A return to the Midlands was in order and so Kevin, Geoff and I made arrangements to camp in our usual place and fish the Trent. Both Geoff and I had already paid a visit to the Trent a while back but this would be Kev’s first visit of the season, so we hoped it would be a little easier than the last one.
The forecast was for some pretty heavy rain on the Wednesday but Tuesday sounded dry and the weather was at least warm. By the time we set up the tents and arrived at the river it was almost 7pm. I wandered upstream quite some distance and decided on a two pronged attack. I would fish one round around half way and the other, more powerful rod, would be cast as far across and into the main flow as possible. The closer rod was set-up with pretty much standard Trent tactics in mind: a large open end feeder packed with pellets and plugged with groundbait. I used 14lb mainline and a 10lb Sufix coated hooklink, which was about 3 feet long. The second rod was pretty much the same but because of the distance I was hoping to fish I dispensed with the feeder and used a shorter hook length.
Constant casting with the feeder rod every few minutes started to build up the swim, whilst the other rod would be left to its own devices. If one rod started to produce good results, then I planned to mirror that with the second rod. As it turned out the feeder rod at the half way mark produced the only action and eventually I brought in the distance rod and set that up with a feeder and fished the same area.
The fishing was fairly slow for me really. I ended the night with just 5 barbel but one was a decent one at 9lb 15oz. Geoff was finding it similarly slow going, whilst Kevin had not had a fish. However that soon changed after midnight. Suddenly Kev was getting a bite a chuck. So we fished through until 2.30am when we just couldn’t fish any longer. Kev ended up with 9 barbel to around 9lbs.
So not a bad start I suppose but not brilliant for the Trent. The river was much lower and clearer now and after the high levels that it had for most of the last 2 or 3 months, was fishing understandably slower. So the next morning we headed to the farm shop for breakfast (full English with chips…..yummy) and then we headed to the river again around late lunchtime. Kev headed for the same swim as the night before and I headed to the upper limits of the fishery. It was a bloody long walk but the area looked very good. Here the main flow was about halfway and the river a little narrower. Geoff ended up about halfway between me and Kevin.
Again I opted to fish two rods about halfway out into the main flow. Both rods were cast every 5 or 6 minutes throughout the afternoon to keep plenty of bait going in and hopefully pull those large shoals of barbel in. Two fish came to my rods during the afternoon, whilst the others struggled for a bite. Kevin opted to fish a lighter set-up and hopefully get amongst the roach. It worked and he caught numerous decent roach but lost one at the net that he thought might just go 2. I also managed a nice roach which looked around the 1lb mark.
Throughout the afternoon and early evening we were subjected to some very heavy rains and a thunderstorm. Luckily I had managed to set the brolly up just prior to the heavens opening. Eventually the banks started to get a little treacherous and on one occasion I did a sort of Harold Lloyd impression and went arse over tit. No harm done, just a bruised backside for my troubles. Eventually the rain eased off and the remainder of the night was dry.
During the two days we were there, numerous narrow boats and big cruisers plowed up and down the river. They are always respectful and remain about halfway out, thus avoiding angler’s lines. However one decided to come through less than a quarter of the way across and by the time I saw it, it was almost too late. Due to the trees to my right (upstream) I often couldn’t see the boats until they were almost on top of me. Generally of course you could hear them coming but because of the heavy rain, my hearing was diminished. So I managed to sink the line on the first rod in lightening quick time but as I grabbed the second rod, the narrow boat went straight through the line and started to take line. I didn’t fancy my chances at landing this one, so had to pull for a break. There was much arm waving and head shaking but I did manage to resist the temptation of hurling abuse at the man and his wife at the wheel. She watched as I jumped up and down and shaking my fists like Basil Fawlty and must have got the message, because by the time they reached Geoff they had steered the boat across to the other side.
As the light faded so things began to hot up. I started to get steady action throughout the night and despite loosing a couple of fish and missing a couple of wraparounds I ended up with a dozen barbel. They were mostly small to medium sized barbel but a couple may have gone 7-8lbs. Geoff also found a few fish taking 7 but unfortunately Kevin couldn’t replicate the action from the previous night and only managed one fish. Sadly I think he lost a couple too. By the end of the night I was getting knocks and twitches as soon as I cast out. Unfortunately we were running out of time. We had decided to pack up earlier than the previous night, as we were heading home early the next morning.
So ended another Midlands sortie and no doubt there’ll be a few more before the end of the season. What I’d like to do is come up in the autumn and fish for those lovely roach…….
The River Angler 
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