Another year to remember - month by month look at the year.

Well that is another year coming to an end, but what a year.  This blog has come of age with the followers now at 100 and the total pageviews at over 66,000, it makes it all worth while to keep up the effort of the diary.

I am considering publishing a book which would be a record of this blog from its inception and your thoughts on the idea would be appreciated.  Initial figures suggest perhaps £10 for B&W and £25 for colour.

Recent weeks have proven very hard to get any consistant sport and most trips have in fact been a total blank, fortunately the year has a whole has been quite satisfactory so lets have a look at the highlights.


The 2012 year has been an exciting year with both highs and lows that I have shared with you through this blog.   Although I’ve only caught one new personal best of a species, I have increased the number of rivers where a double figure barbel has been caught as well as improving other river bests.  Improving a personal best is only one measure of success, and I was very pleased with getting my target fish in chub, and tench along with the barbel already mentioned.  The crowning feature of the year was almost the last when my crucian claim was accepted as an equal British record at 4lb-9oz.  No BRFC certificate yet, but I am advised that it will arrive early in January and once framed it will find a place on the wall.  So let us look at some of the highlights of my year, month by month.

January.

The month had started much as the previous year had ended floods with very cold snaps to interrupt consistent sport.  I had been fishing the River Anker for a couple of seasons, not often, but enough to have hoped for better results in that I had not caught a single barbel up to date.  This visit towards the end of the month put that right in the form of another different river double and a river record at the time of capture going 15lb-4oz.

                                                                   15lb-4oz Anker pb.

 February.

We sometimes have mild months at this time of year, but this was not one of them.  I struggled to catch fish at all, a few perch and an odd smaller chub was the reward for a fair bit of effort.  Then I decided to go south to the Hampshire Avon for a few days and I got my reward in the form of a 7lb 2oz monster chub along with other fish made smaller by comparison.

                                                        Magnificent Avon Chub

Although not a monster by today’s standards I was pleased to land a 20lb-12oz Common Carp from a canal on a match rod using gear suited to the silver bream I was trying to catch – the rod broke but I did land the fish.

                                                                Canal specimen

March.

Not a particularly successful month by my own standards, a chub of 6lb-1oz caught along with a 2lb-7oz perch off the Avon and a 3lb-7oz perch caught from a local commercial being the better fish landed.

                                                               Best of the season at 3lb-7oz 

April.

Always a chancy month and this one saw the start of the tench fishing produce fish to 6lb-3oz for me, and a 46lb-9oz catfish caught by Curtis from Orchid Lakes.

                                                          With a little help to hold it.

May.

This month saw me get a brace of catfish at 41lb and 34lb-4oz, but the highlight by a long way was a 10lb-5oz tench from a new water, this being the third different venue where I’ve taken a double figure specimen.

                                                                      A real gem. 

June.

A good month for me with a 12lb-4oz barbel off the Dove and a brace of tench off a local water at 9lb and 9lb-4oz amongst a 15 fish catch, the first time the venue had done such a brace.  This was topped off by a brace of roach from Lochnaw at 2lb-13oz each.

                                                                  12lb-4oz Dove double.

                                                        Best of the tench brace  9lb-4oz.

                                                          First of the brace of 2lb-13oz roach. 

 July.

Lots of barbel from different rivers with yet another different river double, this being the River Soar and an 11lb-1oz specimen.  Although I had caught barbel from both the Ribble and Goyt they fell short of that double figure target ensuring I still had plenty to go at.

                                                                    11lb-1oz Soar double

August.
This month started with a bang when a trip north to do a barbel talk gave me the chance to fish the River Swale and I was rewarded with yet another different river double at 12lb-2oz, bringing the total rivers to 23. 

                                                                       Swale monster. 

September.

A return trip to Lochnaw saw me improve the previous brace from the last trip by one ounce with a pair of roach at 2lb-14oz.  Lots of barbel for me though nothing spectacular, but Curtis upped his personal best to 10lb-15oz from the River Severn, his first ever double.

                                                                       He looks pleased.

                                               The second of the 2lb-14oz brace.

