Alan Scotthorne reflects on recent sessions spent on the mighty River Trent in preparation for the forthcoming Division One National. 

With the Angling Trust Division One National Championship coming up on the River Trent, my Drennan Barnsley Blacks outfit have been putting in some extra practice. The winners of this competition will represent England at next year’s World Club Championship in Slovakia, so it’s a match we naturally want to win!

I have now been to the river on three practice sessions and also fished five matches so I am building some sort of idea of the various tactics needed. I have made a couple of mistakes but also fished one or two good matches so, without giving too much away, I’ll talk you through what has happened. Incidentally, the practice sessions were really good with me catching close to 60lb on one session and a good double figures on the others, but it is on the actual matches where you obviously learn the most.

North Clifton Lessons

My first match was at North Clifton on the tidal part of the match length. At the draw, Peg 11 stuck to my hand. I have fished this stretch before and thought a difficult day was to come, as we were peg for peg and this was a poor area based on most other matches I had fished there.

I had Wayne Bartholomew pegged above me and Simon Fields below and both were of the same opinion that it was going to be a struggle. The water was at the top of the tide as we started and would run off all day, so the conditions would be maintained for the entire match with no ‘split tide’ to change the fishing.

With this in mind, I set up a pole with the intention to fish for roach and a groundbait feeder to catch skimmers and anything else that came my way. I ‘balled in’ on the pole line a mix of Sensas Gros Gardons and River. I would then loose feed casters and hemp over this line but would start on the feeder.

After one hour I had caught just one skimmer around a pound and a quarter and was sat there biteless, so changed to the pole line. Running a 3g rig through the swim produced just a handful of small dace and I felt I was going nowhere – but I did lose a big roach on this line that would ultimately cost me framing.

I went back on the feeder and started to think back to what I would have done when I used to fish the river on a regular basis many years ago. I thought how I would normally change to a block-end maggot feeder, but maggots would probably not be so good as there are so many small dace in the river. This would be a waste of space, so instead of feeding maggots through the feeder I changed to casters and hemp, with a single caster or maggot on the hook to catch all species.

To help the bait leave the feeder I made the holes bigger. This allowed a good proportion of the bait to leave the feeder as it fell through the water and hopefully attract a few fish on the drop. The new tactic was slow to start, but by casting regularly I started to catch odd roach plus one proper skimmer and the occasional silver bream. I was now closing the gap on Simon below me, who had fished short of the middle where he had picked off a few bigger skimmers and some decent silver bream.

River Gear

The flow was very powerful and I needed 3oz to hold bottom. Even when fishing a big bow downstream the feeder was struggling to hold bottom. Incidentally, I use Series 7 BR 9-40 reels for this, as the freespool system is ideal for letting line out to form a bow but with the rod in the air you still see the bites well with the line peeling off the reel slowly.

You need a powerful rod for this but it still needs to have a good playing action so as not to suffer with hook pulls. I have been using the Drennan MatchPro Medium Feeder Combo 11ft 6in to 12ft 6in. They are just perfect for this style of fishing, with the added advantage of using it at the longer length if you draw a snaggy peg to help you get the feeder up quickly. It is important to use a strong, 3oz carbon tip to cope with the flow and also to help exaggerate the drop-back bites you normally get.

For the last two hours I caught steadily to finish the match with a mixed bag for 11lb 9oz and a section win. I also finished 7th overall and first out of the main money.

I really enjoyed this match and I think it helped that Simon fished short on the feeder and Wayne fished three quarters of the way across, giving us all a little more room. Simon finished on 8lb and Wayne did not weigh, but as it was a tough area he made the decision to fish for a barbel all day and go all out for the win. Fair play!

Barbel At Sheldon

My next match was the regular Wednesday open run by Trent maestro Colin Walton on Newark Dyke, East Stoke and Sheldon’s stretches of the natural river above Newark. At the draw it was nice to chat with some old mates from the Trent heyday, like Wayne Swinscoe and Stan Piecha – who was quick to point out that my travelling partner Lee Kerry and I had turned up to try and pinch their money, to which I just greeted with a wry smile!

