Patchy Sport In Poor Weather

My fishing matches have been patchy to say the least recently! Not too surprising in this weather, though. On the Soar qualifier at Sutton Bonnington I drew opposite the pub car park. With everyone enjoying a beer in the sunshine the bream and skimmers were never going to be anywhere near all of that noise.

I had a nice start catching perch on the feeder then just ran out of bites. I weighed 2lb 14oz with 4lb winning the section and about 9lb winning the zone with skimmers from the last peg. It was never going to be a spectacular match in the searing conditions and a clear and sluggish river, but there’s always half a chance when it fishes hard…

Sadly, the Feedermasters qualifier on the Trent was cancelled, but that gave me a chance to have a day off and watch my daughter earn her orange belt in Karate, which was really nice! I then had a great couple of days coaching at the brilliant Packington and Dog Lane fisheries, before a long trek north, full of anticipation for the Tidal Trent qualifier at Collingham.

I caught my PB 11lb 10oz specimen there last year, so I was really fired up with lots of big-fish taming gear. We knew it would fish hard, but no one predicted quite how much the river would switch off. I had one bite and missed it. Like most people in my zone, I couldn’t even get a sucked maggot! However, I had a next-peg lesson off Trent expert Phil Foster who had four bites and four fish; two chub and two bream for 12lb 7oz. That astonishingly was enough to win the entire match and just 5lb 8oz framed!

The other big surprise was just how much the tide came in. It even took the experts by surprise and I was starting to think we’d have to move our vans! Still nice to be sat in river, a bit like Otis Redding, just sittin’ on the dock of the bay…