Grafham's Monsters!

There's never been a better time to catch a big stripey, and with the opening of the midlands reservoirs for lure fishing in early September, it gives you a fantastic chance of latching into something special. Dad and I have fished every opening day on Grafham for lure fishing since 2006, and on the opening day this year we decided to concentrate on Perch and Zander, whilst on the second day we planned to target Pike. We had a great opening day, catching 64 fish between us - a mixture of Pike, Perch and Zander, the biggest Perch weighed 3lb 8oz.

We arrived on the second morning and it turned out to be flat calm and sunny - –not ideal conditions for Pike, so we decided to have a change of plan and continue fishing jigs and drop-shot rigs for Perch and Zander. Despite this, my first fish of the day was a Pike of around 6lb, then about 10 minutes later I had an almighty whack and hooked in to a very heavy fish. I knew straight away it was a good Pike as it started tearing off line. It was an incredible fight on my light Abu Veritas spinning rod and 1000 sized reel! We finally netted the fish and it weighed 20lb 3oz. It took a jigged Berkley Ripple Shad.

They were the only two Pike we caught that day, but we continued to catch quite a few Zander to 9lb 1oz and plenty of Perch. Later in the afternoon we returned to the same area where I'd caught my 3lb 8oz Perch the day before, and on my first cast I caught another of 3lb 2oz!

A couple of casts later, Dad hooked in to what also felt like a good Perch, which is what it turned out to be! It weighed 4lb exactly, and also took a jigged shad.

In total, over the two days, we caught 99 fish between us: 26 Zander, 70 Perch and 3 Pike. Unfortunately, we lost two fish right at the end of the day and these would have made it over 100!

Throughout the summer I've also had something else to look forward to - as from this Autumn I'm working full time for Get Hooked on Fishing on their new initiative and project called GHoF Bedfordshire. I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to restore and develop the fantastic looking Estate Lake at The Swiss Garden to its former glory, and I'm really looking forward to spending more time getting the project up and running and restocking the lake.

A few weeks ago, Get Hooked on Fishing had their last Angling Trust/GHoF 'Family Fishing' event of the year, on the Grand Union Canal at Apsley Locks in Hemel Hempstead. Since the Spring, Sarah Collins, the CEO of Get Hooked on Fishing, and Clive Copeland, Head of Participation for the Angling Trust, have helped organise many of these events up and down the country, and in the initiative's first year, hundreds of people have participated and benefited. Another 70 came along to 'have a go' at the Apsley Locks event.

The lure fishing was surprisingly hard and we only caught a couple of small Perch, but it was another brilliant day put together by the Angling Trust Anglian Regional Officer, James Lewis.

We've also had a couple of great afternoon/evening trips along my local rivers in the past month. We'd had some heavy downpours which we felt sure would freshen the rivers up, and sure enough, a couple of days later, river conditions were looking very good. We started fishing along a local stretch at around 2pm, but after around 3 hours with just one fish each, we decided to relocate to another area of the river.

Within around 20 minutes of arriving I had a good take and hooked in to a Perch that weighed 3lb 9oz, caught on a jigged Berkley Ripple Shad, rigged Texas style.

On my very next cast, just after I'd released the 3lb 9oz, I had another good take and seconds later I had another good Perch of 3lb 11oz in the net!

Dad, unfortunately, lost a good fish from the same area, but after the bites dried up, we started to leapfrog each other downstream. About an hour later, as it was getting dark, and after catching some smaller Perch, I cast tight to a big snag and hooked and landed the biggest fish of the day, weighing 3lb 12oz and measuring 48cm, so I'd caught a trio of Perch in just over an hour for a total weight of exactly 11lbs! The bigger fish were very empty and I think both the 3lb 11oz and the 3lb 12oz will probably weigh over 4lbs towards the end of the season.

As I've mentioned in other posts, Dad and I were fortunate enough to make it in to the England Lure Squad for the second year running, along with Eric Edwards. In last year's World Championships, one of the areas where we went wrong was that we never managed to get in a practice trip to Lough Erne in Ireland, mainly because of funds and the team being put together late. There are two, six hour official practice days before the World Championships begin, and it's impossible to cover a huge expanse of water like Lac Bourget in France, (where this year's Championships are being held) in such a short space of time. This year, we were determined not to let that happen again so, a couple of weeks ago, Dad, Eric and I embarked on the 1700 mile round trip to Aix-les-bains in the French Alps to practice for the Lure Fishing World Championships 2014.

