The Sessions - Oct 2024
Kings Weir success
September was a tricky month with some serious flooding, getting hammered by Crays and Crabs, a devastating loss on Kings Weir and a lot of driving, but it all came good at the end of the month with a 16-03 from a flooded tidal Trent that was rising rapidly.
Due to work and family commitments I knew I wouldn’t get out much in October so hoped to make the most of the sessions I had planned.
04 October 2024 – River Lea, Kings Weir
With the Trent and most rivers being in serious flood I checked Kings Weir and found that although it was up and coloured it looked fishable. I had arranged to fish in my target swim for the weekend and it looked great and here’s where I made a rookie error. Julie was due to visit on the Saturday, so I wanted to trim all the nettles back, so she didn’t get stung, I trimmed the path back and then the swim so that the shelter fitted in more comfortably and there was more room for us both, this took over an hour, but it looked good, and the shelter went in great. I got the swim all set up and then got the rods ready, I knew my spots so clipped on 6oz leads and flicked them out, and this is where I realised my mistake in not checking for rubbish coming down in the flow, the rigs didn’t last 5 minutes before being dragged round. I tried 8oz and same result, so after all the prep work on the swim I would have to move.
There is a swim with a lovely deep hole close in that looked good, but it was taken so I had to have a good look and a rethink. After a chat with my pal Simon Baker (cheers mate) and some work with the leading rod I settled on a swim that looked very turbulent but was fishable and relatively rubbish free and moved all the gear round and set up again.
I spoppered in 3 pints of hemp and chopped meat and put both rods out on meat and was finally fishing by 18:00.
05 October 2024
It went down to 7 degrees overnight and felt chilly, the morning was broken cloud and a light breeze, the river level had not changed and crucially my rigs had remained pretty much weed free with three hourly checks through the night.
With the boilies not working as well on my four trips so far this season I wanted to try other baits so set one rod up on a feeder with chopped worm and two chopped Lobworms on a hair and this was recast regularly through the day. I found on the rod fished in the turbulent water, the braid section of my rig was tangling up, my initial thoughts were it was the buoyancy of the meat and the subtle hooklink being the issue, so I changed the rig to 13lb fluorocarbon straight through to a size 8 Talon Tip and the meat hair rigged on. I use a piece of rig tube on the hair to stop the line cutting through the meat.
It soon came to light there was another issue and probably the cause of the tangle on the subtle braid, Crayfish….not in great numbers as they have experienced on the Lea before but they were there and more active in the day, it was strange that I’d had no problems through the summer but they were active as the water would have been cooling down in autumn.
12:20 – the meat rod slammed over and I was on it quickly and playing a good fish, I don’t get nervous with fish but I’ll happily admit I was with this one, having lost one on my last trip I didn’t want it to happen again and there was the potential of a very big PB smashing fish. The line was rubbing on the old weir posts so I had to very careful until it pinged over the top and I could play the fish back up towards me, and it went in the net first time. I was so happy and the difficult four sessions this season were forgotten in that moment, I peered into the net and although not the huge fish I was looking for it was a good one.
Everything was set up ready and she went on the scales at 15-11, a few quick photos and some video footage and she was slipped back, a great moment shared with fishery owners Andrew and Loretta.
Julie came down for the afternoon bringing cakes and some drink to share and we had a nice afternoon together in the autumn sunshine and great outdoors.
Just before dark I swapped the worm rod to a lead and boilie and put a spread of BBB through the swim, and I spoppered in another 3 pints of hemp.
06 October 2024
I thought I heard the clutch on the meat rod in the early hours but on inspection the rod looked normal so I left it in place, it wasn’t until 06:00 when I got up to check and recast the rods I noticed the line entering the water at a different angle, when I picked up the rig had been moved across the weir and was jammed up, I got everything back minus the hook but had I missed another chance?
I wasn’t sure, it could have been a branch or ball of weed in the flow, it could have been Crayfish or the most likely scenario it was a take, and I’d not set the line in the Delkim correctly and I’d missed it.
I carried on until lunchtime and packed up for home already looking forward to getting back.
18-20 October 2024 – River Lea, Kings Weir
I’d taken a weekend break from fishing the previous weekend, I went to see my mum during the day and we had a cosy Friday night in and went out on the Saturday for a lovely meal in TGI Fridays and a movie. I love the cinema and was looking forward to seeing the Joker part 2, with the first one being brilliant, but although not terrible part 2 was nowhere near as good with too much singing, bordering on a musical and we both left feeling underwhelmed. However, they set it up nicely for part 3 that I’m sure we will go a watch when it comes out.
