First of all, Happy New Year to anyone who's reading my blog, and let's hope this year's going to be a good one, especially for fishing! We were meant to be fishing today but the weather is terrible - 90mph wind gusts and heavy sleety rain, so we thought it would be best to give it a miss and I'd get down to the blog.
Apart from the Fur and Feather trout match on the Millenium Lake at Rib Valley which went well (my Dad came 5th), all of our fishing has been exploring miles and miles of bank with our lure rods, hoping to connect with some big Perch. Although we often come back with aching legs, it's been well worth the effort, as we have landed plenty of nice stripeys to nearly 4lbs plus we've landed our 100th Perch over 3lbs between us. When I caught my first 3lb'er at the age of 11, I never thought I would go on to catch so many more in the next 6 years.
The last two Christmases of 2009 and 2010 we have fished for a few hours on Christmas Day. In 2009 we were on a fishing holiday in Costa Rica where I hooked a huge Caiman which had eaten a fish that I was reeling in, whilst fishing on a jetty trying to catch different species on the fly, and last year we walked for miles on Cayo Coco in Cuba with our fly rods, seeing what we could catch.
Keeping up with our tradition, on Christmas Day this year, we decided to sneak out for a couple of hours first thing, aiming to be back for around midday. Instead of opening presents, we were out to catch ours! At first light my Dad and I were roving the banks of our local river with lures in search of some nice Perch.
It took about half an hour before we got our first bite, which had nailed my Dad's shad as it fell on the drop. At 3lb 5oz, we'd achieved our goal of a 3lb Perch on Christmas Day - what a present!
Another half an hour later I had a fish of just over 2lbs on the drop shot from a different spot, but this wasn't to be the last. The action continued all morning and the only thing that stopped us was my Mum's four bird roast and the family coming round! We landed 9 Perch in total, with 5 good 2's and, to really round things off, Dad had another Perch of 3lb 5oz further downstream - those stripeys must have had 'jigged shad' on their menu for Christmas day, as it seemed to outfish the drop shot that I was using most of the time. It was a great way to start the day, and nice to get some fresh air before tackling the Christmas roast!
We've also managed one trip on the Thames targeting stripeys. Unfortunately, that trip wasn't successful, with just one Perch of 2lb 2oz. Before we started fishing we thought we would be in for a good day as the river was looking perfect. I can only imagine that salt had worked it's way in to the river through the ice melt, as a couple of days previously we had had a short, sharp cold spell. That's my excuse anyway!!
My Dad and I have also had a couple of sessions exploring the Ivel. We had plenty of action, mainly from small jacks, and although we didn't hook in to many Perch, we did land a couple of good'uns - the best one weighed 3lb 12oz, which my Dad caught on a twintail.
I know many people will have their resolutions set for the new year. I haven't got down to thinking about mine yet. At the moment, I just hope I can continue catching, and enjoying my fishing.
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