Brace of Trent sixes banked prior to floods - David Fry
“Having a free afternoon I headed to my local stretch of the Trent in search of a bite. Out went my 80g cage feeder loaded with mashed bread and it didn’t take long before something took an interest in my garlic cheesepaste hookbait.
“Eventually the tip swung round and I connected with a lovely 5lb 7oz fish. My next bite was instant and resulted in a chub of 6lb 1oz. Knowing I’d located a decent shoal of chub, I just had to get back to the swim the following afternoon and I didn’t have to wait long for the tip to smack round again!
“This fish was a completely different class to the others and I netted a new PB of 6lb 10oz. The next cast produced a 5lb 15oz fish and half an hour later I had chub of 3lb and 6lb 6oz were landed. I was mega happy with my brace of Trent sixes in one afternoon!”
David Fry and his 6lb 10oz Trent chub
Long wait pays off for enormous Trent barbel
PERSEVERANCE paid off for Colin Garlick when he struck into this dream 18lb barbel after 30 biteless hours on the tidal Trent.
The 52-year-old joiner said the river was flowing so high and fast that he was forced to recast every 20 minutes due to a build-up of debris on the line, but that was all forgotten at 5.15pm on the second day of his session when his rod arched over.
“When I got it on the surface, I was in no doubt that it would smash my previous 14lb 9oz best,” said Colin.
Colin’s new PB fell to a running rig and a double 12mm Sticky Krill boilie hookbait.
(This catch was reported to our news team prior to the third England lockdown)
Colin Garlick and his 18lb River Trent barbel
Floodwater barbel goes like a steam train! - Mark Brayne
“Although the River Trent was well flooded and coloured, conditions were ideal, with mild weather and low air pressure forecast, so I headed out for a short session.
“At 5pm I baited a slack area with around 10 boilies, and two rigs were quickly deposited to the spot. I’d only been fishing for 20 minutes when one of my rods quickly sprang back and I struck into my first-ever December barbel.
“At first it came in really easily and for a moment I thought I’d hooked a bream, but when I got it near the net it tore off like a steam train! After a hectic 10-minute battle I eventually landed a huge-framed fish which pulled the scales round to 14lb 14oz. I was absolutely over the moon with the result and was packed up and heading home before midnight.”
Mark Brayne and his 14lb 14oz barbel
Micro pellets for a big Trent barbel
GOLF ball-sized PVA bags of micro pellets and regular casting was the winning combination to bag this 19lb barbel for Mark Roberts.
The Stockport-based species enthusiast arrived at the River Trent to find it running unfavourably clear, but by using refined feeding tactics and single boilie hookbaits, he managed to tempt his new personal best alongside another superb specimen weighing 15lb 13oz.
Mark Roberts and his 19lb Trent barbel
Monster River Trent pike goes over 30lb!
THIRTY-pound pike from the Trent are rare, but James Wainwright hit the jackpot on an early-morning trip with this 33lb 6oz fish.
The Leicestershire-based rod float-legered a popped-up pollan deadbait into a slack off the main flow.
“As I set the hooks the water boiled on the surface before all hell broke loose,” he said.
“After a 15-minute battle she was netted on the third time of asking.”
James Wainwright and his 33lb 6oz River Trent pike
Topping fish provide location of giant zander
TARGETING a shoal of topping baitfish yielded this menacing 16lb 2oz zander for Martin Hague.
The new PB fell to a small roach deadbait legered in the middle of the tidal River Trent, where he saw the silvers breaking the surface.
Martin said:
“I thought it was a pike at first, but after three good runs and plenty of head-shakes it surfaced for the first time and I saw I’d struck gold.”
Martin Hague and his 16lb 2oz Trent zander
Middle Trent cracker tempted from snaggy spot
LOOSEFEEDING little and often brought Robert Bown this immaculate 17lb 11oz middle Trent barbel.
Targeting both sides of a snag, the Nottinghamshire rod fed a handful of 3FT Twitch Redemption boilies every hour to keep the bites coming.
“I ended up catching a 14lb 11oz barbel, two bonus mirror carp and a chunky 6lb chub in addition to the 17lb 11oz specimen,” he said.
Robert bown – 17lb 11oz barbel
PB barbel surfaces in heavy fog - Stephen Dolby
“MY barbel season got off to a very slow start this year. I found it hard to locate them on the tidal Trent, and keeping a bait in the water for more than five minutes wasn’t easy due to the plague of mitten crabs that are now in the river.
