Chew Valley - dream maker water.

This weather is no good for fishing or I’m getting soft in my old age, probably both.  I’ve not done as much fishing as usual, just a short chub session that gave an almost predictable blank and a barbel session on the Nene trying to take advantage of the slightly milder weather on Wednesday and Thursday, again a blank.  In between this I had a trip for perch on a local water and actually had a bite, I missed it, but that was better than the two pike anglers either side of me that blanked if you don’t count two cormorants hooked and lost.   There was an interesting sight of thousands of starlings coming over the water at dusk and giving their aerial display before settling in for the night.

                                           A small section of the starling's display

Then I got a chance to partner Dave Mutton on a boat on Chew Valley Reservoir, can’t miss that chance can you?  If anything in fishing can be called a lottery then this must be very high in the list.  Each week that the pike trials are on there are hundreds of hopefuls that brought a ticket for the raffle.   Almost every day there is a thirty pound pike caught, sometimes more than one, and each of those hopefuls are thinking ‘today will be my turn.’   If you were to consider the tactics used then I imagine that most of the big pike fall to float fished sea dead bait and most of these will have been presented on the bottom.  Very little skill and a very big slice of luck so I’m well pleased to say my turn for the ‘luck’ card came on this trip.

We arrived about an hour late due to a long traffic build up in Bristol where a couple of road workers were looking after what appeared to be two cone stuck in the middle of a traffic junction.  I measured the queue going the other way once we got past and it was 1.4 miles, absolutely barmy.   Still we got out on the water about 9.30am and it was obvious that results had been poor, those boats that could be seen were spread all over the place rather than the usual gathering around the current hot area.  We went off towards the dam near Walley Bank and settled in about 28ft of water.  Dave got a take which is always exciting on this venue but it proved to be a jack of about 6lb and nothing happened after that.  About 11am we moved into slightly shallower water and yet again Dave was soon into a slightly better fish of 14lb-12oz, we both felt this was a good sign that other bigger fish could be present and we were happy to give it the rest of the day until the 4.10pm finish time. 

                                                         Dave with his 14lb-12oz pike

Watching the odd boats we could see as well as the bank anglers and there seemed to be no action as the hours ticked by towards the deadline.  It was about 3.55pm when I got a very slight indication on one of my rods and watching the float it bobbed up and down for some minutes before I struck.  The float had not moved from its position and I was very confident that it was a trout attacking my mackerel bait, but the result of the strike left no doubt that it was not a trout.    Initially not a lot happened and Dave asked if it was a jack, then the fish woke up to the fact that it had been hooked and zoomed off quite annoyed I think.  I good fight and eventually it went into the net and onto the boat.  A check showed the only the tail of the bait was showing suggesting he had just sat there munching it on the spot, fortunately we are both confident in this situation and the hooks were removed without harm to the fish.  The scales showed my first trout water pike went a very pleasing 25lb-11oz but that proved to be the last bite since next day was a blank for both of us.

                                                              25lb-11oz Chew lottery prize.

Those that think trout water piking is easy should give it a try and build up a few blank days and then possibly revise their ideas.  Still that's it for now so tight lines until the next update comes along.

                                             Pike float sits in the dying rays of the setting sun.

Lochnaw roach and Chew Valley pike.

Normally when fishing alongside friends at different venues I get a fair share of the fish that is until this trip to Chew Valley after the pike, I became the gillie for the day netting, landing lots of big pike for my partner John George.  We had two days fishing on the boat and with the reasonably mild weather it looked good for fishing.  There had been a 42lb pike off the bank the previous day so it seemed that Chew was still on song for a big fish, a real ‘dream maker’ venue.  Of course it is not reasonable to come for a 40lb fish, but the 30lb size is caught often enough for that to be a real target and I would think it is the hope of most of the visiting anglers to get such a sample.