October.
Again lots of barbel off different rivers topped off by three 11lb fish, two off the Kennet and one from the Severn all within a four day spell.  Very pleased with the barbel but a new English pb put extra dimples in the cheeks when I landed a very hard fighting sturgeon of 75lb-5oz.

                                                                   It was this long!

November.

My third trip to the north for roach finally paid off with a Lochnaw 3lb specimen taken along with a 2lb-14oz backup fish.  I did not know it at the time but that was to be the last of the better fishing for this year as the weather went haywire and floods and frost made fishing difficult. 

                                                                      3lb At last.

December.

As mentioned at the start of this piece my 4lb-9oz crucian caught in 2004 has been accepted as an equal British record.  This came about as a result of a correction of an anomaly where the current 4lb-9dram fish could not have been weighed on the scales being used.  That 9 dram only came about through the Weights & Measures Dept. checking scales in the metric system and needed a conversion back to imperial.  Whatever the reason I’m delighted to have my name added to a rather exclusive club having twice previously come fourth in the bream list, once from Queenford with a 15lb-14oz fish and then again with my 17lb-15oz Broadwater specimen.  Happy days, even though they fell short of a record.

                                                         A British record at 4lb-9oz.

 

Looking at the blog for last December I can see that this was a repeat in that there were very few fish with a lot of hard effort, but yet again the year as a whole has been kind, hopefully your results have met with your hopes as well.

Christmas.

Well the run up to Christmas has been hard work.  One perch trip and two pike trips for one jack pike of maybe 4lb.  I'll be back out Boxing Day to try for pike again on a heavily coloured water affected by the floods but at least the lines will be in the water and just maybe that big girl will visit.

                                                      A male bullfinch that paid me a visit.

I wish all the blog readers and their families the very best wishes for a great Christmas and I hope all your dreams and wishes for 2013 come true.

Escape to the country and fishing.

British weather is perhaps unique in the variation that can occur in such a small spread of time.  Just hours can separate the sunshine from snow or thunderstorms.   The forecasts seem wrong most of the time but who would want their job in this country, I’ll have it in Egypt, ‘tomorrow will be sunny’ – I would be wrong once or twice a year but that’s ok.  As mentioned in previous blogs I would take no note of weather some 20 years ago, now I hesitate when it looks like the mix we have at the moment but eventually I have to go.

It appeared there would be a slight window of better weather on the Monday and Tuesday of this week so I made plans to get out then, zander and perch would be the target species.  According to the EA and many of our fellow anglers the zander is an alien species to be exterminated at the earliest convenience and without mercy.  I think otherwise.  Along with other predator species the zander has now found its appropriate level in the food chain, it is possible that in the early days of its introduction to a new venue it does run wild, but nature soon finds a balance and food supply controls all living things including ourselves.  My choice of venue was varied in that I could fish a lake that has produced a double in the past for me, a river that I’ve yet to get my double from, but it would be high in flood, or one of the local canals difficult to get the double figure specimen, but local and most likely to produce a fish, that would do.

From Coventry I can easily reach one of many canals, Grand Union, Coventry, Oxford and Ashby canals all pass within a few miles and all hold zander.  I have already fished the first three with some success but the Ashby as always been on the back burner, today would be perfect for that first trip.  Out came the high scale map and a quick look soon identified an area to begin my search.  I’m looking for an access bridge away from main towns etc.  This is because they are less likely to have been targeted by our European cousins who with set lines can decimate a section quite easily.  The EA used to run regular culling sessions on the canal but I do not know if this practice still continues, it did seem a total waste of time in that it made very little difference with too much canal to cover.  It does seem to me that the best control of small zander is a big one, they have to eat and the same applies as with pike – take out the big fish and you end up with lots of small ones.

                                                          Surely there are zander here.

I had passed a couple of my selected bridges where there seemed no access to the canal but then found one with good parking and a nice track down to the towpath.  At first sight the venue looked promising, plenty of bushes growing out into the waterway and when I checked the other side of the bridge there was even a small marina that could give the fish that little bit of sanctuary should a cull come past the section.  I had the rods set up and this would be a simple float over a trace with a single size 1 hook and either a section of roach, lamprey or sea bait to try and tempt the fish into a take.

