12/09/2013 - River Trent

A conversation with my friend Tim whetted my appetite for an early return to the Trent. I still had some Brownie points left from finishing the decorating at the weekend, so set off down to Swarkestone after work again. Headed for where I started last time, but with just one small roach and a perch to show for an hour's work with the float rod I was left scratching my head. Thought a move was probably best rather than keep feeding an obviously empty swim, so headed right down to the end of the section where I could at least see some fish showing on the surface. Proved to be the right decison in one respect as I ended up having a cracking session on the "stick". It was virtually every throw a coconut as I dropped on a shoal of chublets, with some decent roach and a few dace, bleak and small perch thrown in as well. As usual, I got carried away with the simple pleasure of watching a float sail down the river and disappear. Kept telling myself, "just one more cast, one more cast"! It was only a tangle that finally made me put down the float rod and set up the paternoster with just over an hour of light left. Gave the float swim a rest and dropped in the next spot upstream. Bait had been in for nearly 30 minutes and I was about to move it when the rod tip started nodding away, resulting in a greedy perch of just 3/4lb. Moved back into the float swim but had no interest whatsoever until it was fully dark when I had a smash take from a pike that mangled the hooklink and effectively ended the session.

 

Tackle mangler

Not the start to my autumn predator campaign that I'd anticipated. Feel the need for some zander therapy.......