Fishing for silvers on big rivers

[Shadrack]

Hi all. I’ve been fishing the middle Trent last year for barbel after only fishing commercials previously. I love a bit of roach and skimmer fishing on a still water and want to try for the roach in the Trent (I’m told there’s been a bit of a resurgence of good roach in the river lately). Question is, how would you go about fishing the feeder on a big river like the Trent?

In my barbel fishing it’s 2oz feeders at the minimum a lot of the time. Fishing like that for silvers would take the fun out of it, but I don’t see a smaller feeder holding bottom at all. Obviously the float is an option which I will be trying, but I don’t want to be limited to one method if I can help it. Suggestions?

 

[Tinca Mad]

These should help you

 

[Shadrack]

These should help you

Cheers, I’ll give them a look

 

[Silverfisher]

Tbh just fish for them on the float whenever you can. Typical sized silvers arent half as fun with feeders attached to them as they are on the float especially once feeders get beyond about 30g let alone 60g. Not to mention trotting a float is a more fun method with much more involvement and feel and I think nicer visually as well. I’ll fish for them on the feeder when I have to but it’s always an plan b for the odd occasion floats won’t work very well. Tbf it is almost as nice to see the tip go as it is a float go but before the bite and once you’re hooked up it’s not anything like as fun for me.

When I do have resort to feeders for them I use as light a feeder as I can get away generally 20-40g locally. Then I try to use short hooklinks from 10 to 15 inch so to see bites earlier and get a bit of a bolt effect plus you are in more direct contact when hooked up. Using such a set up does add a bit more feel and involvement to it than it does with bigger a feeders and longer hooklengths. Obviously there are times when I have to use 50-60g feeders and 2-3ft hooklengths but that isn’t much fun at all tbh.

Lee Kerry and the ginger browning guy of whom I’ve forget his name have both done videos on feeder fishing the trent in the last couple years as well.

 

[PearTree]

As you will see from the videos recommended above feeder fishing for decent bags of silver fish like roach and dace on a big river is a pretty specialized game.

Float all day long for me, especially if targeting roach.

Stick or waggler depending on the swim and the conditions.

I had a lovely afternoon at Fiskerton the summer before last catching quality roach up in the water on waggler and bronze maggot.

 

[jononcb]

@Silverfisher You probably mean the Tom Noton / Nick Crooks Trent Videos?

 

[Silverfisher]

@Silverfisher You probably mean the Tom Noton / Nick Crooks Trent Videos?

Ah yes Tom Norton is the guy

 

[smiffy]

Unfortunately fishing for Roach and such like can be a bit unrefined on rivers like the Trent. At the end of the day you need a reasonable amount of lead to hold bottom. This means stepping up your gear to cope with that.
Ive seen many videos of people catching on the stick and pole though

 

[Zerkalo]

While I agree with all the above and feeder fishing for silvers is not normally my thing, I plan to fish a maggot feeder on the Severn for everything that swims quite a bit next year. My perception of the Trent is skewed because the one and only time I've fished it at Fiskerton the river was low and actually quite a placid pace. I reckon I could have fished a 40g feeder without worry there.

 

[Shadrack]

Thanks for all the responses. Seems like I probably ought to concentrate on float fishing to get enjoyment out of silvers on the Trent then. But it’s good to know the feeder is an option still if needed

 

[Tinca Mad]

@Shadrack
Have a look at Mark Wintle's Roach Reflections series in the Video Lounge as his deep River Stour Float Trotting Setup will probably be spot you for your needs. I'd use a 14ft Rod at least though.

 

[Silverfisher]

Can’t remember exactly what the channel is called something like notts fishing but easily found by YouTube searching river trent roach fishing but the guy does a lot of trotting and a few feeder fishing videos on a number of the well known middle trent stretches. Definitely worth a watch to just get a rough idea of the places. He uses right old crude gear as well (makes me itch a bit at times!) but still catches pretty well so you can see how the more refined anglers catch absolutely loads out of it.

Determined to make my trent bow this year probably on the day ticket road stretch sometime between July and October. Just waiting to see how the travel situation pans out this year before I know if I can commit some leave to it. Looks like the one river that can rival the Thames for consistently producing good bags of roach.

 

[Shadrack]

@Tinca Mad
I’ll take a look at that, thanks. Got myself a 12-14ft Korum Glide so that’s what I’ll be using

 

[Silverfisher]

Got myself a 12-14ft Korum Glide so that’s what I’ll be using

Think you might find that a little overgunned for silvers. Probably the most powerful traditional actioned float rod I’ve ever handled.

 

[Shadrack]

Think you might find that a little overgunned for silvers. Probably the most powerful traditional actioned float rod I’ve ever handled.

To be fair I did originally buy it for float fishing for barbel. If I find it too heavy then I’ll have to have a look at getting something lighter, but for now I’ll have a few sessions before spending on another rod.
The missus wouldn’t be too impressed if I went spending on more tackle after buying a load of barbel kit last year whilst we’re supposed to be saving to buy a house.

 

[Zerkalo]

I have a light Shakespeare Avon feeder rod with spliced in tip, not sure of the rating but I'd guess around 1.5 to 2oz. One thing I noticed is that in a decent flow and with a 50g feeder you could still feel a 4oz Dace/Roach etc on the end of the line. I also landed a couple of decent Barbel on it. I love that rod for that reason. One of the Barbel anglers I chat to looked at the tip of the rod with amazement at how light I was fishing and asked "what rod is that?!". End of the day if you're fishing for silvers you want to feel the fish on the end so I'll probably use that rod a lot this year.