When I stuck my head out the door to check on the weather this morning it looked like a very good pikeing day. I checked the Met Office website and it said that the day was going to get progressively worse. I had arranged to meet Beef at Sixfields so i decided to gamble and hope that the Met Office had got it wrong. This was a bad move as at 9am the weather indeed took a turn for the worse and it started to pour down, this wasn't too bad but the 50 mile an hour gusts of winds that followed made it virtually impossible to fish. We did manage to get a run on one rod though; but the Pike managed to shake itself free. It looked a good size too, possibly a low double. We decided to call it a day by about 1 O'clock, as we both knew we had been beaten by the weather. A Pikeless session but we did have a good laugh. Check out our new headcam footage, no expense spared with our gadgets. An elastic band around my head ;-)

Weather Footage

Headcam Footage

The Sluice produces the goods

Biggest fish of the day 8lb 10oz5lb 14oz

5lb 4oz

After yesterday's early start and late finish, I wasn't going to go fishing today. However after looking at the weather report and the moon phase, I just couldn't resist. So another early start beckoned and the alarm was set for 6 o'clock again. I opted for a Pikeing session on the Sluice. Arrived in good time and it wasn't too long before i had my first Pike on the bank. It fell for a ledgered Mackerel. Not the biggest of fish, weighing in at 5lb 4oz. About an hour later another run followed, swiftly landed and weighed in at 5lb 14oz. After a little doze i was woken by the sound of my alarm screeching again. A little groggy and not 100% awake i struck into the fish and soon realised my mistake. I had forgotten to set the reel and knock the bail arm off, end result was a lost fish and a big ball of line. DOH! Not to worry as another Pike was soon taking a fancy to another ledgered Mackerel. A good scrap followed and eventually netted, this one was slightly bigger weighing 8lb 10oz. I was still unhooking this one when would you believe it my other rod was on to another Pike. This has never happened to me before. I had no option but to try and bully this fish in as i was in a slight pickle with the fish on the bank as one of the hooks was in an awkward position. Alas it came off just as I was about to land it. Awkward hook situation was soon sorted, and I was grateful for having various tools to hand, as hook cutters were needed for this one. Today by all accounts was a great day for Pikeing. It was slightly Overcast, there hadn't been too much rain the day before so the drain wasn't pumping too hard, and the Moon phase was excellent as it was just moving into the last quarter. I will be paying a lot of attention to the moon and it's phases from now on. I will be doing various tests and reports will follow. I had to pack up early to pick up Ellie from school. I'm convinced that I'd have caught more fish today. I may just have to have another go on Saturday. Not too long left until close season.

Moon Phase = Red
Catches = 3

Beacon View lots of bites and 4 Bream

Decided to try out my new Carping rigs and Rod pod today. So I made my way to Beacon View Fishery. Set off quite early and got there for just after 7 o'clock. It was rather windy and this played havoc with my bite alarms. They were beeping practically all day. I was using a bolt rig on all three rods, with a size 8 or 6 hook hair rigged with a big piece of luncheon meat. This was primarily to target the big Sturgeon in there. I was plagued by nuisance all day, i worked out that my alarms were beeping all day because little fish were nibbling at my big chunks of meat. How to get around this problem? I tackled down and changed to a size 10 hook and hair rigged a small cube of Luncheon meat, within around 10 minutes I had my first fish on the bank. A skimmer bream of about 1lb. In total I caught 4 of them and all within the space of an hour. My first bream of the year. I stayed fishing well into the dark finally packing up at 8ish. (I mostly stayed this late so i could try out my new head torch ;-) Luckily I have a very understanding partner, she even had my tea ready when I came home. So no monsters caught this time then and my Carp record still stands at an embarrassing 8lb 10oz to be fair though I caught that on a pole and have only just started to target larger fish. I will catch myself a 20 pound plus this season if it kills me.
Moon Phase = Green
Catches = 4

