when to call it a day

I've never had the good sense to know when to call it a day, as such I usually end up packing away in the dark. My last session was no different except I intended fishing well into the dark.
I chose the stretch of the Trent above Long Eaton for an evening session as its out of the way, cheap and full of promise. How many times do you decide which swim you're going to fish even before you leave home? I know I do and it takes an earthquake to change my mind. On the way down the bank to my pre chosen swim I passed a guy just leaving who told me he'd been there all day and had a few bits and pieces and even lost a carp in the reeds. At that point 2 things should have occurred to me 1,he's been pre baiting all day for me and 2.theres carp in this swim!
Sadly it didnt occur to me and I walked on! I got to my swim, tackled up, dropped a load of bait in, cast out, sat back and thought....... what the hell is going on on the opposite bank and why have I only just noticed? A mediaeval reinactment show was being set up with cars and people and vans all over the opposite feild. In a rare descisive moment I grabbed my gear and walked back to the now peg I'd missed on the way up.
Finally I was set up where I should have been an hour earlier. I used a bait dropper to introduce pellet, hemp and sweetcorn and an open ended feeder semi fixed with a short hook link and size 6 hook. Bait was a pellet with a grain of plastic corn to keep the hair stop in place. I got many usefull tips from my Pete and one that came to me that night was casting the feeder often, settled for every 20 to 30 minutes.
Bearing in mind I've never had a single fish out of this stretch it was no surprise for mytip to remain motionless. Around dark something strange happened, the tip began to bounce and finally sprang back. i tightened up a turn to see if the feeder had been knocked and couldnt get it tight. I struck and met a satisfying thump, a minute later and a bream about 4lb slid out of the dark and into the net. Duck broken!
In the next 2 hours another 6 followed upto 5lb 4oz. I was on a role and there was almost constant activety on the tip when I reached a crisis point, there was no let up in the activety and I only had a feeder or 2 worth of ground bait left so do I mix more or do I tear myself away and do the grown up thing for work in the morning. Grown up? Responsible? Me? No chance! Then in a strange way I was saved, on casting out I got clumsy and caught my hook length in a bosh behind me and bust it off. That was the deciding factor, I wasnt goingto be tying up a new hook length So I packed away and left.
I reckon in the 2 hours since dark I'd put 30lb of bream on the bank and reckon I could have easily reached 100lb.
Lessons learnt? well always use quiet spells to tie an extra rig or 2 and never march blindly to your pre chosen peg!

Thursday

For my second trip of the week I headed up stream to Long Eaton. I decided to concentrate solely on the feeder rod and once again used the bait dropper. The river if anything looked even slower. Despite my best efforts I couldnt muster a single bite even fishing long into the dark. It occured to me that this is supposed to be a very productive stretch and I have yet to put a single fish on the bank. Any tips?

Monday

Well its been a week of 2 halves. I knew I had a week in Nottingham and decided to take advantage of the good weather and try my luck on the Trent. Monday say me on the Embankment stretch of the Trent opposite the flats. I like this stretch because its reasonably easy to fish and I've had varrying degrees of success there. The draw back is that the banks are concrete and its very busy and open.
I set up a feeder rod with a ground bait and pellet and fished a pellet topped off with a grain of plastic corn (mainly to stop the pellet coming of the hair). In addition I used a bait dropper to bait up the area.
To pass the time out came my float rod and centre pin and ran a stick float through the bottom of the swim. The water was crystal clear and really sluggish and throughout the evening I struggled to get bites. By dusk I'd managed about a dozen perch from a few ounces upto about half a pound/ By dusk I couldn't see the float anymore and decided to concentrate on the feeder rod.
As the light faded the interest in the pellet began and finally the tip went round and resulted in a bream about 5lb. A second smaller bream followed and by midnight I decided enough was enough.

First trip of the year

Its become a bit of a tradition for me to score a big fat blank on my first trip of the year, a trend which barely improves as the year continues! This year I'm proud to say I once again maintained the trend.
As ussual I missed the end of the season and just when I was looking forward to an afternooon on the river. With the time available and having to fit around work it was a toss up between an afternoon at Hackets Lane, a comercial fishery outside of Nottingham, or Beeston canal for an afternoon roving with a pike rod. In the end I opted for the pike option but in the back of my mind I had a feeling I'd made the wrong choice.
I set up a pike rod with a simple sliding float and a dead bait, fishing likely looking spots for 20 to 30 minutes. Sure enough the float refused to move and I spent the hours wishing I'd tried my hand at Hackets Lane.
I've got some time off work coming and I've planned in a days fishing. we'll see!