Initially we set off from the landing stages for Wick Point having had some success there last visit, a quick check soon showed that with the water level down by 6ft or so, it was not really right with the amount of weed still growing in the area.  We set off back towards the opposite bank and kept a check on the sounder looking for a bit more than the 6ft now showing, further and further we travelled but with a maximum of 9ft it was not time to stop and anchor.  Trying to steer clear of a number of boats already at their chosen station we finally found 16ft at about 500 yards off Nunnery Point and dropped the two anchors there.  Like a fool I had believed the weather forecast and had no waterproofs with me, it of course it almost immediately rained quite heavily for 20 minutes or more just to make sure I got well and truly soaked.  That should have been the warning that the day was not going to go well for me, but I carried on in ignorance of what was to come.

As is normal in boat fishing we put our two rods each out to the points of the compass and within ten minutes John had the first indication of a bite as his float slide away and the strike met solid resistance.  Initially it did not seem a big fish but after it woke up there was quite a scrap to get it into the waiting net.  An obvious big fish we both wondered if it would go 30lb since once they are this big it can be difficult to decide.  As always the scales told the tale, though at just over 28lb John was a very happy man, even with no more fish his trip was successful.

                                                         A very pleasing 28lb pike.

                                                 A bit dryer and 21lb-8oz.

Of course you will already have gathered he caught others and this is how it went.  We sat in that swim for another couple of hours and the capture of that first fish had brought another boat quite near our position so it was time to move.  Again we headed for open water with no boats and anchored up again.  This time it took a little longer but then his float disappeared and following an interesting fight I slid the net under a fish that went 21lb-8oz, starting to get a little worried now but then I got a chance but it only went 11lb or so.  Then John capped his day with a magnificent specimen of 30lb-6oz to give him a new pb.

                                                       The Chew Valley prize 30lb-6oz.

                                                     Last of the trip at 20lb-4oz.

Two 20lb’s and a 30lb should have been enough, but yet again he caught and this one went 20lb-4oz to end a memorable day.  The following day we blanked and it appeared most of the other anglers fishing did exactly the same.  Hopefully back again next year.

As mentioned in the last blog, I had my timing for fishing trips quite badly organised and having arrived back about 8.30pm on Friday I had to sort out the tackle and change over for a week’s session at Lochnaw in Scotland starting Saturday, big roach being the new target.

                                                                             Lochnaw Castle.

John Found, my usual partner for these trips had to call off being quite poorly with a heavy chest cough that already lasted six weeks.  At very short notice Andy Dalby stepped in and needed an even quicker tackle sort out than I had experienced.  The other two anglers who would make up the party of four were fellow Tenchfishers Group members Matt Dooley and Wyn Jones who was making a return hoping to better his 3lb-2oz specimen caught on the spring trip.

                                                     Our two camps on St Stair's Island.

The good thing about this trip was that it stayed dry both at the beginning and the end of the session, but in between it rain almost all the time broken only by times of gale force winds.  The lake is 48 acres and it has many feeder streams running into it which in turned caused the lake to raise since there is only one outlet.  Fortunately this caused very little trouble other than being fairly unsocial and our talks back at the lodge over dinner time was the main time to exchange ideas and other talking points.

                                                     Feed for the roach.

                                                  Andy set ready to launch his bait out.

My tactics which would have been very similar to the other three anglers was to use a method feeder and various 10mm boilies.  Source, Pineapple and Esterberry were my choice but others have worked in the past for different groups.  I had decided to bait drop about 1.5k of method carrying chopped up boilies, hemp and a small amount of sweetcorn.  As the week progressed and the results did not, I slowly cut this down although I do think all the feed was being taken by the smaller fish.  My rods were the usual 12ft Drennan 1.25lb test combined with Shimano 50000RE baitrunner reels loaded with 6lb line.  The size 16 hooks were tied using 4lb hook link material in a helicopter style approach.

                                                     The first at 2lb-9oz.

                                                              Kevin, the fishery bailiff takes out dead weed.

