was very mild at 10 degrees with thick cloud and low pressure, perfect conditions, but I wasn’t getting takes in my favourite flood peg on the Trent and couldn’t understand why (I’m writing this on 11 March and now have a theory which I will share next month).
By 07:30 the level was at 2.70m and I’d had to clear the swim of debris a number of times, I carried on until 10:00 when the level hit 2.85m which makes the swim unfishable and I knew once it goes over 3m there was a chance I would not get off the fishery so I packed up a day early and headed home safe but wondering why in near perfect conditions I was not catching.
21 February 2026 – Johnsons Lake, Marsh Farm
The rain made most places unfishable with the Trent going over 3.5m and everywhere flooded, so I spent some quality time with Julie and we did some nice trekking on our days off work.
After the flooding we had a cold snap with sleet and frosty mornings and that changed to more favourable conditions on the Thursday so I had a think about where I could go. Johnsons is a shallow lake and would warm up quickly in mild conditions and I have caught Crucians in cold weather, and with Linear being closed, I decided an early Crucian trip was worth a go so drove down early on Saturday morning.
The forecast was good with south westerly winds, cloudy and mild nights at 10 degrees with a dropping air pressure so I felt pretty confident. I arrived at 06:30 to find it very busy, which wasn’t a total surprise with everywhere flooded but the car pack was solid!! I grabbed my shelter and went for a walk and fortunately my second-choice swim was the only one free on the chicken bank so I quickly set up my shelter to claim the swim and went back to the van for my gear.
I have my tried and tested rigs and baiting approach on Johnsons so cast out two method feeders with fake casters on the hair, and spombed out some hemp and caster and was fishing by 09:15.
It rained all day but was very mild and was nice being out again. I recast the feeders every 2-3 hours and topped up the swim with five spombs on dark. It stopped raining late in the evening and stayed nice and mild.
22 February 2026
The first bite came at first light and was a Tench at approx. 5lb, not the intended species but certainly a confidence boost as I knew the Crucians would feed if the Tench were active. I topped the swim up with just two spombs of casters, leaving the hemp as it was likely still there as I’d not had much activity.
The day passed quietly and I didn’t see a single fish roll, I wasn’t too worried as from previous experience, I’ve found the Crucians happily feed at night in early spring when you’re not catching in the day. I topped up again with a pint of just casters on dark.
23 February 2026
The next bite came around 01:00 and was another Tench at over 6lb, I was so tired I couldn’t be bothered to weigh it and slipped it back.
Two hours later the rod went again with a classic Crucian take, just pulling the bobbin up tight and as I lifted into it I knew it was a Crucian, I wasn’t disappointed and a 3-07 slipped over the net.
3-07
That was the last action and I packed up at 11:00 and headed over to Reading to look at two VW Transporter T6.1’s, I’ve always wanted one, and as part of my retirement plan I wanted to go down to one vehicle, so this could be the start 😊
Note: I paid the deposit……😊
24 February 2026 – River Lea, Kings Weir
I had a window of opportunity with a free afternoon into the evening with the intention of fishing the members section so drove over arriving at 15:30, a lot of hassle and rushing around but the rewards are high on KW. The section has not fished well this year with only four fish caught since Sept, the big fish seem to be down at Fishers Green this season and this proved correct when Nathan Buckingham landed a new British record at 23-00, what a fish and well-done mate. But they defiantly move around could easily be up on KW at any time.
When I arrived the car park was empty so I walked up to look at the weir, it was banging through but I felt it was fishable and had the leading rod with me to check two of the swims, as I suspected they were both very fishable so I got the gear and walked back to the weir and set up in my favourite swim.
I put one out on meat and one on a 15mm BBB soaked in food dip and sat back with anticipation. It was a nice evening made even better with an Owl sat in the tree above me hooting away for some time before moving off to hunt.
KW is hard and it was no surprise I blanked again and left at 22:30, but I love it there and the chance of that elusive 20 plus is there, so I’ll keep coming back next season, with two 19 plus’s in 2025 I’m not far away.
Another month of not much to report and a shorter blog this time, but even when I’m blanking, I love being out in all conditions and love the experiences the British countryside gives me.
Until next, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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