Lac Bourget is a stunning looking lake and very picturesque. I can't give away too much on what we caught and what tactics worked this side of the event, but it's a fantastic venue for holding a World Championships. A big surprise is that whilst practising, we came across some cracking Chub and Tench. Both Dad and Eric caught Chub - Eric's weighed 4lb 11oz!

Eric had a big Tench follow him too that was probably around 9lbs in weight! We also saw some locals catching Whitefish - something both Dad and I would love to try and catch after the match if it was possible. We had a really good time together.

Since coming back from our practice trip I've been very busy working on GHoF Bedfordshire, trade shows and final preparation for the World Championships so there hasn't been much time for fishing. But we couldn't resist one more trip to Grafham and we're glad we did, as we had another great day boating 34 fish. I caught my biggest Perch from Grafham this year weighing 3lb 13oz, again on a jigged Berkley Ripple Shad.

Interestingly, this year we've caught lots of small Zander between 1 and 3lbs on lures, and not so many larger fish, however Dad landed a cracking Zed weighing 10lbs exactly.

With only hours to go now before we set off for France, the England team are feeling very confident we can do well and we're really looking forward to it. COME ON ENGLAND!

Soft plastics - not just for predators...

At the end of last month, my Dad and I were at the CLA Game Fair at Blenheim Palace on the Angling Trust/Get Hooked on Fishing stand, showing different lure fishing techniques in the casting pool with Gary Palmer and John Cheyne. It was very busy all weekend (and very hot too!), and great to catch up with friends and meet so many anglers. On the Sunday afternoon, Liz Truss, the new Secretary of State for DEFRA, came over to the AT/GHoF stand to have a look around. I introduced her to lure fishing, and she decided to have a go at trying drop-shotting in the casting pool!

When the weather was at its warmest, we decided to target Chub on lures along my local rivers. On one afternoon fishing the River Lea, where temperatures topped 31°C, we both caught some nice rubber lips on Berkley Crazy Legs Chigger Craws and small crankbaits, however Dad also caught a Pike, Perch, Dace, Roach and a Minnow on jigged Berkley Power Maggots and other soft baits whilst targeting the Chub.

The most amount of species we've caught in one day on lures in UK rivers is seven, and with a couple of hours of light left that afternoon, we thought if we targeted certain species, we felt there was a chance Dad could beat it. We decided to try and catch a Brown Trout from a weirpool further downstream, then try for a Gudgeon!

Within minutes of arriving Dad caught a pristine Brownie of around 1lb on a small crankbait, so we both changed over to a scaled-down drop-shot rig with a short length of leader from the hook to the drop weight, in the hope we could land a Gudgeon. After catching a few Dace, Dad had an almighty whack on the drop - we thought he'd hooked another trout, but as it revealed itself through the whitewater foam, we realised it was a small Barbel! This was Dad's second Barbel he'd caught on a lure, making it a new personal best of eight species on lures from the River Lea in one afternoon!

A few days later we travelled to Gloucester, as on the 9th August, Gary Palmer organised 'Zandermania', which was a lure (and zander!) only competition along the banks of the Gloucester Canal, with an aim to raise money for the Team England Lure Squad. The team are heading out to France at the beginning of October to fish in the Lure Fishing World Championships on Lac Bourget in France. The muggy conditions made for difficult fishing, but well done to the anglers that caught Zander and won some great prizes, and Gary for organising a brilliant match. The fishing was very hard and although Dad and I weren't in the match, we managed to get a few hours fishing in!

It was great to meet up with like-minded lure anglers and a massive thank you to everyone for supporting the Team England Lure Squad!

Staying on the subject of Zander, Dad and I have had a couple more trips back to Grafham flyfishing for the zeds using our new fishfinder. The Zander fishing on Grafham hasn't been easy this year, but a couple of weeks ago we both caught our first doubles of the year. I landed one of 10lb 8oz and Dad caught a 10lb 1oz, both on the same afternoon!

