June 16th - Lovely Chubbly!

Since returning from the World Catfish Classics, the weather seems to have been very unpredictable and it's made deciding when and where to fish quite difficult. Before that though, whilst I was away, England did have a great spell of hot weather, perfect for flyfishing for Carp. So my Dad took advantage of the conditions and had a couple of trips flyfishing for them locally. He did very well too, landing 18 Carp to 19lb - great fun on fly gear.

The day after I got back from Spain, I also had my first session of the year flyfishing for Carp. Although we came close to catching them on fly gear, unfortunately most of the fish were too far out to be able to reach with a fly rod. I did manage to hook one on the fly but it slipped the hook as I was about to net it. Luckily, we had a backup plan and took one of my Dad's old KM carp rods. The fish were a bit finicky, but in the end my Dad managed to land 3 and lost one of around 30lbs - which was a bit of a gutter! I managed to catch one - all the fish we caught were good doubles though.

About three weeks ago I wrote an article that was published in the Angling Times about a great spell my Dad and I had flyfishing for Carp last year, which I've pasted below:

 A week or so later we decided to flyfish for the Zander on Grafham. The weather looked great - nice and calm for a change and no rain - so we were really looking forward to it. About 20 minutes in to our journey to Grafham we were cut up by a van on a roundabout which resulted in a bad crash. We couldn't believe it - it happened so fast and left us very shook up. After all the swapping of the details with the driver and trying to calm down, we continued our journey to Grafham, determined not to let it spoil our day.

It was hard trying not to think about the state of the car, but we fished on, and caught 13 Zander to 9lb 1oz, plus a near double-figure Bream my Dad caught.

We saw quite a few trout rising whilst fishing for Zander which was a bit of a distraction! But you can't do it all...

I can't believe we're already 2 weeks in to the new river season - it's really caught us by surprise and because we've had so much going on, it's been hard to get out, which has been very frustrating! We did manage a session the day after June 16th and decided to take our jigging rods exploring some of our local rivers, hoping to catch a few Chub. My first fish of the season though was a Perch of around 1lb I caught on a crankbait. My Dad then frustratingly lost a very good Chub on a jig!

The rivers were still coloured after all the rain, but chopping and changing between jigs and plugs, we ended up having an action-packed trip. I love this type of fishing - exploring miles of riverbank that hasn't been touched for months.

By the end of the day, although we were completely cream crackered, we had banked over 40 fish between us - a mixture of Chub, Pike, and Perch. The biggest surprise though was catching a lovely Perch from a tiny river, which weighed 3lb 6oz!

The best Chub was just over 4lbs - these fight really well on a 7ft lure rod!

Apart from that trip we've only managed to have a couple of hours here and there locally, which haven't been as productive as that first day. We've still caught quite a few Pike and Perch though, as well as 2 Chub around the 4lb mark - plus a couple of Dace, believe it or not, caught on tiny Crickhopper plugs fished across the surface!

 

That could be it now for a couple of weeks on the rivers for us, as we've got a fishing trip to France planned with a group of friends - that's if we get our car back from being repaired!

World Catfish Classic 2012

This month has been extremely busy. So much so, that I ran out of time to write my monthly blog just before heading out to Spain with a small group from the Shuttleworth and Sparsholt Colleges, to help marshall the World Catfish Classic 2012. So there are two blogs below as there was so much to write about.

Two Sundays ago I had a very hectic day. After dropping my Dad off to fish in a flyfishing match called the Airflo World Bank Masters Final in the morning at Elinor Trout fishery, and watching for a couple of hours, my Mum then gave me a lift to College where 6 of us met before getting a minibus to Stansted and flying to Zaragoza later that afternoon. Once we arrived, Steve Waters, our teacher, and Rob Nunn, a head marshall, had hire cars ready to drive us the 1 hour journey to the quaint village of Chiprana. When we arrived we had tea in the sports hall that would be the central focal point of the World Catfish Classic, before finally arriving on the banks of the mighty River Ebro at around 1am and setting up camp. It seemed weird that only a few hours earlier I was watching one World Championship in England and was now about to watch another in Spain!

The first two days involved the Shuttleworth boys (Richard Allen, Jason Mackie, Matt Bedding, Joel Scrivener, Brandon Sharp and myself) and some Sparsholt students decorating the presentation hall with banners and flags, pegging swims and giving boat checks to arriving anglers and their teams, making sure all their equipment was safe.

Much of our work was also spent picking up litter and tidying up the river banks around the A, B and C sections where it was pegged. The amount of rubbish left by some visitors was astonishing - and apparently the litter we removed this year wasn't half as much as the year before! Last year, a whopping 25 tonnes of rubbish was collected by the Friends of the Ebro charity. I even picked up an empty beer can and a snake slithered out, as well as finding massive Centipedes and Praying Mantis in amongst the rubbish.