Brilliant Session and a Pike Legend

Decided to have an early start today. And was rod's in by 7 o'clock. Had three rods out all on Mackerel dead baits. Had a run after about an hour, but it came off during the fight. I was quite disappointed. I soon re baited with another Mackerel. After about another hour my alarm was screeching off again. This time I managed to land the fish, and weighing in at 9lb, I was rather pleased. The hooks came out in the net so this fish was only lightly hooked. I had just about de-slimed myself when i could see the angling legend Gord Burton walking over. Gord gave me loads of advise and hints and tips. He went through my rigs and told me that they were spot on. Which i was rather pleased with. He stood for over 3 hours chatting to me. He has so many stories he's a real character. He really is one of the nicest guy's you could meet. I discussed the possibility of going out with him on his boat on to windermere, this is an opportunity too good to miss, so I'll arrange something next week. I gave him some of my fishing weights that I'd recently acquired from a mate. I could see that he'd taken a liking to them so i duly obliged. In return i got him to pose for a couple of pics with me. A fabulous day a 9lb pike, and i met and chatted to an all time angling legend. Cheers Gordie you're a true gent!

Moon Phase = Red
Catches = 1

Rufford canal wobbling rigs

A few hours spent walking down the Leeds Liverpool canal, with a wobbling rig. No takes but a nice walk and a chat to another piker He was dead baiting. He hadn't caught and had been fishing for a good few hours. My choice of bait for wobbling was a dead Perch, This technique I'm sure is going to catch me a lot of fish. The Perch is perfect for wobbling as the skin is very tough and holds the hooks well.

A weird day at Beacon View

Another visit to Beacon View Fishery, my main target was Sturgeon. Fished on 2 rods. Chucked the first rod out and was just taking my second rod out of the bag, when my alarm started beeping, this was after only 30 seconds to a minute. I struck into it and started to reel in, something didn't feel quite right. I could feel the fish on but i could tell something was wrong. As the fish surfaced I could see immediately what the problem was. I had managed to cast my line into another anglers line who had been snapped off. I'd somehow managed to lock leads with the other rigs lead. After a little fight I managed to net the fish, which turned out to be a Common just short of 7lb. It was then that i had a real eye rubbing moment. 9 days previously the day that Beef caught his 7lb Sturgeon in my absence on my rod. Beef overcast his rod and hit a tree on the far bank, the end result to this was his line snapping and full loss of tackle in the water. Unbelievably the Carp which I'd caught had taken the bait attached to the rig and had been swimming around with all the rig and line still attached. What amazes me the most about this is that it was me that caught it, and that it had managed to avoid capture for a period of up to 9 days. And that I hooked it in under a minute. The Carp was returned to the water in good condition and carrying a little less luggage ;-) It's worth a mention that there were a few anglers on the water and the only other fish that I saw being caught was a small Sturgeon, and that had been foul hooked. Was approached by a lad who wanted to sell some of his old Carping gear. I did a deal and bought the lot. I ended up with some pretty good gear.

Recovered rig Common carp minus accessories

Match stretch 3 rods and no fish

Thought I'd try a different stretch of the Sluice today. So headed off to the match stretch. Fished with 2 Pike rods and quiver tip. And my rewards for all this effort. NOTHING not even a bite all day. I tried a various amount of baits and to no avail. This blanking session was made a lot easier by the fact that another angler a couple of pegs up also blanked. He has a total of 3 Pike rods out and was also Pole fishing. Not even a bite. Just one of those days i guess.

Sixfields and Beef's quest for a double!

Arrived nice and early for what promised to be a great day for Pikeing, after my recent double catch, expectations were high. Beef and I after a short discussion opted for the leap frogging technique. We walked for what was the best part of a mile and set up base. The idea is that throughout the day if no Pike had showed we would move further up towards where we had parked. Thus less of a walk back with all the gear. I let Beef try out my new Spinning rod, showed him a wobbling rig, and the little blighter caught after about 6 chucks. Although of no size just about scraping 3lb and that was the only fish we saw all day. No runs no bites a very slow day. Beef was chuffed with his catch and didn't waste any time in reminding me that he caught and i blanked. "It's all in the technique" Cheek of it ;-)

Finally my quest for a double is complete

Decided to give Sixfields another go. So arrived nice and early, around 7.20am and had both rods in the water by about 7.40. Tried out the leap frogging tactic today. I walked quite far and worked my way back to the van. I fished several places. In total today I had 6 runs on my rod. However I was soon to learn that I was striking too early. I was using bite alarms, and was missing strike after strike, I was finding this very frustrating. Finally by about 3 o'clock I hooked onto a fish, and it give a good account of itself. It took me about 5 minutes to land it. At first it looked nothing more than 6 or 7 pounds, but once it was in the net I could clearly see that I'd landed my first ever double. It was long and looked lean, but had a massive gut. It weighed in at an impressive 12lb 9oz I was absolutely made up. Luckily there was a dog walker near by so I called him over to take some pictures. I know there are a lot bigger fish out there and that 12lb 9oz is not exactly staggering, but this fish meant a lot to me as I have put a lot into catching it.