I found myself drawn on Peg 3 at Sheldon’s with Lee on Peg 23 at East Stoke. No one seemed to think we had drawn particularly well but it was a new day and it’s nice to go with an open mind for these matches. After surveying my peg I was on a sandy shallow beach that didn’t look too inviting with a strong downstream wind.

I felt the only option was a feeder approach. I set up one groundbait feeder with a medium 40g Drennan flat bed Oval Groundbait Feeder, which I added two extra 1/4oz leads to hold bottom and a 3oz maggot feeder. I also set up a heavy Drennan Combo Feeder rod just in case there were a lot of barbel present, as this section is renowned for its barbel fishing.

The groundbait feeder was less than productive. With just a count of three before the feeder hit the deck down the middle of the river and shallower everywhere else I didn’t expect to catch any bream, so I changed to the caster-and-hemp feeder after 30 minutes to see if this would work again.

I soon started to catch roach and dace and had two hours of great fishing before I hooked a small barbel. After a healthy scrap it was in the net. This disrupted the roach fishing and I really struggled for the next hour. I also lost a couple of fish to pike and never really got the rhythm back. I did catch another barbel late on to finish with 17lb. Those two ‘whiskers’ totalled 8lb to go with 9lb of roach and dace for another nice day’s fishing.

I won the section again by default with Alistair Ogilvie winning the match with 53lb of barbel for a great performance. Lee was 3rd with 19lb of skimmers and roach and, once again, I finished first out of the money. This is a good section, however, and come the National I think you will have to catch a decent weight to gain any points. The match could well be won from this section, too.

Back On The Tidal

My next port of call was back on the Tidal for the midweek individual league at South Clifton. Again, I drew a really shallow Peg 20 above where the power station used to be. This was to be a bad match where I fell afoul of not covering my options.

I didn’t fancy this peg for bream so went all out with the caster-and-hemp feeder. Casting two thirds across, all I could muster was a few dace and gave it up as a bad job with two hours of the match left.
I changed to halibut pellets and fished with the same on the hook to try to catch a barbel as I was dead and buried. No bites were forthcoming, so that was a steep learning curve for me, as Terry Morros below me won the match on the waggler with roach and all the leading weights came on the float!

I also drew the scales but this was a good thing as weighing in and checking everyone’s fish there was not one bream or skimmer caught in the full section. Most catches were roach and dace with a few perch thrown in. Food for thought. I always say that you need to know what’s wrong to get it right!

Teams Of Four

Saturday’s match was the teams-of-four league, again on the Tidal reaches. I replaced Dave Brookes on the day and found myself back at North Clifton on a very snaggy Peg 2. After a conversation with Mick Vials I was not looking forward to the fishing, as he warned me to get ready to lose some feeders and most of the fish I hooked!

On arriving at the peg I could see weed beds sticking out of the water 20 metres out. Apparently this is not the problem; it’s the shallow shelf where you lose the fish on the retrieve.

I set up three feeder rods, all at their full length of 12ft 6in, but this time I also rigged up two waggler rods to fish maggots over the weed fringe. As this was a team match and the tide was to run out all day, I decided I would start on the feeder but would also cover my options with the float gear.

I had 30 minutes on the groundbait feeder for one roach and three perch, but every fish got me stuck fast on the ledge on the way in, so I didn’t feel confident of landing anything of any size, so changed to the waggler line.

Feeding heavily with maggots I caught small dace and odd roach all day to finish with just short of 12lb and another default section win with 13lb framing. I probably had over 200 fish and was kept nice and busy. I was also pleased to win as a team on the day with two section wins, a 2nd and a 5th to close the gap on the leaders.

On the waggler I fished a 3.5g Drennan fully loaded peacock float with a hollow plastic top and fed four pints of maggots. It was like going back to my youth and again I really enjoyed the day!

A Struggle At Winthorpe

Sunday’s 150-peg match at Winthorpe and Holme Marsh was a difficult one for me. I drew Peg 1 at Winthorpe but all the leading weights were at Holme Marsh, with bream dominating this section. Just 1.5kg won my section, so it really was not the place to draw!

There is a lot of fish spread across much the river now, however, with tons of fry in the margins everywhere you sit, so it looks really good for the future.

Tight lines!