Fishing has been a part of my life from an early age. My Dad introduced me to angling and I quickly developed a passion for not only being out on the water fishing, but being outdoors. I have a fascination for catching different species of fish on lures or flies, and I’m as happy exploring the tiniest of streams as I am being out on the open ocean. I’ve been very fortunate to have travelled to some spectacular destinations, both here in the UK and abroad, trying to catch as many species as possible. So far, I’ve caught 230 species.

I work for Farlows fishing, shooting and country clothing store in London, and I’m a Consultant for Fox Rage and Salmo lures. I’m also an Ambassador for the Angling Trust and have fished for England in two disciplines - the England Youth Fly Fishing Team and the Team England Lure Squad.

Through fishing I’ve met some great people and seen some amazing wildlife and scenery, and I’d like to share some of my experiences through my blog...

Friday 30 July 2010

Fishing the Fenland Drains

Hooray! The summer holidays have finally arrived! It's now time for my Dad and I to get down to some serious fishing! Our first couple of trips this week have been based in the Cambridgeshire fens, fishing the drains in the hope of some good Rudd, Bream, Tench, and other silverfish sport.

Most of the fishing we’ve done has been a combination of float fishing and leger fishing, with a variety of different baits - maggots, bread, worms, pellet, paste, boilies - we’ve just been chopping and changing. Our main target has been a 2lb+ Rudd, which we’ve caught to nearly 3lb in this area in the past. So far, our first couple of trips have brought us a right mixture of species - Roach, Rudd, Bream, Perch, some nice Silver Bream, Bleak, Carp, Tench, Gudgeon, even small Bitterling, and my Dad caught a Ruffe!


Our biggest Rudd in the last week has only been about a pound, but unfortunately I lost one yesterday that I saw, which could have nudged 2lb. Still, I had a nice Tench of 5lb 8oz that fought like mad on my float rod, plus a good Bream of 5lb 4oz too. By far the biggest fish we’ve caught so far is a 20lb 13oz Mirror Carp I caught yesterday. It took me all over the small drain we fished - in the lillies, through the reeds, up, down, round the other rod - it took me about 10 minutes to land, bear in mind this drain is only about 4 or 5 metres wide! My Dad had gone to help some boys that had trouble landing a Pike, as it had snagged in the reeds, but not wanting to disturb his rods, he asked me to reel in my float rod and watch over his bite alarms. I had to literally dive through the reeds to net it - it only just fitted in! The rig, designed for Rudd, with a small size 12 hook had been totally straightened out. I was very lucky to land it! However, soon after it graced the net, my Dad returned to see what should have been his fish in MY net. After weighing the fish, we then took some pictures, and returned it safely back.

Later on, whilst float fishing, I felt something crawling up my trouser leg, which I thought was an insect. Instead it turned out to be a small Lizard!


As I mentioned before, we’ve had some good Tench, Bream and Rudd from here in the past. As you can imagine, there are so many small fish here, it’s a haven for some nice Pike, Perch and Zander, which we sometimes fly fish for in the winter. Pike to 16lb, Perch to 3lb 4oz, and Zander to nearly 10lb have fallen for our flies when we target them in the colder months.

So far, we’ve had a pretty good start up in the Fens, but it would be nice if we could catch another really big Rudd some day soon. We’re planning to return in the next few days, so hopefully we’ll be in for some more good sport, and a shot at that lunker Rudd!

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