The Sessions - March 2026
Another river season closes
February was another month with not much to report other than a Feb Crucian to start my spring fishing early, the highlight of the month was paying a deposit on my new VW Transporter. I’ve always wanted one and it will be the first stage of my retirement plan, once I’ve done all the upgrades it will be perfect for fishing and all the walking and camping plans Julie and I want to make 😊
New Van 😊
I’d paid the deposit and agreed a trade in of my Mercedes and VW Caddy as part of the price, and the time had come to collect the Transporter. I had the first week of March off work so wanted the van to try it out so arranged to collect it on Friday 27 Feb, the biggest issue was it was in Reading.
I had arranged some help, but circumstances dictated I had to do it myself, so I had already planned for that eventuality. My plan was to drive the Mercedes down first thing, get the train back, which involved two changes and a two-mile walk, and then drive the Caddy down and I’d be home by teatime….simple!
Life doesn’t always work out as planned, it was going so well, I was back for the Caddy by lunchtime and started driving down the M1, I got one junction above the M25 when one of the fuel injectors went and the van went into limp mode. What a nightmare I couldn’t believe it, long storey short, I got recovered by Green Flag and taken to Reading and just made it in time to complete the deal and had to pay an extra £500 due to the fuel injector, but positively, I got my new van and was home for late evening with lots of adventures ahead 😊
2 March 2026 – Johnsons Lake, Marsh Farm.
Originally, I had planned to spend the last two weeks of the season on the river as its prime time for a big Barbel but the weather had other ideas, and the Trent had flown up to over 3m over the weekend and the Trent was a washout, so I had a rethink. The rivers had come up so quickly places like Linear were completely flooded and closed too so I drove down to Johnsons.
I arrived late afternoon, it was warm at 16 degrees with a light wind and crucially it wasn’t busy, so I got the swim I wanted. The rods were already clipped up and the hooks sharp, so they were flicked out followed by eight spombs of caster / hemp and I was fishing by 16:30.
The first evening passed with only a Rudd and a Roach and nothing rolling, which is unusual for the lake as we move into warmer weather.
3 March 2026
It was clear and chilly and I had another three Rudd through the night and was up early spombing a little bait at first light. I’d had no Tench or Carp so was confident the hemp was still there so my bait ups were now just casters. I think hemp is a great attractor, but I don’t like to overload the swim with it, I want the casters to be the main food source especially if the fish are just grazing on a little bait and moving on.
It was warm and sunny with cloudy spells and great conditions, but I wasn’t seeing anything, the Carp lads were catching the odd fish so the lake was definitely starting to come alive, so I still felt confident of catching.
Everything comes alive in spring and it’s a great time to be out, I spent ages trying to spot a Woodpecker, I could hear it clearly but couldn’t see it, so a quick phone call to Colin who is an expert on birds and I was looking too low, the Great Spotted Woodpecker can be seen higher up on narrow branches and not the trunk as I expected. Sure enough I saw a bird leave a tree higher up and tracked it to the next one and there it was 😊
The lake was full of all the usual residents and the males were competing for the females which is all great to watch apart from Swans, they are relentless and brutal!! Two male Swans started fighting over my baited area and this went on for ages, and they slowly came in towards the bank. The dominant Swan was trying to drown the other by sitting on his back and pushing its head down under the water. This went on for a least an hour and they came right into the margin thrashing around, the weaker one climbed into the marginal undergrowth and the dominant one was hammering him relentlessly. While nature should take its course it wasn’t nice to watch, I tried driving him away with a landing net pole and buckets of water but he was ignoring me. One of the Carpers I know, Leigh, walked round with the same thought as me, so we agreed to split them up, it was like the old days, I was a doorman all over again 😂. Leigh grabbed the dominant one and put it back in the lake, which gave me enough room to grab the victim, tuck him under my arm and pick it up. Swans are not silly, if you grab them by the neck they don’t struggle and allow you to pick them up. We took it over to Richardsons Lake and gave it another chance in life. He sat there on the grass exhausted looking at us for a few minutes before waddling into the lake.
With all that activity over my spot I wasn’t expecting much and had three Rudd before midnight, and two 4 pound plus Tench in the early hours, packing up at midday on the 4th.
5-8 March 2026 – River Trent, Cromwell.
As usual I’d been tracking the weather and river levels and noted the Trent had dropped from 3m to 1.60m so I got the gear together for a three night Zander / Barbel trip, I knew which swim I wanted with the current river level and it would give me the opportunity to try sleeping in the van. I arrived at lunchtime and all went to plan, the section was empty and the river level perfect for the swim, so I swung out two Zed rods on dead Roach and a Lamprey section and got the rest of the gear ready.
I set the bedchair up in the van and gave everything its place and it looked great.
