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The
15th of March always sticks in your memory, and it was no exception
for the Derbyshire Times anglers.
A ‘last day’ fishing trip for barbel was planned, but as usual,
things didn’t go as they should. An overnight ground frost had
chilled the water and together with the intense early morning sunshine
made catching a barbel seem even more difficult. Never mind that the
river was dropping and nearly gin clear!
The first cast with my 2lb TC carp rod coupled with a 3oz bolt rig,
baited with steak was lobbed three-quarters across the river, only for
the mighty Trent to trundle the lead down-stream just like a stick float.
Looking in my tackle box I found I had no more heavy leads - so in desperation
I added a strap lead from a feeder with the aid of pvc tape - making
a four and a half ounce lump!
Second cast (for ‘cast’ read lob, chuck or hurl - you can’t
‘cast’ with four and a half ounces!) and the ‘doctored’
lead was again trundled down-stream by the flow, so a major re-think
was the order of the day. Anyone got a house brick?
By re-positioning the bolt rig slightly upstream on the edge of an inside
crease, I was able to feeder-fish down the inside with a second rod.
A Drennan feeder crammed with maggots/casters on 6lb Maxima with a size
18 Animal hook baited with a couple of maggots might rescue the day
and catch a few fish.
I tried every combination of maggot, caster, corn and meat, until eventually
two fluro-red maggots resulted in a half-inch pull on the quiver tip.
A dogged fight soon had a chub in the net, and it was not until I unhooked
the fish that I realised just what a chub it was!
Weighing in at a fraction over 6lb the chub was in immaculate condition
and looked like it had never been caught before.
There
was no more bites for me during the rest of the day, but I was happy
with my lot - a 6lb’er to keep me going until the season opens
again in June.
One peg upstream Damian had flogged the river for all he was worth,
feeder, bomb, stick float, numerous bait changes and had only managed
a couple of small roach. So at the end of the day I had him posing with
the rods so I could take a couple of ‘Catalogue’ shots of
the river and the setting sun, with him ‘fishing’.
True to form he was reeling in the rod with steak on the hook, when
he had a pull. Yep... you guessed it... another chub... it took a one
inch long strip of steak, on the move, under his feet.
How jammy is that? On my rod too!
Good fishing to you all
Kind regards
Kevin Miles
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