“I eventually took a 15lb 15oz barbel only a couple of weeks ago – fast forward to my latest session and it was like going back to square one.
“My traps were set with double 14mm pellet hookbaits, but I fished all day and night without a take. Then, just as daylight broke, the rod caved over and I was in. There was no doubt in my mind that this was a big fish, and it was game on!
“Visibility was terrible due to fog but this brute eventually rolled into the net. She was enormous – I was absolutely blown away by my new PB.”
Stephen Dolby and his new PB 16lb 8oz barbel
How the RiverFest 2020 title was won
Paul Cannon lifted the 2020 Angling Trust RiverFest crown - and a £14,000 payout - thanks to a two-day 55-7-0 haul on the Trent.
Fished on the river around Burton Joyce, he finished over 12lb clear of Clive Fletcher on 42-2-0, with Darren Frost’s 40-4-0 third.
The Mosella man had the title in the bag with a day to spare after bagging 44-6-0 of bream on the Saturday, but Sunday still turned into a nervy affair with only 11-1-0 to take to the scales, amid rumours about who may or may not have caught him up. It turned out that nobody had.
Paul Cannon lifted the 2020 Angling Trust RiverFest trophy
“I’m chuffed to bits to win and it’s been worth waiting for!” said Paul.
“Even with a good lead after day one I didn’t assume it was in the bag. Trent bream are big fish and I was sure they’d feed on the Sunday, as the river was rising and should have coloured up. It didn’t, though, and not many bream were caught, but when they weigh up to 8lb you don’t need many to put 50lb together.”
Conditions on the Saturday were wet and windy, with a rising river. That, added to a peg that was ideal for bream on day one, made Paul a happy man going to his swim. Five hours and eight bream later, the job seemed more or less done.
Paul with a River Trent bream
“I got peg B37, the end peg on Nelson’s Field near Dead Man’s Bay. Normally on a low river it’s rubbish but when there’s extra water and a bit of colour, the bream show up. It was always going to be a bream job on the feeder and flat float,” he said.
“At the start I made several quick casts on the feeder about a third of the way over to get some bait in and then waited. My first fish came two hours into the match. After than I had a spell of six more, all big ones on three red maggots. The final few hours were slow, though, with only one more fish.
“I didn’t think the match was in the bag. The big danger was that on Sunday, the river was due to rise even more and perhaps colour up. If that happened, there could be massive bream weights from several areas. I wanted to be in one of those for day two.
“I got peg 33 on the road stretch, close to where I won a RiverFest qualifier from last year with 40lb of bream.
“Only 3lb had been caught off the peg the day before, so there was no point in fishing for dace and roach – it’d be a sit-and-wait feeder job. Double figures was the minimum weight I needed to keep ahead of the pack, and two or three bream would do it, so my approach was more or less the same as on the day before – feeder close in and then a flat float line for perch.
“Early on I caught a big skimmer, which helped settle things down, and the flat float gave me a little run of perch, but I still needed a bream or two.
“After that, it was something of a disaster. I had a skimmer come off at the net and was broken on weed by a big bream.
“Patience was important, though, and 30 minutes from the end I was on the phone to my wife, saying it was hard and I was bored rigid. Then the tip dropped back, and I was in! That was a bream of about 6lb and a real tonic. Even so, there were rumours going around that Simon Willsmore was going to catch 30lb-plus, and he might pip me.
“I weighed 11-1-0, so that bream must have been bigger than I thought! That made me feel a lot better, and shortly afterwards I found out Simon had only weighed in 18lb. There didn’t seem to be anyone who could catch me on total weight, and looking back, I didn’t need to fish at all on Sunday as my day one weight would have won overall!”
Paul in action on the Trent
Collingham is the best venue ever! - Reader Letter
Is there another barbel venue quite like the River Trent’s Collingham Weir? I reckon it has to be the best venue for the species ever.
I know that lots of people will point to Adam’s Mill, which dominated for a few years, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the Trent in my book. Adam’s Mill didn’t inspire you like The Trent does.
While the Mill was exclusive and only open to the few, anyone can fish the Trent for the price of a day ticket. What more can you ask for?
Collingham has certainly been in hot form this season but do you agree with Richie Deavin? Let us know by commenting below!
Collingham Weir the home of giant barbel!