Nothing to declare

Covered a lot of water today. Flitting from The Sluice to the Back Drain and then finally the Leeds Liverpool Canal. Chucked a few lures out here and there, but didn't get any takes at all. Picked up Ellie from school and managed to talk her into going to the Canal on the promise that I'd catch a pike for her to look at, alas it didn't go to plan and managed to blank. Needless to say she got rather bored very quickly. Although on positive note she and I got some fresh air and exercise. May talk her into having another go on Saturday ;-)

Red Lion to Saracens Head

Beacon View The Return

Met Beef at 7.30 at Beacon View. And was very eager to get fishing. Surely this will be the day that I break my course fishing record, a measly 8lb 10oz carp caught on my pole at Hurlston Hall fishery last year. About an hour after fishing I had to leave the fishery to pick Ellie up as she was off school poorly. I was away for just under an hour. On my way back I phoned Beef to see if he'd caught, his reply was "No" around 10 seconds later I heard my alarm start screaming, it had happened I'd had a run whilst I was away, and he caught a Sturgeon on my rod. Weighing in at 7lb I wasn't put out by this, in fact I was made up he'd caught his first fish this year. When I got back he was still shaking with excitement. This turned out yet again to be the only fish caught on the lake in 8 hours of fishing.

A trip to Beacon View Fishery

For a change from Pikeing I arranged to meet Beef at Beacon view Fishery, here we would have a bash at carping and see if we could winkle out a Sturgeon or two. There are rumours of a Sturgeon to 30lb's in this lake. And after a reccy yesterday I spoke to two lads, they showed me one of their catches of the day, a 16lb Sturgeon! So excitement was plentiful. I Was fishing by around 8ish, and by about 10 past 8, I had landed my first fish, a Sturgeon weighing in at 7lb 2oz. Caught on a small section of (Secret Bait!) I'm going to be in for a good day today I thought. Beef arrived at around 9ish. He was gutted he'd missed out on the action. "Not to worry mate they're feeding today we're in for a good un!" Alas famous last words. Apart from a couple of runs we never saw another fish all day. In fact up until 5.30 when we packed up, nobody else had caught not even a bite alarm had bleeped. As Beef has another day off work tomorrow, we've decided to head back there. We have arranged to meet at 7.30am. I want one of those big sturgeon!

River Yarrow

A very windy and blustery day, not ideal fishing conditions at all, and only an idiot would go fishing in that. So I packed my rod and reel and off I went. Firstly I had a look around the Bretherton Anglers lake. I'm most impressed with this water, and I'm looking forward to fishing it in the Spring. There are plenty of features and apparently a good head of fish. I chucked a few lures out but i wasn't expecting to catch. I didn't! I then headed over to the River Yarrow and chucked out a few more lures, after 20 minutes of no action I headed over to the weir pool. I changed over to a larger lure, after around 5 minutes I felt something hit my line, at first I thought id hit a branch or some debris in the water. Then it surfaced, a rather healthy looking pike which assisted by the tow of the Yarrow put up a great fight on my little Spinning rod. I eventually landed it and it weighed in at 5lb 11oz. This Happens to be my new personal best pike so I was rather pleased. Still not caught my first double yet. I will not give up and will soon land a double and i have promised myself a 20lb'er before this year is out.

A fish is a fish, is a fish!

Went to the Leeds Liverpool Canal with my new purchases. A Drennan spinning rod and a Shimano exage reel, i was hoping to christen my new items. And after about 30 mins i'm happy to report that i did. Although it was hardly a net buster, a Jack Pike of around a pound. I walked up to the Rufford Old Hall section, and was quite surprised when my Dad turned up for a nosey. I even got him to chuck a few lures out, i think he quite liked the idea of Lure fishing as he said he'd like to give it another go. After walking as far as the Causeway at rufford i turned back, i'd been fishing for around 4 hours. I stopped off behind Rufford Old Hall again, and caught 2 Jack Pikes within around 2 mins. Not a bad result, The first time on my new rod and reel and caught 3 ;0)

First Catch

Second Catch

Third Catch