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Weed Problem of a Different Kind

Paul Hayes

Paul Hayes

Senior Member
A very rare occurence me asking for help

On the Upper Trent for the last few years we have had a quite a problem with drifting weed. This is not streamer weed which breaks off and drifts down in bits it's thick green blanket weed which comes down in clumps with monotonous regularity forcing me to reel in and clean the line every 3 or 4 minutes.
I've only had one vist to the river so far this season and in four hours I re-cast over 50 times, the rod was being pulled round every cast with big clumps of the stuff.
I have tried pointing the rod almost vertically skywards, a stop knot so far from the lead/feeder to catch the weed and god knows what else but still the problem persists.

Initially we put the problem down to mild winters, with no frost to kill the weed off initial reaction that the early summer rain washed the weed through. This year it has been put down to low water levels and bright sunlight encouraging the weed growth.

Anyone out there got any ideas as it has currently forced me off the river.

Paul
 
Sounds very tricky, have you tried backleading? a flying backlead and also a normal type put on after casting to keep everything pinned right down might help.
 
Sounds like at nightmare, hope the little rain we have had sorts it out for you...
 
If its rolling along the river (rather than suspended), you just have to wait until passed or fish directly behind an obstacle (eg a tree with branches or roots to the river bed).
We get this on one of local rivers, I have tried pointing the rods downwards with the tips on the river bed with back leads to no effect - other than a bigger tangle of weed to sort out every ten minutes.
 
From my experiences on the Upper Trent, it doesn't matter what you do as the weed comes through at all levels, I can understand what you're going through Paul, maybe if you can find a swim out of the main flow...........................roll on October

Best Regards
Dave
 
To right Dave, The slow easy paced swims are nowhere near as bad. Trouble is there's no fish in them yet.
Sat right behind a tree last week and still got the same problem. Still it's handy for the Crown and they have some good Draught Ales on.
 
When I first started fishing the upper part of the river this type of weed was never a problem.
Over the last four years the problem has got worse and worse rendering most swims unfishable on the bits that I fish.
One of my favourite swims is a mid-river cast which is just impossble to fish, something I found out to my cost a few years ago after baiting it up I cast out and was unable to keep a bait in the swim longer than 2 minutes max!!
Early season floods dont get rid of it either it's just a case of grin and bear it or fish elsewhere which is invariably the best option!!!
Not been out yet with watching the footie but it will be the Dove or Derwent for me.

Regards

Wazzy
 
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