                                                      My float amoungst the branches.
Even in the depths of winter I was not the only idiot out for the day, a canoe went past just minutes after my arrival and was full of apologies when he went back after his return some twenty minutes later.  Three barges were also on the move where I had for some unknown reason not expected any, no problem there since often the zander take just after a boat has passed but not this time.  As darkness fell I put the tackle away and walked the 50 yards back to the van, at least I had got out of the house even if only for a few hours.

                                                                  Dinner for a perch.

The next day was a trip to one of the commercials in the hope of tempting a big perch, this time Merv would come along as well.  It was slightly colder but with the sun shining it seemed quite pleasant and I could sit there looking at my float dancing with the attention of the small fish trying to take the full size lobworm without any success.  For the last hour I dropped the bait size down to the smaller worms but nothing took those either.   Merv did manage a perch of about 1lb-8oz on a smaller hook with two red maggots, perhaps I should have tried that as well but I felt the perch I was after could easily take my offering I’ll never know now if I was wrong!

Fish don't read!

Yet again the bream have got the better of me over my latest trip, lots of line bites on the first night’s session but no fish.  Following that I was hopeful for the second night and laid out the food on the table ready for the bream’s appearance, but I should have known better – not a touch.  After all the years I have fished for bream and the fantastic catches I’ve been fortunate to make at times, you would think I would know what was happening on a 100 acre bream water but the truth is far from that.  Even today they are still as mysterious as they were in those far off days on Tring, TC and Queenford but that’s what I love about fishing.  Once the result has become predictable it loses interest and it would be time to move on to another species or water.

                                                               Bream's dinner.

I had made a back burner plan to leave the bream venue and travel on to a good perch water that had come to my attention, with the weather as it was I had some doubts, but in the end I decided to go.  Temperatures up to around 70C were ok but bright sunny and a completely clear sky was not what I really wanted but I had no other plans so I’ll make do.  My thought was that I would be waiting until the evening and fading light levels before the perch would be interested in feeding so I packed up the bream tackle in a very leisurely manner, then travelled on to the new venue in a sedately fashion that would allow push bikes to go past me.  I stopped off at a Tesco’s store and got a small box of prawns to give yet another line of attack, I knew that the small silver fish could be a major problem on this water.  With this in mind I had also ordered up a packet of 100 assorted firetail worms along with the appropriate jig hooks, at least these would not be bothered by the small silver fish and I had good reason to believe they could work well for perch.  Along with red maggots to catch live bait, and lobworms to try in case the little blighters left me alone for a while, I was set for an interesting session.

                                                              100 assorted Firetail worms & Jig hooks.

With all my mucking about I finally arrived at the venue just after mid-day, still way too early but at least I would have the stall set out ready for when the time came.  The first order of the day was to catch live bait, the only problem being getting bait small enough for my wishes.  The first cast produced a rudd of about 6oz and whilst a perch of the size I was after could take that quite easily, I wanted a smaller fish that would give fewer problems on the paternoster rig I would be using.  The second cast with the double red maggots on a size 18 Carbon Chub hook produced a bite almost immediately and on the strike I knew I hooked a carp as it tore across the lake taking line against the light clutch setting I was using just for this event.  Considering the light hook length being used I played the fish back quite strongly, if it broke me I could just retie another hook and I did not really want to land a carp anyway.  It slowly came back into the swim and then went back and forth in front of me keeping low in the water.  I tried to get it up from the bottom just to see the fish, but it resisted and it was some moments before I saw the stripes of a big perch – I played it just a bit more carefully after that!

A carp angler had come up from his swim to see what I had and his comment of ‘that’s a big perch’ had done nothing to settle my nerves over those last few moments, but it slipped into the landing net and was safely mine to admire.  The water has a tinge of colour so typical of carp lakes, but even so the stripes were quite bold and big perch make some of the most photogenic shots of all the coarse species.  At 3lb-7oz it was heading the right direction from the specimen caught last week.  Being as fat a pig I knew my time was limited to catch the 4lb fish I was after, once they spawn it is so much harder to achieve the target so extra effort is on the cards.

                                                        A big, fat, 3lb-7oz perch.

