18/06 Derwent

Had the stretch to myself, the only other guy there was leaving as I arrived, thought it was going to be busy on the 1st weekend of the season. Had a wander about with a lure rod but just a few follows from small perch before settling down for a couple of hours with the barbel gear. A chub, a roach and a bream on corn, nothing on pellet.

16/06 Trent

Ended up just fishing a few hours in the afternoon, nothing too serious just nice to be back on the river. A mixture of dace, roach, bleak and perch on the maggot feeder whilst the meat rod just caught me a few pieces of weed. Was quiet all round on the stretch, glad I took the maggots.

Closed Season Update

Probably done about as much fishing in the whole of the closed season as I do in a week sometimes during the river season. Played lots of golf though...

3 trips to one fishery which has produced some very good perch. Not to me though, just small perch, carp, bream and roach.

One tench fishing session, caught one tench.

One visit to the commercial I perch fished last closed season...quite productive for perch, caught a few but again, no big ones. Apparently the place did a 5lber this year as well!

As usual the tench had a liking for my prawns, the last of which fancied its chances against my match rod and took me all round the swim, tangled up with my livebait rod in the process and leaving me with the choice of tackling up both rods again or going home. I went home.

Apparently the fishing season starts on 16th june this year.

14/03 Trent

A windy end to the season, a cold one blowing straight at me...but had planned to fish this swim on the last day so stuck to my plans. Blanked. Should have fished somewhere else. Time to put the fishing rods away and get the golf clubs out...

13/04 Derwent

Made the even longer walk today and fished a few 'experimental' swims, unsuccessfully before heading back to a couple of swims I'm more used to. Caught 3 perch but none would have been over a pound.


Put the customary barbel rod out when it got a bit later and after about 10mins (17:35) was into a decent fish. Looked quite big in the water and in the landing net...estimated about 11lbs. Left it to recover and got camera and scales ready. By the time I got back to the fish and lifted it out the water it had shrunk to 8lb 11oz...

A couple of chub just after dark, 4lb 14oz and 5lb 1oz, the bigger one loked like it had seen better days.

12/03 Derwent & Trent

Thought I would have an early one on the Derwent to start with. Nothing too taxing, fished from 7 'til 9 for 2 graylings and an acrobatic trout.

Back out on the Trent later on for what is probably my last trip to the carp swim this season. Just bream this time, landed 3 and lost one at the net. All a decent size but the wrong species.

11/03 Derwent

Ended up in the wrong place due to people fishing all the swims I wanted to fish...kept finding snags close in on the worm rod but did snare a bullhead on maggot feeder. Forgot my special boilies and made the long walk to the car and back to to fetch them. Gave it an hour or so into dark in the same swim and did catch a 4lb chub before moving to one of the newly vacated fancied swims.

1 barbel, long skinny one about 7lb at 19:45 and lost one at 20:30 which was probably some sort of record breaking fish.

06/03 Derwent

Struggling to catch perch this winter...one small trout, a grayling and a 3lb chub today. At least I always seem to catch fish here, even if theyre not that big or even the species I'm after.

05/03 Derwent

The 2010/11 Barbel Cup, for the 2nd year running no barbel caught. It went to a worthy winner though, Ants 7lb 2oz chub more than deserved to win. Out of 17 of us only 3 caught (and all chub) so not a great day for catching fish. Except for Ant obviously.

03/03 Derwent

With the nights drawing out managed to get to the river in time for the last hour or so of daylight. No perch again...Nothing else either, did see a couple of decent fish rolling though.

25/02 Trent

A shortened version of my start to the evening...parked car, locked key in boot, paid £25 for a taxi to bring me my spare key.

After a late start the fishing started slowly. Moved swim twice, caught 1 bream in swim 1, nothing in swim 2. Swim 3 was where I fished the day before so at least had chance of a bream. Fortunately no more bream came along but 2 barbel did - 7lbish at 20:45 and 11lb 5oz @ 21:05.

Not sure why some of these photos are going sideways, I know I'm not very good with the camera but I think I'm holding it the right way up?

24/02 Trent

Not the carp swim but not a million miles away either. Water temp just under 9, river up a bit more with a nice colour to it, thought it would be ideal barbel conditions. Ended up with 1 small bream and 2 bream, 3 bream in total. Missed a few bites and lost something that felt OK but not sure if it was a barbel...and the fact I'm not sure probably means it wasnt. Maybe a bream.

23/02 Trent

After a whole week without fishing, the weather has warmed up a bit so I headed back to the carp swim. River a little up on previous visits here but nothing silly and reliably informed that the water temp was 44 degrees.

Quite a slow frustrating evening though, 2 bream tappy things that didnt hook up, one bream that hooked up and came off (not a great loss) and a barbel that came off at the net. Didn't see it properly but don't think it was particularly big but would have prefered to have landed it to find out.

16/02 Trent

Similar conditions to mid-week last week did not fill me with confidence, the main one being the big drop in water temperature. Just gave it a couple of hours, fished from 5 - 7 for the same result, zilch.

13/02 Trent

Same swim as Friday, carp rods again. Even got there early, about 2.45pm, and started catching virtually from the off. 12lb 6oz carp (common), 4lb 15oz chub, 16lb 2oz carp (leather), bream, bream, 7lb 7oz bream, 7lb 10oz bream, 5lbish barbel (19.05), bream (about 7lb). Probably close to 70lb of fish in 4 1/2 hours fishing.

Last couple of times I've fished this swim I've been one off completing the barbel, bream, carp, chub quartet, actually managed it today. Using carp rods really does help bringing those hard fighting bream in. And the carp. Went a bit photo crazy but plenty of subjects to photograph.

11/02 Trent

Same swim as last Friday as I caught a few fish there. And as theres always a chance of a carp there, I used my carp rods which always feels strange on the river.

A good choice of venue as I caught a bream, a carp, a bream, a barbel (19:10) and a bream. Or as some people say 3 bream, a carp and a barbel.

Thought it might be similar to last week after the carp and a bream came early on but this week the fish came steadily through the evening.

Only a small carp of about 8lbs, not as deep bodied as last weeks but still quite chunky across the shoulders. Barbel about 6lb and the bream ranged between 4 and 7lbs.

08/02 Trent

With the England match Wednesday thought I would have my midweek fish Tuesday. However...not confident at all, clear skies, high pressure, the fish were probably full from feasting in the flood a few days earlier, temperatures dropping and there was a frost the night before. And any other excuses I can think of.

Would have loved to have proved myself wrong but another blank. Conditions are looking a bit more favourable towards the end of the week.

06/02 Trent

Not sure where all this extra waters come from, couldn't even get to where I wanted to fish as the route to it was underwater. Still rising and debris coming through at all levels...should have been ideal. Think I lost a fish that turned out to be a branch, sure it started as a fish anyway.

04/02 Trent

Bit of a strange one, started fishing at 16:45 and by 18:15 had caught a 12lb 13oz carp, 2 bream (well one dropped off at the net but it did touch the net so I'm counting it) and a 3lb chub (just to be consistent).

That was it for the night even though I stayed on until 21:45, no sign of my intended quarry - barbel. Should have started earlier...

New camera seems OK apart from the sideways chub.

02/02 Derwent

Thought that the milder weather might encourage the barbel to feed. Probably too soon, the river was still only 6 degrees (up 0.5 degrees since Sunday) and running very low and clear. Quite active early on with plenty of knocks and taps on the rod tip and caught 2 small chub of about 3lbs each before it all went very quiet...