The Sessions - Dec 2025
Go BIG or go home!
November was a month of 60th birthday surprises and celebrations with a lovely trip to Sicily. My annual trip to Spain was sadly cancelled due to the big drop in water temp on the Rio Segre so I went back to work for a week of my planned leave. I did do little fishing in the UK which was mainly a struggle with a 15-10 Barbel at the end of the month to give me something notable.
I was nominated for the AT Specimen Angler of the Year, which was a surprise and very pleasing, that also got me thinking about the Drennan Cup and could I be in the conversation…….
02 December 2025 – Brasenose 1, Linear Fisheries
“You need a big Roach”, that was the message from the conversations I’d been having with my pal’s Simon and Stephen, so with that in mind I did a bit of research into the Roach on B1 and where I’d have the best chance of catching one of the special ones that live there.
A few of my friends had fished there and three of them had caught some huge Roach in the last two years, so with the mutual information sharing a small group of us do, it made my starting location a lot easier.
Having never been to Linear, and I have to admit never wanting to go, I decided on a 24-hour recce first, and stupidly as I had a week off work, I decided I’d go straight from there to KW so packed the van accordingly with all the gear for Roach and Barbel. The weather had been awful with strong southerly winds and heavy rain, so I wanted to arrive for opening as I was certain no one would be fishing the area I wanted to get in due to the wind coming straight into that area.
The drive there took longer due to road works and then more road works on the detours, but I arrived 30 mins after opening. The complex is huge and there wasn’t the carnage with vehicles I was expecting, I found my way round to B1 and could see the area I wanted was empty, which was perfect and a good start!
I drove round and parked up and walked the swims I wanted to target before making my decision and then unloaded the van and got the swim set up. I already knew the area to target but still went through my normal process of the Deeper and a bare lead so I knew for certain where and what I was fishing over. As I was doing this one of the bailiffs drove round, I paid my ticket and he gave me his thoughts on where I should be fishing, which to be honest was exactly where I been told and found with my leading work.
The only time I’ve targeted Roach was in Spain and we did it there with pellets and corn to good effect, but I knew maggots would be the way to go back here. So I set all three rods up the same, my fantastic Free Spirit 12ft Seeker Specialists, Daiwa 4000a’s, 6lb mainline, with heli-rigs at the business end, 45g bullet feeders, 5lb fluorocarbon hooklink to a size 12 hook. I have to say I’m not a fan of the heli-rig, I know a lot of anglers use it and it catches a lot of fish but the mechanics of it don’t sit right with me when it comes to hooking potential. I firmly believe an inline set up hooks more fish as the hooklink is in more direct contact with the weight of the feeder. Anyway, I allowed myself to be swayed (my mistake) by other people’s successful tactics and went with the heli-rig.
I put four spombs of hemp on the area at 10 wraps and had the rods clipped up at 9-12 wraps.
It was clear and sunny with heavy rain due later in the day with the wind blowing into the area, so it did look good for a chance, and I planned to recast the maggot feeders every hour.
There are very few big Roach in the lake, but Dai equalled the British Record in 2024, so I knew the potential and also knew it was a one bite session if I was lucky.
I kept up the hourly recasts but every time I wasn’t totally confident the rig was sitting right, I’d been trialling it in the margins and it looked ok, but I wasn’t confident and that’s never good. It had been very quiet but the evening was probably the best time and as I sat chatting to Potty on my phone I had a single bleep on the left-hand rod, I quickly went to check to see the rod top going up and down as if I’d missed a chance. I left it 20 mins before reeling in to check, and yes, I’d missed a chance, two maggots were gone and the third shelled, I’d had a pickup and not hooked it, was it the heli-rig??
03 December 2025
I’d kept up the hourly casting up to 22:00, and then twice through the night and it was freezing!! When I got up at 06:00, everything was solid with frost, even the reels were frozen solid, I don’t believe it would stop the Roach feeding but you don’t want a take with frozen reels and 6lb line.
The frost was not forecast and certainly wouldn’t enhance the chance of a big Barbel. I decided to stick to the plan and packed down mid-morning having to literally fold a stiff Tempest overwrap up into its bag and pack the rest of the gear into the van.
I was kicking myself for the missed chance as I knew how tough the lake could be and did think about staying another night, but I had committed on KW so started to defrost the windscreen and accidentally knocked on the wipers snapping the driver side wiper arm instantly!!!
To cut a long storey short I went to three places in Bicester to try to get it fixed, and they couldn’t do it and all suggested eBay so I had the two hour plus drive to KW, which included the M25, with no wipers!
03-05 December 2025 – Kings Weir, River Lea
The journey hadn’t been good but I got there in the end and had included another stop to get more maggots and some lunch. The van was full of wet gear with some still frozen, so it took time to unload and sort what I needed and get it to the swim and set up so it was nearly dark by the time I cast out two maggot feeders.
My set up was 4oz feeders, my usual combi-rig, only the braid section was replaced with a 3” section of 15lb Mirage to a size 8 Target Barbel hook with 10 real and one fake maggot directly on the hook. I put 10 spoppers each of hemp and maggot through the swim and finally sat back with a brew. On the second cast the right-hand rod flew round and sprang back, I reeled into check, the hook was sharp but maggots were missing so it was a pickup. I reloaded the feeder and recast and stood by the rod, it slammed round again and this time was hooked and I was hoping all my hard work and travelling had paid off and then quickly realised it hadn’t 😂, as a small Sea Trout popped up into the net.
