Time on the river and a surprise catch

Today myself, JP and Allan set about fishing a local river, a change of scenery was very much appreciated. We arrived at day break and I set about setting my stall out - one Pike rod, one Tip rod and a ledger rod to hopefully pick up any passing Chub. I was the first to land a fish and what a surprise to see a Flounder putting a bend in my tip rod. They sure put up a good fight on light tackle. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful and the next and last fish of the day came to JP and a good fish it was, a Chub that tipped the scales at 4lb 3oz. I'll head back to this river maybe as soon as next week but I think I'll head to a different section.

The first Pike of the year

It's been a while since my last report. I have been fishing on the drains a few times but I blanked each time. In my opinion blanking sessions aren't really worth reporting, but in the interest of fairness I believe that they should still be mentioned. I shouldn't be too hard on myself though as The conditions were far from perfect. The UK suffered it's worst winter on record for the last 50 years. The coldest I recorded was a chilling minus 6. As a result all still waters and even the drains froze over. We were even under a blanket of snow for a week or two - a fisherman's nightmare!

I decided to give the drains a miss today. I arranged to meet JP at a local still water. It was the afternoon before I got my first run and I was to be rewarded with my first Pike of the year. I didn't weigh the fish but I'd estimated it to be around 10 to 11lb's. I recast another bait to the same spot and an hour or so later I was into another fish this time only a Jack but welcome all the same.

So finally I have my first fish of the year on the bank - and two catches from the water that I joined in November. For the record both fish were caught on a paternoster about a foot off the bottom.

One of my local waters that was frozen over

Another victim to the big freezeThe coldest temperature that I recorded

Nice double from the lake