The conditions couldn’t have been better, and the swim I was fishing has always been an excellent flood peg for both target species. I was Zedding in daylight and swapping to the Barbel rods at night a by the morning of the 7th all I’d had was a 7 pound Barbel. I had noted similar in the peg last season and the section itself had definitely declined whilst the river is in flood. I’d been thinking it over for a while and fully believe sewage is starting to have a serious effect on the Trent and noted this through the summer. There is a sewage outlet just above Malkin Lane and anglers have complained about raw sewage going into the river in flood conditions.
The swim I was fishing back eddies up in flood giving a big deep slack area in front of the swim, perfect for flood fishing. The only issue on a rising river is floating branches and debris gather there so I have to clear the swim before fishing and during the session and that is what got me thinking. If big items on the surface gather there, what is to stop heavier sediment (sewage) in the water columns doing the same and settling on the bottom in the slack water. Once the level drops and the slack disappears the water runs of as it should and you start catching again…
To fully test my theory I packed up, drove round and barrowed my gear to the swim on the opposite bank. The water was high but flowing through as normal so no sediment would gather, it was fishable and I could hold with 8oz leads. I flicked the rods out at lunchtime and by 20:30 I’d had five Barbel with four being doubles to 12-09!!
12-09
11-11
11-06
It slowed down through the night with two more tripping up to 12-08 but proved my theory correct and will certainly change my flood water fishing swim choices next season.
12-08
I discussed my thoughts with the bailiff on the last morning of my session and he showed me video footage that was very clearly sewage along the margins filmed only days before my trip. Sewage has become a real problem and will have a lasting impact on our river systems if it is not managed appropriately, now seeing it firsthand I agree with Fergal and others who are campaigning against the problem, we should all do more to force our idiot of a PM into action. I don’t have all the answers but would certainly support those that do.
11 March 2026 – River Trent, Cromwell
I had planned to finish the season on KW but with the bad weather coming in I didn’t fancy sitting under a brolly and having to pack up at midnight in the wind and rain so I drove up to the Trent.
I went to look at two sections on the middle Trent and found it was still too high for both areas so I went back to Cromwell. The level was back down to 1.18m making all the swims fishable, so I set up in my favourite swim and it looked perfect, with the level to the top of the swim.
I made a rookie error and set the bivvy and everything up before checking the swim properly, I know the swim well so thought nothing of it, but the dredging boat had been working in and below the lock and it had changed the flow rate considerably. I knew with the current level I could normally fish the swim but 8oz leads but they wouldn’t hold in my normal spots so I had to fish much closer in, I still felt it would be ok but by morning I knew I’d have to move with only a hook pull to show for the effort.
12 March 2026
I walked the section looking at all the swims and instinctively knew I had to fish the swim with the slack, the river level was down and the flow rate normal for winter with no back eddy and slack so I felt any sediment would have run off, so I set the van up just before the bad weather came over with 40 mph wind and rain.
I fished all day with maggot feeders with only a Bream coming to the net and changed over to BBB and pva bags on dark. The wind was brutal with heavy rain pounding the van but I felt very confident as it was great fishing conditions. I had two bites between 19:00 and 20:00 with two good fish at 14-00 and 14-02 to make all the move worthwhile, the weather was so bad I was getting soaked each time so by 21:30 I’d reeled in and went to sleep.
14-00
14-02
13 March 2026
By 01:30 the rain had eased so I recast the rods and had three takes in the next few hours, all being singles. The weather had been brutal, and the rain really heavy as a result the river was flying up making it unfishable, so I packed up in the morning finishing the river season a day early and had my usual breakfast stop on the way home.
My river fishing suffered a bit this season with way to many hours spent working which impacted on my time on the bank, I only did 28 nights and 11 day sessions for Barbel, the least I’ve done in years, but luckily I did manage some good fish with x4 14’s, x2 15’s , x1 16, x2 17’s and a monster 19-08, so I’ll take that and look forward to next season 😊
I do get a lot of enquiries about guiding, so I do have a few dates available: 8 July (1 person), 9 Aug (2 people), 13 Aug (2 people), 14 Aug (2 people), 17 Oct (1 person), 18 Oct (2 people), if you’re interested please email me for details.
21 March 2026 – Walthamstow
With the river season over it all starts again with the spring still water fishing and I really look forward to it every year. Bream and Crucians will be the targets for March and April, so I was off down the A1 / M25 / A10 to Walthamstow.
I got there early and it was already busy with all the regulars at the gate waiting for the gate to open and the draw. It was good to catch up with people again and then it was time for the draw, as usual I’m never lucky in raffles and draws and came out last but still got the swim I wanted so no harm done.
Learning from last season I didn’t plan on putting too much bait out for the first few sessions and would see how things went, so I baited with a pint of casters, half pint of dead reds and a few 10mm boilies twice at 13:00 and on dark. I changed my rig slightly using the Korda method feeder and moulding a ball of groundbait round it, this enable me to get a bigger ball of feed in one area and not have to recast as often, hookbaits were 10mm boilies on two rods and fake casters on the third.
The night was pretty cold and clear, but I had two bites on boilies resulting in Bream at 12-01and 12-05 to round of March and a good start to spring.
12-05
12-01
Until next, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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