Sea Trout
I kept up the regular casting right through the session and tried meat on the second night without another bite and eventually packed up at midday on the 5th. The highlight of this trip was making friends with two very shy Cats who sat with me all the second night.
Both venues fished hold the British Record for the species I was targeting, both are very tough and, on this occasion, gave me a good kicking, but did I enjoy it, yes hugely, and will I be back, definitely 😊
AT Specimen Angler of the Year
The result came out and the winner was Danial Bouskila, he had a fantastic year catching some huge fish which included a Grayling over 4 pound, well done mate, huge congratulations.
As for me, I came third and was very happy with that, and thanks to all who voted for me.
Dan, let’s do it all over again next year 😊
11-13 December 2025 – Brasenose 1, Linear Fisheries
The weather had been very mild at 13 degrees and night temps of 8-11 degrees with southerly winds, great winter conditions for most species and I was torn where to go but could still hear Simon, “you need a big Roach”, so got some maggots and headed to B1 for a 48hr trip.
The drive went well and I got there in really good time and found the whole area I wanted to target was free with all the Carpers on the back of the wind. I drove round and decided to look at the swims in the Northwest corner, there was a roach angler there and I went over for a chat. We were chatting away when his rod melted away and we quickly realised it was a Carp, I stayed to net it and take his photos for him and went back to my van and drove further round, I didn’t want an area with Carp present as they love maggots!
I went round to the swim I wanted and set up, I knew the wind was changing and would come straight onto the area so felt confident. The lake was very full after the rain and most swims were flooded so the rods were set up well back, but it was still an easy 8 wrap cast so no problem.
I put four spombs of hemp out and set all the rods to 8 wraps. I’d lost any confidence I had in heli-rigs so set up with 56g inline maggot feeders and 5lb Target fluorocarbon hooklinks to a size 12 hook with three maggots. The hooking potential just looks a lot better, so that will be my rig moving forward for this style of fishing.
I tried my best and kept up the hourly casting through wind and rain with the only bites being two Tufties and a Coote and they were all landed and released, very frustrating when fishing in 13 feet of water. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and it definitely isn’t.
One Roach angler had a few Bream over two-day sessions to 14+ while I was there, I did consider a move but quickly wrote it off, I was there for a big Roach and not Bream so would tough it out for one bite.
I met one of the bailiffs who was more interested in the Roach and we hit it off straight away, he made a great point that while the Carpers are spombing away at 30 wraps, most fish are out there eating all the free food and staying away from the margin areas. So a good time to go back will be after a closure due to frost or flooding when the fish haven’t seen any bait, and we agreed to keep in touch 😊
22 December 2025
I’m sat here writing this early at home on 22 Dec, when I’d normally be out fishing, unfortunately I picked up this nasty virus from work and have been laid up in bed all week which is very unlike me. It’s very rare I go sick from work, 12 days sick in 23 years, but I’ve got to be honest, this one took it out of me and made me pretty poorly. I’m on the road to recovery now though and hoping I can squeeze one more session in before the end of the month.
29 December 2025 – River Trent, Cromwell
I finally started to feel a bit better but still had a very chesty cough at day 18 but I wanted to get out for at least one night with the weather closing in and very cold weather forecast for January. The rivers had been right up and were dropping but it had been cold, and the water temp was low, but I felt I had a chance as nature knows when bad weather is due and will have a feed.
I considered going to B1 but found it was flooded and only a few swims open so that can wait, so I drove up to the tidal for a Zarbeling 24-hour trip. I’d checked with the bailiff if the swim I wanted was back open, he told me the chain was still across but I could go in there as it was now safe, so I didn’t rush and drove up knowing where I was going, so it was a little annoying to find another angler had gone in there stating “he’d checked with the bailiff”….
Anyway, not to worry, my favourite swim was the only one free, so I dropped in there. Another angler was leaving further down and popped up for a chat, he said only one fish had been caught in the last three nights along the section, so it wasn’t going to be easy but was still great to be out.
It was dark by the time I arrived and had started raining so I set up the shelter and got comfy before getting the rods out. I put a Barbel rod in the channel on a single hard hooker BBB soaked in food dip and put 20 baits through the swim.
Whilst I was setting up I noticed a lot of fry under torch light very close in, so checked the depth and it was four feet, plenty deep enough for a hunting predator, so I lowered a dead Roach under the branches to my left and was fishing by 18:00.
The first bite came four hours later on the Barbel rod and tore off downstream in the extra flow, as I was playing it back up it went solid, I went through my usual process for snagged fish and 20 mins later it popped out and I played it to the net, a nice fish at 12-05 that I thought was going to be much bigger. More annoyingly, there was now another big branch to the left of the swim to avoid when playing fish; hopefully the dredging boat will remove it this spring.
12-05
I had another bite on the Barbel rod at 04:40, this one really tried to head for Hull, and I put more pressure on it knowing there was a new snag there and the hook pulled, very annoying!
That was it, the Zander rod was quiet and very little was caught further down, and I packed up at lunchtime.
2025 has been a brilliant fishing year and I can’t wait to do it all over again in 2026, happy new year everyone and thanks for following my angling journey, I love sharing my experiences and helping others along the way.
Until next, tight lines and be lucky 😊
Big thanks to my sponsors for their continued support,