A Session on the River Trent

Been fishing the Trent for quite a few years now in & around Nottingham where i have caught barbel to 9.5lbs & chub to 6lbs,all my fish were caught on curry flavoured baits like maggots,sweetcorn,luncheon meat with casters & hemp seed in the feeder which have brought me a lot of success in my fishing.

One session i had on the River it was my 20th birthday which i decided to have a days fishing. I took nothing other than good old lob worms for bait which i dug from the back garden the day before.

When i arrived at the river at first light i saw a nice swim just screaming perch there were fish splashing everywhere after all the insects on the surface. So i set up my gear & chopped up a load of worms for the feeder & put a whole lob worm on a size 8 barbed hook tied to 10lb maxima mainline & with a gentle flick put the terminal tackle in just under an overhanging tree, placed the rod in the rest & waited about 15 minutes,i re baited, still no bites this happened for another two hours & then i decided to re bait the hook with a worm that i cut the tail off. Re cast & 10 minutes later whilst i was rolling a fag,bang the rod tip slammed down & boy did this fish go,it aimed straight for the other side of the river & wasn't going to stop, eventually i started to retrieve line back, but it decided to have another run which was at that point i thought i was going to lose it because it was all over the place.

When i got the fish to the net i got the shock of my life what i thought was a barbel turned out to be a perch of 3lb Wow what a birthday present that was a new personal best perch.

After all the excitement had calmed down in me i carried on fishing for the rest of the day but obviously that perch had spooked the swim & i didn't get any more bites.

The only thing that made me mad that day was not having a camera with me which is something i will never forget to take every time when i go fishing.