25/01 Derwent

Success on the barbel front at last - it had to happen sooner or later. In my second swim of the evening, I noticed the tip of my right hand rod bent over. The alarm hadnt made a noise, I picked the rod up and felt the resistance of a fish on the end. Obviously not very big but on a barbel drought so made sure and played it carefully into the net...all 3lb of it.


Having returned one fish and sorting my rig out to re-cast, my other rod sprung to life and I was into a much more solid fish. Safely netted and weighing 13lb 0oz it was worth the wait. The fish came at 19:00 and 19:05.

23/01 Trent

Another quick one after work, somewhere I've not fished for a few years but a friend reported losing a couple of decent fish here recently so worth a try. Tried in 3 swims for the familiar resulting blank.

19/01 Derwent

Snatched an unproductive couple of hours after work on the (tough) local stretch. No fish, biteless again. Was able to hold out for 40 mins and an hour or so with my first couple of casts then a heavy squally shower/ micro storm passed over and changed things almost instantly. The swim became almost unfishable with debris attaching itself to the line moments after casting in. One possitive from the evening, noticed a new fishable swim for future blanking.

12/01 Derwent Trent

Sneaked the afternoon off work and back out to try and catch a fish. 1st stop off perch fishing on the Derwent. Constant bites from the off, only small fish though and the only proper one on the worm turned out to be a small jack. No takes on a small roach livebait.

Moved to the Trent later on and fished a deadbait and boilie (on separate rods obviously) and caught a chub. Not the prettiest I've ever seen - looks like its swam into a brick wall, but after my run of blanks it was more than welcome.

11/01 Derwent

Tried again on a stretch thats usually a bit easier just to try and catch something...

Arrived at 5.30 then at 6 something happened that I've not experienced for a while - fish on! Obviously a barbel, and the way it was fighting felt like a good fish. Plodding around, I was making slow but steady progress, although the fish was still taking line off a fairly tight clutch when it wanted. I had probably got it 2/3rds of the way in and I felt it turn and...that horrible feeling of realisation that it had come off.

Sat down gutted that I had lost my first fish for ages and it felt like a really good one, but then the ones that come off usually do.

10/01 Derwent

A change of river for the same result - another biteless blank. Time to fish some easier stretches...try somethng different at least.

01/01 Trent

Not been out fishing lately despite having a bit of time off work - Christmas and playing a lot of golf has been getting in the way. Same result as last time out, blank. No bites. Thought this area might be a good winter one, obviously not.