The Sessions - Sept 2025
More Massive Barbel & Bream Struggles
August was a brilliant month after a frustrating start on Walthamstow with the Tufties absolutely murdering me. Julie and I had a lovely anniversary week with a camping / walking trip to the Peak District and a night on Gunthorpe with Julie getting her PB Barbel at 12-10.
I finished the month with an epic trip to Kings Weir with three Barbel to 17-15 and bonus 29-11 Mirror Carp.
Note:
I had a phone call from Potty on 31 Aug, a Barbel had been caught at Gunthorpe by one of our friends with one of my rigs still in its mouth. If you remember Julie lost her first take on our anniversary session the weekend before, at the time I thought it was a good one and I wasn’t wrong it went 16-13!! I would loved for her to have caught that fish, but all she said was “I’m so glad the fish is ok and he got the hook out”, just brilliant 😁
01 September 2025 – River Lea, Kings Weir.
My first visit to Kings Weir was a brilliant trip with three Barbel and a Carp so I was very keen to get back there and returned for another overnight session. The journey was a pain with a diversion and lots of traffic so I was late arriving but was back in the swim for 19:00, there was still a lot of weed so I decided to fish one rod on the spot I’d caught from on the last trip and cast a single BBB soaked in food dip onto the spot at 19:40.
It went within 20 minutes and at first I thought it was a Bream as it just held in the flow with a few head shakes, as it got closer it woke up and made a couple of lunges taking line before slipping into the net and it looked a massive Barbel. I left it resting while I got the weighing and photo gear set up and then weighed her at a huge summer weight of 19-08, what a fish for August, absolutely huge. I checked the photos of fish caught from the section last season and it was a fish that went 20-09 last December so could be even bigger this winter.
19-08
I got the rig back in position and put 10 BBB through the swim but not really expecting anymore. But I was wrong as 90 minutes later the rod went again with another huge fish at 17-10 (a different fish to my 17-15), what a session.
17-10
I had another an hour later at 13-01 to finish a brilliant session on KW. I went through the night without anymore and had a great sleep and packed up for home in the morning.
13-01
KW is a really difficult venue but it just goes to show if the fish are there and your tactics are right you will catch anywhere.
06 September 2025 – River Trent, Collingham
I had a club booking on the weir and after a few days of wind and rain the level had come up on the North Muskham level gauge from .76m to .95m so I thought the fishing would be really good with the extra water so drove up on the Friday night and slept by the car ready for an early start in the morning.
The river was up and carrying weed so I was wading out in waders and casting 5oz leads up as far as I could and started by baiting with a good hit of one and half KG of Asbo and BBB. I really was expecting carnage from the off but it just didn’t happen and by lunchtime all I’d caught was a big 5lb plus Chub, it was if the river had switched off…..
The Barbel Masters qualifiers were being fished on the A1 pits section and they were experiencing the same with very few anglers catching all weekend, I believe they had to draw out of the hat for who qualified for the final as not enough people caught fish.
One thing that was very evident was the amount of foam and the colour of it; it was a light brown and not the usual white. With so many people up and down the river struggling to catch, and I should have been catching loads, I felt there could have been a sewage discharge with the water company thinking they’d get away with it with the higher water level from the rain and this knocked the fish off the feed, the colour of the foam would certainly suggest that was the case.
I did have ten in the afternoon but nothing to trouble the camera and I packed up early at teatime. I had intended on moving up to the middle Trent after the weir session but with the river fishing so badly I decided to go home for a rethink.
07-09 September 2025 – Beds Lake
I still wanted a big Bream (16+) and with the river out of sorts and autumn on the way it was a good time to have another go as they should be feeding up for winter. Historically the lake I’d been fishing for Tench did hold some very big Bream a few years ago, I’d seen doubles caught and fish claimed at over 17 pound had been caught so I chose that as my venue.
The area I’d caught the bigger Tench was the area I wanted to target for Bream and after a walk round the lake in the afternoon the swim I wanted was free so I set up there. I got the leading rod to work and found a nice silt gully between two bars at nine and a bit wraps, the lead was coming back not smelling badly so that would be my target area. My plan was to fish two Bream rods and an Eel rod, so the Bream rods were set up with 45g method feeders, 6” hooklink to a size 10 Gardner Barbel hook baited with a 10mm boilie and a piece of fake corn. I baited the area with one and half pints of dead red maggots, pint of hemp and a pint of 2mm pellets with some groundbait and got the rods out.
