The Tidal Trent and one of its biggest fans (inset) Ron Clay (click for bigger picture)
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I met Matt, fellow FM member, at the car park at noon on a mild overcast blustery day with a south west wind blowing.
“These weather conditions are perfect,” I said. Not only that, the Trent was 3ft up from normal and running slightly coloured.
Matt's Seymo Bait Dropper
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We grabbed our tackle and set off downstream. I showed Matt the various spots where I had caught barbel. “And this one is Barney's Swim”. I pointed out. “Give it a try, I'm sure that Barney is not going to turn up today.
“Mind you, if he did he would want to kick you off.”
I settled into a swim two pegs downstream from Matt and we both spent the next hour or so baiting up. I used a whole bag of Nutrabaits Specialist Carpet feed together with small fast-sinking halibut pellets and crushed up Dynamite Halibut boilies. Matt also fed pellets with brown crumb. I used a big heavy method feeder to get out my bait but Matt fed with a bait dropper. I have had grief with bait droppers in the past. They often refuse to open on the Trent. However Matt was using a bait dropper I had not seen before, made by Seymo. Must get myself a few, they seem excellent.
At about that time, the tide topped, so it was an excellent period to get the bait in as the current under normal conditions almost comes to a standstill. However, when the river has extra water, it doesn't.
Ron bends his FISHINGmagic Concept rod into a hard-fighting Trent barbel (click for bigger picture)
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I felt that we should get a few fish later when the tide started running off. And in no time at all I started getting knocks and rattles on the tips of my FM Concepts. I used a 2 ½ oz flat lead from the stable of Trefor West together with a 4ft 10 lb Stren Fluorocarbon hooklength. Hooks were size 8 Drennan Continental boilie hooks and bait was Halibut Pellet on one rod and 1 ½ Halibut boilies on the other. Main lines were Daiwa 12 lbs Sensor and 12 lb Krystonite.
Tamed and being slid into the net (click for bigger picture)
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I have great faith in using a boilie and a half these days. I think the baits release more flavours rigged this way. Not only that but it looks different to the barbel somehow and that might give you an edge.
Shortly after, my rod hammered over and I was into my first barbel. A fish of about 5 ½ lbs. Then Matt had one of similar size. Then I got a second barbel, again about the same size. And then I got a third, a fish of about 6 ½ lbs. No I don't bother weighing Trent barbel these days unless they look like doubles. All three fish came to the 1 ½ boilie rig.
The afternoon turned into evening and then darkness descended. The tide bottomed out and started pushing back up as the water rose. As usual the bites dried up and the river went dead.
Time for tea and a chat. I discovered that Matt had caught a nice bream.
Trent bream are lovely fish as bream go, have very little slime, fight really hard and are a worthwhile quarry in their own right. Matt has taken them in the past to over 9 lbs. What is also interesting is that you often find Trent bream in the fastest of water. I have taken them on the river down as far as Littleborough with a mighty ebb tide running.
The tide topped so it was back to the rods. My rod tip pulled over and away went the reel, screaming in protest.
The fish tore off downstream and eventually stopped. Then came the arm aching job of pumping the fish back. This took several minutes as Matt's camera flashed to record the fight. I had a feeling that this could be a double as the fish powered off across the river on several occasions. But it was not to be. Yet at 8 pounds or so it was one of those that really pulled your string. A pristine fish too.
A Trent beauty [the barbel that is] (click for bigger picture)
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By this time we were both knackered. As Matt turned into his sleeping bag, I went back to the car to get my head down for an hour or two.
As morning broke I found that Matt had added 5 more bream to his total, all good fish that put up excellent fights.
So that was it, a combined total of 6 bream and 5 barbel. A typical Trent session I suppose.
But what really makes me spit are those that say that the Trent is no good.
Personally I think the Trent is actually better than in those halcyon days of the Victorian era. Old JW Martin, The Trent Otter, wrote much about the Trent at that time. He pointed out that the Trent barbel average was about 3 pounds, a big bream was a 4 pounder and a roach over 1 lbs was a rarity. Not so today. Friends of mine regularly catch roach up to 2 lbs, The Trent barbel average is more like 5 lbs and Matt has had bream to 9 lbs!
Matt and his Trent bream (click for bigger picture)
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The tidal Trent during the Victorian Era was always the place for the big barbel bags. If you were a gentleman angler in those days a 'man' did all the groundbaiting with thousands of lobworms, baited your hook and even landed all your fish for you. I can well imagine this to be true as most 'gentlemen' in those days were pretty incompetent and certainly did not want to get a bit of slime on their Norfolk Jackets.
In recent years the definition of 'classical' barbel angling has changed somewhat as modern writers have put the emphasis on Southern Streams, many of which are no more than overgrown ditches and never held barbel in the first place. The fish were put there by man.
With the Trent it is different. This river and its tributaries always was one of the barbel's true homes. These days, the Trent has virtually become the nation's premier barbel river. Back where it belongs.
The River Trent certainly deserves to hold the barbel record. And from the way things are progressing, that just might happen before too long.
Baz