Unfortunately, I’d picked up a virus, probably at the nursing home and by the Sunday evening I wasn’t well, I dragged myself into work every day except the Tuesday but was not well at all.
Come the weekend I wanted to go fishing and did drag myself to Kings Weir but on reflection I shouldn’t have gone, Julie was due to come for the weekend, but she caught it from me and was not well either so stayed at home.
To add to the problems, it was the annual leaf fall, I always maintain we have a two week period when the majority of the leaves fall and loads go into the rivers, I’m convinced as they roll along the bottom they give of some sort of smell or chemical breakdown that knocks the fish of feeding, making fishing almost pointless at times.
I tried my best fishing with meat over hemp but was to ill to put my usual effort in and got what I deserved….nothing, I should have stayed at home to recover.
I packed the van and walked the section with my pal Sam Clare, we had a good chat and noted some likely spots for winter before I headed home.
25 October 2024 – River Trent, Gunthorpe
I’d had a second week of being not well and was finding the virus hard to shake off, I had a guide session booked in with Jamie, he’d won it on a Barbel Society raffle two years ago and we hadn’t managed to get it in due to the flooding last winter, so I didn’t want to let him down and drove up to find swims before he arrived.
I’d offered him the chance of a few bites or fish a section with the chance of a special big fish, he went for the second option which was what I’d hoped for, and I had an idea where I wanted to try.
The weather conditions had been good for over a week, with low pressure, thick cloud and very mild at 15 degrees but there had not been much caught anywhere, but some of the fish caught had been the bigger ones so there is always a chance. The river levels were still quite high making swim choice crucial.
I had a drive round and found an area to try when Jamie arrived and then drove back to Gunthorpe to do the night on the island. The swim I chose allowed me to fish one rod completely out of the main flow and one on it which gave me good options.
I put both out on 18mm BBB and pva bags and was fishing by 19:30, with a good spread of BBB and Asbo over both spots.
The session started well with a 10-08 within the hour that fought really hard in the current and I really thought I had one of the bigger fish, it just shows we never really know when one comes off before we see it.
There was quite a bit of rubbish in the flow so I had to move the rod fished in the main flow to the slacker spot for the night.
26 October 2024 – Middle Trent
Strangely I didn’t get another bite all night, I repositioned a rod back in the flow and had a bite straight away with a single before packing the swim down to move and meet Jamie.
Jamie arrived as planned at 10:00 and we got the gear down into the swims I’d selected, the first job was to get the Deeper rod to work, and I spent time mapping out the section we were going to be fishing, I’ve written about this many times, but this time spent is crucial if you want to be consistently successful.
The deeper channel was only three rod lengths out and went down to 13 feet with two slightly deeper depressions which is what I look for, the next job was to swap the Deeper for a 3oz lead and have a feel of the bottom which I found was nice clean gravel with one big snag to my left (this turned out to be a big thick branch). I put Jamie in the swim to the right with a slightly deeper depression at 14 feet and I went to the left and we set the swims up, once that was done, I talked through my approach, rigs and baiting strategy and we were ready to start.
We were both very aware this could easily be a blank, one bite or a special fish, we certainly knew we would not be catching numbers of fish. We put the rigs out with 8oz leads, 15 and 18mm BBB and pva bags and I baited through both spots with Asbo and BBB, then it was a case of getting the kettle on, sitting back and hoping. The swims were close enough to allow us to put chairs in the middle and not break any EA by-laws and enabled us to have a good social session.
The day passed quietly with recasts every two hours to keep the lines clear of rubbish and as we went into the evening we ordered pizza (thanks Jamie) and sat out chatting until late in the evening.
27 October 2024
The only bite of the session came to my right-hand rod in depression at 13.5 feet at 01:45, it felt a good fish and I have to admit I was nervous knowing which fish it could be, it popped up and went in the net the second time and was a lovely clean fish at 14-14, a great start on a new section.
We did some photos and slipped it back hoping for another chance, and we fished up to midday without any more bites but it was thoroughly enjoyable session and we’ve arranged another for later in the season.
That brought an end to my months fishing, only three trips but two good fish made it worth the effort.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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