a prayer mat ~sick ~sick ~sick and draw a good peg
fish a peg in the day you wouldn’t think there was a fish in there go in the evening its solid
the linc lads fish it all the time mate its not a bad run down
just make sure you have a powerful rod

take some ragworm for the flatties ha ~clap ~clap ~clap.no seriously mate as joffy says it is very peggy at the moment(in desperate need of rain).hopefully come the big day it will be fishing better.

it did fish exceptionally well that day. weather and big split tide made all the difference. it needs rain.

@scrubba wrote:

Hmm does’nt sound too great. Looks like a day of neck ache staring at a motionless tip for 5 hours.

But still have to as least try it before the big fishing lottery on Aug 21st.

your best to spend the time asking about the areas mate if your not catching its worth a walk
you’ll not fish the feeder any different whether our on fish or not so the info is more important and certainly the areas

As in the days when repetetive casting used to encourage the effectiveness of the “dink dink” method we have found the first hour or so a bit like spodding.Regular casting seems to draw in the mid/small size fish.A lighter /dryer grounbait mix in an open end with a maggot filling and a long tail gets the chublets,perch and ide cross competing and taking it on the drop.Single red has worked best for us and the critically balance set up is more important than ever with a “dragging” or rolling second half of the chuck induced with the bow just before a recast(snags permitting).
The bleak/dace/small roach etc seem to attract perch and are worth a few points in their own right on the float so a trickle feed of maggots for stick /wag or bolo is a facesaver.

Can I have some more info please:-

What weight feeder???
How far out do you fish….feeder and float???

What are the main species???
If you’re not on a flyer then what do you go for???

When the tide comes in how high does it come up???
What are the banks like???

Many thanks
fred

Hi Mate,
There are to distinct areas to the tidal, and they must be treated differently. I can only really speak for the 2 sections at Collingham. This will be dominated by Barbel and you need to be geared up accordingly. Anything less than a 7 or 8lb hooklength will be suicidal. You may only get one chance at a Barbel and you want to get it out.
Basically long hooklengths, small hooks (eyed) and maggots/casters/hemp/pellets through the feeder, with maggot/caster on the hook. Scaling down will not result in any more bites, and you will get broken no doubt.
If your struggling some small perch/dace/roach/ chub can be caught on the float as you will have two pegs on the day, but they are very small and you will struggle for a kilo in 5 hrs. You need to know your peg so seek out a Collingham member at the draw and ask.

Hempmaster – you mentioned an Ide cross? Never seen one on the Trent. A cross with what?.
Interesting….

We have had 2lb Ide at Torksey that we originaly thought to be a roach as it approached the net.Perchance the “cross ide” that was a lazy way of saying we find it difficult to indentify some of the smaller silver fish that seem common at Dunham .Not being sure whether they are pure Ide or having some degree of hybridisation if that is at all possible.
The river seems healthy enough with the bream/roach hybrids and some chublets and small ide seem to share features .Perhaps a greater scientific mind would know which combinations are possible.As the fish age the different species become a tad easier to segregate but at a few ounces we are not always sure which features set them apart to be honest.

Thanks Rustler

Some pegs will be almost beach like but majority have inclined slag type rocks around the tidal range (low to high water).At the upper end nearer towards Cromwell weir the tidal effect is mainly to back up the river slightly with a variable increase in depth at Dunham it floods as quick if not quicker than it ebbs and the depth changes more dramatically 3-8ft.The net effect can be affected by whether it is a neap or spring tide and of course the volume of water coming from the upper river and its tributaries.
If you look on Google you can see as the river meanders around various bends it creates channels with deeper water and slack insides where it tends to be siltier and shallower.Its this which dictates how far you will fish a given method.At high water it looks very much even apart from the water running smooth or with more boils etc. At a very low level low water the under water topography is more obvious.As you won’t have the luxury of that on the day the advice to ask the locals is paramount if you get a chance.

Thanks Hempmaster, just what I’m looking for. Chhers fred

Hi Mate,
There is an open on Collingham AA water on August 14th, a good chance to practise. Give us a call on 01636 893364

historically the nationals on the trent are fished on a big tide with it topping at dunham around the 11am mark which is why i said to expect this in the feature, but since sitting down with one of the lads and his tide table it appears that it will be topping at about 9.30am at collingham and its a small tide! if this is the case then you will be fishing a run off on a low river. sorry for the confussion.

Yes mate you are right, just checked. The one year we could do with a biggie and they miss it by a week !!! Perhaps a bit of consultation with dates might have been in order, but then again the Angling Trust still haven’t confirmed the sections yet and we had to ring them to see if they still wanted our water, this was last week, so don’t believe a word you read guys in your booklet lol

ive been on tidal since opening and found something very interesting.Starting off with normal feeder tactics you will catch the usual fish for a while ie roach ,perch skimmers ETC.The bites usually die off,you ring all the changes smaller hook longer tail etc but it still goes away from you.Ive found that if i fished a small feeder with a pellet hemp mix n banded a 6mm pellet decent skimmers n hybrids were willing to have a go.changed back to normal methods n couldnt get a bite.Put pellrt on again n there. this happens every session ive been on so its not a one off.Food for thought for you national boys.

@captainkev wrote:

ive been on tidal since opening and found something very interesting.Starting off with normal feeder tactics you will catch the usual fish for a while ie roach ,perch skimmers ETC.The bites usually die off,you ring all the changes smaller hook longer tail etc but it still goes away from you.Ive found that if i fished a small feeder with a pellet hemp mix n banded a 6mm pellet decent skimmers n hybrids were willing to have a go.changed back to normal methods n couldnt get a bite.Put pellrt on again n there. this happens every session ive been on so its not a one off.Food for thought for you national boys.

Apologies to you Captainkev if this is gen…..but……

Newbie with 1 post….seems like a red herring to me!! In fact do you catch those on the pellet too!

steve,kev is a long time friend of mine whom i speak to every week.in fact several times i have rung him and he’s been on the trent.probably spent more time on the trent these last two years than most of us on here.

loda,

Thanks for that mate. Wasn’t sure how to take it to be honest. I know that there has been a lot of pellet fishing on the Trent over that last few years by the big fish boys, so didn’t know quite what to make of the post.

As I said, apologies to Captainkev.

Steve

apologies accepted mate.What i wrote is totally true,dont know if it would work during pressure of a big match though.I would def try it though if couldnt get a bite on normal gear.The fish in trent get fed a lot of pellets these days n soon come to em.Im going tomorrow to a different stretch n il try it again n lrt you know if it worked .

What type of pellet are you using? Is it just skrettings or is it halibut pellets?

cheers

You might get a pull from a Barbel, and probably break you at Collingham. There are NO skimmers there….

halibuts mate its true about collingham very few skimmers or silvers.Maggot feeder seems to have edge there at mo.