Tidal Trent Success on Ambergris Baits!
Well after the last session on the Tidal Trent left me
scratching my head as to why I only had a chub to show for my efforts, I was
itching to get back on the bank and land a few barbel on the Orca and Minke
boilies from Ambergris Baits.
Arriving back into Doncaster at around 7-30pm it was a
mad dash to get all the tackle together and head down the A1. After glancing at
the EA river level website in my lunch break, the water level had risen ever so
slightly following rain over night and I was hoping this would be the trigger
for them to get their heads down and feed.
As usual I put a bed of bait out on my upstream rod and then
rested the swim, giving the fish chance to move in and feel confident feeding
over the chosen area. Setting both rods up whilst resting the swim I used my
usual approach of 12lb main line running feeder and a 2 ft braid hook length.
Fishing the Orca boilies and paste on my upstream rod and
Minke boilies on the downstream both were fished on a similar line, this means
any particles in my feed that drift downstream will be aiding the presentation
of the downstream rod. This has worked well for me in the past and I usually
pick up the bigger fish from this rod as oppose to the upstream rod which
generally picks up the shoal fish.
Unfortunately a few hours passed without a single knock,
at this point you start questioning ever little element of your set up,
approach, swim, hook size and bait, just
to name a few. Having not caught a barbel on the Ambergris before it was clear
at this moment I had fallen into a comfort zone with the Teme Severn baits.
Using new bait is all about confidence, you can see photograph after photograph
of other anglers catching on the bait but until you see your rod tips slam
around then I guess your confidence levels are on the rocks.
Having had no interest for 2 hours I fed the swim again
on the upstream rod, however this time I was purposefully more accurate, line
clipping up and re casting the feeder 15 or so time filling the feeder with
hemp plugged at either end with a sticky ground bait, a few sharp bounces on
the river bed emptied the feeder comfortably. Removing the fixed feeder and
replacing it with the running set up, I cast out again onto the line clip. Standing and watching the rod tips waiting for that all important aggressive knock.
Typically it was the downstream rod that slammed over
first and picking the rod up...it was mayhem! The whole tripod decided it had
had enough as well and went over end into the Trent, submerging the alarms (at
this point I was grateful I had learnt my lesson from the first time this had
happened and spent slightly more on 100% waterproof alarms). Korum clearly need
to do a lot more testing on their products because this isn’t the only time it
has happened, probably the 10th!! With the fish putting up a good fight hugging
the bottom all the way into the shallows before giving up and rising to the
surface, showing its bronze flank. Weighed and photographed she was returned
quickly. Instantly my confidence in the baits was sky high, at 8-03 she had
taken a liking to the double Minke boilies.
A few minutes later the upstream rod banged hard and then
bent over double engaging the bait runner, this fish came into the net far
easier than the first, but was a hell of a lot more lively on the bank! Weighing
7-13 this fish had fallen to double Orca boilies wrapped in paste. The paste
from Ambergris Baits is something I have been very impressed with, it moulds
easily and stays in place for ages breaking down at a steady rate, demonstrating
how good the paste is, it was still wrapped around the boilies after removing
the hook from the barbel’s bottom lip!
At 1-45am we called it a night and headed home. Having only landed two fish it still felt like it
had been a very successful session taking barbel on both baits i am testing. Confidence is sky high once again! I can’t wait to get out again next weekend and continue
from where I left off...GET ON AMBREGRIS BAITS!!
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