Well Christmas has been and gone, as has New Year, and I hope everyone had a fantastic festive period and the dreaded ‘January blues’ didn’t set in.
As was documented in my previous blog my fishing is severely curtailed in December due to a serious workload. With that in mind I don’t have anything piscatorial to write about the latter part of 2012 so instead this month’s blog instalment is a month by month run down of the highs and lows of my 2012 fishing campaign.
January
The year started well and with warm south westerly winds and high water temperatures the barbel fishing was extremely good for those that ventured onto the banks. New Year’s Day saw me fishing a stretch of river I know very well and over the course of the month I managed to get out several times landing 18 barbel to just shy of double figures. All the fish came from only two swims on a very long stretch of river to whiskey flavoured maggots, showing just how important fish location is in the winter.
February
February was literally the polar opposite of January. Cold, biting winds brought with them plenty of ice and snow meaning the barbel fishing was knocked on the head and it was time to look at digging out the pike gear. Every winter I set myself a target of catching a 20lb plus pike. Up until this point I’d only managed a handful of fish into double figures but with days on the River Wye and Chew Reservoir to look forward to my confidence was high. I found myself fishing a stretch of the Wye I had never been to before but had a feeling a good day was on the cards. The conditions were perfect and my optimism was proved to be right with my first Wye pike gracing my net at 22lb 6oz closely followed by a 17lb 6oz fish to make a cracking brace.
Just a few short days later I was on the road to chew for a day’s boat fishing with long-time friend Ashley Burton. We had actually made the journey the week previously only to find the venue frozen over so we were now on our way back with a rearranged date.
I’d only fished Chew a handful of times before and Ash never but I’d always managed to get amongst a few fish. The fishing was extremely hard (we later found out there had been an algae bloom which had depleted the oxygen levels and switched the fish off). Despite this I was very pleased and somewhat fortunate to land a lovely pike of 23lb 4oz making it two 20lb plus pike in a matter of days.
I also had a holiday with my better half to look forward to for a week’s winter sun. At the end of February we were heading to The Gambia. This was something I was really excited about as I had managed to find a guide to take me out barracuda fishing for a couple of days. The weather was fantastic and while the fishing wasn’t prolific I did manage to boat one ‘cuda’ which was a great experience.
March
The weather was extremely unsettled come March and the highlight of the month was a trip to Holland to visit friend Thijs van der Sanden.
This is a trip I make once or twice every year to pit my wits against Holland’s huge inland waters and try and catch a few pike. I’ve been friends with Thijs for many years and the visits are always a lot of fun with the fishing often taking second place to the banter and mickey taking. This was to be a very short Friday to Monday trip so to make the most of the time available we were fishing an urban canal within an hour of the plane landing.
Within two hours I’d landed a cracking low 20 from a canal in the middle of a housing estate! It turned into a great trip with both Thijs and I landing a number of pike well into double figures before I departed for home.
April / May
Traditionally the river close season is a tough time for me fishing wise as I really struggle to concentrate my efforts on a sustained spring campaign. Probably something to do with me being a river angler and not really having the same enthusiasm for still waters. I do however have a bit of an affinity with the Midlands canal networks and in particular their stock of carp. I managed to catch my fair share of fish over this period, taking some stunning mirrors and commons.
The beauty of canal fishing is no one else is doing it and they are almost virgin fish. A good quality bait and simple rig will 9 times out of 10 see a few fish grace the banks. We aren’t talking fish that will break any records but when the average size is 15-16lb it’s certainly great fun.
I did have one memorable trip away for a couple of days in April and that was for my 31st birthday when myself and Ashley went for a 48 hour session on the Club Lake at Orchid Lakes in Oxfordshire. The plan was to fish for the resident catfish which Ash had caught in the past to a very impressive upper 40lb. Unfortunately the cats weren’t playing ball so I switched to carp, catching a couple of low double mirrors with Ash having just a single dropped run to one of his cat rods. The highlight of the trip though was almost hand feeding the resident heron, which we managed to get some fantastic photos of.
June
The beginning of the month saw me doing a few overnighters and day sessions on a complex of lakes in the Cotswolds, Lemington Lakes.
This is a cracking venue with several different pools catering for all styles and methods of angling. I’d set my sights on Westminster which is the venues specimen carp lake. At only 4 acres or so in size and with 300 carp between mid-double and just over 30lb resident I suppose you could class it as a runs water, providing you approach it correctly. I took a number of nice fish to just over 20lb but it was the surface fishing that was really explosive. The carp on this lake are mad for a floater or two and I had some real fun stalking and catching them.
