When anglers think of the River Trent, most will associate its flowing water with the prolific stocks of giant barbel and chub, but there are far more species in there than many anglers realise. Aside from the small population of large sturgeon that now inhabit the river, every now and again, an angler will catch something totally unexpected, which is exactly what happened to Adam Dunn on his latest trip to the magnificent waterway.
Adam has only just started fishing the Trent this season, and like many other anglers who visit, he was hoping to contact one of its famous barbel, but as it often can be when targeting specimens, the fishing was quite slow.
Undettered, he remained confident and after a while his persistence paid off with his first bite of the session, but it wasn't the fish he was hoping for, instead it turned out to be an enormous ide, the last species he was expecting to catch.
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"I recently did a 24 hour session down on the Salmon Farm stretch of the Trent as I have had some success in this area this season," Adam said.
"I was using my ever faithful Salty Squid boilies on a hair rig in the hope of catching a barbel," he added.
"I had a couple of twitches on the rod, as line started stripping off my reel, before it stopped abruptly and the rod tip started bouncing. I thought it might have been weed hitting the line but I struck, which saw me connected to a dead weight."
As Adam began reeling the fish in, it suddenly leapt from the water three or four times in quick succession in a bid to free itself. Unsure what he had hooked, he thought it might be a salmon, but after its initial flurry of energy, the fish was quickly subdued and sulking in his landing net allowing him to get a better look at what he had caught.
"On first glance, I thought it was a huge chub. The fish weighed 7lb exactly and I got a few photos before returning it to the river," he said.
"Overjoyed with my new chub PB, I posted the fish to a River Trent group only for a few anglers to inform me I had actually banked an ide. It is a fish I had never seen or heard about before which can easily be mistaken for a chub," he explained.
"I have only since come to realise just how rare they are and the one I caught was a giant for the species. I am buzzing with the capture, as unexpected as it was!"
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