A new venue and a Bream PB

A new venue for me to try today, because of work commitments I'd have to pack away at 2pm. Because of this reason I don't usually fish on Friday's. So in order to make the day worthwhile I set my alarm the previous night at a thought shuddering 4am. What the hell! Summer is nearly here so it's time to take advantage of these early morning day breaks.

I fished the tip and I was hoping to snare the odd decent sized Bream or Tench on this visit and for getting up that time in the morning I deserved something of merit, well that's what I kept telling myself.

My first fish on the bank was a Roach, and this was followed by another Roach, and another, I'm sure you're getting the picture, my choice of bait was single red maggot and I was struggling to get through the Roach, my theory though was stick at it and eventually the bigger fish will come, and that they did, eventually my tip rod ripped around and I was finally into a good fish, it was taking line and I was enjoying playing the beast from the deep when... Disaster! It headed for my other line, forcing me to bully it, the inevitable happened and the 4lb hook link snapped.

I sat on the bank a despondent figure of my former self. I'd lost what could only have been a Tench of giant proportions. I love this fishing malarkey, but it can be a cruel one at times. There's nothing worse in fishing than losing a good fish.

Half an hour later and as my tip rod was bending double, all my previous troubles and woe's were that of a distant memory. I had another decent fish on and this time I was going to land it.
A new personal best Bream of 4lb 9oz made getting up at the unearthly hour all worthwhile, and would you believe it, and not too long after. I caught another Bream of 4lb 10oz another PB and beaten by just one ounce.

I kept to my word and packed up at 2pm, I could easily have stayed there until...Well if the truth be told I'd still be there if I could get away with it. It's the bank holiday weekend though and that means one thing. Fishing and plenty of it.

4lb 10oz Bream

An afternoon's bit bashing on the Canal

It was time to properly dust the Pole down, head down to my local canal this afternoon to try my hand at catching a net full of fish. The rising temperature has really woken the fish up, and no longer do I have to rely on them taking small bread punch offerings as bait. Single red Maggot and Pinkies were on the menu today, and they took them readily.

I ended up with a mixed bag of Roach, Bream, Perch, Skimmers and a token Eel for my efforts. I finished with a total of 35 fish and a combined net of 9lb 4oz (which would have tipped 10lb's if I had weighed the Eel.)

No decent sized Bream today, but there was a good head of Perch all around 5 to 6oz, the best fish of the day was a cracking Roach that weighed in at 12oz, I shall claim this as a new PB, I've probably had bigger but never taken the trouble to weigh one individually. The vibrant red fins on this Roach were absolutely stunning. I can see why some people target them specifically.

An eclectic bag

The 12oz Roach

The accidental Piker

I was to take advantage of the excellent weather of late by fishing one of my local reservoirs this weekend. The temperature is now touching around 15 -16c. I was looking forward to a session fishing on the tip. I was hoping to catch a few Bream as I'm told this water holds some good specimens. I didn't catch any though, a little too early for them perhaps? Not be too long now before I start to bag up on the Slabs. I did catch a good few Roach for my efforts, they were a good stamp too, perhaps averaging around 5 to 6 ounces.

I was just about to land one of my prize Roach, when from out of nowhere a Pike spotted an easy target and struck at my fish. Within an instant my line went tight and I had to quickly loosen the clutch, I had hooked in to a decent sized Pike. I was only on a 2oz tip, 6lb main line 3lb bottom matched with a size18 hook. I held on for dear life! The Pike stripped line from my reel at an awesome pace. Oh my what fun I was having! I knew that the chances of landing the fish was very slim, one brush of those teeth with my hook length and it would all be over. Luckily I had managed to hook it just in the scissors, and after a 5 minute battle it was slipped into the net. The scales stopped on 8lb 4oz, a good fish on light gear.

Rather ironic then isn't it - I stop fishing for Pike and target other species and I still manage to catch one, and a pretty good one at that. Such is the unpredictability of fishing

An accidental Pike

Pristine Roach

Jigging at Sunset

I could argue with myself that this post isn't really worth posting, save for the fact that I got some good sunset pictures I shall continue. You will of course notice that I've tinkered around with the pictures in photoshop, the black and white one happens to be my favourite.

