Mark Wintle
Well-known member
All the documentation I have points to the Severn barbel coming from the Enbourne which is a Kennet tributary, not to be confused with the Bourne which is a Hants. Avon tributary.
I hate the Trent
- Thread starter sam vimes
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cg74
Well-known member
But to confuse matters further there is a Thames tributary called the river Bourne, or often 'The Bourne' - It flows through Chertsey and has a truly natural indigenous "wild" population of barbel; which I have fished for and caught.
Speaking of "wild". It is IMO this line that changed the whole tone on this thread: "They are all stocked barbel waters! The Trent is wild!"
It's not like the poster was even covert with his intentions............
Skippy, I wasn't saying the Trent is too easy, or easy is a bad thing. For my part I was curious as to whether now Sam has clearly cracked the Trent, he'd enjoy it as his local water because I know I wouldn't be keen on having the middle or lower Severn as my local river, due to its easy nature.
Same as I don't often fish Clattercote, some say it can be tricky but I'd deem it as rather predictable - Not saying its a bad thing; each to there own!
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sam vimes
Well-known member
I've not come close to cracking the Trent. I may have cracked (I haven't) it at a specific location, in specific conditions, at a certain part of the year with a specific method and bait. There are several hundred miles of river where I could blank with the best of them.
I do have half a mind on transferring the methodology to other stretches of the Trent (particularly to areas considered harder or well fished with other methods) and even my local river. However, the temptation to go where I know it's likely to work, when conditions are right, is very strong.
Sorry, I like catching fish.
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Sorry, I like catching fish.
I like rib eye steak but I wouldn't want it every day.
cg74
Well-known member
I've not come close to cracking the Trent. I may have cracked (I haven't) it at a specific location, in specific conditions, at a certain part of the year with a specific method and bait. There are several hundred miles of river where I could blank with the best of them.
I do have half a mind on transferring the methodology to other stretches of the Trent (particularly to areas considered harder or well fished with other methods) and even my local river. However, the temptation to go where I know it's likely to work, when conditions are right, is very strong.
Sorry, I like catching fish.
IMO regardless of species, if somewhere is subject to angling pressure, the age old (over used) saying comes into play - 'do something different'
Everyone fishes a feeder - then fish a float (like you have).
Everyone fishes over a big bed of bait - introduce bait gradually.
Everyone fishes a roving style - fish static and draw the fish.
"I like catching fish" - and that's what it's all about!
sam vimes
Well-known member
We may differ there because I do have a nasty tendency to do (or eat) the same things for as long as it takes to get sick of it. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on the point of view, I'll never get to fish the Trent often enough to get sick of it. I'll never get chance to fish often enough to get sick of fishing, regardless of the venue.
stuart mitchell
Well-known member
WHAT!!!!!....no angling history on the trent.....?????????.....that is the most idiotic statment i have ever seen posted........i guess you don't remember the 3-4-5 hundred peg opens ......ivan marks....ian heaps...benny ashurst.......the list is endless........i'm a southern lad..and even i know that!!!....the thames?...what history does that have??...ok the hants avon is well known and does have the pedigree....but is now vastly overated....!
The bad one
Well-known member
And the countless club matches from all over the NW and Midlands, week in week out, Saturday and Sunday from the 1960s to the early/mid 90s.
At one point in the late 70s our work's club were having to book matches in the Holmes Marsh area 3 years in advance.
S-Kippy
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Sorry, I like catching fish.
Blimey
...dont apologise,I like catching fish too. I like catching barbel most of all but sadly I dont anymore because "my" river [The Kennet] got infested with signals. It changed from a river where I could reasonably expect to catch anything from 6-10 barbel in a session on a variety of methods to one where I was lucky to get a fish at all and only then if the crays left me alone. I was slowly but surely driven off a river I loved as stretch after stretch fell to Captain Cray which I simply could not tolerate. When it meant fishing through those things for maybe one fish at last knockings [or often not] I gave up my tickets and have not been back since.I've caught barbel from my local River Colne but the Colne is a river with barbel in rather than a barbel river if you get my drift. They are not that hard to catch if you can find them but they can be very hard to find. It doesn't suit someone with limited angling time like me.
Jealous ? You bet I am. I would dearly love to be able to fish a "proper" river regularly but The Wye,The Severn,The Trent etc are all too far to contemplate.
Its the Trent's turn at the moment but this too will pass.
sam vimes
Well-known member
I don't know of anything specific (others might) but it went from being match mecca (roach, chub and bream) to barely worth fishing. Match weights dropped or stretches became very peggy. Then people, particularly the match fraternity who discovered muddy holes in a big way, stopped going.
Then, somewhere a little further down the line, the barbel started to take over.
Blimey
I'm not really sorry.
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peter crabtree
AKA Simon, 1953 - 2022 (RIP)
How about an FM Trent barbel only match if they're so easy.
Lots of big barbel in our keepnets at the all out..Tip 'em and weigh 'em..
Sounds like fun.
Lots of big barbel in our keepnets at the all out..Tip 'em and weigh 'em..
Sounds like fun.
cg74
Well-known member
If I can make the date - yes. Make it interesting - Float only?
Yep put me down, its been years since I last done some stret pegging.
ravey
Well-known member
Bottlerocket, the Trent 'died' in the 1991/2 season. No-one seems to know why, even now, but it was almost an overnight occurrence.
