The Sessions - July 2025 — Julian Barnes Angling

Summer Barbel Guiding

With the river season now up and running I was looking forward to some summer Barbel fishing, I’d carried on Tench fishing well into June and did one trip to the Trent to see in the new season later in the month, so with a three guide trips planned in July I had plenty to of time to enjoy being out on the rivers again.

02 July 2025 – River Trent, Collingham

As a Collingham club member I can book the weir for my own fishing during the first week of the month, club rules state you can only have one booking per season so I made mine in July as in previous years I have done well in July. This worked out well as I’d been ask to guide an angler who had booked the weir the following week for his first visit, so I planned this trip to have a look at where the snags were and to see if anything had changed with the areas to fish too, as the floods definitely move the gravel around. I have experienced this further down river where a once deeper very productive area is now shallow and not worth fishing at all, and the flooding had moved the deeper channel further out into the river.

The weather had been very hot but dropped considerably before my trip and was 22 degrees with an easterly wind and heavy showers, the river as expected was low and clear.

I started by doing a bit of pruning of some of the trees and bushes and then had a feel around with a bare lead before starting fishing at 05:00.

The trip was all about prepping for the following week so I experimented with baiting quantities and the reaction of the fish, and hook baits, and I caught on three different boilies, pellet and particle baits, the bait that fished best on the day was Pandemic 15mm dumbells soaked in Pandemic food dip.

As can sometimes happen on the weir it was a slow day and I don’t think they were there in numbers but I caught steadily all day with fish to 11-06 to make it an enjoyable start to July.

10 July 2025 – River Trent, Collingham

Jim had booked the weir early 2024 and contacted me asking me to help him which I was very happy to do, we’d had quite a bit of contact and he’d got the right gear and picked up the rigs bits I suggested he got.

I arrived the night before and set up by the van in the night fishing area, had some food from the local chippy, which I can highly recommend if you’re in Collingham, and got my head down for some much needed sleep. My job is pretty stressful and long hours so being on the bank gives me time to recharge and I just love sleeping outside.

I got up early and set the swim up ready for Jim to arrive, he’d stayed at Beth’s B&B in the village and only 10 mins from the river and great value, if you’re looking for a local B&B please contact me and I’ll give you her contact details.

Jim arrived nice and early as planned and we spent time going over and setting up rigs, and showing him the swim and where to cast, and most importantly what to do when you get a take. That may sound straight forward but the weir in snaggy, and you need to get the rod tip up high and walk backwards to get the fish safely past the snags.

I gave the swim a good hit of bait, a mixture of three boilies and we were fishing by 06:30, and did two further bait ups through the day. It was forecast to be a warm day without much breeze so we made the most of the cooler morning before putting a day shelter up to keep out of the sun.

The fishing was again steady without being spectacular, but with the river being low it made the snags worse so I spent a lot of time freeing fish and rigs from the snags so didn’t fish much myself, as even reeling in to rebait sometimes resulted in the rig getting jammed, I was able to free 95% of them which was good as I hate leaving tackle in the river. It is worth noting I lose very few in snags, almost none, 99% of Barbel will come out, you just have to be patient and not have too much tension on the line while you wait and be ready when you feel them move.

Jim had 22 Barbel to 11-07 and Chub to 5-13, I fished some of the morning and the last hour and had a few fish to 11-05.

11 July 2025

I slept by the van with all the tackle and Jim had gone back to Beth’s B&B for the night, and he was back again for a 05:00 start, we got his rigs out and then I baited up. The fish responded well after a bait up the previous day so I took a chance of baiting heavily to hopefully really get them going, so I put 5kg of maize and 2kg of boilie in at the start of the day. We got the kettle on and waited hoping for the fishing to really get going.

Whether it was the heavy baiting or the warmer weather (it was boiling) the fishing never really got going, it was a very slow day, Jim did catch steadily through the day but not as I would have expected fishing on the weir, I did the last couple of hours and had the only double of the day at 11-08.

Overall it was a good trip, Jim thoroughly enjoyed himself catching his first ever Barbel (which was a double at 10-05) and set a new PB that is very beatable next time he comes up to the Trent.

12 July 2025 – River Trent, Collingham

I’d been booked for another guide trip, this time a 24 hour session, with Patrick, it was hot and the river not fishing well but he wanted to come and not reschedule so I drove round looking for swims after Jim had gone home.

I’d picked up a virus that had really kicked in on the second day with Jim and was not feeling well at all and it felt an effort to do anything physical. I drove along the flood bank and after an hour looking I settled on a swim that was generally reliable for a few fish, so threw the bivvy up and tried to sleep off the virus. I was up at 07:00 and arranged to meet Patrick at 10:00, with the weather due to be hot again I thought maggots would be the best bet so drove to AD for a gallon of white wrigglers.