Long drive worth it for big barbel
A two-hour drive from Middlesbrough to Collingham Weir on the River Trent resulted in this immense 17lb barbel for James Butler.
The fish came on just his second barbel trip.
“The bite came soon after dark and it nearly pulled the rod in!” he tells us.
“I battled the fish for 15 minutes but eventually managed to slip it into the net. My friend, an experienced barbel angler, couldn’t believe its size!”
James used maggots on a clip alongside a large PVA mesh bag filled with the same to fool the new personal best.
James Butler – 17lb Trent barbel
Was this year's opening day the busiest ever?
BANKSIDE space on many of the nation’s most popular rivers was at a premium last week as Britain’s anglers returned to running water action with a bang.
As clocks struck midnight on June 15 to signal the dawn of the new season, the familiar sound of leads and feeders hitting the surface could be heard on stretches right across the country.
Nowhere was the remarkable turnout more evident than the River Trent, where chub and barbel fishing fans were queueing up all afternoon to bag a swim.
A busy start to the season on the River Trent
Newark and District Piscatorial Federation bailiff Alfie Naylor told us:
“We opened the gates to our Winthorpe Fishery at midday on June 15 and less than an hour later all 60-odd pegs were taken by anglers wanting to camp out ahead of the midnight start!”
“I’ve never seen it so busy down there before – it looked like a fishing match! I guess the surge in popularity can be attributed in part to many people still being on the Government furlough scheme, alongside anglers returning to the sport.”
Clubs that allow night fishing weren’t the only ones to witness the crazy opening day scenes either, with day-only fisheries also seeing record numbers of anglers.
Nigel Gray, owner of Davis Tackle in Christchurch, said people were queuing up outside the shop to buy day tickets for the Royalty Fishery on the Hampshire Avon.
“We opened our doors at 7:30am and were continuously serving customers for at least an hour and a half,” he said.
It was a similar story at many other tackle shops, with some unprepared for the sheer number of anglers wishing to buy bait.
“Between 9am and 2pm we sold 35 gallons of maggots and I had to go to our supplier to get 25 more!”
said Wayne Gray, who runs Top Tackle in Abingdon, Oxon.
“I’ve been here for 12 years and I’ve never seen an opening day like it.”
One bite is enough when it's a 15lb 6oz barbel - Adrian Garside
“A couple of weeks ago I caught a 16lb 10oz barbel from the middle River Trent so I headed back to the same spot.
I fed a few freebie pellets well upstream to make sure I had a good spread of bait in front of me and dropped a single Hinders dumbbell hookbait on a free-running rig over the top.
Midnight had just struck when I received a powerful take, but almost instantly the fish seemed to bury itself solid against something on the riverbed. After easing the pressure off it finally moved, taking line into the middle of the river.
There were a few more nervy moments, but the powerful fight came to an end with this giant fish resting in my net at the first time of asking.
Now I could see where all the power came from – the size of the barbel’s tail was massive!”
200-mile trip to shine a light on giant barbel - Colin Douglas
“I made the 200-mile journey from my home near the Scottish borders to fish a club stretch on the river Trent, and although the weather was horrendous – with winds so strong I couldn’t tell if I had a bite or not – I still managed to catch six barbel.
Three of them were doubles including two 14s and a 15, which was great, but I decided to move to a different location where there could’ve been a chance of a much bigger fish.
My rig includes a 16mm boilie hookbait and a PVA bag full of matching pellets and boilies, so whilst I was fishing in the new spot, I spent some time making up a big batch of PVA bags.
Halfway through I looked up and saw that the bobbin had dropped off the line but I’d had no indication on my alarms that I’d had a bite.
Walking over to the rod I thought that the strong wind must’ve made that happen, but when I picked up the rod, I felt a sudden pull, so I struck hard.
The fight was long and hard but almost instantly I realised I’d left my head torch in the bivvy!
I just carried on carefully playing the fish in the dark until I landed it – but I couldn’t see how big it was.
I rested the fish in the net, grabbed my headtorch and then came back for it – I couldn’t believe my eyes!
I was absolutely astonished to see that I had broken my PB of 18lb 1oz with this 18lb 13oz monster.”
One hour all that's needed for a 15lb 12oz barbel - Alfie Naylor
“I had an hour to spare while waiting for my wife to come home from work. As we live so close to the Trent I was able to get on the bank and test my winter roving tactics.
