January.
As with last year I had a number of trips abroad organised
and the first of them was a trip to Surinam in South America. This would be my first venture to that
country although I’ve been next door so to say in Guyana; this fishing would be
very similar being a wild river running through quite dense jungle. Although we would be wild camping on the bank
we see very little in the way of animals etc., you hear them, but the trees are
too heavy to see very far and we are too noisy trying to get close.
The main target was a catfish known as a Lau Lau by the
locals and the river we fished gave an excellent chance of catching them. That was indeed the result and numerous 100lb
fish were taken with my 175lb being the largest of the trip although 200lb fish
had been caught on previous trips. The
fight off the Lau Lau has to be experienced to be believed, a 50lb class boat
rod bent 90 degrees for 20 or 30 minutes and you’re almost ready to pass the
rod to someone else, but you don’t.
175lb Lau Lau
February.
This month gave me a very good result off the local Warwickshire Avon, conditions for barbel held near perfect for some weeks and I managed a
string of good doubles with fish of 11lb-6oz 11lb-7oz and an 11lb-13oz fish
that I caught a second time from a swim well downstream of its original
capture.
11lb-6oz
11lb-7oz
Caught twice at 11lb-13oz
Even better than this was the capture of an 6lb-5oz chub
from the upper Avon, a comparatively rare event when even 5lb fish a noted as
very good.
6lb-5oz Avon chub
March.
The overseas bug came on again and this month I travelled
back to Guyana. Although the countries
and rivers are next door to each other the fishing is totally different. This difference is in the range of fish in Guyana,
it is very wide in scope with three or more different species where a 200lb
plus fish are possible and dozens of smaller species are also available. This adventure is at the extreme end of wild
fishing, that being indicated by the fact that when we finished the fishing
holiday at the furthest upstream we ventured, it took four days to get back to
the hotel in the capital, Georgetown.
The holiday was a big success with all anglers catching their share of
fish, my personal bests for the trip was a redtail catfish of 59lb and the
largest of the jau captured at 106lb. Piranha
can be a big problem here and you can see bite marks out of the jau’s fins where the piranha attacked the fish whilst it was being played, often the
damage to the fish you’re trying to land is far worse and they can be lost as
the main line is bitten through as they attack.
59lb Redtail
106lb Jau.
April.
I missed out on the crucians this year, taking fish to short
of 3lb on the one trip I managed before they spawned. Good size fish can be caught post spawning
but I felt that I would leave it and try for a big eel. I did catch, though the very big fish eluded me
and the best in this month was a brace one night of 4lb-2oz and 4lb-5oz,
pleasing but below my target.
2lb-3oz, 4lb-2oz and 4lb-5oz.
May.
Off to Spain this month for the roach fishing. Wells Catfish
are the main target here with the large carp a close second, but I along with
my companions are happy to fish for the big roach that live in both the Ebro
and the Segre. Fishing with Catmaster
Tours at Mequinenza we can travel about trying different areas of both rivers
and over the previous trips we have built up a list of spots that produce consistently. This trip was no different and amongst a lot
of 1lb plus fish, I took ten over the 2lb mark to a best of 2lb-10oz. We have not had a 3lb fish yet but Pete
Reading came close with a magnificent 2lb-15oz specimen.
2lb-10oz Spanish roach
Pete with a 2lb-15oz specimen
June.
As always I try to fish on the 16th opening day
and most times it is a disappointment, this time I caught four barbel with two
over 9lb to make it a good start to the season.
Other barbel would follow, but that starting day is still worth a
mention here.
I also had a few days after sturgeon a fish that fights as
hard as any in our waters and a favourite of mine. The best I took out a number of 40lb plus
captures was a giant of 44lb, well pleased with that although the bigger fish
in the lake still evade me until another day.
44lb sturgeon.
July.
A few barbel and eels but overall a fairly quite month with
the most notable specimen being a 4lb-8oz eel.
4lb-8oz eel.
August.
Yet again I had agreed to do the northern leg of the barbel
challenge arranged by Gerry Gleeson and accomanied by Paul Floyd.
Last year was a very limited success for me with just one double off the
six rivers I fished, this year was different.
Starting on the Dove I feared the worse when I blanked while the other
lads caught barbel including the hoped for double to Paul. We move every 24 hours so the next day saw us
on the Derwent and this time I was smiling by the following dawn with two doubles of
11lb-12oz and 13lb-5oz, time to move again.
13lb-5oz Derwent
11lb-12oz Derwent
This spell was on the nearby Trent and yet again I got a brace of
doubles in a catch of seven barbel, these went 10lb and 10lb-14oz.
