Never mind the quantity feel the width
Part 1 - Tidal Trent Sutton
My two weeks leave from work were off to a flyer with a birthday weekend PB of 12lb 8oz from the river Dove at 6am on the Sunday morning. I travelled home the next day to restock the tackle and food and headed off to the tidal Trent on the Barbel Societies beat at Sutton.
The Sutton stretch is further downstream from the famous Collingham stretch and I thought turning up at 6pm on a school night would have seen the place devoid of all life forms apart from the cows but as I went through the gate of the fishery I could just see a couple of cars on the horizon by the popular ‘Bush’ peg.
Undeterred and having heard that a few big fish had recently come out from that area I headed across the field and met an angler coming in the opposite direction who’d seemingly finished for the day. He confirmed the Bush peg was taken but advised I went further down the beach where he’d put plenty of bait in and had a 10lb+ barbel from that day. I stopped and chatted to the angler on the Bush peg more so to gauge how the fishing had been and he confirmed it was good having had a few out and was actually playing one in as we spoke.
The beach area is a long straight and as the name suggests at normal tides is very shallow in the margins and when the tide is out consists of very soft mud and silt near the waters edge, good job I’d brought my wellies!!
By 7pm I was setup and ready to go, frequent casts with a 5oz feeder soon had a mixture of micro pellet and broken boilie scattered at around 70 yards in approximately the area I’d been guided to. A tactic of boilie by night and maggot by day was quite popular here so I rigged up both rods on braided hook links and the Hook Bait Co. Spicy Fish Pro dumbells, in the feeder would be the usual micro pellet to keep the swim topped up as I was fishing.
An hour late and the alarm indicated a fish was on but with no line stripping off the spool it wasn’t a barbel but a bit of head shaking later I discovered it was quite a decent bream of 4lb 6oz and worthy of a mat shot.
Three more bream of a similar size kept me active during the night but I did start to think I’d possibly picked the wrong spot. The next morning maggot feeders were deployed with long fluorocarbon hooklinks and 5 white maggots on a strong size 10 hook, the feeders required more lead adding to hold in the tidal flow and I taped the feeders up so the maggots would release slowly into the swim.
At 12:30pm whilst reeling in yet another perch the other rod was wrenched from the tripod and started heading for the river’s edge, ankle deep in mud I tried to grab it and fell flat on my backside but somehow reached across and regained my composure.
A tidal barbel doesn’t fight by the rules so it was a right old tussle of wits and after three determined runs I started to gain some line back, this is why I’ve been using heavy tackle on the more sedate river Dove not because I need to punch feeders out 70 yards but simply to allow me to gain the upper hand on the take and steer the fish away from the snags of which there are many.
It was at this point I discovered the hidden weed bed about 20 yards out from the shore, the barbel headed straight for it and having found it buried itself in the sanctuary of the cover. I maintained the pressure and eventually I felt a slight pull back then a splash on the surface showed the feeder wasn’t far away followed by the target species barbus barbus.
In the net it looked a short but stocky fish and although I could see it wasn’t quite a double it was certainly a good fish and my first tidal Trent barbel on only my second visit to the fishery.
Once rested it was weighed at 9lb 2oz and returned to the margins to recover, this turned out to be a difficult task as having given his all in the fight the fish just couldn't find it’s balance and was belly up for over 20 minutes, I had a welly full of water but didn’t mind and 10 minutes later the fish righted itself and was able to hold station unaided, this was my cue to let the net drop and watch the fish swim strongly away.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent reeling in small perch which at times was a little tedious but with some daylight still remaining I persisted with maggot and recast both rods for the final half hour before switching onto boilie for the nigh time session. I did have a nice Dace although it didn't threaten the British record of 1lb 5oz it was worthy of weighing and at 6oz possible my best ever Dace not that I've caught that many and certainly not on the barbel gear.
At just gone 7:30pm a couple of bleeps on the alarm had me standing up out of my chair and walk towards them just as the right hand rod buried itself towards the ground, I wound down and lifted into a solid resistance, another barbel and another battle ensued. The fight was less erratic than the previous and it seemed at times to be almost stationary out in the flow.
It was it just plodding about, did it fully realise it was hooked? I applied the pressure and off it went, it knew it was hooked alright and I hung on a mere passenger at this point whilst it headed straight for the weed bed. I used every inch of the 2.5lb test curve blank to steer the fish away from the weeds and after another three heart stopping runs it subsided and came up to the surface for the first time.
The mouth was huge and gulping in air as it eventually crossed the net cord and it wasn’t until it rolled onto one side I realised just how deep this fish was and potentially a contender for a new PB. Again it needed a long rest before weighing and I knew by the weight of it in the net it was a very big fish, with scales zeroed I lifted them into the air, the needle flew past 10lb as expected the straight passed 13lb, my first ‘teen’ 13lb 8oz was the final figure it settled on and what a unit built as they say like a breeze block an absolutely solid fish that had adapted perfectly to the tough conditions.
Before the photos I returned the fish to the margins and rang Bill, my best mate and the person who gave me my first 3lb 8oz barbel 5 years ago, needed to be the first to know, he was delighted and shared my excitement albeit over the telephone.
Nothing further during the evening so I reeled both rods in and had a good nights sleep. The following morning I was up early and casting out maggot feeder every half an hour.