I started to fish the river in the summer of 1989, and after beginning to get to grips with the stick float, my second full season saw much improved catches. Looking forward to my third season, I was in for a shock. I was not alone - everyone seemed to be struggling. There were big matches where swathes of very capable anglers failed to catch a single fish. This went on for a couple of years. If people did catch, it was in isolated pockets, and match fishing - as a measure of skill - became essentially futile; the serious match anglers had had enough, and emigrated to the canals and commercial fisheries for the sake of consistency.
People blame the shut down of the powerstations, but for every theory, there seems to be an exception to the rule. Winter matches were a lottery, and often limited to one lucky/persistent angler managing a couple of chub. Others pointed to the increasing clarity, sewage etc. The only thing I can identify is that the downturn in sport coincided (roughly) with the privatisation of the water industry.
Sport seemed to pick up in the 1994/5 season, and improved from then on until I had to pack in fishing in the autumn of 1997. The roach fishing was great for me during this period, but since my return to fishing in 2002, chub seem to be more scarce, as are silver bream and carp. However, the barbel have really boomed. They are caught in sections of the river where they never used to show. Perch have got bigger, and last season, the margins in an area I fish regularly were thick with gonks. Minnows seemed to be far more numerous than they were, and a good year for dace survival about three years ago made them as much of a problem as bleak used to be at times. There are some good dace around, but I seem to catch fewer of the bigger ones these days.
All said, though, I don't care if I never fish another river. The Trent's plenty for me to be getting on with.
I started to fish the river in the summer of 1989, and after beginning to get to grips with the stick float, my second full season saw much improved catches. Looking forward to my third season, I was in for a shock. I was not alone - everyone seemed to be struggling. There were big matches where swathes of very capable anglers failed to catch a single fish. This went on for a couple of years. If people did catch, it was in isolated pockets, and match fishing - as a measure of skill - became essentially futile; the serious match anglers had had enough, and emigrated to the canals and commercial fisheries for the sake of consistency.
People blame the shut down of the powerstations, but for every theory, there seems to be an exception to the rule. Winter matches were a lottery, and often limited to one lucky/persistent angler managing a couple of chub. Others pointed to the increasing clarity, sewage etc. The only thing I can identify is that the downturn in sport coincided (roughly) with the privatisation of the water industry.
Sport seemed to pick up in the 1994/5 season, and improved from then on until I had to pack in fishing in the autumn of 1997. The roach fishing was great for me during this period, but since my return to fishing in 2002, chub seem to be more scarce, as are silver bream and carp. However, the barbel have really boomed. They are caught in sections of the river where they never used to show. Perch have got bigger, and last season, the margins in an area I fish regularly were thick with gonks. Minnows seemed to be far more numerous than they were, and a good year for dace survival about three years ago made them as much of a problem as bleak used to be at times. There are some good dace around, but I seem to catch fewer of the bigger ones these days.
All said, though, I don't care if I never fish another river. The Trent's plenty for me to be getting on with.
Well no. For a start the Trent does not have any meanders, its just a big flooded ditch.
Yes, I suppose if we go back donkeys years there was the odd match or two and some bloke called the Trent Vole or something fished it but to compare it to the old father ? ...oh come on ! ...Britains biggest and most famous waterway. Even ouitside the UK everyone knows the Thames.
Who has really heard of the Trent ? ..outside a tiny circle of UK anglers and in the grand scheme of things – no one !
ravey
Well-known member
A car crime boom in the mid 1990s didn't help the poularity of the Trent, and many landowners simply denied access (they are expected to pick the bill up for clearing burnt-out cars away). By this time, the match regulars had settled in to commercial fisheries, with all the convenience they offer. They had also become used to parking behind their pegs. Ever poorer access has deterred any return to the river (I expect this is a problem with many other rivers), even if the risk of having their car stolen is not as bad as previous thanks to modern security.
Hope this sheds some light.
Hope this sheds some light.
chub_on_the_block
Well-known member
Great post Ravey. Only thing about 1991/2 i can think is that was the first big drought since 1976 - some southern chalk rivers dried up then after 2-3 years of drought. I have heard that sewage consents were sometimes relaxed prior to privatisation (1989?) giving the private sector several years grace before they were expected to meet them (dont know if this is true or not, or how widely if it was).
Sounds like a clean river now.
I have never fished the Trent - or the Wye or the Severn. So two barbel in a day is about the best i have ever had (on a southern ditch). Nearly got to Burton Joyce in the early 80s when my south London club went up there for a Sunday coach trip, but i missed it. That shows the draw of the Trent at the time - a 300 mile round trip!
Sounds like a clean river now.
I have never fished the Trent - or the Wye or the Severn. So two barbel in a day is about the best i have ever had (on a southern ditch). Nearly got to Burton Joyce in the early 80s when my south London club went up there for a Sunday coach trip, but i missed it. That shows the draw of the Trent at the time - a 300 mile round trip!
I only have one fault with the Trent is that it flows North Easterly, it plays havoc trying to float fish for Barbel and any other fish in the prevailing South Westers.
I still cant believe there is so many knockers of possibly the finest Barbel river in the country and long it may continue. It has by far the highest catchment area of water of any river in the UK, the discharge is second to the Tay, has its foundations set in Gravel and as far as I have seen isnt affected by Mr Cuddly's face of conservation.
defo up for a float only Barbel match, as long as its catch and release, which is good practice.
I still cant believe there is so many knockers of possibly the finest Barbel river in the country and long it may continue. It has by far the highest catchment area of water of any river in the UK, the discharge is second to the Tay, has its foundations set in Gravel and as far as I have seen isnt affected by Mr Cuddly's face of conservation.
defo up for a float only Barbel match, as long as its catch and release, which is good practice.