Pilgrim’s Progress – read it every Thursday!Looking Back…..Looking Forward’
First of all, a Happy New Year to you all. This is the time when we not only look back on the last twelve months, but also look forward to the next twelve. And that is exactly what I want to do in this week’s PP, from the perspective of my own angling. The last couple of PP’s looked back over the year in terms of my fishing friends, this one is more to do with the actual fishing itself.
I started the year how I intended to go on – 1st January 2000 saw me out on the river bank. While most of you were nursing a sore head, I was fishing. No worries about the Millennium bug as far as I was concerned. The closest I came was catching a cold!
The year started as the previous one had ended – in chub mode. The great thing about chub is that they are truly an all year round fish. Certainly, as far as the winter is concerned, when bites are much harder to get, we need to maximise our chances.
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| Teme barbel caught in February |
The chub is one of those fish that will feed when the frost is on the ground. When you can’t get your rod rest in the bank because it’s rock hard, when your breath hangs in the air, when your toes are numb and frostbite is ready to set in at any moment, there is always that guarantee that Mr Chub will turn up and ‘make my day’.
A lot of my fishing in the early part of the year was on the Teme. As well as chub, the river is well stocked with another obliging fish in winter conditions, the grayling. If you’ve never caught the ‘Lady of the Stream’ you really are missing out on a super fish. On one cold January session on the Teme, I increased my personal best grayling three times, by taking three fish in quick succession, all over a pound.
I also took advantage of those milder winter days that we get from time to time by targeting the Teme barbel. If you catch the river right and the temperature is good, then you can have a field day. I had some nice fish from the Teme during this time. Nothing of monster proportions, but certainly fish that made the journey into Worcestershire worthwhile. In fact it was sad to see the river season close in March, just as the temperatures were beginning to climb upwards.
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| The Upper Great Ouse in summer |
Rumours had been around for sometime, which proved to be true, that the close season was about to be abolished on canals. This suited me, as for the three months leading up to June 16, I targeted a stretch of the local Staffs / Worcs canal. I have already written about this particular campaign in previous PP’s, so won’t dwell too much on it now. But suffice to say, I caught my target of a double figure carp from the canal, which was a real achievement. When that beautiful fish took the needle on the dial past the 10lb mark, my joy was complete. Again, it was sad to leave the canal behind, just as the temperatures were climbing even higher. But, the rivers beckoned…….
Two new club cards enabled me to add to the list of rivers I’ve fished. Trips to the Dove and the Great Ouse were made in the first couple of weeks of the new season. In fact my very first PP was entitled ‘Debut on the Dove’, quickly followed by an article about my first visit to the Great Ouse which produced a 23-pounder. Carp that is, not barbel! Combined with very regular trips to the Teme, I was a busy man during the summer. As I told my wife, life is hard when you’re a fisherman, racing around all over the country.
Summer was definitely barbel mode, and again, the results have been documented in another PP in which I wrote about my warm weather barbel campaign.
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| Lower Severn barbel in Autumn |
In fact, the invitation to start writing a column was, without a doubt, one of the ‘highs’ of my angling year. The column started out as a monthly offering, then becoming a twice a month affair, until November, when it now appears weekly. I’m not sure whether it’s because the column is so popular or whether Graham Marsden can’t get anyone else to write…….The bottom line is that I enjoy writing about angling very much and sharing my thoughts through the medium of FISHINGmagic. The next best thing to being out at the water’s edge, is being able to write about it.
The very low rain fall of the summer meant that trips to the above mentioned rivers were halted due to the extremely low levels. I then switched my attentions to the Lower Severn, where I had reasonable success on the barbel front. I took two barbel over 9 lb, drawing closer to my target of a double. The low rainfall of the summer, however, gave way to the abundance of the autumn and winter. My fishing hit a downturn and I began to struggle. In fact there was a run of so many blanks, that, just like birthdays as one gets older, I choose to forget how many! I considered asking Graham if we could change the name of the column to Pilgrim’s Non-Progress or even Blankety Blank.
One highlight of the winter period though was the launching of the Black Country Specimen Group (BCSG). This was the fulfilment of a heart’s desire of mine. The group began with a meeting in November and started with a founding group of five – Mike Fidler, Paul ‘Fletch’ Fletcher, Andrew ‘Windy’ Miller, Paul Williams and myself. They call me the Chairparson (I’ve spelt that right, by the way !!). All of us met, incidentally, through Graham’s Mailing List. If you didn’t join after my exhortation in last week’s PP, do so now!
So that’s the ‘Looking Back’ bit, so what about ‘Looking Forward’? This is a time when we make our resolutions and promises. To be honest, I don’t have a whole load of strategy for the coming year. At the moment, I’m enjoying my pike and chub fishing. Come March, I haven’t decided yet what my targets will be.
My aim is quite simply to carry on enjoying the great sport of angling. If 2001 gives me the same satisfaction as I got out of 2000, I’ll be a happy man come this time next year. During the coming year though, I do want to devote a lot of energy to the BCSG. I do believe it will become a well known and well respected group. If I can play some part in that, no matter how small, that will give me great satisfaction. So here’s to a New Year, the very best of it to each one of you…..
The Reverend Stewart R Bloor
Sedgley International Christian Ministries
PO Box 1216, Dudley. DY3 1GW.
Telephone : 01384 – 828033
Web site : www.sicm.org
e-mail : missionscentre@sicm.org