That all went to plan and we got in the swim for 11:00, with the conditions being tough and me not feeling well I planned not to fish myself and try my best to get him some fish so we set up in one swim together.

I set up on maggot feeders and set a timer on my phone to rebait every 20 minutes, it was very hot and I normally would not have fished at all and I was feeling really unwell by this point so I’m not going to lie, it was tough going every time my timer went off. Patrick asked me a number of times if I wanted to stop and go home but we kept going and I would have expected the maggots to work at some point but by 22:00 we had not had a tap!! I was starting to get worried now as I did not want him to blank, so I changed over to boilies and placed the rigs 20m apart and baited with boilie in the middle. I did this purposefully as I had a feeling the crabs would be active after dark and the top rod on its own would hopefully get the bites.

Thankfully it all went to plan, the bottom rod was getting murdered by crabs, they were snipping the hair or just taking the boilie but the top rod was not getting touched and Patrick had four Barbel, nothing big but he was very happy and it made all the effort worthwhile seeing him react with a happy smile.

Patrick left first thing in the morning and I went home and straight to bed all afternoon and it took over two weeks to start feeling well again. I did a covid test that came up negative but I haven’t felt that unwell since having covid in 2020.

Thankfully I didn’t pass anything on to Julie, Jim or Patrick so who knows what it was…..

24 July 2025 – Middle Trent.

It wasn’t long after my last trip that most clubs closed their waters due to the heat and DO levels, it is worth noting that the EA came down to Collingham when I was fishing on 10 July and the DO was fine, but I’d expect that 300m down from the weir. It’s a controversial subject and worth wider discussion, I have my own views on both the heat and DO having fished in hot countries around the world but that is for another day and with people with the expertise in both subjects and not the keyboard warriors that surface each year having not wet a line since the last summer.

After a week of lower temps and lots of rain the clubs all opened up again and just in time as I was starting to feel better again. My plan was to go to my rolling meat swim for the day and move up onto another section looking for the big fish I’ve wanted for a couple of seasons.

It was warm and cloudy and the river was at a nice level to roll effectively, I started mid-afternoon and fished for two and half hours. The fish were not there in numbers, I was getting no line bites or bangs on the bait but did trip three up with two 8’s and a 12-02 to make it worth the effort.

I moved up onto the next section at 17:00 and re-checked with the Deeper and a bare lead to find it the same as last season, nice and deep close in so I only had to swing the rigs out. I baited both with 15mm BBB soaked in food dip and baited with approx. 70 BBB through the swim.

25 July 2025

I had a quiet night and a good sleep, I knew when I started on this area it wasn’t going to be easy and with this being my sixth session and only the one Barbel at 14-14 on my first session to show for it, I wasn’t wrong but I know I have a chance of the big girl there so will keep going.

I went back to the rolling meat swim for a couple of hours and had a big summer 5 plus Chub and two Barbel at 10-08 and 12-05 to finish a nice session on the magical Trent.

27-29 July 2025 - Middle Trent.

About a year ago the Gunthorpe team asked the members to donate towards a good cause for someone close to all who fish at Gunny, Jaime & Leigh Stirk (Leigh was a well-known bailiff on the section). Their son has brain cancer and Jaime was braving the shave to donate all money raised to cancer research. I was very happy to help and donated a 48 hour guide session on the island towards the raffle, this was won by Chris Cole and we arranged the session for July this year.

This soon came around and I met Chris on the island at midday on 27th. As with all my guiding I want people to have the best chance of catching so I like to ensure they have the right rods, reels, etc, give them a list of rig bits to buy and I supply all the bait.

We got the swim set up and I showed Chris how I locate the spots, which is crucial when weir fishing and how to ensure he hit the same spot each cast to avoid the snags. It sounds silly but by standing in exactly the same spot each time you cast it becomes muscle memory very quickly and you rarely miss the spot. I showed him how I set my rig up and made him two to get him started, the baits were then flicked out and I baited through the swim with BBB and Pandemic.

The fishing had been slow in this area but was starting to pick up over the previous week with some of the bigger fish showing up for the first time this season so I was confident we would catch a few.

We were lucky with the weather, it was warm at 23 degrees, cloudy and we only had rain on the last morning that stopped early enough for all the kit to dry out. We ate well both evenings with a Chinese curry Chris had cooked and a good take away from The Unicorn pub on the second night. It was a good session in good company and we caught plenty with Chris having 18 Barbel to 12-03 and I had 16 Barbel to 15-10, brilliant stuff to finish my July fishing.