How far do you go?

[Steve Burke]

Someone once accused me of not being a "real" specimen hunter, as the vast majority of my fishing is done within 30 minutes of my home. Perhaps I'm not, but I certainly couldn't care one little bit!

 

There are several reasons for fishing locally for difficult (and therefore mostly specimen) fish. Firstly, I can spend more time with my family, which always come first. Secondly, I prefer to have more time to enjoy exploring, baiting-up and fishing rather than driving. After all, you can't catch much on a motorway!

 

I did travel a bit in years gone by, although this was largely to Chub Study Group or Perchfishers Get-Togethers and thus mainly to social events. I don't fish these nowadays simply because I'm no longer a member of these groups.

 

I also had a trip to the Great Ouse area with Fred Guttfield to catch a 4lb river perch. I certainly won't be going again!

 

The other exception was good boat fishing for pike or perch, which is a bit thin on the ground in east Kent to say the least. This is one of the problems of being in the far south east of the country and being surrounded on 3 sides by the sea!

 

This has been solved by getting my own gravel pits, that many of you have had a taster of on the annual Forum Fish-In at Wingham. In fact I can see my fishing on other stillwaters becoming less and less as the fish at Wingham mature and grow. Indeed, in the last 12 months all my coarse fishing has been at Wingham.

 

How far is Wingham away? 30 minutes - which is 29 minutes too long! That's one of the reasons why we intend to move this year. We couldn't do so before as Peggy worked in the local town, but now she's retired we're free to move nearer Wingham.

 

What I do miss however is the quality river fishing I used to have on my doorstep before I moved. However, the Kentish Stour is fast improving after a series of pollutions, and the recently stocked chub and barbel are getting to an interesting size.

 

As I posted elsewhere I much prefer to fish unpressured waters for unpressured fish, and luckilly we've a lot of such stillwaters in this area. I suspect the same goes for the vast majority of members, although I accept that such waters do take a bit of effort to find.

 

It may cut into your fishing time, but boy, oh boy, is it worth it!

Edited January 4, 2006 by Steve Burke

[Uncle Fester]

I fished the Thames (once only) this past summer for the first time in many years and I reckon it does look very much cleaner than it was when I was a lad. I had around 30 perch between 6 ounces and a pound and a quarter in an afternoon which I was very happy with.

No gudgeon or pope though on maggots or worms which surprised me!

Tried deadbating in a thames backwater about 2 miles from home this afternoon and blanked. So much dead weed and leaves can in with every retrieve, I think the baits were getting covered in the muck.

Either that or I'm crap, which is more likely. Took my bite alarms, and drop back bite swingers, but forgot my banksticks! One day I'll get it right.

Unc F

[jeepster]

before i moved south i used to have a 100 mile round trip to fish my favourite swims on the trent, and i did it once or twice a week without thinking about it. then once or twice a month we would go further afield looking for pike. now i'm within 3 miles of some excellent fishing on the bristol avon, and i rarely travel more than 6. this weeks trip being the exception, a 45 mile round trip to the chew at keynsham, a lovely little stretch, well worth the drive.

i'll still put the miles in if it's going to be worth the effort (timsbury, the itchen etc) but i can't be bothered with 5 hour drives anymore