Ron with a 12lb 7oz winter barbel

Words and picture from Ron Key:

I’ve  just checked out the 14 day forecast on Myweather2.com and its looking very promising. After this weekend, atmospheric pressure will start to drop and air temperature will slowly start to climb for a few days at least.  From past experience this is an ideal time to grab a bag of boilies and head for the river. So if you as suffering serious withdrawal symptoms from an ice induced lack of carp fishing; head down to your local river for a spot of barbel fishing or have a go at the ever obliging chub.

My preference is for open ended feeders crammed with Quest Baits Maximum Action Pellets, Micro Feed, and crumbed boilie.   The Quest Glugs are an ideal additive to increase the pungency of the swimfeeder contents and create a flavour trail in the current.

This is all held in place with plugs of fish meal or marine halibut groundbait.  Fished this in conjunction with an apple cored boilie on the hair wrapped in paste and you ready to go.

My favourites Quest flavours for chub and barbel are Rahja Spice, Special Crab and Chilli Chocolate, there are Maximum Action Pellets to match them all and I really like the Spicy Micro Feed too.

So what are you waiting for get down to the river, it’s got to be better than the telly

Cheers Ron

Friday 4th November – Old Estate Lake

Back to the Estate lake for another quick after work session. Got to the lake at about 2.30pm and actually saw a bit of fish activity (these fish very rarely show themselves at all).

Started fishing at about 3pm and again used the Rahja Spice shelf life’s in conjunction with small pva stocking mesh bags of the mini mixed pellet.

Had just about got the rods in when the heavens opened and it didn’t stop chucking down until packing up time at 11.30pm. I never had so much as a bleep although there was continued carp activity throughout the evening. I came away unsure as whether the weather was to blame (in all the years I have been fishing I have never really caught many carp during prolonged periods of torrential rain), or whether I should have put a bed of bait out to try and get the carp to feed.

Got home to an air temperature of 14 degrees C, crazy for this time of year.

Saturday 5^th November – River Dove

Made my first trip of the season to an area that I don’t really fish a lot. I checked the Environment Agency levels and the Upper Trent was showing 1.26m and rising (probably unfishable with the weed coming down), whereas the Dove was showing 0.72m and rising, so the Dove it was.

I wanted to try some swims that I had not fished before. The river looked like it was carrying about 2 feet of extra water and it was obvious that there was a lot of debris coming down but with a water temperature of 11.2 degrees C the barbel should be on the feed.

I started fishing at about 3.15pm. The first swim I chose had a nice smooth surface to it (signifying a nice gravel bottom) and a decent flow but it became obvious after about 30 minutes that I couldn’t fish it properly due to the amount of debris being washed down the river. I was using 5 ½ oz just to hold bottom a rod length out and this was only holding for about 15 minutes.

I went for a walk downstream and found what looked like the perfect swim for these type of conditions. All the flow was past the middle and to the far side of the river, creating almost a backwater on my side. This would enable me to fish out in the flow without the problem of debris collecting up the line as none should be collecting in the backwater.

With the extra colour in the water I added a matching paste wrap to my Rahja Spice hook baits hoping to give a little extra pulling power. I also baited the edge of the backwater with about 30 boilies of varying sizes.

I had a quick wrap on the rod top after about 10 minutes so I knew there were fish in the swim. After about 30 minutes the rod was away producing a barbel of about 4lbs which convinced me to stay where I was. I then missed an ‘un-missable’ bite about 30 minutes later so I shortened the hair on this rig. Within 15 minutes of recasting the same rod was away again and after a good fight and a few attempts at netting (a really awkward swim to fish) a nice barbel of 11lb 1oz was in the

11lb 1oz

net. I took a couple of quick photo’s and then returned the fish in a different swim (where I could reach the water level better and so look after the fish properly before it was ready to go back).

This swim was proving like chalk and cheese compared to the first one, I could leave the baits in for literally as long has I liked. Nothing else happened for a couple of hours and then the same rod produced a barbel of 9lb 15oz.

The sky cleared at about 9pm and by 10pm there were signs of frost on the quiver etc that were on the floor. I packed up at 10.30pm with no further bites but happy none the less.

It’s always nice catching fish from ‘new’ area’s, especially in quite difficult conditions. It also underlined the importance, once again, of being able to read the river to give you the best chance of fishing properly when the going is tough. Add to that being able to watch a terrific firework display for free and it was an enjoyable evening. continue reading…

Question for Pat please….

Pat I moved to Grantham Lincs last season. I would like to fish for
some Trent barbel (upper Trent) with the chance of a fish or two. I’m
around 40mins from Shardlow and I see the Derby Railway club has some
water there.

Richard

Pat Replied:

Hi Richard,

A young looking Upper Trent double

There are plenty of barbel in the area you mention. I haven’t personally fished the Derby Railway stretches but I do know there are good fish on there. Because I haven’t fished it I can’t really comment on the issue of car parking on their stretches. I also think you have to pay extra for fishing at night.

I would however have no hesitation in recommending the Burton Mutual Angling Association who have in the region of 8 to 10 miles of the Upper Trent in the area you are looking at. I have fished a few of their stretches and the parking is fine and always has been. Burton Mutual also have around 6 to 8 miles of the River Dove, again with mainly secure parking.