By the Tuesday evening, everything was ready to rock and roll. Flags from the nationalities of all the anglers and event organisers were paraded from the ancient church at the top of the hill in Chiprana, right down to the hall where the opening ceremony would take place. It was an amazing atmosphere, with the beating of the drums and all the locals from this sleepy Spanish village cheering and getting involved in the parade too. Later on that evening, anglers drew their peg scheme at the opening ceremony and returned to their bases before they were allowed to visit their swims at 7am the following morning, ready for the 9am start. The link to the parade is here.

I arrived at Section A, the area I was marshalling, early the next morning. This 2 mile stretch was meant to be notoriously hard for catfishing. With temperatures exceeding 41°C over the three days, it was quite challenging for everybody! As the first day progressed, Section A was living up to it's reputation, as the anglers struggled for bites. This area of the Ebro, a few miles downstream of sections B and C, is renowned for its Carp fishing and last year it held the Spanish Carp qualifier. There were literally hundreds of Carp on the surface all day, and swimming so close in the margins I even managed to stroke one!

In this section I was lucky enough to be marshalling the Spanish Carp fishing champion, Barry Wilson, in the same swim that he won it in, only this time he had to catch Catfish! It was his team-mate, Steve Howard of England that finally broke the deadlock right at the end of the day with a 55kg fish - his first over 100lbs.

 They were the only two cats caught in Section A that day, but B and C had fished their socks off, with loads of cats landed and tagged, the biggest being 71kg! Luckily for the anglers in Section A, they were to rotate to Section B for the following day, where their chances of landing fish would be much greater. I was still to marshal Section A with the anglers who had previously fished Section C.

Just half an hour after playing that cat I was drafted down to play in a friendly football match. Our team, the WCC All Stars, were to play Chiprana FC's Youth academy. To put it simply, we got absolutely thrashed, the final score - 9 -1. Despite their average age of around 15 I've never played against such a good team!

The second day was another challenging one, with only two fish caught again on Section A. Both were from the same swim by the same angler, Gary Sheridan, of team USA who had one of 23.5kg and another fish at the last minute of 11kg. Daniel Tomi also caught a 12kg Common Carp in the swim next door - caught on Squid! Unfortunately, carp don't count though, neither did a cat of around 30kg that was within reaching distance of one angler before it threw the hook.

The 3rd and final day of the match was very tense. I was again marshalling Section A, but this time it was the turn of last year's winners Arnout, Ron and Lee to fish this area. At this point they were in the lead with a weight of 594.90kg. Ahead of Alexander Knittel, Huber Andreas and Florian Riedl of Germany, who were two swims along with a weight of 307.25kg. Only one fish was caught from Section A on the day, by Paul Fagan of England at 14kg, and all other teams blanked, but after having a bumper catch from Section B on the first day, that was enough to take Ron, Arnout and Lee to a 2nd WCC title. As I blew the final whistle, bottles of champagne were opened and sprayed in celebration and the Dutch flag was flown proudly high.

The presentation back at the sports hall took place after a fantastic Paella cooked by the Chiprana locals. All the anglers in my section that caught over the 3 days secured a top 10 finish. The Dutch team (Ron Beugelink, Arnout Terlouw and Lee Carpenter) came first with 594.90kg - a fantastic achievement. Germany's team of Alexander Knittel, Huber Andreas and Florian Riedl came 2nd with 307.25kg. Steve Howard, Alina Padurean and Tracey Lewis Wilson's England team came 3rd with 268.50kg and Beverley Clifford and Jason Ingley, another England Team came 4th with 261.70kg. The biggest fish caught during the match went to Sebastien Francois from France with an 82kg whopper!

After a long night of celebrations, Saturday morning was spent clearing up and by lunchtime we were done. The marshalls were then given time to do what they wanted, and there was only one thing on our minds... fishing!

A couple of us got a lift down to a tackle shop in Caspe and I bought a cheap spinning rod and reel loaded with 10lb line for 11 euros (as we weren't allowed to bring any tackle out with us). I also picked up a collection of shads and curltails, as well as jig heads, before we began fishing at the bridge at Chiprana and headed downriver. At 42°C the fishing was very tough with a bright sun glaring onto the water. We were based far away from the top areas for lure fishing for Zander, Perch and Largemouth Bass on the Ebro, which I heard was from the Dam at Caspe down to Mequinenza.

I fished until about 5pm as the river became busy with Carp and Catfish anglers. I hadn't caught anything, however, I had located some decent shoals of bleak in some areas and thought if the other anglers weren't fishing the whole night, I could get up early and fish these spots when there were less lines in the water.