It wasn’t long before I was back on the river and after plenty of rain in the days before 16 June the river was running a couple of feet up. I did manage a small barbel of around 7lb on my first trip out but other than that it was a bit of a struggle to find the fish. I did have some fantastic day’s chub and roach fishing though. Taking some wonderful river roach to 1lb 5oz and a number of chub to just shy of 5lb.
July
I had a couple of weeks off in July so with plenty of time at my disposal I was hopeful of meeting the acquaintance of a few fish. I spent the first five days of the month over in Slovakia visiting the in laws but once I was back that gave me nine solid days’ fishing.
Whilst I was away the rivers had been topped up somewhat with a lot of rain so it was with confidence high that I spent several days exploring my local river. Several barbel crossed the net cord over those few days including my first very welcome double of the season. I also had a trip to a stretch of the upper Wye to look forward to which hadn’t seen a coarse fisherman in excess of 40 years. Fellow Peg One angler Paul Garner had kindly invited me along for two days’ exploratory fishing. It turned out to be a great trip with us landing in excess of 30 chub and eight barbel between us.
August
There’s not a lot I can say about August except for WOW!! The whole month really was the stuff of dreams. I’d chosen a new stretch of river to have a go on and I made the effort to get out at every opportunity possible. In only eight visits to the bank I managed to catch a staggering 33 barbel which included four doubles to 12.2, over 100 chub to over 5lb and countless bream. It was just one of those times where everything fell into place and went right every time I went fishing.
The real highlight of the month though was a trip to the Wye with my dad. We don’t get the opportunity to fish together much so when we do it’s always a great day regardless of the fishing. We headed to a venue I know well and with conditions good I was hopeful of a few fish. Well it seemed I’d taken the ‘rub of the green’ with me as I managed to land nine barbel to dad’s two with not a single fish under 7lb. It was also a bit of a milestone day as one of my fish was a new Wye PB of 11lb 2oz which also took the honour of being my 60th double figure barbel.
September
I don’t normally start my predator fishing until we have had the first frosts but I had been kindly invited to spend a couple of days on a Midlands reservoir so I booked a couple of days off work and readied my lure gear in preparation.
The weather was unseasonably hot and it seemed extremely strange lure fishing in T-shirts in the blazing sun. The first day saw us both land low double pike and a few zander which was a bit of a result as the venue was fishing quite poorly. The second day dawned and the conditions were slightly better. Very little was caught but I did manage a real belter of a pike that went 23lb on the scales.
I was soon back barbel fishing and was regularly amongst a few fish which kept my confidence high. Towards the end of the month I went for an overnighter and with the river to myself I was spoilt for choice. A great night’s fishing was had with a lot of chub to a cracking size of 5lb 11oz as well as a wonderful brace of barbel going 10lb 1oz and 13lb 7oz.
October
The first week of October was spent on the banks of the river Segre in Spain with CatMaster Tours. The purpose of the trip was to celebrate Ashley’s 40th birthday and we did so in style. Over the course of the week we both got amongst some really wonderful fish with Ash catching them to 189lb and my biggest being 184lb.
Following the trip to Spain I travelled up to Edinburgh for a few days with my girlfriend to visit my sister. It was a great trip to a wonderful city and before long we were boarding the plane home. The very next day I was heading down to Stansted Airport for a trip to visit Thijs in Holland and once again pit my wits against some Dutch pike.
To say the weather was atrocious would be an understatement, it was quite frankly horrendous. We got battered by torrential rain and heavy winds for three days and I returned home with my tail firmly between my legs having caught only three jack pike for my efforts.
November / December
The beginning of November started well. I had a couple of days off work and with conditions looking OK I headed off to the river in search of pike. Over the two days I didn’t set the predator world alight but I managed four nice doubles to 17lb.
That, unfortunately, was the end of my catches for 2012. I did fish another couple of times over the course of the month but with the rivers out of their banks for a sustained period of time I deemed it far too dangerous to fish. With the onset of December and no fishing on the horizon I threw myself headfirst into a very busy month of work and by the reports I was getting from friends I wasn’t missing anything as almost everywhere nationwide was fishing poorly.
Conditions for much of January haven’t exactly been favourable so far, but hopefully I’ll have found a few fish to tell you about in my next blog!