After spending 20 minutes in the first swim without any luck, I moved to my second peg and within five minutes something took my paste-wrapped River Plus boilie.
I knew it was a big fish because it stayed deep, held bottom and pretty much did what it wanted until I managed to get it under control. It was a tense fight from start to finish.
I managed to take some great pictures before slipping her back in the water. The job was done so I headed home to find my wife still wasn’t back – she had no idea I’d even gone fishing!”
Trent barbel have anglers jumping for joy
Numbers of quality barbel continue to be caught from the mighty River Trent. Here are two of the best catches reported to us this week…
Mitchell Godfrey 16lb 7oz barbel
“For the last three weeks I’ve religiously fished this swim on the Trent for barbel. Despite using 18mm boilies I just couldn’t get past the bream and chub. I thought my chance had gone with the recent frosty nights and drop in water temperature, but I had to give it one more go.
My swim was very quiet with no bites for hours but then out of the blue I got a couple of plucks.
I knew it was something special as it came in slow like a dead weight. I wasn’t disappointed and left that night with a new PB at 16lb 7oz.”
Andrew Waddingham 16lb barbel
“I haven’t wet a line for three months due to the Trent being in flood, and work commitments, so it was great to get out and treat my nephew Mason to a trip.
We settled in a deep swim but by 6.45pm we hadn’t had a single bite!
Then out of nowhere my upstream rod ripped over and the reel went into meltdown. As I lifted into it I said to Mason: ‘this is a BIG fish.’
When the scales ripped over to 16lb I was jumping for joy, literally running up and down the bank shouting ‘get in there you beauty!”
Trent hits best ever barbel form
The River Trent is living up to it’s reputation as one of the country’s best barbel rivers, with a string of massive catches taken in the past few weeks.
Here are some of the clonking doubles that have hit the bank…
Christopher Mendelsohn 17lb 2oz
“WHEN I first saw the barbel my legs turned to jelly,” said Christopher Mendelsohn as he recalled the capture of this 17lb 2oz cracker.
For weeks the Lincolnshire angler baited a spot on the tidal river with boilies, hemp, maize and rapeseed, and received a savage ‘one-toner’ just 20 minutes after casting out his paste-wrapped boilie.
“Picking up the rod the reel was screaming and I bent into what felt like a steam train,” Christopher said.
“After a 20-minute battle my son lifted the net under it and I breathed a sigh of relief – she was mine.”
Michael Bradley 17lb 2oz
After replacing his stolen gear from a month before, Michael Bradley christened his new rods in fine style with this superb 17lb 2oz barbel.
Fishing a stretch below Collingham Weir, Michael tackled rising river conditions which saw the river completely change colour throughout his session.
He told Angling Times:
“After seeing the conditions change, I decided to give the fish a good hit of bait so I Spombed a mix of hemp, casters, maggots and pellets to a spot.
“I was soon rewarded with my new personal best which must have been karma for my rods being taken a month before.”
Michael’s new pb fell to a hair rigged piece of spam on a size 4 Drennan Specialist hook tied comb-rig style.
Andrew Flatts 16lb 13oz and Joe Royffe 15lb 1oz
FISHING buddies Andrew Flatts and Joe Royffe both left Collingham Weir with smiles on their faces when they each registered a specimen during their 48-hour ‘social’ visit.
On the first day Hertfordshire specimen ace Joe hit the jackpot when his cage feeder and boilie rig tempted four barbel to 15lb 1oz into his net.
Full-time chef Andrew had been struggling to catch a big barbel from his local River Lea for years but that all changed during the second evening on the tidal river, when he banked a 16lb 13oz beast followed by four other doubles on maggot hookbaits.
Andrew added:
“Howling winds, heavy rain, flooded bivvies and disappearing landing nets made our experience even more special!”
Steven Scott 16lb 4oz
MOST anglers would pack up and go home after fishing for 45 hours without a bite but not Steven Scott, who persevered through driving wind and rain to catch this 16lb 4oz beauty.
The 63-year-old was determined to see out the full 48-hours of his stay and was rightly rewarded with just under two hours to go when a giant fish tore-off with his 14mm hookbait.
“This barbel was heavier than any other I’ve lifted in the 10 years I’ve been fishing for them,” Steven said.
“When the scales settled on 16lb 4oz I couldn’t catch my breath!”
