New Species and Personal Bests

Pollock have been plentiful whilst wrecking

May has been a memorable month for me. I've enjoyed a couple of wrecking trips as well as an afternoon drifting the Skerries Bank and new species and personal bests have, I'm pleased to say, come my way. Pollock have made up the bulk of the wreck captures, I've seen plenty of double figure fish caught and been lucky enough to catch the biggest - a personal best of 16lb. The odd cod and a few bass were very welcome also, along with some whiting and pouting. The Skerries Bank produced my first ever plaice and red gurnard and other anglers on board managed whiting, dogfish, bass, mackerel and launce. My trips have been with Spot On! Charters of Brixham, Devon. Ross the skipper, is friendly, knowledgeable and not afraid to burn fuel in search of fish. He comes highly recommended! Visit www.spot-on-charters.co.uk for information about Ross and his fantastic new boat. Away from sea fishing and back with my feet on dry land I fished Cheddar Reservoir for pike. It was a lure only competition and although I didn't catch enough to worry the top spots I did catch a few small jacks. More sea fishing planned for next month and if we get decent weather I'll also be trying for a surface caught carp. That's not forgetting that the rivers reopen on June 16th, so I'll be digging the barbel gear out too and heading to the Wye. I'll tell you all about it next time.

Round Two of the Chew Valley Lake Evening League

On Wednesday afternoon, I had booked myself on to the 2nd round of the Chew Valley evening league , its a friendly competition  run over 10 evenings on Chew and this year Blagdon as a Floating line only Comp at 2 per month starting in April and at £25.00 for 4 hours fishing  is real Value ,
I had drawn to fish with Tim Wellman a friend and Customer who unlike me had fished chew a number of times this year ,
We started with  a drift off Nunnery point on washing line set up, I was using 2 red dawlbacks and a black booby on the point as Tim had said the fish where up in the water, after 2 drifts although we had spotted rising fish we had not had a take so Decided to motor down to Herons green bay  ,
on the first drift across we both struck in to fish ,
We carried on for the next hour drifting across Herons but only had a couple of knocks to show for our efforts so thought we should try a different tactic drifting right across to the far side bank our thinking being boat pressure might have pushed the fish in the cover this bank provides ,
the results where instant we had 7 more fish to the boat in the next 2 hours ,
a finish at 8.45pm gave me 6 fish for 16lb 4oz good enough for 3rd place on the evening with
 John Humpries  on 19lb for first and Andrew Hedger 17lb for second , so in all a great evenings fishing roll on round 3 which is the 14th of may , Contact Woodford Lodge o 01275 332339 for more details,

Tim in to the  last fish of the Evening

April Allsorts

This dogfish took a squid bait....

April has seen me try my luck at carp, general coarse, beach, pier and rock fishing. I was also meant to have spent a day boat fishing over the Skerries Bank, but this was unfortunately cancelled due to high winds. I've not caught a huge amount to show for my efforts but it's been enjoyable none the less. Highlight has to be the day spent fishing from rocks near Torquay which produced lots of fish to light tackle set-ups. Wrasse, pollock, mackerel and a single dogfish all provided fantastic sport. The coming weeks ought to provide me with something to write about as I have a couple of boat trips booked with Spot On! Charters of Brixham, Devon. If the weather is kind I'll be heading out in to the English Channel in search of cod, pollock, ling, conger and maybe some plaice and black bream too. My fingers are crossed for light winds! Check back to see how things turn out.


....whilst ragworm tempted the wrasse

Plenty More Fish in the Sea. Kingston Seymour Sea Wall 19/03/2014

A few hours on Kingston Seymour sea wall last night resulted in me catching fish - something I normally struggle to do there! I was there with Dave and Trevor and all three of us had caught small codling within minutes of casting out. The rod tips twitched all evening and although the fish were small, very small in fact, it was nice to be getting bites. I think we were all hoping a bigger specimen would show up and it was Dave who struck lucky by landing a nice flounder of about 2lb. I had a whiting for variety and we all packed up agreeing it had been very enjoyable. We all used similar tackle and bait, pulley and flapper rigs baited with worm and squid did the trick and long casts weren't needed, most fish fell to the rods cast short. All local marks appear to be alive with these small codling at the moment and with summer species showing already, it's a good time to get out and give it a go.

Not even big enough for a fish finger!

