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Frustrated on the the trent

M

Michael Radford

Senior Member
Had a day on the trent yesterday Fiskerton area been fishing same spot about every 10 days for 2 seasons exactly the same method day time only always glugged spam punched 15mmx20mm hair rigged. Always caught 3 to 5 barbel and odd chub never failed 2 rods. Yesterday I failed partly 2 fish 1.5lb each only 2 bites 10am to 6pm recasting one rod every 15mins what is worrying me is every time I wound in the bait was gone no sign of a bite. that doesn't normally happen. Has any body on here had similar. I was using greys prodigy with 4oz tips
 
If your bait is the same brand/condition/method of mounting as usual then I suppose the first thing I'd do is reel in one rod every 5 minutes and see if you're being 'whittled' away (crayfish/small eels/tiddlers whatever).
 
I wasn't aware there were crayfish there. Would armour mesh work or spoil bait presentation. I have only been doing this a couple of seasons do u really think tiddlers are capable.
 
Michael Radford said:
I wasn't aware there were crayfish there. Would armour mesh work or spoil bait presentation. I have only been doing this a couple of seasons do u really think tiddlers are capable.
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Depends how soft your meat is (steady boys :eek: ). Strangest thing is that you're using a quiver tip and not getting any indications. I'd be surprised if there weren't any crays in where your fishing, and armour mesh doesn't seem to put carp/tench off so worth a shot I suppose.
 
Cray fish/The dreaded mitten. Sometimes casting short or long or down the swimming will sort this out. If you keep casting in same area, it will keep happening etc. As above, give the spam time limits etc.
 
May be worth reducing the odds (of your soft bait being interfered with) by using a boilie, or other harder bait? Nice to get to the bottom of these mysteries, but perhaps not at the expense of blanking (not that you did). Or maybe try a different spot?
 
Drop a bit of spam in the margins and watch the fry destroy it in short order . My guess is that tiddlers or crabs / crayfish are getting a free meal at your expense , as others have said try a hard bait or cast / fish somewhere else . Long shot , ditch the Greys rods and try a posher make , Barbel can be such snobs at times ,I'll get my coat ......
 
Fished spam on the tidal last week, 2 x 8mm pieces, one hour between casts. Not a touch... wierd seemed totally devoing of fish.
 
Michael Radford said:
Had a day on the trent yesterday Fiskerton area been fishing same spot about every 10 days for 2 seasons exactly the same method day time only always glugged spam punched 15mmx20mm hair rigged. Always caught 3 to 5 barbel and odd chub never failed 2 rods. Yesterday I failed partly 2 fish 1.5lb each only 2 bites 10am to 6pm recasting one rod every 15mins what is worrying me is every time I wound in the bait was gone no sign of a bite. that doesn't normally happen. Has any body on here had similar. I was using greys prodigy with 4oz tips
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How about trying a new tactic. Fry the meat a little to toughen it up a bit.
I also read some articles that were posted on here saying, use sweet flavours like scopex can deter eels.
Laurence Breakspere offererd his thoughts on this subject not long ago on the forum.
Do a quick search on Luncheon meat, on this site, and see what you find.
 
Well. I've just prepped some good old Spam baits, for the coming months ahead.
Toughened a little by frying lightly in paprika, & chili seasoning.
Not going on much experience here, but thought I'd give it a go.
Could easily of gone straight out of the tin, but nothing ventured and all that....
IMG_20210815_145730.jpg
 
Julian Griffiths said:
Well. I've just prepped some good old Spam baits, for the coming months ahead.
Toughened a little by frying lightly in paprika, & chili seasoning.
Not going on much experience here, but thought I'd give it a go.
Could easily of gone straight out of the tin, but nothing ventured and all that....
View attachment 16017
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I did the same with spam last season and after bringing the bait in after well over an hour it still had a strong smell.
 
Michael Radford said:
Had a day on the trent yesterday Fiskerton area been fishing same spot about every 10 days for 2 seasons exactly the same method day time only always glugged spam punched 15mmx20mm hair rigged. Always caught 3 to 5 barbel and odd chub never failed 2 rods. Yesterday I failed partly 2 fish 1.5lb each only 2 bites 10am to 6pm recasting one rod every 15mins what is worrying me is every time I wound in the bait was gone no sign of a bite. that doesn't normally happen. Has any body on here had similar. I was using greys prodigy with 4oz tips
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Michael I was on a quiet stretch of the tidal on the same day experiencing the same problems. I did a 20 hour overnighter. I was using hard pellets that were completely taken in short order. Swapped to boilies the same. I put it down to mitten crabs. Normal at this time of year for the past two seasons. They weren't fish causing the problems. I had two small barbel in the 1-2 lb class with no dye markings which is a promising sign.
 
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