My first roach went 2lb-9oz and fell to the Source boilie this giving high hope of what was to come.  The same night Wyn took a 2lb-12oz specimen and we felt it was only time.  The next night saw just one weighed fish of 2lb-1oz to Wyn again and although plenty of roach up to the mid 1lb range were taken there was little sign of the 2lb+ fish.  The next night saw me get a 2lb-6oz fish while Wyn caught yet another 2lb-12oz roach.  At this stage we were still hopefully that the constant baiting each day would see the bigger specimens appear but for whatever reason that was it and the following days gave less and less result even from the small fish.

                                                                  2lb-6oz specimen roach.

I am at a loss as to why this should have been as the weather was mild although wet, and all else seemed to be in fishing’s favour.  Both Andy and Matt are hopeful of a return to try and even the competition between themselves and the fish but time will tell.

Big pike tactics work again.

The weather often dictates just what species of fish we try to catch at this time of the season, rarely hot, but often freezing it limits the chances of catching probably half the species available.  Of course there is always the maxim of that if you have bait in the water you have a chance, but life is not long enough and available time not sufficient to work on that idea too much.  Now was such a time, the temperatures had fallen to the 1C or 2C levels with heavy overnight frosts, possibly chub, grayling, perch and pike would top my list of target fish and after thought I decided on the pike.  Just a few days ago I wrote about a 22lb-11oz pike caught on a local water, I knew there were others of that sort of size on the venue so I would return on Wednesday morning to try my luck.  The previous morning had been a quite heavy frost, and the view out of the window looked more like it had been snowing so heavily had the frost blanketed every around; as the dawn light came up over the water I could see that this morning was not so bad though my fingers still felt like icicles with the temperature below freezing.  Today I would be legering two sardine baits, a very good choice that accounts for many pike and has the advantage of coming off the hooks very easily upon the strike, this fact therefore giving good hook hold potential.  All too often I see lads using mackerel and only giving a half-hearted strike that would not set the hooks at all.  The pike has the bait clamped in its jaws and the hook hold in mackerel is something fierce such that the strike just moves the pikes head and does not dislodge the hooks.  You see the strength of this point quite often when at the end of the session you struggle to get the hooks out of your bait, the strike has to move the bait to get the best result so strike hard, and if needed more than once.
 

                                                   Stiff as a board at 2:00pm.

This morning the wind was coming from the East and over the course of the session it turned towards the north but it stayed cold throughout that time, even at 2:00pm my wet net would hold out stiff to the side, frozen in place.  It had become wet when I netted the first of two pike from the highly coloured water, I had thought it would be a good fish from the fight and I was not to be disappointed.  Weighing 20lb-12oz it was long and lean, I did wonder just how big this would have been if it had been caught from the chew waters I fished a few weeks previously, those fish were probably twice as deep and this would easily have gone over 30lb.  Of course I’m on local waters and 30lb fish are extremely rare, even the twenties are not the common so with this being the second over that weight in eleven days I was suitably pleased.
 

                                                            20lb12oz Specimen pike.

  I was going to finish at 2:00pm but another low double figure fish caused me to stay for a further hour, how often have you been lulled into this extra time in such a circumstance, we live in hope and as mentioned at the start of this piece, while a bait is in the water you can catch. There were no more fish but I retired well happy and looking forward to the next visit.  Perhaps a note worth repeating is that fact that the water was very heavily coloured, next time you arrive at a venue and see such a state of condition, don’t worry since the fish detect by smell and our baits give off plenty of signals to the searching fish especially if additional oils have been used as I had on this trip.  A simple small number of tiny nicks into the skin and the use of a hypodermic will allow any of the oils to be inserted under the skin to leak out as an attractor perhaps increasing your chances of success. 
 

                                            Double waiting to leave after being unhooked.

Tight lines until my next blog.

 

Golden moments with very big pike.