The Lowrance HDS has also come in very handy on a few recent trips to Pitsford targeting Perch. Pitsford has always previously allowed lure fishing during the summer months with lures over 18cm in length, but now anglers can target Perch and Trout with much smaller lures.

We've found some huge shoals of baitfish, and we've had some action-packed trips, boating lots of stripeys to 3lb 5oz as well as plenty of jacks on a variety of different techniques.

Recently we've been trying the new Shakespeare Agility range of lure rods, which will be coming out soon - there are six in the range for all types of lure fishing. I really like the drop-shot rod, which has a white tip to help detect bites in low light levels.

The Agility drop-shot rod is also perfect for targeting coarse fish on lures. On the 17th August the Angling Trust and Get Hooked on Fishing organised a 'Family Fishing' day at Get Hooked on Fishing's complex of lakes in Ealing. Around 70 people came to have a go at fishing - my Dad and I were showing lure fishing and the participants caught Roach, Rudd, Perch and even Tench on jigged and drop-shotted Berkley Power Maggots and Honey Worms. Dad also caught two Carp!

It was great to catch up with James, GHoF Ealing's Project Manager (pictured above with my Dad), Charlie and all the other volunteers, and it was a brilliant day all round.

On Monday evening, at around 5pm, I had a phone call from Keith Arthur asking whether I'd like to film a day's lure fishing for Sky Sport's Tightlines the following day (as his Bass fishing trip off the south coast had been cancelled due to strong winds). I jumped at the opportunity so Monday night was a mad rush getting gear ready for the following day! What a great trip we had, especially for Keith who caught a new P.B Perch of 3lb 11oz!

He also caught a 'Pitsford Super Slam' - a Perch, Pike, Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout! Although I didn't manage to catch anything big during the filming, three casts after the cameras left I caught a Perch of 3lb 4oz, followed by another of 2lb 15oz, along with a few others. I've been very lucky to fish with Keith a few times now and it's always a really enjoyable day!

Just two days later I was practising on Rutland for the Lexus European Flyfishing Championships Team Final with the Pitsford Pirates, followed by two match days on the Friday and Saturday. The Pirates had managed to qualify at the Grafham heat, which was one of many held across the country, where teams contested for a place in the final. Apart from fishing in the Anglian Water Loch Style 4 Man competition with the team the week before as a practice, it was the first time I'd been trout fishing since June, but recently, Rutland has been fishing really well. The rules for the match were that you killed your first 4 fish, then release 8 after that. The fish were very high up in the water and both the practice and match days were very windy, so I fished 3 flies on either a slow glass or fast glass line and mixed up my retrieve between long strips and a fast figure of eight, and often it was just as you slowed down or hung your flies at the end of the cast the fish would take - some of them were savage! Unfortunately, the Pirates came 15th out of 21 teams, but it was a great experience and I really enjoyed the three days we had together. Congratulations to the winning team, Rio Masters (who have been runners up on three previous occasions!), and also Hanningfield for finishing second.

Now we've had a few good downpours, and temperatures are starting to cool down, predator fishing should really start to switch on, especially on rivers. Many reservoirs also open to lure fishing next month, so I'll be organising my lure selection in preparation!

A sizzling start to the new season!

For the past few years, my Dad and I have always talked about spending June 16th afloat on the River Thames, but somehow, we'd never got round to it! Last year we decided to stay local and concentrated on the River Lea, trying to catch as many different species as we could on lures, and prior to 2013 June 16th always fell on a college day or school day, which was very frustrating! This year though, we were determined to fish the Thames and with recent rainfall freshening up rivers, prospects looked great for the opening day.

However, June 16th was on a Monday this year and 4am obviously wasn't early enough to set off, as we got stuck in heavy traffic on the M25, and after cleaning up the boat before fishing (as we hadn't taken it on the water since before Christmas, due to the floods), we didn't get fishing until 10.30am! We were surprised how much water was still going through the river and how coloured it was, with visibility of not much more than 1ft where we were fishing!

Luckily, it didn't take long before we had some action, landing some small jacks, then at around midday, whilst fishing in one of the big weirpools, I caught a Perch of 3lb 4oz on a Berkley Havoc Rocket Craw, Texas rigged on an Owner Ultrahead.

We stayed around for another half hour before venturing off to some other areas, where we caught a few more Pike and Perch.

