It's Official

Angling Times report today something we as Trent regulars have known for years.

The Headline reads: "Trent is back with a Bang!

There are even people who have said that the river was dead!!

Silly stupid people!! They are people with little imagination and even less fishing skills.

During the past.5 years I have had some of the best fishing of my life in the Trent, and there have been many who have done better than me.

WHY, FOR GOODNESS SAKE HAVE SOME STUPID PEOPLE WRITTEN THIS RIVER OFF AS DEAD??

I ask this with tears in my navy blue eyes!

Why are some people so stupid when the truth is out there - on the Trent bank, to people who really know how to fish a river?

I don't often use caps lock in my writing but I am trying to make a point

I started fishing the trent about 18 mounths ago ron because id been hearing of some great catches for about five years and decided i couldnt ignore them anymore.
I dont know if you can recall but some very well known anglers wrote the river off.
I know u've been around for a long long time ron so u'll know all waters have thire ups and downs so its no supprise really.
Did anyone see the angling times yesterday casting aspirtions about the size of the 16+ that was in the mail last week.
Does anyone outthere have any idea why theyve questioned the size.
They havent actually acused the man of lying but thier wording is very dodgy.

Ron,

The Trents a terrible river. I've only done one overnighter on it (last season) and I didn't get a wink of sleep.

If it wasn't the 5-6lb bream pulling the rod over it was the barbel or chub. Not the place to go for a nice peacefull night....

That's true mate. It doesn't suit the bivvy boys. All those fish, all those bites and all that activity.

No chance to sleep on the Trent.

It's no bloody good.

those in the 'know' know the Trent is alive and well, right the way up and past Stone....barbel, chub and dace galore!my recent short evening sessions have ended early as I have run out of bait....

the river is thriving at the moment, just need to keep it quiet eh Ron?

Yes, I think we must. Or the blinking circus will be rolling up.

When the original Trent is dead headline was splashed across the Times I invited Richard Lee to join me for a night on the promise that I would show him another side to the river.

He came along and I took around 70 pounds of chub, bream, eels and barbel. He was gobsmacked and couldn't believe the size of the fish I had.

Credit to him, he arranged for me to do a feature on the stretch I fished (daytime) and I had a few chub and barbel to order so at least the publicity for the river achieved a degree of balance.

I'm more concerned by this week's banner headlines suggesting the river is lifting with fish. It most certainly is not!

Look again at the results. One and a half pounds would have given you great points in any section. Look closer - Denis White 290 grammes, Colin Walton 80 grammes. This pair won dozens and dozens of matches in the Trent's glory days.

The Trent produced in this match because conditions were spot-on. We'd had enough rain to lift the river a few feet in midweek and it ran off to just above normal level on saturday with a tinge of colour.

Had the match been tomorrow it would have been a disaster.

Yes, big bags can be taken by anglers who sit on fish and, yes, it is an interesting big fish river. It is not, and probably never will be, a match river. It may never be again in my lifetime.

I think Ron has a thing about the circus. Possibly had a bad experience with a clown when he was a nipper! (Ron, you've two threads running about circuses on this site alone)

Bob,

Your comments are as accurate as ever.

And now for the Circus.

When I returned to UK back in 1994 after living for many years in Africa, I met a lot of old friends who described what the big fish scene had become. They told me of the mob who spend all their time with their ears to the ground in a frantic effort to find out where the biggest fish are being taken. If a big fish is caught, they get there en masse irrespective of distance, and camp on the spot until that same fish, or a fish nearly as big is taken. Then they photograph the poor fish to death in order to make the big fish pages on the AT or AM; and by doing so get some sort of accolade, be it a Drennan Prize or fame of some strange kind.

When I fished the River Leam in Warks, I had a tremendous catch one winter's day. I took a couple of pictures and spoke of my catch to a friend in as pub, and my local tackle dealer.

The next Saturday there were 30 odd cars parked up the Offchurch Road next to the Leam. The river was populated with several bivvies and at least 40 other anglers.

Those of you who have seen this little river will know how stupid this must have looked.

Yes, the circus is real. If someone catches a 20 pound barbel from the Trent, what do you think would happen?

It would be Chipperfield's in attendance and I'll bet most of the license discs on the cars are from the Inner M25!!

I still think the circus is entertaining...though the 'Big Top' now tends to be given up for the more popular and smaller less conspicuous tents, usually green.

As Bob says, the match days have probably gone on most sections now, though it is possible to drop on huge amounts of fish-these pegs become known and hey presto, 3 weeks later they are fished out.

Just for the record Ron, little trip Sun evening, 7 til 9.30, had 31 barbel, around 15 chub and a couple of dozen dace -and a bream! nothing huge, but good fun on a couple of pints of scrounged maggots and a waggler rod.

Glad to hear it Billy.

When is your circus going to arrive?

never Ron, I 'm quite happy doing my own thing, relaxing on the Dove, summer chubbing, late evening barbeling, occasional lower Severn trip, plenty of Autumn trips to the middle Severn, never gonna catch a 'monster', but I sure enjoy it!

Dave,

Now that's what I like to hear.

Whoi knows you just might catch a biggy.

I?ve read the comments on the Trent with interest especially Bob Robert?s. It has long been my suspicion that the Trent is becoming more like the Hants Avon. The fish are much bigger and more importantly much more localised. That the days of the plenty of small roach, chub, gudgeon etc in every peg have gone, unlikely to return is not in doubt, and gone with it is large scale match fishing. I fished the Trent in the seventies and eighties and watched Div 1 in 80 83 & 87. It was never that fair, the pegging was always much too tight, and it always took tremendous skill to get the best out of the river. I was shocked, fishing Div 3 in 77, to see our team get 3 blanks. So Denis White struggling was always on the cards. (Not sure John Dean knew what struggling was!).
To catch the big fish of today for the most part the waggler and stick (and pole) skills are largely redundant; like the Avon where 30 years ago maggots would get you dace all day now you need to use pellet, boilies, hair-rigs, and a lot more skill in location to find the much fewer and bigger fish. But then the Trent had changed dramatically from the early 60s of stick and caster to wag & mag to feeder and pole so it has never been static as methods and fish populations have changed.
The Trent never died it just evolved, I only wish it wasn?t 200 miles away. Enjoy it for what it is (probably 100 times better than the Avon?).

you could be right Ron ;o)

Mark,

Yours is one of the most sensible and balanced comments on the Trent that I have read in ages.

You're absolutely right, the Trent has evolved, for the better as far as I am concerned.

It's now very much a natural river, like the River The Trent Otter knew in the 1870s and 1880s.

And by the way my friend Mick Lomas catches barbel trotting a float at times too.

is there another way Ron?