The recent pike fishing session on Chew really set my mind going on the toothy predators, even in this cold snap they will still feed so after a day to sort out life’s needs I was on my way to a local pike venue.  This was Saturday morning and at 6:00am it was already spitting with sleet that changed to snow before I reached the venue.  The tactics I would use could not be simpler, a straight running leger using a fairly light lead and either sardine or mackerel on a Jardine type snap tackle – for the younger reader that is the usual two treble hooks in a line with each other.  J

Wrapped up well against the cold and wet I waited for my first indication, and as I waited the snow began to slowly settle laying the usual white blanket over the surrounding ground to give that uniform appear that loses all the countryside’s normal character.  The first take was missed, but almost straight away after I recast I had another and assumed it was the same fish.  At 4lb or so it would not set the angling world buzzing, but I took a photo of it lying on the floor just because of the small amount of snow that lay there.  Another pike followed, this one slightly bigger at perhaps 6lb, and again the next fish got larger still so out of interest I weighed it, not had much practice at that this year, 7lb-12oz and a nice scrap, but it proved to be the last action for the day.

                                                                The first of the day.

The forecast for Sunday suggested light rain in the daytime with snow starting as evening drew closer, the wind would turn to the east and then the snow would continue through the night.  I decided to make the best use of the conditions and go back again for a dawn start fishing through to mid-afternoon.  This time as I left home it was raining and in fact it did not stop all the time I was fishing, but that’s what we have umbrellas for.  I would be using the same tactics but had moved to the opposite end of the water in the hope the big fish would show there.  Throughout the morning I had indications and lost a fish through an unusual occurrence.  I struck a positive take and the rod bent well over into the usual battle curve, more pressure got it moving but then it went comparatively slack.  Cursing a lost fish I reeled in against some resistance and when the end tackle appeared it was heavily covered with blanket weed.  My guess was the hooked fish run along the bottom into a bed of this blanket and with the extra weight right next to the hooked fish it pulled the hooks free, just bad luck.  It was coming up to midday when I finally managed to hook and land a fish after a great fight right to the drawstring, as it slipped over I knew I had my hoped for 20lb+ pike, but how much over?  I removed the hooks, just lightly nicked in the scissors, and then left her in the landing net to rest as I got the gear ready.  Fortunately just ten minutes before I landed the fish, a friend, David McIntyre had arrived just for a look around, with the steady rain still falling it made getting photos so much more easily accomplished and soon the fish was heading back into its watery home.  The weight at 22lb-11oz was of course very pleasing and I continued fishing very hopeful of another fish before I left.

                                                            22lb-11oz of prime pike.

The confidence of more fish was rewarded when I followed the twenty pound pike with another long lean fish of 16lb, this being a totally different shape to the near 16 from Chew but that is probably to be expected, these live on roach and the like where as trout fishery pike can supplement their diet with those trout along with the usual coarse fish.  That fish was the last one of the session and I left before the predicted snow arrived well happy with the result for two days effort.

                                                  A narrow 16lb fish to follow up the big one.

Good fish to weigh at last.

It has been a very poor start to the year for me as identified by the low level of blogs I've published so far in 2013.  In fact although the weather has been uncooperative, it is a fact that I’ve fished over several days for pike, chub, or barbel where conditions were certainly good enough for me to succeed.  Rather than succeed, I totally failed to catch any fish that were anywhere near worth getting the scales out just for practice.  Several times I have had to cancel what would have been interesting days for either river roach, or the big grayling fishing that I’ve got planned, floods and deep snow can block any trip if common sense prevails.

                                                               Sunrise over Chew.
                                                            
 Now at last the planned trip to Chew Res has arrived and at last there are fish to be weighed.

 Having obtained tickets for two boat days, I invited Rob Thomson to join me in the February for those days, he confirmed it with his wife, and plans were made.  As the day drew closer I was concerned with the high forecasted winds that could mean the boat would not go out meaning that a lot of that day would be lost.  At the last minute we decided to fish from the bank and forgo the boat, I confirmed this with the lodge and all was ok.  As the dawn broke we were in place and the rods were ready and waiting the attention of the first pike of the day. It was cold and the strength of the wind convinced us we had made the right choice, although some boats did venture out, I was told by a friend that it got quite hairy and very wet in the spray.  Still, at about 7.45am I had the first take off a pike and went on to land a short fat fish of 15lb 14oz, a great start and the boats would not be out for another hour.  Weighing, photographs and the fish returned no sooner done than Rob had an indication.  He had just recast one of his rods and another few minutes would have brought the other one in to recast as well, how narrow is the window between success and failure.  Again a superb fish typical of trout reservoir pike, short and deep giving a deceptive weight when guessed, they just are shorter than expected and so weigh less than your first guess.  I guessed 28lb; it went 26lb-4oz and a new personal best by some margin for Rob.