Later on that afternoon we returned to where I'd caught the 3lb 4oz Perch, and at around 6pm I hooked in to what I thought, at first, was the bottom, but it then woke up and I realised I'd hooked a big Pike. The fight was unbelieveable – we were anchored on the edge of some rough whitewater and I was using my Perch set-up - a light 7ft Abu Veritas spinning rod with a 1000 sized reel, loaded with 0.12mm Nanofil, using the same Berkley Havoc Rocket Craw! It fought so hard in the fast current it actually up-anchored the boat, which made for a crazy battle as we quickly drifted downstream! Thankfully though, we got it in the net. One of the owners of a house on the riverside opposite where I'd landed the fish kindly let us weigh and take photos of it in his back garden! He also supplied a tape measure as he was interested in how long it was - it measured 45.5 inches (115.5cm). I just wonder how much it will weigh this coming winter?

I couldn't have asked for a better June 16th, so we had another trip back to the Thames the following week, but this time we decided to fish until around midnight, getting some sleep in on the bankside before setting the alarm on my phone for the crack of dawn and continuing fishing again. This time, the fishing was much harder, and we were really struggling for bites until the next morning. The highlight of that trip for me was catching a Chub an ounce under 5lbs, again on a Rocket Craw!

Unfortunately, Dad lost a very big Carp that he stalked on a drop-shotted Berkley Gulp! Earthworm, that could have weighed over 20lbs, but he did land this Pike of 14lb 3oz on a spinnerbait right at the end of the second day.

Since then, Dad and I have had a couple of short afternoon/evening trips lure fishing along rivers closer to home, and they've also proved quite challenging. We've managed to catch a few small Pike, Perch and Chub, plus my Dad landed this pretty looking Brown Trout on a small crankbait.

On one evening trip, my Dad spotted what he first thought was a Bleak attacking a feather on the surface, but on closer inspection it turned out to be a tiny Pike struggling to eat a Roach two thirds of it's size! The Pike was trying to swallow the Roach head first and had got it stuck half way down it's throat! Both had a happy ending though and swam off fine - after we managed to separate them!

For the past few months, we've both been looking very carefully in to buying a new fishfinder/chartplotter, and after some advice from Dan Brackley and Paul Garner, we decided on buying a Lowrance HDS Gen2 Touch. The very next day after setting it up, we took the unit to Grafham. Using the structurescan was very fascinating - it gives you a completely different dimension to your fishing, viewing features and fish from a birds eye view with the sidescan, and equally detailed images with the downscan. This sidescan image shows a small section of the pipeline that runs between the North Tower and the Dam Tower, which was around 50ft to the left of our boat when we took the shot.

Finding shoals or groups of fish was very exciting - and we also caught a few too!

The image below shows a Zander of 9lb 12oz we saw on the sounder, that my Dad cast to and hooked on his second cast. The image shows the Zander taking his fly and most of the fight, although he needed a hand with the net so I had to take the picture whilst he was still fighting it.

I'm really looking forward to exploring with the unit on other waters, recording data, and learning more about it.

At around this time of year we always seem to pick up some big Roach/Bream Hybrids from Grafham on Pike and Zander flies. They fight really well and Dad caught a cracker of 5lb 14oz on our last trip there. It's not the biggest we've caught there, but still a fantastic looking fish!

One thing that Grafham often produces is a stunning sunset as you're heading back to the harbour.

Lastly, I had a great weekend at Fish'O'Mania XXI, showing different lure fishing techniques along with Eric Edwards and my Dad for the charity Get Hooked on Fishing. Conditions were far from perfect for catching predators, just like last year, but a few fish were caught, including a couple on surface lures. Two participants caught their first lure caught Pike on the Abu Rocket Popper and Sébile Splasher popper, which was exciting to watch!

The Essex PAC's RO Sean Ellis' son, Ronnie, caught the only Perch of the weekend on a drop-shot rig.

It was great to spend the weekend with Eric and other members of the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain. Tomorrow Dad and I are going to the CLA Game Fair to show Abu, Berkley and Sébile lures in the lure pool outside the Angling Trust and Get Hooked on Fishing's 'House of Fishing'. The charity will be providing many more fun activities there too, including a fish playing simulator!