Additionally sometimes you must realise that it's not all about the fishing and every now and again you should take the time to look around. There is lots to see, and if you become too focused on the fishing you'll miss it. Over the past few weeks whilst I have been out and about I have spotted some beautiful birds. A Goldfinch, many a Kingfisher amonst others but my star spot has to be a little Egret which I saw wading across a field.

I headed to the Canal just before sunset for a spot of Jigging. I tried a few different colours, and eventually had a take from a small Jack of around a pound. Better than a blank I suppose, of course I wasn't targeting Pike I was hoping to snare a Perch or two, it wasn't to be.

Now that the light nights are here I'll probably have a few ad hoc sessions here and there, time to keep the Jigging rod on the back of the van for such occasions.

A taste of things to come

Many a fisherman will tell you that Fly Fishing is the purest form of fishing, I for one would be inclined to agree. A friend of mine was to fish a fly fishery that is very local to me today so I took this as a great opportunity to watch his casting techniques and have a general chat about a side of fishing that I confess at this point know little about.

I can tell you that from spending what was probably around an hour or so watching him casting that I was absolutely dying to have a go. This is definitely a branch of fishing that I want to learn all about, and will book myself in for a lesson over the coming weeks. I'll also be taking Paul's offer of joining him for a day in the not so distant future.

I was just about to leave him to his days fishing when he got a take, a hard fighting Rainbow Trout put a great bend in his rod. Great fun! Now I just need to pick some cheap fly fishing gear up from somewhere :)

Readying the net

Rainbow Trout 3lb's ish

Plenty of Bream on the tip

Bank Holiday Monday and another chance to get out and wet a line. I arranged a day's fishing with Allan, the only problem was that we couldn't decide where to go. We sat in the van deliberating for a good 5 minutes, eventually deciding that we should head back to the venue we fished two days previously. It offers a good bit of shelter from the heavy winds that were promised for the day ahead, and there was a chance of some good sport fishing on the tip.

It didn't take long for the bites to come, I fished at range on a maggot feeder and my first bite saw my rod tip bend right round, I thought I was into a Carp or possibly a large Tench. I was surprised to see that I'd in fact caught a Chub, my first of three that I'd catch during the day, Allan also caught a Chub which he informed me was the first one that he'd ever caught. I had a good head of Bream today and around 30 odd pounds of fish, the largest of which was probably touching 3 pounds

The fishing has started to become a little competitive between myself and Allan and he was keeping an eye on the scores throughout the day. He nearly had me at one point but the result finished 18-11 to me, it's only a matter of time before the apprentice beats the master (His word's not mine)

Biggest Bream of the day

Al's first ever Chub

And now for something completely different...

It's Easter bank holiday weekend, and that was my cue to get out and wet a line. JP and Allan expressed an interest in a session this weekend so after a little deliberation we decided to fish a local club run ticket water.

I suppose after a hard winters fishing with little results to show for our efforts, fishing a venue that would ensure fish on the bank was too hard to resist.

It didn't take long for me to realise why I don't normally fish these kind of waters, and that quieter less occupied rivers are more suited to my personality.

Quite frankly I don't like fishing near other people, and I was soon put to the test. The water that we were fishing has around 30 pegs, at the time there was around 25 vacant pegs available. (I'd had the hindsight to put a rod bag on the peg next to me 'The old my mates coming later on in the day trick') When I heard a voice say "Is someone on this peg mate?" I mean what the hell is wrong with these people? Why do they insist on coming and plonking themselves next to me? I sound like a right old curmudgeon, but I guess I don't like feeling of being penned in when I'm fishing.

And So to the fishing, I fished with a maggot feeder on the tip. I was soon in to my first fish of the day and it was good to see a bit of a bend in the rod, a Bream of around 2 pounds was the culprit. I had a lot of bites during the day and landed around a dozen fish and perhaps 15lb of fish, a mixed bag of Bream, Roach, and Tench, and a surprise catch of a Golden Orfe.

Despite my early fears of hating the place I actually had a good day, I may even head back there in the next week or two.

First Tench of the year

Golden OrfeAllan's catch of the day