                                                             15lb-14oz.  A fish to weigh at last!

                                                        26lb-4oz pb for Rob.

                                   It had been a bit chaotic but eventually all the rods were back out and we sat back for a cup of tea, not for too long though as yet again Rob was in action.  This fish kited to the right and crossed my lines before tail walking quite spectacularly before being safely netted.  She looked bigger and so it proved as the scales indicated another personal best at 27lb-10oz of perfect pike.  That proved to be the last of the action and nearly all of it before the boats would normally be about.

                                                              Another improvement to 27lb-10oz

We had a conference at the close of play and having heard of fairly dismal results from many anglers on the water we decided to stay on the bank since the swim did seem to have feeding fish present and that is a good start, maybe they would return the following day for another feast. Yesterday had been very overcast and the sun did not appear, this morning it was quite a sight as it peaked over the far bank and although there had been a heavy frost it lightened the spirit to see such a glorious sight.  We waited to see if that early feeding spell would occur again and sure enough at just after 8:00am my rod was in action again and I went on to land a very spirited pike of 19lb-14oz.   Just short of the 20lb mark but we had made the mistake of remove several baits whilst getting my hooks out of its mouth, it is often said that they are all just figures and numbers but some numbers have more kudos than others, this was such a case.  Following that we fished through to dusk with just a few indications that suggested trout would like out bait but they did not commit to taking it.

                                                                   Nearly 20lb

                                                          
I resorted to bird watching and following a miss identification of a duck I thought was a tufty at a glance - there were lots of them about - it was eventually identified as a goldeneye, the first time I have positively seen one.  With shelduck, mallard and lots of other water fowl about there was lots to observe so at least it allowed the blank hours to pass.  A good result for me and a brilliant result for Rob, with two more days booked in October I certainly look forward to that.

                                                          Two goldeneye males after the lady.

                                                       And the victor goes off with her.

                                                       

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.

Perch, pike, trout and big roach - a good week.

Well as you will know it’s been a wet and windy week, I tried pike, perch and roach fishing with varied success, but at least it has been fairly mild for November.  Going by the different weather forecast pundits we are going to have an ice age winter or a repeat of Noah’s Ark, this being the case I’ll expect a fine, mild and dry winter since they never seem to get it right even for the next day.

On Tuesday I went pike fish and although I never set the angler press lines buzzing I did get three jacks on various deadbaits, mackerel and sardine; probably that’s because that is what I had on the hooks.  I think we often put too much emphasis on the bait, where-as the fish just find food and take it whatever it is.

On Thursday I travelled south into the Kennet Valley with plans to fish with John Found for a couple of days and then one day on my own since John had plans to attend a book launch for Pete Springate’s new tome.

                                                Perch fishing on the canal section.

With no need for an early start I met John at the car park on the Kennet and Avon Canal at 11:00am ready for the day’s sport after the big perch known to swim in the area.  For those not familiar with this region but thinking they might like to try it out, then the Reading and District book give dozens of miles of both river and canal fishing along with numerous lakes.  The name says it all in that the river and canal flow side by side over the distance between Newbury and Reading.  Often they have separate waterways, but just as often they join and run as one until the next weir and they go their separate ways again.

John had identified a couple of swims where perch were caught and I dropped into one of these for the afternoon.  Although this section of canal can often have quite a flow on it, there seemed little movement today as there were no boats on the move.  The swim itself was a section where the far bank had overhanging brambles which gave shelter to the fish keeping the boats away from the bank.  Fishing with a pole would be the ideal since that would allow you to go into quite tight spots and place the bait right against the bank but casting had its obvious problem of the slightest misjudgement going into the brambles and possible breakage.