Because of the vast amount of water available you can be sure of some quiet unspoilt sport if you are prepared to do a bit of pioneering and not just follow the crowds.

A typical River Dove double

It is always worth a try in the winter as long as you get the conditions right. In fact I would say that the Upper Trent is probably easier to fish in the winter than earlier in the year, has you don’t have the problem of weed debris coming downstream all the while. Also be prepared to fish 5 or 6 hours into dark as the Upper Trent barbel can be very nocturnal (Burton have no extra cost for fishing the rivers at night).

The Upper Trent barbel fight exceptionally hard and because of this I would recommend using a rod of at least 1 3/4lb test curve coupled with a minimum of 10lb line.

All the usual methods will catch these fish, at the moment I am doing well with the Rahja Spice Shelf Life’s and the mini mixed pellet mix. I like to use 2 rods and to ‘ring the changes’ on one of them to see if I can find something that outscores everything else.

I would suggest checking the websites for the 2 clubs mentioned (Burton also have a Forum you can look at), to see which you think suits you best.

Hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

Cheers,

Pat Gillett

 

The only cover for 200 yards

Saturday Ist October – River Dove

I made a visit to a stretch of the river that I haven’t fished for about 3 years. I never actually caught a barbel from this area despite trying lots of swims, all I ever caught was chub.

On walking the stretch it proved to be a lot shallower (amplified by the exceptionally low water level) than I remembered. The only fish I saw were a barbel of about 9lb, half a dozen chub and half a dozen bream. These were all in the same swim, which my mate dropped into.

I chose a swim that although it was very shallow, had 10 yards of bushes on the far side. This was the only cover for about 200 yards up or downstream so I figured was bound to hold some fish. continue reading…

Pat Gillett continues his excellent Diary Blog…

Didn’t get out much at all during August with 3 or 4 short trips to the Trent and the Dove which produced a couple of smallish barbel and 2 lost fish (cut – offs) on a stretch of the Dove which I had not fished before.

Friday 2^nd September – Upper Trent

Made a visit to a stretch of the river that I hadn’t fished for about 12 years.The river here is very narrow and it was absolutely choked with weed, so much so that it was restricting the flow of the river. It was 4pm before I found anywhere that I thought was worth trying. Packed up at 8.15pm (strictly no night fishing) and only had 1 small bream to show for my efforts.

I had put a bit of bait in 2 spots and the river was that low and clear that I actually had mallards diving on my bait (first time this has happened to me on any river), they just wouldn’t leave it alone and made that much disturbance that any chance of catching was ruined.

Don’t think I will come back to this area until later in the year.

Saturday 3^rd September – Upper Trent

Another short afternoon / evening session (4.30 to 11pm) on a different stretch of the Upper Trent. Again the river had very little flow to it and the weed wasn’t really a problem. A really warm night that produced a 4lb 9oz chub and a bream of about 7lb, both to 16mm pellet hook baits fished over the mini pellet mix. I used the Rahja Spice on the other rod for the first time but it didn’t produce anything.

Friday 9^th September – Upper Trent

This was an after work session (4.30 to 11pm), I was undecided where to go, but after checking the river levels on the environment agency website I could see that the Dove hadn’t had any fresh water, but the Upper Trent was showing a rise of 0.1m. This made my mind up for me and so it was the Upper Trent with the hope that some fresh water would spur the barbel into feeding, as long as the weed coming down (with the rise in water), didn’t make the fishing impossible.

Looking at the river it was noticeable that there was a much better flow (with the little extra water) and so I was quietly confident that I would catch a barbel.

I did away with my normal approach and fished boilies on both rods (I really wanted to give the Rahja and Ghurkha Spice a go). The upstream rod was fished in conjunction with a feeder (carrying 5oz of lead to combat the weed coming downstream), which was loaded with the mini pellet mix and some broken boilies. The downstream rod was fished just 10 feet from the bank and consisted of a 3 ½ oz lead and a stringer of various sized boilies with 2 x 15mm baits on the hair. I also baited this area with about 50 Rahja and Ghurkha spice boilies of various sizes.

After about 20 minutes the downstream rod was away and i quickly netted what proved to be a river P.B. bream of 9lb 2oz. Like the barbel from the Upper Trent this was a young looking fish in absolutely pristine condition.

A small chub soon followed on the upstream rod and then all was quiet until about 9.45pm when the upstream rod was away again and after a good fight a cracking barbel of 11lb 4oz was in the net. Before I even had time to weigh this fish, the downstream rod was away. This proved to be a barbel of about 8lb that I struggled to get into the landing net, which already contained the 11lb 4oz fish. It’s amazing how many times this happens when you just get that little feeding spell.

I had packed everything away at 11pm and was just going to reel my upstream rod in, when the bait runner started to scream, resulting in a barbel of about 7lbs.

So quite a productive short session, good initial results on the Rahja and Ghurka Spice baits on what was a really balmy night with strong winds (it was still 18 deg C when I got home at just before 1am). The weed situation wasn’t too bad and I was able to leave the baits in for up to an hour before the feeder or lead, was dislodged by the build up of weed. I am sure the extra flow spurred the fish on to feed. continue reading…