Help Needed

myself and my son aged 11 this year joined the DRAC for some river fishing and fished the river trent near swarkestone bridge on sunday 23 july 06
it was very fast flowing and loads of weed coming down river. not having fished for years and started fishing again 18 months ago, but only fished pools and stillwaters and not fished rivers since i was a kid with my dad now i'm 41 so its been a few years and lost touch. i was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to keep a leger or swimfeeder on the bottom of a fast flowing river. tryed trotting a float then tryed a 2oz swim feeder and a 18g leger nothing was staying still, then tryed a 2oz feeder with 2 18g leger bombs still was off down the river. anyone got any ideas of what type of feeders or legers or what weight i should be using on the river trent as it seems to be quite fast flowing.

Having never fished the trent i dont know what sort of weight is needed to hold bottom, Swordsy, Ron or someone else will be able to.
But for your feeders you can 'Dead Cows' which strap onto the bottom of your feeder. Basically just an additional weight. If your fishing with a lead, try a flat one or a watch lead it should hold bottom better then a pear shaped one.
Hope this helps, otherwise fish closer in, or on a slower Stretch.

Try fishing it upstream instead mate.

The weed has been a problem for over a week now boon65. I fish the opposite bank to you with another club and have been to the river every evening for the last couple of weeks. It is peaking out now and should improve once the rain has a chance to scour out the riverbed. Normally a three oz lead will hold bottom in one of the channels, a little heavier on the feeder possibly 4oz. Winter is fun there, sea leads are needed to hold bottom and whole trees sometimes come hurtling past. It is a big fish section of the river so keep an eye on your rod or it will be pulled into the river (hangs head in shame, a kind chappie on this forum salvaged my rod for me a couple of weeks ago). If you need help, ask on here there are a few lads on here who fish that particular area and can help you. One tip for DRAC is to buy a key for the Ukranian camp at weston on trent, and you can then fish the canal or stillwater or the Trent all within a 100 yds of each other, so if the weather doesnt suit river fishing, you can always drop onto the lake or canal and be sheltered from the worst weather, helpful if you have the young un with you, all produce good fish.

From what it sounds like Steve, you might need a bit more than 2 oz to hold bottom. Most times on the Tidal Trent I am using 3 oz minimum and often up to 5 oz when the river is up and pushing. As Christian says, use flat leads.

The other thing is to keep your rod high out of the water. A long screw in type rod rest might be rquired here. By keeping you rod high, you are putting less of the line in contact with the current.

For feeders, you will find it difficult to buy the right one. You can use those flat 2 oz feeders from Drennan but you will have to attach "dead cows" to them in most circumstances. The perfect feeder for the Trent is not available from the tackle shops. The best I have seen were made by Archie Braddock from vacuum cleaner tube, or the flexible rubber ones made by Lee Swords.

Here are a few tips.

When you cast out a rig, be it a lead or a feeder, allow slack line before it hits the bottom. If you tighten up as the lead or feeder sinks, it will swing round and get pulled out of where you want it.

You can of course fish directly opposite or upstream by using a small amount of weight. This is done by letting out a reasonable amount of line after the rig hits bottom and creating a downstream bow in the line. The push of the current together with the bow in the line creates a downstream pull on the rod tip. A bite is indicated by the tip dropping back. Pick up the rod, wind up until you feel the fish and tighten.

Unfortunately I do not know of a book around today that details tactics for the Trent, except perhaps for Archie Braddock's "Fantastic Feeder Fishing."

A further tip is not to use tackle which is too light. You might need to upgrade to a decent barbel rod. There are many of these today which do not cost a lot. The predominant species in the Trent these days is the barbel. These can reach double figures in most parts of the river and you will need tackle to give you a chance of landing them. 10 lbs stuff is about right.

If you need anything further, we are here to help.

I have been a member of the DR on and off for 30years and you dont have to hold the middle at Swarkestone Ingleby Ukraine or Shardlow. Fish straight lead or feeder at around 1pm two and a half ounce let the bait swing around until it finds its own position

There was a bit of extra water in the river after the storm on Saturday. At normal level you may be able to hold with less lead.

There is a lot of floating weed on the upper at the moment.

Tony Miles has written some nice articles on upstream (and conventional) legering.

I'd recommend Archie's Fantastic Feeder fishing too and if you can stretch to it how about spending a day out with Archie on a guided trip? Details at www.braddocksbaits.co.uk from memory. You'll certainly learn a lot that can be used on later sessions and there's no better way to learn new techniques than being shown first hand.

thanks everyone for the info

regards all boon65

Stick to the simple rigs as some anglers try to complicate matters with rig designs more suitable to the space shuttle

Boon, there's quite a lot of stuff on fishing the Trent on here if you have a rummage through the articles section.

Swordsy (Lee Swords...) fishes the river regularly and has penned a few.