Double Double

The fishing for this weekend was to be dominated by the effects of the torrential rain we endured all day on the Friday. With widespread flooding occurring all over the Midlands and beyond it was probably for the best that i found myself headed to the Tench lake on Saturday. I had arranged to meet Phil there for a bit of a social and to find out what the state of play was with regards to the fishing. There had been conflicting reports as to whether the fish had spawned or not so we were hoping to find out for sure.
Although there was plenty of fish showing early on in the day the action proved to be extremely slow. It was so slow in fact that between four anglers only one fish was caught and that was a Perch of about a pound which fell to my rod. Another chap missed a take but that was it and we were all left scratching our heads as to what the fish were doing.

A river Barbel session was on the cards for Sunday and i hoped to get on the Trent or the Soar. Reading the latest EA river levels prior to leaving however wasnt exactly encouraging as the rivers appeared to be as high as ive seen them since the infamous 2007 floods. I packed the kit and headed to the Soar but as i drove down i could already see the river was in the fields so i kept on driving towards the Trent.
The Trent was also in the fields in places but the area i fancied didnt look too bad. After parking up and heading along the track to the river i was disappointed to see water flowing away from the river through the undergrowth and onto the track in front of me. I tried an alternative route and after wading through a great deal more waterlogged nettles and foliage i eventually made it to the riverbank itself. I must admit i fancied it for a Barbel but the river was still coming up and there was no dry land to fish from so for safetys sake i headed back to the car.

The Derwent looked to be fishable based on the level given at Church Wilne so i headed there for a look. It had been at near record levels on Saturday but had dropped an unbelievable 2-3ft overnight. Upon my arrival the fields around the river were full of large puddles and the grass was flattened everywhere. The levels had certainly been well up but now the river was back within its banks and looked pretty good for a fish or two.
The first couple of hours passed without event although a did see a couple of small Barbel repeatedly leap clear of the water like minature dolphins right out in the main flow, they were obviously in their element in these conditions! Lots of splashing in the nettles by the river in one spot also caught my attention and that turned out to be three Carp chasing each other around almost as if they were spawning.
My third spot produced my first bite in the end, A slight tap followed a couple of minutes later by that lovely Barbelly wrap around had me connected to a heavy fish. After a couple of strong runs it seemed to give up and allowed me to net it fairly easily. Upon lifting it out of the water i could tell it was a double straight away and the scales confirmed a weight of 11lb4oz, brilliant! first double of the new season!
I set the camera for the self-take shot, 5,4,3,2,1,please change the batteries, aarrrggghhh!!! I couldnt believe it, i forgotten to charge the batteries after the air show last week! I was gutted and ended up snapping a couple of crappy phone-pics.

11lb4oz

I stayed on in the swim for another hour with no further action and headed down to another spot just downstream. The new swim proved to be a slow starter but after around 45minutes i finally had a pull. This fish proved to be a real powerhouse and did its best to pull my arm off in the flow. I netted it before it was ready and it proceeded to beat me up good and proper on the bank. At 10lb8oz it was another good fish but once again i was cursing my lack of camera!

10lb8oz

I tried a couple of other swims on my way back to the car without any more action but i was well chuffed with what id already caught. After since checking my records it turns out that thats only the third time ive managed two doubles in the same session, the other two times being on the Soar. Seasons average so far is well over 9lb now thanks to those two fish, defo gonna have to pack some spare camera batteries in future though!