                                                                   The perch's home

I chose a slight hollow where the brambles formed an arc and at least I had a few feet to play with although I still hit the brambles on one occasion and was lucky to get the tackle back intact.  The tackle was an open-ended feeder, fished paternoster style with the size 8 hook on 4lb fluorocarbon line attached so the hook hung just above the feeder when I was ready to cast it out.  With the rod held vertically in front of me and a pendulum style swing away from my body directly at the chosen spot for the tackle to land was the way to hit the swim with regular consistency.  Casting with the rod held to either side and then a swing towards the swim will end up in disaster, a split second error in releasing the line from the spool sends the bait to either side of the intended spot and the waiting brambles just say ‘thank you very much’ and on most occasions they keep your free gift to them.

My hookbait was a lobworm and within the feeder was a mix of casters, chopped up dendrobaenas, and prawns all held in a light method mix.  A dozen casts at the beginning of the session soon had a bit of feed laid down to attract the perch if they were in the area.  I waited about an hour for the first bite on my quivertip and hooked a nice fish only to have it come off the hook about half way back to my side of the canal.  Disappointing but at least there were fish feeding.  Over the next few hours I took two others of 2lb-4oz and 2lb-7oz as well as missing a couple of bites, but that will often happen with lobworms as bait.  An interesting start to my break but what would tomorrow bring?

                                                             A nice Kennet & Avon canal perch.

For the Friday it was arranged that we would visit Dave Steuart’s section of the River Test again in the hope of a big river roach.  With all the current rain in the area we knew the chances would not be good, but Dave had suggested that legering might produce the goods with the odd swim still available for float fishing in the slack water.   As expected it was hard going, I got a grayling from  a comparative slack water on the far side of the rive while John managed a roach of about  1lb from the bottom weir pool.  A few brown trout fell to both of us but they do tend to be a bit stupid so no surprise there.  We had left the best chance to last and although I got a couple of small roach, it was John who took first prize with a 2lb-4oz specimen roach that makes these trips so worthwhile.  A short walk away was slack water that allowed the fish to rest and photos to be taken before returning them to fight another day.

 

                                               The River Test runs through the garden.

                         John with the 1st prize of 2lb-4oz.

           One of the big browns we caught.

The Saturday proved to be a total washout, rain from the start to the finish, and my thought of a return trip to tempt a bigger perch from the section of canal failed miserably with total blank.  That’s what fishing is about in my eyes, the chance of a monster fish, but it needs work and effort to succeed and those good days have to be treasured to make up for the blanks.

Chew Valley piking session.

At 4:30am Sunday morning I was wondering if I really wanted to go pike fishing on a boat at Chew Valley, my early start days have never been good and with the passing years they have got even less interesting.  Still the boat was booked and paid for, and John would be travelling from the Oxford area to meet me there and since I had the tickets, I had got to go!

For me the 115 miles are fairly good being an easy drive mostly on motorway, the Tom-Tom system makes the smaller lanes at the far end more easily accommodated, but one thing did bring home the need for attention when driving.  The rain had started about Tewksbury and just got heavier as I went further south, by the time I was travelling through Bristol it was a definite downpour.  The roads near Chew Valley are only just able to take that name, they are more like little lanes, often one way, with a hedges or stone walls to confine you and give a slight case of claustrophobia.  Driving along the lanes there were little rivers of floodwater travelling down any slope and then out of the blue, I drove into a river!   At least it seemed that way when the front of the van disappeared into a spray of water where the rain had collected in a dip in the road to a depth of two foot or more, my speed got me through it but it also definitely woke me up.

I arrived at the lake and with the rain still falling so I sat in the van waiting for the club house to open, they do a nice English breakfast here and I would have one to set me up for the day on the water.  Then to crown it all it began to snow, just a few flakes at first but slowly it developed into a proper snow storm and looking out over the reservoir I really did think I was in the right place at the wrong time.  Fortunately I did not have to decide whether to venture out since by the time the 9:00am start came the snow had stopped and although the was a little drizzle still going it was ‘now let’s get out there and catch a thirty time.’

