Upper Trent Revisted

After a 20year lull i took out the Derby Rail book again for this coming season having spent most of the eighties on their waters. I set off early and so glad i did as the road i used to come off the M1 had now changed and i got lost.I decided i would fish at Shardlow which is the lower end of their waters and fished in the wooded area below the car park. After tackling up i fed two lines before fishing for about ten minutes and fished a light set up with rig taking a 6no6 stickfloat 20hook on 1lb bottom. Started to catch virtually 2nd trot down and ended a morning spell with a mixed bag of 16lb(mainly roach dace perch plus two rudd biggest fish was about 10oz and although the catch was nothing special it showed the river is well and truly on the way back as all the fish where fin perfect, and the amount of small fish is an excellent sign for the river,Its certainly on the way back.
I hate hot weather and the reason i fished the woods was to get out of the heat otherwise i would have moved up on to the gravels which in the past has always produced a few barbel.
Still it was nice to be back in such beautifull surroundings and as i used to tell Ron Clay when we used to fish the tidal Trent you can keep the tidal Ron i would rather be on the Upper reaches,the fish might not be as big but its the beauty of the area and the tidal is just plain ugly to me

Well done John,I had a similar bag minus the rudd on the opening morning...I fished with the float rod and pin on the Trent town water in Burton.
All smallish fish, but a very pleasant few hours angling.

Hi John. Good to see you get off to a flyer. My river campaign started a little closer to home ( just down the road) on the rother. It was hard going getting to the water as the banks were overgrown. The fishing wasnt spectacular but i did bank a lovely chub about 4lb a big perch well over 2lb lots of tiny chublets and a couple of nice roach. My partner for the day had a similar catch which also included a nice tench ( a first for us on the rother). All in all it bodes well for the future but im sure it will be better later on when we can get to the water a bit better.Looking forward to a trip to the idle in the near future. Ive taken a couple of photos on my new digital camera but as yet havnt managed to transfer them onto the website. I will have to get my head round the technology.See you soon mick

Can you get day tickets on Derby rail water or if not how do you go about getting a book/how much?
Wich part of the Idle are you talking about? as im quite close to it.Is it the same Derby club wich as the stretch of the idle that runs from the bottom end of Hallcroft?

Mart
usually fish Kings Mills Weston on the shallows plus the Ukraine towards Swarkestone. looking fotward to river dove around Tutbury which i fished a lot.
Mike
Yes we will fish the Idle next Sunday fishing on the Swale at Catterick on Friday with Mike Townsend. Your wife told me you had been going a bit. will ring you in week about Sunday
Gareth
Derby Rail AC
Sec Richard Anderson Tel 01332 792807

No Gareth thats Derby County and dont bother with that book.
Derby Rail is the one you want and i think its ?35 and well worth it , They have about 12miles of Upper Trent and dont allow many matches ,loads of water on the Dove and derwent plus loads of good stillwaters and excellent parking . If you need info email me

Michael
Club books arrived today so i will bring yours down with me on Sunday

Magic john see you sunday

Visited the Upper Trent today at Ingleby (John Thompson)
Fished stickfloat and used hemp and caster for a chub roach and dace catch plus one bonus grayling.Biggest chub 3lb 7oz
Ash fishing above had a few chub plus one barbel just under 10lb which i photographed for him. Once again hardly any anglers on the bank.
I have caught loads of grayling from different rivers but this was my first from the Trent(another good sign the river is on the way back)

i too have taken out a membership of drac,i
havent been a member for a few years and i
fanced something different this year,it was
a toss up between pride and drac , i chose
drac as i wanted to mainly be basing my trips around barrow on trent,with the odd trip to Tutbury and Scropton for the barbel
and perhaps try for a few tench from out of
the triangle(long eaton)& ukranian centre's
black pool .who knows maybe ill bump into
one or two of you guys when out fishing.

Hope to see you Chav
Must say getting to some swims is hard work due to high undergrowth and lack of anglers but once you are through its worth it.
Will be fishing Scropton myself so keep in touch and we can compare notes.Dove is very low at moment

Visited the Upper Trent today above Shardlow and decided to fish for barbel instead of the proverbial stickfloat(just for a change)
First fish was the biggest weighing 10lb 4oz plus another of around 6lb 8oz(did not weigh this fish)
Only had the two barbel plus a few chub all fish caught on caster 8lb reel line 6lb hooklength 14hook 3casters.
Next time i will fish 8lb straight through because the biggest fish fought as good as any Swale fish.
Frank Williamson fishing below me had two biggest 9lb 1oz and lost a big fish.
Always thought the upper Trent would produce the goods and just know there are much bigger fish to be caught.Photographed biggest fish