The middle of the day with that strong, bright sun shining down and the perch was willing to feed, what do we know?  I spent the rest of the afternoon using tactics designed to catch the fish and they ignored them all, even the low light of evening did not impress them.  Over the last forty years or more I’ve written thousands of words and features on our sport, the problem as I see it, is that the fish don’t read and so don’t know how they are supposed to behave – great, and long may it remain that way.  I’ll be back again next week to try again.

Dreams of perch and bream

Seems that I’ve been in a bit of a dull spell with more blank sessions than I would like over the last few weeks.  This situation continued with a blank for the bream for the two nights that I fished on the Colne Valley lake that I am currently fishing.  Of course I’ll be back this week for yet another try since big bream are never that easy.

This week the silver bream attempt on the local canal came up with the same failure to catch as the previous attempt, but this time there was no big common carp to ease the pain, again I’ll be going back to try once more until I succeed.

Finally I did get a result with my perch fishing on the local commercials – a specimen perch fell to my rod after a quite frustrating day.  I last visited this venue the previous spring and at that time the small silver fish beat any attempts to keep bait in the water for longer than a few minutes.  I had hope for better this year but they were still there though perhaps slightly less in number.  My worms and maggots were being devoured quite quickly, I persevered hoping for the best but it just would not happen.  Then using the second rod I put one of the smaller perch on as a live bait using a size 6 wide gap hook just through the lip.  This was presented on a light paternoster rig with two SSG shot to keep the sunken float under the surface whilst holding the bait just a little to stop it drifting all around the swim.  Great idea but it did not work on the day –maybe next time.

I had taken a lure rod along and throughout the day I would spend 15 or 20 minutes casting a small shad type lure in an attempt to get interest in that method, but again no joy.  In between this lure fishing I had continued to try with the maggot fished under a float and then mid afternoon I realised that the small fish had slowed down considerably.  Taking this as a good sign I changed the hook and put a half of a lob worm on as bait hoping that a big perch had perhaps caused the silver fish to move off.  After perhaps thirty minutes I got a possible answer as the float went down and the thump, thump on the rod top suggested a perch had taken the bait.  When the stripes came into view I could only hope that it would stay on the hook and it did.  At 3lb-4oz it is just short of being a real specimen perch but until one bigger comes along it will do!

                                                                       Lovely perch in the setting sunlight.

Winter has arrived.

It seems amazing that just ten days ago I sat by a river fishing for barbel until gone 11:00pm without a coat on and did not get cold.  Now the wind goes through my heavy-duty clothing and reminds me that I should not stay out too long.

Since that warm night I’ve been zander fishing on a gravel pit as mentioned in the last blog – blank.   Then a couple of trips onto local pits in the search for a nice perch, caught a few smaller samples of less than a pound but still looking for the big one.

                                                  Zander fishing on a local gravel pit.

                                                   Roll Over bite indicators, just the job for open bail-arm fishing.  finely adjustable to give no resistance to the taking fish.

A trip to the south and the Hampshire Avon was meant to improve the catches with big chub the target, but then I should have known better.  The Avon, like many other rivers and waterways is desperately low and the weed is still quite prolific in the very low flow rates.  Add to this the fact that the locals were reporting very poor fishing returns when I went into the two local tackle shops in Ringwood, and the writing was on the wall.  I was feeder fishing with hemp, maggot and casters, almost infallible when after chub, but that one word made the difference, ‘almost.’   For two days I did my best but even with maggots on the hook the minnows did not make an appearance, now that is really unusual.   Travelling back the 160 miles to home I ran over all the things I did and might have done, and I don’t think I could have done it different – that’s fishing, sometimes you blank.

                                             I fished the perfect swim at the rainbows end on the Hampshire Avon.

Yesterday I went again for the perch and I was surprised to find ice over part of the lake, apparently it had formed overnight and would suggest that the water is very near to freezing since it did not go that cold for very much of the dark hours.  A couple of fish, a roach and a perch had a go at my small bit of lobworm tail on a size 18 hook, but yet again I was reminded that the winter has arrived.

It rained heavy overnight and at last some of the rivers are showing signs of being flushed through taking some of the dead stuff away, the forecast is for wind and rain whilst staying quite cold, but given a rise in temperatures I could be back in business again

Time is running out for that Xmas box present of  'Target set and Achieved' -  get yours ordered at http://www.philsmithangler.com/.