Trent

Its been a funny old day and it will come as no surprise that although I managed to get onto the bank it wasnt a raging success. On my way to the River Trent above Long Eaton a car cam out of a side road and clipped the front of my van. And so the theme for the night was set and it didnt put a smile on my face. Now much as I rattle on about enjoying being on the bank a little success wouldnt go amiss. I opted for an open ended feeder with a pellet sandwhich and a 12mm halibut pellet on the hook.
There was interest from the off but it took a while for the tip to wrap around with any conviction, I struck...... and nothing. I reeled in and lifted the rod tip when I guessed the feeder was a rod length out, There was a lange bronze swirl and then it was gone. I dont know if it was a chub or a barbel but I guess it was swimming directly towards me, in an instant it was gone.
And that would be it for the evening, well almost. There was almost constant activety on the tip with some sharp raps but nothing else. A series of raps made me strike again only to find a bream about 8oz had manged to squeeze the size 8 hook into its mouth.
The swim I'd chosen appears to be full of snags and I lost 2 feeders in the proccess of the evening and was forced to switch to a lead and PVA bag approach. Interestingly the action seemed to stop when the feeders were no longer beeing used.
So, any lessons learnt? Well a couple I suppose, open ended feeders created more interest than pva bags, large pellets are a nightmare to keep on nylon hairs (I ended up threading on a piece of silicon tubing between the pellet and the stop), dont forget your torch and if you need to move.....move.
Grrrrr next time!!!