Trying for Tench

It was off to my club lake at Great Somerford on Tuesday with Jon and his dad, Tony. The tench have been coming out in recent weeks and there is always a good chance of quality roach, perch and large carp. We set up in swims not far from the car park at the deep end of the lake and baited up with Sensas 3000 Tench groundbait, laced with casters, sweetcorn and a few other tasty bits tench are fond of. Feeder and straight lead were our chosen tactics and it wasn't long before my alarm was sounding. After a good scrap a tench of about 4lb was in the net. A good start, hopefully more would follow. Unfortunately though, they didn't. Despite trying our hardest we struggled to tempt another and so we amused ourselves catching small perch and roach to pass the time. The day passed quickly and it was soon time to think about packing up. With only ten minutes to go Tony got lucky and hooked a tench, a fish of similar size to the one I had landed earlier. An enjoyable day but maybe the weather needs to warm up a bit before the tench really get on the feed. We'll give it another try when it does.
 

My lone tench

Dad Knows Best! River Wye, Courtfield, Lower Lydbrook 11/03/2014

New personal best - 6lb 2oz!

First post on here this year for me, so I guess I should start by saying a very belated Happy New Year to all who read my blogs. I hope it's a good one for us all! I've done very little fishing during the wet winter we've just endured and whilst the times I have been out have produced a few bites I've not felt the need to write about it. This weeks trip to the Wye though, is well worth tapping at the keyboard for. Due to the weather, this river like most has been unfishable since late last year and at its peak was carrying record levels of flood water. The village of Lower Lydbrook was under water and it is only now that the river has returned to a more normal state for the time of year. On Tuesday Dan, Steve, my dad and I found an extra couple of foot or so, a bit of colour and a strong current. Things looked good for a fish or two and so we settled in to our swims and quickly set up. Dad landed a barbel of 5lb straight away which got us all excited and eagerly awaiting more. A 7lb barbel was next, again to dad. Two further bites resulted in hooked fish but both were lost, again it was dad getting all the action. No one was surprised when dad hooked his fifth of the day, a barbel of about 4lb. Dan, Steve and I kept at it, trying a few different swims and chucking everything at the fish, including all sorts of different pellets, boilies and groundbaits, as well as maggots and caster. It was no good though and it was dad who was next in to a fish, again! A large chub surfaced and I was waiting with the net. As I lifted it up I realised just how large, it looked massive and on the scales it swung the needle round to over 6lb, settling on 6lb 2oz! A personal best for dad and the biggest chub any of us had ever seen. It truly was a monster and the pictures really don't do it justice. Bites dried up for dad after this but I don't think he minded too much after the day he had enjoyed. Don, the fishery owner paid a visit and whilst we were nattering about all things fishing my rod bounced in the rest and I hooked a powerful fish, after a fantastic fight I netted my first barbel of 2014, a fish of about 7lb. That was all the action for this trip, Dan and Steve unfortunately had to settle for a blank. I'm already booked again on this stretch in both June and July, so looking forward to that. For up to date information on the River Wye visit www.wyeuskfoundation.org and for more about the river at Courtfield, Lower Lydbrook take a look at www.facebook.com/lowerwyefishing

Spring is in the Air and Tench go on the Feed

After enjoying a day on the river last week and with a trip to the Wye booked for next Tuesday, I thought I'd try my luck on a stillwater this week and see what I could tempt on maggot fished on both the waggler and feeder. After arriving at 11.00am I soon baited a couple of swims with a bit of groundbait and a few casters. Conditions looked good, a very slight breeze, an overcast sky and the temperature remained mild throughout the day. Very spring-like! I fished the waggler at about twelve meters and dropped an inline maggot feeder a few feet beyond this. Bites were instant and some nice roach were the first fish to wet the net. Things went quiet for a bit before the quivertip of my feeder rod twitched and a hard scrapping fish was soon taking line off the reel. A surprise tench of about 2lb 8oz was the culprit and just added to the spring-like feel of the day. Next bite on the float produced another decent tench! Great sport on the light gear! Four nice perch followed, the biggest must have been about a 1lb. Bites did slow up after this flurry of activity and so I packed up, but with a smile on my face having enjoyed a great day.
    Next week sees Jon, Jon's dad, friend and customer Steve and myself all fishing the Wye at Courtfield, Lower Lydbrook. This part of the river has been unfishable all winter due to very heavy rain and high water levels, but as I write this the river is fining down nicely and we're all hoping that the barbel and chub will be hungry after not seeing a bait now for over three months. Mild March's in the past have produced excellent sport here, so our fingers are crossed for a good day. Check back next week for a full report.
  

First tench of the year