The Sessions - January 2016

A difficult month!

11 Jan – Smeatons, River Trent

Once Xmas and the New Year festivities were out the way I then had a week of nights to contend with, I really don’t like working them but after 77 hours I get a weeks rest days so it’s worth it in the end.

The weather had changed for the worst after a very mild December, there had been lots of rain during the week with cold night temperatures at 2 degrees, not ideal conditions but I wanted to get back on the river and the forecast was a cloudy night which should mean it would be a little warmer.
I knew the river was very high and the tidal would be pretty much unfishable so I drove up to Smeatons which is approx 5 miles above Collingham. The section is on the outside of a bend and is deep right in the edge so is fishable when the river is high.

I arrived in the dark at 19:00 hours, unsurprisingly there was no one there so I took a rod with 6oz lead attached to the river for a look. The river was high, coloured and steaming through, I lowered the lead in and held the rod to see if it would hold, it did and with no rubbish coming down.
The forecast was wrong as normal and the sky cleared and it got very cold but I was there so gave it my best shot. I lowered two rigs in with 6oz leads, my ever faithful Pandemic boilies and pva bags and rebaited every two hours until 01:00 hours.

It stayed cold and clear all night and I didn’t get a touch and eventually gave up mid afternoon.

As the weather had turned cold it was the perfect time to test my new Thermal Underwear from Jack Pyke. It’s made from 229gsm material, 90% polyester, 10% spandex, has fleece pile inside and comes in a nice green colour. All I can say is they are very warm and a top product, suffice to say when I got home the old stuff went in the charity bags.

13 Jan – Decoy Lakes

It got colder as the week went on and was only 3 degrees in the day so Barbel fishing was definitely out so I got the Perching gear ready and headed to Decoy Lakes for the day.
Decoy Lakes need no introduction and are a very successful commercial Carp fishery and as with a lot of these types of waters big Perch were starting to turn up in matches so after a chat on the phone I decided to have a go.

I arrived mid-morning and paid my £7 day ticket and went down to look at the lake that was shaped like a horseshoe. There was no one on there so I took the time to plumb the margins in all the swims looking for any depressions or obvious feature. There wasn’t anything as is normal with these types of lakes so I fished in peg 8 which offered a slightly wider area to fish.

It was one rod only so I fished a float and soon had to put a bigger float on to cope with the wind and drift. I fed the swim with live and dead red maggots to attract the small fish into the area hoping the Perch would follow and used a King Prawn on the hook.

It was bright, cold and sunny all day, not ideal conditions and I only had two bites, one from a Carp that I thought was my dream Perch, the other was a Perch at 2-01. The disappointing thing was I had to leave at 16:00 hours just as it was coming up to witching hour.

15 Jan – Decoy Lakes

The weather had turned colder with frost everywhere. I fished all day in a different swim and didn’t have a bite, it was very cold and the lake was starting to freeze over in the middle of the day.

There was one other angler fishing and as normal when you’re both blanking he came over for a chat, when he realised I was Perching he told me of a lake near his home that had done some big fish up to 5 pound and not many people fished it. You hear a lot of “tales” on the bank, but every now and again one comes up trumps so I didn’t discount his tip and thanked him before leaving.

23 Jan – River Trent

Work had taken over again and I had been away on a training course for a week so had been unable to fish. The weather had been very cold too, down to -5 degrees with some snow in places so I didn’t feel like I was missing much.

Thurs and Fri had seen day time temps rise to 10 degrees so I felt it was worth a trip for Barbel and to hopefully catch a January double. The forecast for the weekend was warm and night temps of 8 degrees so I was itching to get up to the Trent.

A text to the baliff told me the levels were fishable and there weren’t too many people about so I loaded the car and drove up.

I arrived at 15:00 hours and went down to the river for a look and a chat to the people fishing. The two people fishing were friends on Facebook, Alan Cox and David Brooks who are both regulars on the Trent so we had a good chat and as it turned out the river wasn’t fishing well, David had caught one and a friend who had just left had caught two so it was going to be a struggle.

I’d got a bad back following an injury on my course so big thanks go to David and Alan for helping me load my barrow before I made the long walk to my chosen swim.

The river was high and coloured but both were dropping, with the warm conditions and cloudy sky I felt I was in with a good chance of a few fish.

I was fishing just before dark, two rods on Pandemic and a third on a big lump of Spam. More people arrived and there was another seven fishing and every swim on the Ashfield bank was taken but no one near me so I was still feeling confident.
By the time it got dark it started to rain and carried on until midnight, when it stopped it remained cloudy and got noticeably warmer.

I’d re-baited every two hours as normal but hadn’t had a touch and hadn’t seen anyone else land a fish.

24 Jan

01:20 hours – finally the left hand boilie rod smashed over and the line peeled of the reel, the fight wasn’t as strong as normal and it didn’t feel a big fish. When I put it in the weigh sling it felt very cold which wasn’t a good sign at all as it meant the water was still very cold. The fish went 8-02 but I was pleased to catch and hoped for another.

03:40 hours – the right hand boilie rod went and I landed another average Trent Barbel at 7 plus.

That was it for the night and I hadn’t seen anyone else catch. I soon realised I’d forgotten my cooking bag so had no pan to fry my bacon so a quick walk to David’s swim and he got me out of jail. He’d caught one more but none of the other anglers had caught so although I only had two it was a pleasing result in the circumstances.

Everyone packed up and too be honest I contemplated going home as they just weren’t really feeding. After last seasons success of a double for every month of the season I wasn’t going to try it again this season but having managed it so far I’d made up my mind to try to do it again for two seasons on the trot so made myself fish on.

I love my fishing as much as anyone I know but when you’re not catching and feel like you’re not going too it’s hard to keep the motivation too carry on. But I kept the re-baiting going every two hours in the hope I would trip one up.

16:40 hours – out of the blue the right hand rod smashed over and I knew as soon as I picked up it was a better fish and I was over the moon with a 10-03.

I carried on for another hour but I knew it was job done so packed up and made it home for the pub with my mates.

25 Jan – Cambs Lake

With the day of work and having had my Jan double I thought I’d go and look at the lake I’d been told about with the big Perch. 20 minutes on google earth soon had it sorted and I loaded the car up and arrived there at 11:00 hours.

It was difficult to find and when I saw it I could see why, it wasn’t very big and my first thought was there can’t be big fish in there, but I was there so paid my £5 day ticket and got out my plumbing rod. I walked round the whole lake plumbing the margins, the only depression I found was in the swim I would have chosen. It had a tree growing into the water and a dying reed bed all along the margin, perfect hiding places for Perch.

I could use two rods so set up two floats with size 7 hooks, one baited with Lobworm the other King Prawn. Before putting any bait in I lowered the Prawn in and before I could get the other rod the float went under and I struck into a good fish. I was surprised and pleased when a Perch of exactly 3-00 popped into the net.

I put on another Prawn and had the same result with a Perch at 1-08. I got the second rod out and started baiting with a pinch of dead maggots every 5 minutes. I caught steadily all afternoon with two Carp, a Tench, a big Roach and a further 8 Perch, five 1’s, 2-01, 2-10 and another at exactly 3-00. Two came on worm the rest on the King Prawn.

A big thanks to the angler that gave me the tip as I have high hopes this lake might do a good fish, we’ll see what the future session bring…

January – 2 nights on the Trent, 3 Barbel / 1 double.

Tight Lines

Julian Barnes