A double to kick off the 16/17 season...

Having started preparing for the new season well over 2 months ago, my first session was some what on hold as the 16th arrived and passed; having to commit time to interview preperation for new jobs. With the river finning down and still heavily coloured the 30th June was the first opportunity I had to get out on the bank.

Having the gear all ready the night before I dashed home from work and I was soon in the car heading out of Lincoln towards the Tidal Trent. I have made a real conscious effort this season to cut down on gear to enable me to get to swims more comfortably without the need of the barrow. After walking 20 meters I realised that cutting down on tackle needed a little more consideration as I was still waddling like a pack horse with the rod bag strap ripping into my neck and a  unhooking mat tripping me up at every 5 paces. I walked down the area I intended to fish though found someone in the swim I had in mind so I walked back towards to car and fished an area that doesn't receive much pressure (well from the bank I was standing on anyway).

Setting up- the new additions to my approach for this season being the cygnet XL bobbins, having received numerous drop back bites last year that were missed I wanted the slack line to be taken up quickly. Hence the 3 inch chains have been replaced with standard sink plug chains, to allow a good drop should I received any backdrops.

The only other significant change I have made is replacing my weak links of mono from the lead to the lead clip with enterprise snag clips. After playing around with these in the closed season they seem to work a treat, still allowing 6oz feeders to be chucked out. They are also a much better run rings as oppose to the tapering lead clip rubbers.

Balling in 10 or so cricket ball size of ground bait upstream on the line I would be fishing the 2 feeder set ups were soon on the mark and my rod tips pointing skywards. With the river up and still bits of debris coming through I applied a large float stop 3 meters up from the buffer bead to avoid debris making it was down to the feeder and rig.

Having purchased a Nash groundbait ball maker I sat back under the brolly and played around with consistencies of ground bait to allow them to be catapulted out without disintegrating mid air. This will definitely prove to be a very useful tool in the season to keep bait going in on a line.

Recasting every 20 mins or so I also replaced the hookbaits each cast with freshly glugged 20mm boilies. Having spoken to Darren before the season he had been working on a new test bait called Nimrod and it's this bait that I will be solely using through the season

After around an hour of being on the bank I was talking to a guy called Ben walking the stretch after having a few years away from the Trent. It's amazing when you meet a genuine similarly minded angler how conversation flows though this was rudely interrupted as the downstream rod slammed over. After a couple of powerful runs stripping line as I loosed the clutch she was soon slipped over the lip of net. Giving her a quick rest in the landing net she was weighed at 10-12, photographed and returned.

A very promising start for the season and The Hookbait Company’s new Nimrod test bait had produced the goods on my first visit of 16/17 and in a swim that I hadn't fished before.

The rods went back out and I rebated upstream but to no avail as the rod tips stayed motionless and I called it a night just before dark; just getting back to the car before the rain set in.