10lb Trent
10lb-14oz Trent
The following move saw us on the Soar and I fished a swim
that was new to me though it proved a good choice when I landed eight
barbel. One of the early fish in the
spell looked good but when Paul gave his comment it was at 9lb-10oz. Later in the session my grin returned with
yet another double at 10lb-11oz.
10lb-11oz Soar.
Now we moved across towards the Nene near Peterbough a river
I had been targeting for a new river double, so far without success. Now riding my luck
I put a fish of 10lb-14oz on the scales and the local bailiff Mark Smith was
delighted to take the photos for me. He was
even more delighted when Paul took the largest known fish on the stretch at 14lb for
a new pb for himself.
10lb-14oz Nene pb
With five rivers down it had been agreed we would split up,
Paul and Jerry going onto the southern leg while I went onto the Warwickshire
Avon to try for the double off that river.
With the way things had been going for me it was almost a foregone
conclusion and sure enough amongst other barbel on the session I took an immaculate
10lb-6oz specimen to end my contribution.
10lb-6oz Wark Avon.
I had fished six rivers with a brace of doubles off two of them and a
single double off another three rivers.
Add to this that the Nene double was my 24th different river
double and you can see why I was a happy lad.
September.
I continued to catch barbel through this month and a couple
of highlight were the capture of four doubles with a best of 12lb-8oz off the
Trent. This does seem to be the inform
river and it will be interesting to see the results from it over the coming
months.
Coming up to yet another trip abroad I took the chance on a
200 mile round trip to the Goyt since conditions were perfect and even though
it was only for the day I just felt the need to go. That feeling proved true when I slipped my
net under the 25th river double, this one going 12lb-6oz. Saying I was pleased just does not do the
feeling justice.
12lb-6oz Goyt pb.
12lb-8oz best of four doubles.
October.
In a year where I travelled abroad far more than usual it
will come as no surprise that yet again I was overseas, this time to
Canada. As mentioned, I love sturgeon
fishing so it stands to reason I would have to try the Frazer River for the
monsters that live there. I did fall ill
with some bug for three days but never the less the guides looked after us and
we had 21 sturgeon between us. My best
was one inch short of the five foot mark which gave an estimated weight of
110lb, each fish gave a tremendous fight and I’ll definitely be back there next
year.
110lb Sturgeon
November.
Now I was off to Spain but this time it was a two
pronged attack. Catfish and roach were
the target and since it seemed the cats had been mostly caught at night it
fitted in with our plans quite nicely.
One of the reasons for my trip to the Goyt just two days before the
Spain trip was the severe drop in temperatures that had been forecast, sure
enough just one day after we arrived there was a ten degree fall in temps and
it did us no favours. Unfortunately
there were four groups of anglers for this week and only three baited swims, it
worked out that we missed out on fishing the baited areas and foreseeably the
cats would not move too much resulting in an almost total failure for our group
to catch. John was first on the rods and
at the end of the fourth night he took his chance and landed a 214lb cat, the
largest of the week.
John's 214lb cat
The roach played a little better and even though our time
was limited to between 9am and 4pm we did catch a good number of fish. I managed five over 2lb with a best of
2lb-12oz so it did save what would have been an inglorious blank week.
Best of the trip at 2lb-12oz.
Caught on the last day 2lb-9oz.
That was at the beginning of the month and was followed by
three days on the bank of Chew Valley Res, unfortunately for one small jack
pike. Then the weather picked up and I
decided on a trip to try for yet another new river double, this time the River Mole. I had already been down for a single day
where a local lad was good enough to show me how to access the water on the
club ticket I was to use. Unfortunately
many clubs produce maps for their waters that almost defy your ability to find
the water and then the access, this was such a case so a big thank you goes to
that lad. The trip was for two days, I’ll
sleep in the van overnight and with the M25 to negotiate I either leave home
very early or after 9am to avoid being in the traffic jam at peak times. I decided on the 9am start and arrived about
midday without too much traffic hassle. The river, when I finally settled into my
chosen swim looked perfect and I could not believe that at the very worse I
would at least catch barbel off this new river, at the best one of them would
be a double. The write up of this trip
comes immediately before this update to the blog so sufficient to say that over
the two days I caught two doubles of 10lb-9oz and 10lb-14oz, river 26
completed!
10lb-9oz
26th river double 10lb-14oz.
December.
December seemed to fall off a little and while I caught fish
there were none of particular note. I
have highlighted some of the more noted fish and of course there are many I’ve
left out. With 21 doubles off seven
different rivers I’m well pleased with the season. Add to this there were three new river
doubles among those numbers and I can increase that to very pleased.
A big advantage of my style of fishing is that there are
always new horizons and targets to be met, next year will be no different and I’m
already set with trips to Surinam, Canada and Spain, add in UK and there is no
shortage of places and species to set my eyes on. I hope your year has been as enjoyable as
mine and I wish you all the very best for the next year.
