Throwing Lures

No record breakers today but an enjoyable few hours throwing lures into The Trent. Saved from a blank by this lovely little pike, and a few kamikaze perch.

All Change This Season

The fishing so far this season has been difficult. Not because of the lack of decent fish but because of people making things awkward. A big stretch of my favourite part of The Trent and some big gravel pits have been taken over by another angling club and the price of the permit has shot up from £16 to £100 so I won't be fishing those parts this year which is a shame because I had spent time getting to know the waters, the depths, snags, fishy areas etc, also there's an industrial area next to another part of The Trent where I've been parking my car for over 20 years now it has suddenly got notices up on every lamp post with threats of wheel clamping and towing! New signs have also gone up on another area of The Trent which used to be day ticket and is now members only and gate locks changed, so I need to explore some new areas, which might not be a bad thing.

Anyway enough of the moaning, I was finally out today for the first time in ages and had three lively pike including a really ugly fish with a duck-billed mouth!

Looking Forward to the New Season

Not much to report lately. I've hardly done any fishing since the river season finished in March, just a couple of short sessions ledgering on local still waters and also a couple of morning sessions with lures. I've not got as much enthusiasm with still waters as I have with the river but I'll hopefully get out for a few more trips when the weather eventually warms up! I'm looking forward to the new season on The Trent and planning on targeting a few other species this year besides pike.

It Gets Better

I was back on the local ponds again this morning and had another lovely fish, this one went to over 14lbs. Looks like I'm finally having some better luck! :-)


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Stillwater Pike

Well... the river is now closed for the next three months so today I had a walk around some local ponds and had this chunky pike going to over 10lbs, seems to have a strange back end?


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Last of the Season

The river season comes to an end this weekend so today I grabbed the chance of a last few hours on The Trent before it closes for 3 months. Conditions were very good but I lost 2 fish before finally getting one in the net, followed by another similar one soon after. Things went quiet so I decided to move to another spot and after a while I had something better putting a good bend in the rod! After a few powerful runs I was pleased to finally slip the net under a great looking fish. When I got home and looked at the photos I realised that this was the same fish I'd caught 2 days earlier, about a mile further along the river!






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A Better Day

Two nice looking fish from The Trent today :-) The biggest going to 13lb and was caught on the first cast of the day!



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A Trent Pike!

Another quick couple of hours back on The Trent again and I was fortunate enough to catch a nice looking Pike today!


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Something Different

I didn't fancy my chances of catching today. The Trent was very high and a Tetley brown color but I had a couple of hours free so I had a wander down with my lure rod, you never know!
I don't know where the Pike have disappeared to lately but they weren't interested again today, nothing until this lovely Chub grabbed my lure as I pulled it through a likely looking slack area. I thought at first I had a Jack on but was surprised and didn't complain when I saw the silvery bronze scales of a Chub hit the surface to save me from a blank.


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A Hard Earned Jack

I was out on The Trent again today after another tough blank session on Sunday. The river was in a much better condition today, good color, nice and calm with a steady flow but the fishing was very hard with just this lively little Jack being landed. The Trent Pike don't seem very interested in playing ball. It's been a long hard winter for fishing on The Trent with everyone else I know also finding it hard. Things have to improve soon... ??? HA!
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Things Might Be Starting To Improve!

First time out fishing today in a while and I fancied a few hours on The Trent but I wasn't sure if it had settled down enough yet after the recent long spell of bad weather, so I went to an area that had some gravel pits adjacent to it so I could drop onto those if the river was too high. I parked up and got my gear out and noticed a pike angler already set up on one of the pits, so I gave him a nod and stopped for a chat. He said he'd already had a couple of Jacks on ledgered dead baits... so hopefully things might be starting to improve. I gave it a good hour on the river, the level and color looked good but there was just a little bit too much flow to fish comfortably. Someone had been down recently and had a chuck around because there were quite a few snagged lures in the overhanging trees and bushes. I tried a few slacker areas but didn't feel very confident so I headed over for a walk around the gravel pits with my lures and I ended the morning with 4 nice Jacks, the biggest was probably around the 7lb mark. No record breakers, but it was nice to be out again getting a bit of a bend in the rod. Things might be starting to improve!

Snow, Ice and now the Flood

Not much fishing for me lately due to the bad weather. Just the odd hour here and there with not much to show for it. All my local stillwaters were still frozen at the weekend and The Trent is very high and fast. Hope things settle down and get back to normal soon!