Des Taylor Diary of a Countryman
Barbel by day and night – not to mention several surprise river carp
ANOTHER busy week full of fishy action, but the highlight was definitely an overnighter on the River Trent near Newark.
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY
A 10am meet with my guide and friend for the next two days, Paul Bird. Paul is the owner of Pikepro, which sponsors me for my pike equipment.
Besides being a confident pike and zander angler, Paul also likes catching big barbel, and over the next two days he had promised to show me a few likely spots on the enormous Tidal Trent.
Now, although I’ve caught a few barbel from this great river I had never really got to grips with the place as I have with my local River Severn. Hopefully Paul would put me on the right road and a few nice barbel would hit the net over the next two days.
We started on quite a fast stretch of water, and after baiting with boilies and my pudding mix I cast out the 14mm boilie hookbaits. Normally I use Nash Scopex/Squid everywhere for barbel but Paul had his own favourites which he had been baiting with – so ‘when in Rome’, as they say!
Within minutes I had my first take, and imagine my surprise when a 13lb carp hit the landing net in the fast water! Paul told me this was the first carp he had seen caught in daylight on this stretch, so just imagine what he said when I landed three in three casts!
These carp looked like fish that had come into the river in the flood from a heavily fished commercial water. They were not pretty, to say the least. Then I had my first barbel, at 10lb 10oz, which I was over the moon with. Then it went a bit quiet, until out of the blue I had – yes, you’ve guessed it – another carp of 15lb, this time a nicely conditioned common.
Where were the barbel? No need to worry. On nightfall I had liners on both rods, ‘drive-bys’ as the Americans call them!
Shortly after that I had another lovely barbel of 11lb 1oz that fought well in the strong current and I was made up.
On the Severn and Avon the most double-figure barbel I have caught in a night is three. With a glint in his eye, Paul said: “You will beat that tonight, mucker!”
Anyway, feeding little-and-often with boilies and my pudding mix I managed eight barbel which included three singles to 9lb 8oz and five doubles going 10lb 4oz, 10lb 10oz, 11lb 1oz, 12lb and my last fish, which weighed 12lb 3oz.
Paul was right, and we sat into the night in our T-shirts in an overnight temperature of 18ºC, drinking red wine and talking of past and future fishing trips.
Paul wanted to catch some of the great fish in the world that I had been lucky enough to nab over the years. I’m sure Paul will do it, and I will help him all I can with my contacts.
Something that astounded me about the venue was the wildlife. Both the margins and the sky were packed with different birds – a real added bonus to the superb fishing.
I learnt a lot on this trip about the tidal Trent. Paul has worked on the river as a commercial fisherman since he was a boy, and his in-depth knowledge was truly inspiring.
He talks fondly of the water as though it is part of his family, and I suppose it is – I’m sure the Tidal Trent water runs through his veins.
It was one of the best angling trips I have had for many a year. Thank you Paul.