The Sessions - Sept 2026
Autumn is Approaching
Reflecting back on August’s angling, it was a brilliant month with six guide days and mine and Julie’s anniversary session with everyone catching lots of Barbel! I really got the bug for float fishing for Barbel with around 30 fish to 13-02, and will be doing a lot more of that next season as it’s a great way to catch them 😊
With autumn approaching the fish start to fatten up so it’s back to my own fishing and as I started writing this piece on 3 Oct I landed a Trent monster (more on that next month) 😊
6 September 2026 – Cambs lake
Julie and I had spent Saturday down in Kentish Town, we found a great local London pub for some food and a few drinks and didn’t get ripped off with London prices and then moved onto the O2 forum to see a Spirit of Talk Talk event celebrating the 40th anniversary of the album Colour of Spring, and what a night, it was epic. There were original band members and series of different lead vocals, it was brilliant, we love Talk Talk and will never get to see them live as Mark Hollis passed away a few years ago, so this is the next best thing and we’ll definitely go when they do another ❤️
That left me only one free night for fishing, so I decided to see if the Rudd were fattening back up with Autumn on the way. I drove over to find it quite busy and the swims I wanted all taken so I went for a walk and found free swims in the difficult to get to areas and went back to the van to load the barrow. I scaled down as it is a difficult walk and got there in one piece and set the swim up.
I set the rods up on 35g method feeders, short 3” hooklinks to size 12 hooks with 10mm boilies on the hair and catapulted some boilies and hemp over the area. I was fishing close in on the edge of the pads in 7 feet of water so easy casting and baiting up.
There wasn’t much else to report other than loads of small Bream and probably my worst night for mossie attacks, I got battered by them all over my body!!
I will return in winter.
18-20 September 2026 – Kings Weir, River Lea
Another marathon 10 days at work that felt a lot longer but I had my first trip to KW to look forward too. I drove over and was in my swim for 09:00 and the river looked a lovely as ever, it really is a stunning little section. I hadn’t fished the peg for a couple of years so I got the leading rod to work to check the swim and found the area I like to target was clear and fishable.
The river offered another challenge this season, over the last two years the Crayfish population had been growing and this year there were there in large numbers. Andrew has been doing loads to keep numbers down with a number of nets down the section to remove as many as possible, but people were still reporting problems. I set up with my usual set up with 18mm BBB hard hookers on the hair with the intention of checking hourly to see how it went.
My pals Neale and Sam were also on so plenty of experience and chat to figure out a way to get round the problem. The Crays were relentless, we tried hard hookers, pellets, meat, shrink wrapping baits, and armo mesh but they got round it all and took the baits. The shrink wrapping lasted the longest so more regular recasts had to be made.
KW can be tough but this added another dimension but I don’t give up easily and we all kept going. Despite the issue it was an enjoyable session, we had a nice Indian on the first evening and I did catch a Barbel on the second day, a small one for the future but saved a Barbel blank, and I was kept company by this little Bank Vole 😊
Bank Vole
I’ll be going back in October and hoping the cooler temps slow the Crays down a bit.
21 September 2026 – River Trent, Middle
I had three days booked off work so worked the Monday and drove up in the evening for another go at the big Barbel on the middle I’ve been chasing. I got the swim set up for 20:30 and decided to bait heavily with BBB and Asbo and fished a 20mm Asbo and 18mm BBB on the hairs to try to avoid the Bream.
The only action on the first night was a Bream, just bigger at 8 plus.
22 September 2026
It was a lovely morning, clear with a slight chill and just great to be up and about, I was sat having my morning brew with some Hob Nobs when I noticed something swimming across the river. It wasn’t clear what it was, at first I thought Carp and as it got closer it clearly wasn’t so I got up to look, as it got to the wall I could see it was a Grey Squirrel, that’s something I’ve never seen before, it swam right across the river onto the island and managed to climb the wall at the second attempt and ran off like nothing had happened.
It was a warm sunny morning and went up to 23 degrees, I waited until 09:00 and walked back down below the weir to roll meat. It was a stop start day, I was fishing for 90 minutes and then resting the swim for 60 minutes, the fish were not there in numbers but I had five with some good ones at 10-05, 12-14 and 14-09. I changed my rig again slightly after watching my pal Jeff roll meat in August. I attached a swivel, joining the 18lb mainline to 16lb Mirage hooklink to a size 6 Barbel hook, and moulded the plastercine around the swivel and it worked perfectly.
14-09
12-14
I went back upstream to the swim at teatime and baited up again quite heavily, but before I could cast out my pal Tony called me asking me to go down as he’d got a good fish which we weighted at 15-13, well done mate.
I had another night of bigger Bream up to 9lb but no Barbel.
23 September 2026
I was having my morning brew when Tony text me telling me he’d put back a 16-06, what a session for him and well done. I went back down to the rolling meat swim at 10:00 and the conditions were very similar and the fishing was tricky again with very few fish in the area, I had four through the day with three good ones at 10-15, 11-00 and 12-01.
12-01
I got that instinctive feeling to move for the third night and moved down below the weir and set the swim up, again I decided to bait heavily and put in everything I got with the intention of hopefully feeding the smaller fish off.
I was fishing again by 16:00 with 18mm BBB hard hookers on the hair and it was a very quiet evening.
24 September 2026
The bites started at 01:50 with a single and that was quickly followed by a 13-10 and I then got a couple of hours sleep.
I was awoken again around 04:00 and stayed up with regular bites coming to my rods, with a Chub and Barbel at 9, 10-05, 12-00, 10-12 and 11-14 to finish an enjoyable session, and I was in the Unicorn for a fry up by opening time 😊
I had a photo disaster with the 12-00 and some of my friends to great pleasure in messing about with it 😂
26 September 2026 – Recce trips
Julie and I had a camping weekend planned that we had to cancel as she had to work all weekend, she needed quiet time to work so I grabbed the rolling gear and went to recce two rivers.
I drove up to the River Nene first, I’ve been a member for years but unfortunately the first year I joined the big 20lb+ fish died so I haven’t fished it. I’ve kept an eye on the fish weights and it is producing better fish again so time for a look. It was an hour drive and I spent approx. 90 minutes walking the section, it looked lovely but was still too weedy to roll effectively so I didn’t get the rod out, I’ll go back later in the season.
River Nene
I drove an hour back down to the River Ivel, another river I’ve not fished for years due to an Otter wiping out the big fish. I’d walked the section a couple of weeks ago and it looked lovely and I knew I’d be able to try rolling there.
River Ivel
I spent the afternoon into dark fishing each swim and had a Perch and a Chub, not sure b there are many barbel left but worth another try when all the weed has gone in winter.
27 September 2026 – River Trent, Gunthorpe
I wasn’t going to go out but Julie was still beavering away, so I drove up in the afternoon for four hours rolling meat. It was two hours each way and a lot of hassle, but if you don’t try, you’ll never catch the fish you want. It didn’t pay off with five singles to high 9lb but still very enjoyable to finish another great month outdoors.
Until next, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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