Well these photos had to go up on here. I headed up to Long Eaton for a couple of days fishing the Trent. We (Andrew and I) had high expectations as the climate has been very stable but the water levels and the current moon cycle sat in our mind as potential excuses for blanking. ☺
Thursday afternoon I arrived at Andrew’s and we headed straight off to the Trent to a area nearby Long Eaton which had shown promise last season and indeed for Andrew he had caught some very good chub and barbel earlier this season, he had also seen some real belters rolling earlier in the summer. We trotted this stretch hard for 3 to 4 hours with not so much as a nibble on maggots or sweetcorn, so as dusk headed in we switched to ledgering but again very little activity from the fish or even fish showing anywhere on the stretch. So quite disappointed at Thursdays efforts.
This morning was a glorious start again with a beautiful early autumn day, a misty cool morning with the sun breaking through to warm us all. Andrew had warned me that where we planned to go on the Friday was a real big fish spot and big rod territory. But after Thursdays lack of interest from any fish I think we both had in the back of our minds that we were starring down the barrel of a a two day blank. Grim times!
Worryingly the field we parked up in had a heard of young cattle in it and taking some interest in the car and us when we parked up. The field we were going to fish also had a heard of heifers in it but no sign of a bull so we headed down to the swim, quite a walk from the car. But well worth a walk to a lovely and rarely fished secretive piece of the river Trent which oozed with potential, the type of swim which is only usually seen in Mr Crabtree imaginative world. A wide part of the river where the inside bank held a number of over hanging willows, streamer weed, and where the current was strong but not too fierce to make it unfishable. But it was stout tackle area for sure.
After feeding a line down stream with trickles of maggots and sweetcorn I started with a No.8 hook with a huge amount of maggots on it with a ¾ oz lead. It was quite a cast with a pin to get it into the right area but just about managed it. One or two nibbles from tiddlers on the first cast was not repeated and after a good hour I switched to a stinky meat bait. But again…..nothing doing, Thursday looked like it would be repeated again. After 3 hours of more of holding the rod in anticipation I had needed a break so tea, homemade scotch eggs, and cherry n’ almond cake was required. Much needed break and fuel for another couple of hours but I had nearly given up as yet again nothing was showing for another half hour or more.
Around 1400hrs I think we had got to the stage of “just one last cast”, I had started to pick up a lot of weed on the line which was making things more difficult. Then finally an almighty bite/take pulled the rod and me round in a very powerful run down stream, just when my concentration was fading. The braid was being torn off the reel as the fish bore off downstream but I did manage to slow the first run and gain some control back, well control was just reducing the rate of line going out. The problem was the swim as the fish was very far down stream and the branches and snags made it very challenging, the rod needed to be held high and out as far as possible to try and avoid the near side snags. After some time I managed to “pump” the fish up stream. She was sticking close to the bank so the line was catching a few branches on the way up and at one point the line properly twanged off a branch after which she seem to decided to head to the main current thankfully. But this change yet again tested the rods ability to tackle a powerful fish in a strong flow. Plus my arm was aching now to a extent it was rather uncomfortable. In the end I started to win the day and she came closer towards us, to a stage where Andrew got ready with the net……but when she saw us that the resulted in another powerful run which the rod absorbed with letting her run for bit. On the second attempt at the net I managed to get her head up and guided it to the 30” mouth of the net! Phew! A two day blank averted and a new ‘PB’.
11lb 08oz, checked on two scales. My old Farlows spring balance and Andrew’s modern more accurate scales but both read 11 ½ Lb.
Some photos of the rod and fish:
