FIPSed 8th Carnivorous Artificial Bait Boat Angling World Championships, Lake Viljandi, Estonia

I can't believe the Lure Fishing World Championships in Estonia was a month ago! Unfortunately, we didn't do too well, but I've written a short summary to give you an idea about how Team England's trip went and what the fishing was like.

Lake Viljandi in Estonia was a very different kind of water to Lac Bourget in France, the venue where last year's World Championships was held. Bourget is 11 miles long and 2 miles wide, while Viljandi is only 2.75 miles long and a quarter of a mile wide at it's widest point, and with 50 odd boats all lure fishing for Pike and Perch, it didn't take long for angling pressure to affect the fishing.

All of the fish that were caught were very small - the biggest Pike caught by any team during the whole competition was just 61cm! The minimum size for Pike was 45cm and the minimum size for Perch was 23cm, and many of the fish we caught were, frustratingly, millimetres undersize, and as the days progressed, the fish became harder and harder to catch.

To give you an example, during practice, we managed to find Pike in and around the reeds that fringe most of the lake, and on the two practice days the team managed to catch at least 5 measurable Pike up to 48cm on Texas rigged soft plastics, as well as measurable Perch in the deeper water on smaller lures.

We felt confident for the first match day, but unfortunately, the 6 Pike that the team caught on match day one were all undersized and our only Pike on match day two measured 44cm - just 1cm under!

Most of the Perch seemed to be sitting in the deep holes in the middle of the lake, and on match day two, Eric Edwards and I caught Perch of 22.7cm, 22.5cm and various 22cm fish - you just needed a stroke of luck that whatever fish you hooked was just a few millimetres longer! We caught around 23 Perch over the two match days, but out of all of those fish, just six were measurable - the biggest measuring 28cm.

The local countries had it sussed though and it was Lithuania who took team Gold, and Russia had the individual honours, so a massive congratulations to them.

Our final placing was, unfortunately, far from what we'd hoped - 13th out of 16 teams. Estonia was quite different to any place I've ever been to in the world - the surroundings were very scenic, especially around the lake and the town of Viljandi, and the people were very friendly, and a massive thank you to the hosts for putting on such a great event. Also, a big thank you to our sponsors - Sovereign Superbaits, Snapbaits, Currock Engineering, Lure Factors, Angling Direct, OMG Custom Plastics and Vass.

You can see more photos of the World Championships on my Flickr page, by clicking here.

A few days after returning from Estonia, our local Rib Valley opened for lure fishing, and although we'd hardly sorted any gear after returning home, we decided to get up at the crack of dawn and fish. It was a bright, sunny day - not the best conditions for targeting Pike and Perch in a gin-clear gravel pit, so, as it's on our doorstep, we headed home for a few hours during the middle of the day to catch up with some work. We returned for the last couple of hours of light, and using dull curtails, shads and chatterbaits, we managed to bank 8 Pike and 21 Perch between us.

The rest of our fishing this month has been spent wandering along our local rivers fishing short afternoon/evening sessions. After our trip to Rib Valley we had a couple of days of heavy rain, which topped up the rivers and also gave them a bit of colour - perfect conditions for big Perch. On our first evening fishing, I lost a very big Chub (which I think would have beaten my P.B.), but 20 minutes later I felt much better, after landing a stripey weighing 3lb on the nose. It took a white Berkley Havoc Rocket Craw, which has worked really well since we've been back.

This photo shows another one of my favourite Rocket Craw colours - Bama Bug.

The colour dropped out very quickly and by the time we had our next trip two days later, the river was gin clear. We'd had a fairly quiet afternoon with a few small Perch and an even smaller Pike around 4" long, and a follow from a better stripey which I'm guessing was around 3lb, but as the light faded, I changed to the white Rocket Craw that I lost the Chub and caught the 3lb Perch on the previous trip. It was overcast and became dark very quickly, and not long before calling it a day, Dad came up to me and told me that, despite the very low light levels, he thought my white Rocket Craw was too bright in the gin clear water, and as he told me this I had an almighty whack and hooked and landed a Perch of 3lb 15oz! When he netted it, I turned round to him and said "sorry, what did you just say?!" I was chuffed to bits with the fish but, frustratingly, it's my third different Perch weighing an ounce under 4lb this year!

The Rocket Craw, this time in another of my favourite colours, Breen Clear Chartreuse, worked well the following evening too, finding a shoal of Perch that produced fish to 2lb 5oz, then after a few casts without any bites, it was time to try the drop-shot. Two casts later I had a 3lb 4oz in the net, caught on a Berkley Twitchtail Minnow!

We've had a few more evening trips since and although the fishing has got progressively harder (my local rivers are almost as clear as I've ever seen them) creature baits have been working well, producing plenty of 2's to just under the 3lb mark.

I must admit though, I'm now looking forward to venturing a bit further afield and getting back on the Thames and the reservoirs, and hoping for some big Pike and Zander!

