Exploring a tributary of the river Trent

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The venue

In today's article I explore a small tributary of the river Trent in Nottinghamshire.

This tiny brook ranges in width from as little as 4ft wide to about 20ft at its widest point and is mostly very shallow. There are a few deeper glides here and there and these are the areas where I expect to find fish.

As the brook is connected to the famous river Trent less than a mile down stream it has a good range of species with the most commonplace being chub, minnow and dace. In the months of spring bigger chub up to 3lbs move up the shallow waterway to spawn. They seem to hang around in the summer months before heading back to the deeper water of the main river as it starts to cool down. With it now being early November I expect it will just be a case of seeing what the venue has to offer and any big fish would be a bonus.

Tackle

Rod

A light 13ft match rod with a soft action tip.

A shorter rod between 10 and 12ft would be sufficient for such a venue but I use the 13ft because it's easier to lift fish over nearside vegetation.

Reel

Shakespeare agility 3000.

Mainline

3lb Maxima

The rig

I chose a small dumpy waggler that takes about 3bb shot. In most cases the float would be trotted no further out than the end of the rod. No extra weight was needed for casting and controling the float would be very easy.

I shotted the float with the bulk of the shot around the float and a small no.6 dropper shot about 5 or 6 inches from the hook.

With these fish hardly ever fished for and no need for too much finesse I decided to fish a 3lb mainline straight through to a size 18 kamasan b911 hook. The extra strength of the b911 would help handle any bonus fish that where hooked but still be delicate enough to catch the intended smaller species.

The session

After walking up and down the venue a few times during the summer months watching the bigger chub that then occupied the shallow glides I had taken note of a couple of deeper holes where I thought fish may hold up during the months of winter. After a ten minute walk I arrived at the first swim where I thought there could be the possibility of a fish or two. The swim was a deep hole at the end of a shallow glide where I had seen fish in summer and seemed the ideal place for fish to shoal up. I fed a few maggots hoping to entice any fish in the area to feed and ran my waggler float down the deeper channel but after giving the swim half an hour without so much as a nibble I picked up my kit and headed off in search of a new swim still hopeful that at some point I would be able to locate a fish or two. Heading off upstream I had another spot in mind near a small bridge where I had seen fish in summer and although only shallow I thought it was the type of place that could possibly hold fish all year round. This area though also proved fruitless.

I had one last swim in mind which I had walked past on the way to the bridge and looked ideal. This was my banker swim. There was a long shallow glide above the swim and the depth suddenly dropped away from 10 inches to about 3ft. The river here flowed slowly under a large overhanging tree on the nearside of the river. I adjusted the depth on the float to suit the chosen swim and kept feeding a few maggots little and often. I could see the tiny flash from the flank of the minnows present as they intercepted my loosefeed. I swung out the float which trotted down the peg a couple of feet before it dipped and slid away awarding me with a prestine dace of just a few inches long.

I recast after returning the dace and had a succession of minnows every one being a perfect example of the tiny species. It then took a while to entice a few more fish into the peg after a quite spell. After a few trots down without a bite the float eventually slid away and a small chub was lifted above the undergrowth.

The session turned out to be very enjoyable with a few more small dace and chublets putting in an appearance in amongst the minnows and I even managed a rare three spine stickleback and a tiny perch which would one day grow on to prey on the abundance of small fish and had the potential to become a specimen of the species.

I have spent days and nights targeting specimen fish of many species but there is just something special about having a wonder with minimal kit and fishing simple float tactics catching small fish that take me back to the days spent catching tiny species such as minows and sticklebacks as a kid.

I left for home after a lovely couple of hours with the intentions of coming back when the leaves are on the trees and the flowers are in bloom to target the big chub that inhabit the brook in the summer months.