                                                   Snow on the hill on a gray, misty morning.

 

With a mist over the snow laid hills around us, we travelled across to Wick Point our chosen starting position.  Fortunately John had better information than I had, and although not recent knowledge he knew that the pike were still in the shallow water rather than what I would have expected being cold and I would have gone for a deeper choice.  Discussion with other hopefuls in the lodge had indeed shown that this season the lure fishing had been poor and the lodge bank, normally first choice, was not producing the goods.  Knowing what was going on it came as no surprise when nearly all the boats also made their way to the far bank, but plenty of water so that when we finally settled the nearest boat was some hundreds of yards away.

                                        My Chew double, note the tag near the dorsal fin.                                           

 

We soon had four rods out with a mix of mackerel, herring and sardine baits in use and it was not too long before we had evidence of fish in the area.  Trout can always be a problem when fishing for pike on a trout reservoir, but when they go 5lb or 6lb a time it is still an interesting fight which we had several times over the course of the day.  The first pike came to my rod and when weighed it went 13lb exactly, not the size we hoped for but it did show that there were pike in the area and that is always a good thing.  Throughout the day we continued to get the mix of sport, trout and pike ending with three doubles and lots of trout.  John took the prize for double with two of 11lb-10oz and a second of 12lb but that big fish evaded us again, maybe next time.

                                                      John's best pike on the day.

Of birds, books and pike.

As a few of you will know I was one of the founder members who met at Upton on Severn all those years ago and started the Barbel Society on its way.  This year it was decided that the Society would produce a book to celebrate the barbel and its high place in the specimen fishing world and the contribution the Society made to that position.  I was very pleased to accept a position on the small subcommittee that were tasked to bring the book to fruition, my particular task took advantage of the fact that I’ve already produced two books of my own, Magic Moments and the current, Targets Set and Achieved.

This week with the weather being decidedly poor I have taken the chance to bring the book material up to date and ready for Martin Mumby to get on with his part of laying out the material in final book form.  We know he does a good job of this, bringing all his skill into play, he in fact did my last book for me and I was very happy with the result.

The plan is to use a mix of articles that have appeared in the Societies magazine, Barbel Fisher, and have an equal mix of invited guests to produce current features on their own view of barbel fishing.  Well known guest writers include Dean Macey, John Wilson, Len Arbery, Rob Swindells and many others.

It is the intention that the book will be produced to the highest standard and will be in the order of 300 pages and 100,00+ words, as with most modern books there will also be a wide range of photographs to illustrate each chapter.  The book will be launched at the Barbel Society Conference next June and details of ordering can be found on their webpages at http://www.thebarbelsociety.co.uk .

                                                    Tuck in lads there's plenty here.

 

Fishing wise I’ve done just one trip and that was an unsuccessful trip after pike.  I did get to see a large flock of fieldfares collecting the red berries of the bushes that ranged behind my swim, there must have been in excess of 100 birds, but lots of berries so no problem.

Happy birthday!

I went tench/bream fishing yesterday in the hope of catching a nice fish to celebrate the first year anniversary of starting this blog, unfortunately the result was just one small 4lb odd tench that came in one of the short breaks in the incessant rain that fell for most of the session up to when I gave up at 11:00pm.

                                                   A nice male tench that broke up the rain. 

 As you will be all too aware, the rain and the fall in temperatures that come with it, has been all too common an occurrence over the last month or more, if this is a drought heaven help us when we come out the other side of it.

Going back to the blog I would like to thank all the regular readers for their continued support.  When I write for a magazine or one of my books I am never sure as to the response, with the blog I get an up-to date feedback as to the current situation of interest and the positive results I see gives me the encouragement to continue.  I now get nearly 1000 page views per week and the site has gone well past the 27000 hits since that first feature on May 3^rd 2011.  By the very nature of how blogs work those initial hits were more in the 10’s of views until anglers found out that the site existed, more find it every day and those numbers will increase over the coming year.

