Lee Swords Fishing

As I searched through some of my old articles looking for suitable stuff to post on the website I found one from 2003 to be of great interest to me. In it I had laid down my desires to capture a 20lb Trent Carp, a 14lb Barbel and a Zander of any size.

Well the Zander I nailed not that long after writing the article and the Barbel I nabbed at the beginning of this season (2012) but the Carp still eludes me at the time of writing, however that could change as the river is currently running over the banks which means the carp will be pressing together close in one or two of my flood swims so as soon as it is safe to get back on the river I will be having a crack at them.

The area I will be fishing has the potential to do both a 20lb carp and a 15lb barbel, plus it may even have a little added spice in its” bun mix” because I also think that it may hold some good Zander, massive Chub and at least one Wells Catfish of around 15lb! ( I know the Wells is there because I saw it last season mooching around a reed bed).

When I do get back on the Trent I will be fishing some seriously weird fusion tactics on the “sleeper rod” involving baits like ‘pulled’ sardine heads that dangle all the blood and guts and chunks of fresh coarse dead’s plus other baits such as lobworm medusa balls so there really is no reason why I shouldn’t bag something a little special.

I also have to admit that looking at the results of last winters chub fishing I should really fancy my chances of a very, very special chub…I was on a roll with the Chevins in 2011  bagging fish of 6lb, 6lb 1oz, 6lb 3oz. 6lb 4oz, 6lb 12oz and a whole raft of fish over 5lb and already this season I have landed two chub over 6lb so you cannot blame me for having a bit of confidence on the chub front. Do I think I will get a 7lb fish? Quite possibly, I can see no reason why not , they are there. I have seen the pictures….Do they go bigger?

I believe they do…I trod on a bullhead last season whilst fishing and it floated up between my feet whilst I was baiting up. Now I always take this as divine providence and so the unlucky little chap ended up on a size 11 owner Ischema and lobbed out to a nice crease. A few minutes later the rod slammed round.

Now the bite looked like a chub bite…the fight felt like a chub fight…except one thing…I couldn’t really shift it much. The fight lasted a couple of minutes before the hook pulled, I was gutted because whatever was on the end of the line was special.

The next cast produced a chub of 5lb 12oz and the one after a chub of 5lb 4oz and the one after a chub of just under 5lb and the one after another 5 plusser.

So there were a lot of chub in the area and they were of a good size…but none of them had the weight of the one I lost, the one I lost on a weird little bait that would have been overlooked by 99% of anglers. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Of course my main lines of attack for the chub will have to be something a little more conventional than a bullhead that’s been trodden on  and depending on weather and air and water temperature  it will be either a lump of cheese paste or a big flake of white bread.

And I will not be overlooking the barbel either, once the river has settled down I expect I will have a very good time of it because I know the barbel will be well and truly on the feed if the temperature stays steady or even rises slightly as I bagged a nice quartet a couple of weeks back from one of my tidal banker swims…well they are banker swims for me but there were a few chaps nearby struggling with their big bright winter carp style boilies. Now you have to understand that there are similarities in Carp and Barbel but they are not the same and also the river Trent is different to an over stocked one acres mud pit, the only other chaps near me that did well were a young fellow fishing maggot he had 3 fish, Melvyn the bailiff fishing caster who had the hot peg and pulled out a 6-3 combination of Bream to Barbel, my mate Dan who had one and lost one on small meat baits and myself that had a quad and lost one on a sharp snag using lobworms.

Yep, the fish were well and truly on the feed! Hopefully the weather will settle and we can get a good winter run in before we are forced off the river and have to leave it to the mercy of Mr. Crabrovski and his able helper Petre .

Last season I was too busy chasing Climax Points with the Angling Star to get too involved in the big barbel fishing shenanigans that generally mark the last few weeks of the season so this year I will admit to being very excited about the whole thing, My one hope is that I catch the same fish that broke my old barbel PB at 13lb 8oz because she was a huge fish, very long and very lean and if I am lucky enough to get her on the scales and she has filled out to her maximum proportions I will be looking at a fish of easily 15lb!

It’s only a few ounce, not like my good friend and occasional fishing partner Dan Stewart Smith’s son Mathew’s attack on his Pike PB…Before he landed his 20lb plusser he had not had a pike over 12lb, so that was some serious jump in his PB list he made there. Awesome!

Ok, I better leave this website filling Malarkey. for a while, I have some DIY to do. Paints have been chosen from the long and elaborate lists that separates differing shades of white by allocating them romantic and emotive names such as Syrian Linen (Off white with a splash of blood) Egyptian Cotton (Matt white with a hint of gun smoke) or my personal favourite Libyan Freedom (Oily white with hints of western gold).

I think we need to send the Arabs some fishing gear, it will help mellow them out a bit and give them something different to do an a Friday afternoon after they have finished head butting the floor!!