Take a friend fishing

Date fished 21/08/2021

8am until 3pm 

Todays trip was quite different. I made use of the Angling Trust's offer and took an old friend fishing. We fished the Trent at Stoke Bardolph, a day ticket stretch. 

We arrived and parked right behind our swim (25), perfect as it was supposed to get wet later. As we set up, fish were already rolling. 

The swim was wide enough for us both to sit together and not too steep that the bank was slippery. I started with 15mm pellets on a ledger and Susan had 6mm pellets on the feeder filled with bread crumb. 

After a short while of no bites and a chat with the bailiff, I decided to change to worms. The likelihood of a Barbel in the day was slim to zero and with worms we could catch any variety of silvers, Perch or Bream. This proved a good choice, as soon as I had changed baits, the rods were bouncing with the usual knocks. 

I was casting the upstream rod to the same spot. Without the line clipped but out of all the casts in the day I can honestly say 99% were exactly on the spot! 

This accuracy surely helped and most of the constant taps were on this rod. But it was my rod that actually went first though, a small Roach pulling the bait runner as it fled the scene! 

Then the heavens opened. First a few spots, and then a bit more. The brolly was quickly set up and the swim was even more perfect.

The bites were still constant on Susan's rod and eventually she had her first fish. A greedy Perch her prize. 

As we fished on, we missed more bites. It was however no problem. We were out to have a catch up and chat, the fishing was just a bonus. The rain stopped and the sun came out, the brolly was now a parasol! The sun dried all the kit, so we decided to pack away before the next rain came. 

As I looked out on another river, I vowed I would be back.