Within the 86 Blogs that I’ve written so far there are reports of many big fish, 20lb plus pike and carp, bream and zander to double figures, catfish and sturgeon over 50lb, 2lb plus roach, 3lb plus perch and 7lb plus chub.  Probably the most pleasing fish for me were river best barbel  of 11lb-6oz for the Teme, 12lb-2oz for the Derwent and the new river Anker record at 15lb-4oz.  Top this with a pb tench of 11lb-14oz and you can see I had a good year!  One big difference the reader will notice when reading a regular blog as opposed to the monthly magazine reports is you also become aware of the number of blanks suffered by the author, mostly not mentioned in a magazine though they occur just as regularly. 

Hopefully the next 12 months will be just as fruitful and interesting, I’ll be reporting and with luck all of you and more will be reading it.  I cannot close this comment on the last year without a mention of the book ‘Targets set and Achieved.’  It strongly reflects the style of writing you read here and contains the story of numerous big specimens, if you don’t have a copy yet then put it on your wish list for birthday presents and the like or treat yourself.

Tight lines for the coming season and I’ll be here to give the next blog report.

The search for monster Pike and Sturgeon.

Each season I take the chance of a visit to one of the many trout reservoirs in the attempt to catch a 30lb pike, I say 30lb but in reality a 20lb fish would have done almost as well.  Over the years I have seen many good fish caught, though most of them fell to live-bait both legal and illegal.  I’ve kept to the rules and although not the only reason for my failure, it certainly it did not help my attempts with the result that I still await my first 20lb plus pike from those venues.

This trip I was fishing at Chew Valley with a few friends from the Orchid Lakes region and my boat companion would be John George, good company since I fished the same venue with him last year, though other than some small pike on that trip we blanked.  Unfortunately this year followed the same track, we took a few jack-pike again, but our group of four anglers blanked yet once more with regards to the bigger fish.  John did manage a nice brown trout that gave him a new personal best for the species, but I will have to wait for next year to get that hoped for 30lb specimen, maybe!

                                            John with his near double brown trout.

Following two long days sitting in a boat the last thing I really wanted to do was go fishing the next day.  Unfortunately when I booked up the days for the sturgeon trips I over-looked the pike trip so I was committed to go.  The fortunate thing is that when the alarm clock woke me at 5:00am that Sunday morning I was eager to go, there is a 60lb plus sturgeon with my name on it and I find this fishing quite exhilarating, even the 20’s can go like a bat out of hell.

Along with my four companions, different ones to the pike trip, we arrived before dawn and it was a case of waiting for the light levels to be sufficient to see the floats once they were cast out.  Just before 7:00am that time came, and out went my float fished salmon chunks, nothing but the best for these fish, and I did not wait long before the float dipped and I struck into a hard fighting fish.  With its power I was forced to travel down the lake and finally landed him some 50 yards or so away from my original swim.  During the final stages of the battle I could see I had hooked one of the big fish known to exceed 60lb, problem was the hook was not in its mouth; not the same but I looked forward to weighing and getting a photo of him as a record of a great scrap.  Simon had recently purchased a 60inch landing net from the Catmasters site, and with this to enfold the fish there seemed little to worry about, but I was totally wrong on that point.

Once the fish was in the net I shot off to get the weighing gear and camera from my tackle-bag, but as I went to return the call came that the fish had escaped through the bottom of the net.  Of course I thought this was a wind-up but then the net was held up high to confirm the deadly truth – he was gone without being weighed and no photos would be taken.  The near brand new net had a 12inch hole in its base where Simon had attempted to lift the fish onto the bank only to see it slide away to safety.  Surely a 60inch net should be made to take the weight of a big fish, this one certainly was not so take heed when you look for such equipment.  The rest of the day passed quite pleasantly, I took another fish of 27lb, and the other lads caught more 20lb plus fish to a best of 27lb-11oz.  Lots of good sport, but I must wait for the next chance in November and hope one of those big fish put in another appearance – this time into a better landing net!

                                                      Nice specimen but not the target!