Just pinched the following report from Archie Braddocks Diary for last month.
He's the guy who is coming to see us at the Trent Fish-in in September and is why I find the Trent so exciting, apart from having fished it regularly 20 years ago.
Quote
JUL 10 LOCAL TRENT. Again my preferred upper Trent swim was occupied, so again it was back downriver to the spot I fished on July 4. And what an amazing day it turned out to be. The forecasted rain didn't arrive, in fact it stayed warm and windy, but the river was up about 4" from previous rain. This generally switches off the silver fish but turns on the pike, and so it proved.
Using the 20' rod and heavy stickfloat I struggled for bites in my 10' deep swim and it was some while before I started getting fish to Perch Magic maggots. Steady loose feeding, plus hemp, brought a few roach and a run of good perch, probably 20 in all. Several of them were over a pound, best two at 1lb 7ozs and 1lb 9ozs. In the heavy flow they all fought really strongly; as did the solitary chub of 3lb 9ozs that turned up. Using a hooklink of only 1.7lbs meant I spent a lot of time with the 20' rod well bent, taking it easy on the light tackle. For whatever reason bites dried up well before I finished, at 5pm, and I spent the last hour fishless.
Not so with the second rod, my livebait paternoster rig. The first bait I put out was taken in minutes; a pike, which bit off the hook. As soon as I got rigged up again the next bait was taken -- it was the same pike of about 4lbs, with my other hook still in its jaw. I removed both hooks before releasing it.
With scarcely any silver fish I used a 2oz perch livebait, something I don't usually do as I've never had a big perch take one. Ten minutes later it was taken -- perch 2lb 3ozs!! It went quiet for a while, and then another perch livebait was taken. I knew instantly it was a good pike by the power of its first run, and I expected it to bite through the line. It didn't, and for the next 15 minutes I had a memorable battle with a pike I could see clearly was in excess of 20lbs. With my powerful 12' rod and 10lb line I knew I could land it, and after at least a dozen scorching runs I finally had it on its side, its vast bulk inching towards my big landing net. Then it rolled, plunged under my net, and buried itself in the reedmace at my feet. The line parted seconds later.
It took me an hour to get over losing possibly my biggest ever river pike, but then the paternoster rod went again. That pike bit through the hooklink in ten seconds. Shaking my head I reset the tackle yet again, and while I was busy playing a good perch on the 20' rod the livebait rig went again. Lifting into the fish with one hand it felt like another pike, so I dropped the rod back on its rests and flicked on the baitrunner.Landing my perch on the long rod, I then picked up the 12' to find the hooked fish had run into midriver. Bending into it seemed strange: instead of kiting round like a pike it responded with half a dozen heavy jags on the rod -- and then came off!! It felt distinctly like a big perch, but I hadn't had chance to properly pull the hook home. Also, I retrieved the perch livebait unmarked. If it was a perch, it was huge......
Setting up once more I had my final take of the session, and this time it was a pike, 10lbs exactly. Driving home and reflecting on the ups and downs of the day, I realized I had spent most of the time with a bent rod.
The Trent really is a magical river.
Fishing time:- 6hrs 30mins Moon: New.
Super stuffto me!
Cheers
Trev
Ziptrev
Shouldn't happen to a DOG!