The Eel rod was set up with an 3oz inline lead and a short 4” quicksilver hooklink to a size 6 Talon Tip hook, this was baited with hair rigged chopped lobworm. I placed it over the marginal shelf at 10 feet and baited with a pint of dead red maggots and chopped worm.
The weather conditions were good, it was warm with cloud and strong south westerly winds and I felt pretty confident of some action.
The first night passed without any bites to the Bream rods, but the Eel rod was getting smashed by small Perch, I just couldn’t keep a bait in the water so gave up after the first night and changed it to a Bream rod baited with three fake casters.
I gave the swim a good hit of bait on the second evening and it looked good going into the night but again I had no bites until I started to pack up in the morning, when I had a low double Common and two Bream both being around 9 pound. Although not the size I was looking for I’d found an area the Bream like to feed on and I planned a return trip.
19 September 2025 – Beds Lake
I’d finished a tough long stretch at work and was back on the lake for mid-morning, the car park was busy but fortunately my swim was free but as I got there with a few bits of tackle I found the margins were pea green with algae, it didn’t look good. I had a walk round and found all the bottom end of the lake had some algae in the swims, I did a bit of research and it didn’t look like the harmful blue/green algae and it wasn’t right across the lake just in the margins so I decided to do the night and see how things went.
I got two Bream rods on the spot and baited with casters, hemp, 2mm pellets and sweetcorn. I set the Eel rod up again only this time baited with a Roach head and baited the spot with chopped worm and dead red maggots.
Going into the night the algae had not got any worse but I checked at 04:00 and could see it was like gloop in the margins and at first light it was right across the lake so I packed up quickly and raced down the A1 to Walthamstow.
20 September 2025 – Walthamstow
I arrived at 09:30, paid for my ticket, loaded my barrow and went for a look. I had an area in mind and it was free but I had a look first before deciding. My thoughts were the wind had been a strong southerly for a week so it wasn’t a new wind and on a big reservoir the wind creates a strong undertow going the other way so the back of the wind is sometimes a good option. My instincts were telling me to go there so I barrowed round and set up. It was warm and cloudy with a strong southerly that was going to be a challenge setting the bivvy up on the top of the reservoir bank.
I did fish the area in the spring but checked it again with the leading rod and then clipped the rods up at 11 wraps. I set two rods up with boilie and fake corn and the third on three fake casters, all with 45g method feeders and they were cast onto the spot. I then put some bait in, chopped worm, worm soil, ground bait, hemp and 2mm pellets, I didn’t put any casters in at first to see if I could avoid the Tufties.
The weekend hadn’t gone to plan so far and this continued when the strong wind flattened my bivvy but luckily I caught it before it disappeared into High Maynard but it left my camp in a right mess. It was so windy I couldn’t let it go to collapse it for quite a while, what a nightmare! Eventually I got a chance and had to move all the gear to the bottom of the slope and set it all up behind the trees on the slope, it wasn’t ideal but was ok. The wind swung round and was hammering onto my bank shaking the rods so the delkims kept going off, I had to turn the sensitivity right down to keep them quiet.
I kept going and on dark baited up again with two pints of casters, hemp, 2mm pellets and some 10mm boilies.
The Bream didn’t arrive in numbers but I had one at 12-11, and two Carp, a Common at approx. 21 and a Mirror at 23-11 to make it worth the trip. The Common had me going for a while as it didn’t fight and just felt heavy, I thought big Bream until I saw a tail with the rest of the fish covered in weed, which just about summed up my weekend.
12-11
23-11
26-28 September 2025 – River Lea, Kings Weir
Everything looked good for another successful trip and I felt very confident, the weather was perfect, the weed nowhere near as bad and the level was good but on the trip I didn’t get a touch.
The high light of the trip was an angler catching a Barbel at 18-02, it smashed his PB by 7 pound and he was absolutely made up, it was brilliant to see and I was more than happy to do his photos and capture the moment for him.
I’ll be back again in October for another go and really hoping for holy grail fish, a KW 20 plus Barbel.
Until next, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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