Years Highs and Lows

[davedave]

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Getting to the end of the year, and I can't help reflect on my highs and lows of 2012. My fishing has taken an unusual turn, in which I have completely shied away from carp fishing, and taken to the local canal, pond and river for perch and silvers.

 

My highs of the year have been my 1lb 7oz perch which came after lots of unsuccesful trips, the three stillwater chub I had in may, the 2lb brown trout I had from a small local river (which, was not about weight but it's beautiful colours) and coming third in my first match which was a bit of a confidence booster.

 

Lows have been every piking session being a blank, which has really put me off it, which is a shame. The weather could have been better also, with the rivers being unfishable for too much of the year, with the droughts in the early year, and then all the recent floods.

 

All in all I have had a very enjoyable fishing year which I feel i've learnt a lot. What about your highs and lows?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas and a happy new year, and tight lines!

[Anderoo]

For various reasons I've had trouble being able to fish at the right times this season so far, which has made things difficult. The other main lowlight has been all the flooding, which has totally scuppered my river plans. I really hope I get a decent shot at the chub before the end of the season, otherwise I'll have to put them off for another year, again!

 

But despite that I've had a few highlights. An equal PB tench in May:

 

A tench caught on hair-rigged twigs, to prove to myself that in some circumstances bait really doesn't matter:

 

A couple of the river perch, including a new PB, caught in the autumn after finally figuring out how to catch them (it took years - sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake!):

 

I had good fun lure fishing for the reservoir zander in late autumn, no big ones (and no photos unfortunately) but plenty of them. (I also bumped into Vidar a couple of times for those who remember him, and it was good to catch up.)

 

Another good river roach turned up, also in the autumn, not a giant but one of the biggest roach I've caught and a wonderful sight...I honestly thought I was looking at a '2' as it slid over the net:

 

Another highlight was witnessing a friend smash a long-standing PB twice in the same session (congrats again ) and seeing first-hand the effectiveness of prawn for commercial-style perch. I could never quite see what the fuss was about until I saw it for myself!

 

So the rest of the season will depend on how the rivers fare. I should be halfway through my chub paste experiment, but the floods have spoiled that. I'll carry on if the conditions improve, and then if the bait works, start baiting my new difficult stretch of river, and hopefully catch whatever lives there (big chub, hopefully). The actual catching will probably have to wait til next winter though, unless I get lucky. In the meantime I will probably do some stillwater perch fishing, and if it stays mild, some local gravel pit breaming. One local pit is starting to produce quite a few bream up to and just above double figures, and it looks like it could be the start of something interesting

 

Oh, I forgot one thing, for the first time in ages I did some summer carp fishing this year, fishing floaters. It was great fun. Mostly stalking them around the margins but also getting them going out in open water. More of that next year I reckon

Edited January 1, 2013 by Anderoo

[davedave]

For various reasons I've had trouble being able to fish at the right times this season so far, which has made things difficult. The other main lowlight has been all the flooding, which has totally scuppered my river plans. I really hope I get a decent shot at the chub before the end of the season, otherwise I'll have to put them off for another year, again!

 

But despite that I've had a few highlights. An equal PB tench in May:

 

A tench caught on hair-rigged twigs, to prove to myself that in some circumstances bait really doesn't matter:

 

A couple of the river perch, including a new PB, caught in the autumn after finally figuring out how to catch them (it took years - sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake!):

 

 

I had good fun lure fishing for the reservoir zander in late autumn, no big ones (and no photos unfortunately) but plenty of them. (I also bumped into Vidar a couple of times for those who remember him, and it was good to catch up.)

 

Another good river roach turned up, also in the autumn, not a giant but one of the biggest roach I've caught and a wonderful sight...I honestly thought I was looking at a '2' as it slid over the net:

 

Another highlight was witnessing a friend smash a long-standing PB twice in the same session (congrats again ) and seeing first-hand the effectiveness of prawn for commercial-style perch. I could never quite see what the fuss was about until I saw it for myself!

 

So the rest of the season will depend on how the rivers fare. I should be halfway through my chub paste experiment, but the floods have spoiled that. I'll carry on if the conditions improve, and then if the bait works, start baiting my new difficult stretch of river, and hopefully catch whatever lives there (big chub, hopefully). The actual catching will probably have to wait til next winter though, unless I get lucky. In the meantime I will probably do some stillwater perch fishing, and if it stays mild, some local gravel pit breaming. One local pit is starting to produce quite a few bream up to and just above double figures, and it looks like it could be the start of something interesting

 

Oh, I forgot one thing, for the first time in ages I did some summer carp fishing this year, fishing floaters. It was great fun. Mostly stalking them around the margins but also getting them going out in open water. More of that next year I reckon

 

Been mulling over what to reply with, but all I can say really is that you've had a bloody good year, and you must be pretty chuffed with fish like that. Hopefully next year i'll have a few bigguns like that! Thats one of the most dissapointing things of living in somerset, the tench fishing is crap! Perch fishing pretty good, but tench over 5lb are quite hard to find in a water locally.

 

Dave

[Anderoo]

Been mulling over what to reply with, but all I can say really is that you've had a bloody good year, and you must be pretty chuffed with fish like that. Hopefully next year i'll have a few bigguns like that! Thats one of the most dissapointing things of living in somerset, the tench fishing is crap! Perch fishing pretty good, but tench over 5lb are quite hard to find in a water locally.

 

Dave

 

You've had a good year yourself!

 

I suppose laid out like that it does seem good but it's actually felt like a very hard and frustrating year - lots of effort and expense for not very much, the above fish excluded. (PS I drove 150 miles each way for the tench ).

Edited January 1, 2013 by Anderoo