Lastly, a couple of months ago Vince Williams from the Oxfordshire region of the Pike Angler's Club of Great Britain invited me to give a talk, which I really enjoyed giving last week. I'd highly recommend anyone to go along to one of their meetings - it's a really friendly evening. For their next meeting on Thursday 26th November, the speaker is Phil Smith - a top all-round specimen hunter.

September stripeys!

September is an exciting time of year for the lure and fly angler. As temperatures begin to cool, predatory fish go on the munch, and it also coincides with the opening of many of the midlands reservoirs for lure fishing. Rutland and Grafham both opened for lure fishing on August 31st this year, but my Dad and I were able to fit in a couple of trips flyfishing beforehand, in between a busy period of Family Fishing days, which I'll talk about later. Grafham seems to be producing more small Zander this year than I've ever known, although on our last trip flyfishing there a few weeks ago, on his fourth cast of the day, Dad landed a good fish on one of his 'Zander Lander' flies.

Shortly after, I also caught my first fish of the day - a Perch measuring 51cm! You would have thought a fish of this length would probably weigh 4lbs, but it was quite an old fish and weighed 3lb 6oz.

The summer holidays is the busiest time of year for Get Hooked on Fishing, and the 'Family Fishing' days, run in conjunction with the Angling Trust, have been huge successes. The last week or so of the summer holidays were particularly busy, with events at Suffolk Water Park, Shuttleworth College's Middle Lake, and GHoF's projects at Rib Valley, Walthamstow and Ealing.

There were a couple of highlights for me that week, and the first was at the Family Fishing day at Shuttleworth. When young Joshua Cobbs' float slid under for the very first time, I don't think he could quite believe what was pulling on the end of his line! After an amazing fight and brilliant team work between Joshua and my Dad, they managed to land this beautiful 19lb 3oz Mirror Carp on 4lb line and a size 14 hook! Not bad for your first ever fish!

On the Saturday of the August bank holiday weekend, GHoF held a second Family Fishing Day at Rib Valley. We were very lucky with the weather and plenty of fish were caught, including some nice Perch on lures and Roach to nearly 1lb to those fishing the whip! It was a very busy day, but it couldn't have happened without the support of our volunteers, so a massive thank you to them, and also to Keith Arthur and Sarah Collins! It was then off to Ealing the following day for another successful Family Fishing day, and over the course of the weekend, GHoF introduced just over 300 people to fishing.

Our next fishing trip was back on Grafham, for the first day of the lure fishing season on there. Sadly, the weather was awful, with heavy, persistent rain and strong winds all day, which made it hard to target the Perch and Zander we were set on fishing for. At 3pm we were both so soaked (even through Gore Tex jackets), we had to go in and change clothes! Thankfully, we had some spare waterproofs, but unfortunately, we didn't catch many more fish before it was time to head in!

We returned to Grafham a couple of days later after all our clothing and gear had dried out, and this turned out to be a much better day. We caught from many different areas, but we did find a big shoal of small Zander, which was great fun.

We caught most of our fish jigging, but we caught a few fish drop-shotting too, including the biggest Perch of the day, which weighed 3lb 6oz (49.5cm). Dad was unlucky though, as he hooked in to a Perch of a similar size at the same time, but his one came off as we netted mine! We ended the day boating 58 zeds, 16 Perch and a Pike.

Apart from one other trip to Grafham, the rest of our fishing has been based on local rivers targeting Perch, practising and trying out new lures in preparation for the Lure Fishing World Championships in Estonia next week. They've been working well, and my Dad even managed to catch this nice Roach on one of the lures we've been experimenting with, which the fish took on the drop!

On one recent evening trip, we'd been fishing for around an hour without any bites, then, as I was lifting my Sébile A.T Minnow out of the water ready to make another cast, six or seven Perch, all well over 2 and a half pounds, followed me in and literally started rolling and boiling around the lure, fighting over the shad! It was incredible to watch - almost like they were in a frenzy, like Tuna smashing in to bait balls. This 3lb 1oz beat the others to it, but there were bigger ones that I just missed out on!

After an unsuccessful attempt at relocating and catching them the following evening, my Dad and I had our last outing before the World Championships along another stretch of river. The afternoon was going well, catching plenty of Perch to 2lb 5oz and a jack Pike, but after a few hours in one area, we decided to have a change of scenery and try a different section of river where we've caught some big fish in the past, often in the last hour of light. It turned out to be a good move, as Dad's last fish of the day was a chunky 3lb'er.

We're now just finishing the last bit of packing before our flight to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, tomorrow. Somehow, all the gear has managed to fit in the cases, but I'm not sure how we'll get it in to Eric's car to get to Gatwick - we may have to put my Mum on the roof rack!

Mixing it up a bit!

When summer arrives, I always aim to spend as much time out on the bank, or afloat as I can, trying to learn as much as I can to improve my lure fishing and flyfishing. This year has been slightly different though - instead, I've been to quite a few events (especially over the past month) sharing what I've learned from my experiences to newcomers keen to have a go themselves. Along the way I'm learning to improve my coaching, as well as my fishing, and you get a great buzz knowing that a person has enjoyed a session and learnt something new, especially if they've caught a fish!

A few weeks ago, Dad and I were at Fish'O'Mania coaching lure fishing with Eric Edwards. This was my third time to Fish'O'Mania and for the past two years we've always been faced with far from ideal conditions for targeting Pike and Perch - sweltering heat and bright sunshine. Although not quite as warm this year, we were faced with similar conditions, although a downpour on the Sunday morning freshened things up a bit. Using tiny curltails, participants managed to catch around 30 small Perch. After the coaching sessions had finished on the Saturday, Dad and I decided to stay on for another half hour and fish, and Dad landed a pretty Common Carp of around 9lb! It took a 1" Johnson Ribbontail Grub, and gave him a great fight on his Shakespeare Agility LRF rod!

What was interesting was that he caught the Carp on a straight retrieve, and earlier that week he caught a Tench at Get Hooked on Fishing's project at Walthamstow, again on a straight retrieve, using exactly the same curltail! Since then, he's caught quite a few Tench using this tactic.

It was great to catch up with many good friends at Fish'O'Mania - it's the only time of the year that all the Project Managers from Get Hooked on Fishing meet up. It was also great to see familiar faces from last year who came to have a go at the lure fishing, and wanted a go again!

The 1" grub also worked well a few days after Fish'O'Mania, at a GHoF/Angling Trust 'Family Fishing' event at Alders Farm Fishery near Milton Keynes. Unfortunately, it poured down with rain all day, but I was surprised how many people came along, considering how heavy the rain was! There aren't that many Perch in Ash Lake (where we were lure fishing), but a few anglers managed to catch their first Carp on soft plastics - including Keith Arthur and Alders Farm Fishery Manager, Trevor Price!

The weekend before last we were at Harewood House near Leeds at the CLA Game Fair, introducing people to lure fishing at the Get Hooked on Fishing Funfair. Lots of people tried out some of the new Abu and Berkley lures for the UK for 2016 - in fact, over 500 people signed in to at least one activity, whether that was lure fishing, fly casting, or other games such as casting and throwing accuracy!

Most of our own fishing has been short morning or evening sessions, wandering along our local River Lea, although we had an action-packed trip afloat on the River Thames, as well as a couple of days fishing the midlands reservoirs lure fishing and flyfishing for predators.

We've been trying to stalk the Chub along the Lea with tiny soft plastics, and we've seen some huge fish, as well as Barbel too.

Unfortunately, I lost a very big Chub a couple of weeks back, but we've managed to land a few to nearly 5lbs on Berkley 1" Sparkle Nymphs and Crazy Legs Chigger Craws - two creature baits that have worked very well for us this summer.

On one morning trip (the same day as I lost a huge Chub), Dad spotted two small Barbel on a gravel run. He cast his Sparkle Nymph to one, and it was on it like a flash - moments later it was in the net!

A few weeks back, we had a trip afloat on our boat on the Thames for the first time this year - I can't believe where that time has gone! Conditions looked good when we arrived and it didn't take long for us to start catching a few Pike and Perch, including this good stripey.

As we were taking the photos of the Perch, it started to spit with rain. It hadn't been forecast, but it became heavier, and heavier, and heavier! We continued to fish in to the night targeting Zander and Chub, and I managed to land a nice Chub on a Texas rigged Berkley Havoc Rocket Craw, but not long after we decided to pack up as the rain was relentless!

Taking the boat out of the water in pitch black and pouring rain proved to be a nightmare - we couldn't see what we were doing, we were both slipping over taking the boat up the slipway and bent one of our transducer brackets in the process. Still, we landed 41 Perch and 13 Pike, plus my Chub over the course of the session, so at least we caught a few fish!

We've managed to fit in a couple of trips on the midlands reservoirs this past month - the first of those was the day after Fish'O'Mania, fishing in the Airflo International Midland Final on Grafham - a match me and my trout team, the Pitsford Pirates, had qualified for a few weeks back. Sadly, we missed out on qualification for the final by what equated to just a couple of fish! Congratulations to Rio Masters, Reservoir Dogs and Elinor for making it to the final.

Our most recent trip was a few days ago, flyfishing for the predators, again on Grafham, and for most of the day my Dad gave me a real thrashing, catching the majority of our 14 Zander and 7 Perch haul.

However, in the evening I hooked in to a hard fighting fish, which at first I thought was a good Zander, but instead it turned out to be my biggest Perch of the day, weighing 3lb 7oz.

Lastly, every summer, Dad and I have to get our fix of flyfishing for Carp, and we spent a morning at Rib Valley targeting them with mixer imitation flies. We caught a few Carp, including this pretty Ghost Koi my Dad caught.