Whilst everyone was asleep after another celebratory dinner that went on well in to the night, I had just 4 hours sleep before waking up at 5.30am. With jig rod in hand, climbing down the cliffs to the areas where I'd found the bleak shoals, I went fishing! The bleak were already being chased by some type of predator and were jumping out of the water - a very encouraging sign. It only took me about 20 minutes to bank my first Ebro Perch, all 8oz of it! I caught, and lost, a few more too, before it was time to head back for breakfast. All the fish were around the same size - nothing big, but good fun, especially on a light 11euro rod!

That was the last time I was able to fish before we set off on our journey home the same day. I wasn't sure what to expect when heading out to Spain but what a fantastic experience the World Catfish Classic turned out to be. It was a great laugh being with the lads from Shuttleworth College and meeting the guys from Sparsholt too. Some of the anglers in the match were fantastic company and I certainly learned a great deal from them when it comes to targeting Ebro Cats. I can only thank Steve and Chris at Shuttleworth College, Ross Honey and his fantastic team of organisers for inviting me to take part in an awesome match. All in all - an amazing experience!

May on the Fly

Before the World Catfish Classics, above, I'd been enjoying fishing for trout - whether in matches or just pleasure fishing on Grafham, Elinor and Farmoor. My Dad and I also had a recent trip to Walthamstow, which I love, as it's normally always a challenge - the fish in there are top quality. We caught 7 between us fishing buzzers under the bung, all hard fighters that never gave up. They were all good fish over 3lb!

At the end of April, I was supposed to be fishing in the Lexus European Championships heat on Grafham, however, this was postponed due to very high winds. Some of the practice days my Dad and I fished though, were brillliant. We had 20+ rainbows each time we went, on a methods such as - the washing-line on a Di5 line with a blob, cormorant and booby, or straight line nymphing with a team of buzzers and a diawl bach on the top dropper, which I really enjoyed as some of the bites were hard hitters!

The next match both my Dad and I fished was the Thames Water Shield, a fundraiser for the EYF team. Most of the anglers decided to fish from the sailing club down to the first car park, as the strong wind was coming off their backs, making it easier to get a line out. I decided to gamble and fished more into the wind a bit further down the bank. By fishing boobies on a Di7 shooting head with a static or slow retrieve, I bagged up at 1.45pm with the biggest bag of the day at 19lb 10oz, and with the biggest fish of the match at 3lb 9oz. It was only enough to take second place though, as Kieran Bonas won with 26lb including time bonus as he had finished earlier than me. My weight with time bonus was only 25lb 10oz - well done mate. My Dad caught 6 too to come 10th out of around 30 anglers.

The following day, I was meant to be fishing a qualifier for the Airflo World Bank Masters catch-and-release match on Farmoor 1. However, due to being invited by my College to marshall the World Catfish Classics in Spain on the same day as the AWBM Final, it meant I would not be able to fish it if I got through, as my plane was leaving in the afternoon of the same day. My Dad offered to take my place and fished the qualifier instead. He had a slow start on his first couple of pegs, but chopping and changing between fishing the bung on a floating line or the sink tip with a team of buzzers, he started to catch, and by the end of the day he'd caught 9 and lost 4. It was enough to win the qualifier for the final!

Before the final, we did manage to slot in our first proper session of the year flyfishing for Zander and Perch at Grafham. The fishing wasn't easy but we caught a few Zander in the end around the 7-8lb bracket, including my first double of the year at just over 10lbs.

What was surprising was the amount of big bream that took our Zander flies and were hooked cleanly in the mouth when we boated them - 4 doubles including two other smaller ones that fell for our large baitfish imitations, including a new P.B for me at 10lb 5oz. This could have been because the fish were spawning and may have been attacking the flies out of aggression, but, I'm sure they eat baitfish though, as we've caught them on shads and curltails whilst jigging in reservoirs and on fenland drains!

 

Our main focus of attention after this was the Airflo World Bank Masters Final my Dad had qualified for on Elinor. We had a great practice trip there 6 days before, catching 26 rainbows on buzzers, diawl bachs, and boobies on a washing line set up. I even caught 4 off the top on popper hoppers and CDC shuttlecock buzzers as the day progressed.

 Match day was very different though and didn't go very well for him. He had 9 bites, hooked and lost four but only managed to land one. He was frustrated to say the least, but it was just one of those days. He said some of the England Youths fished really well, a couple landing four or five fish. He realised he should have practised the previous day as pulling blobs seemed the way to go, not nymphing as had been 6 days previously. Unfortunately, he hadn't had the time to practise the day before the match though. Congratulations to Chris Jones who won it.

Grafham and Rutland Trout Spring in to Action

This April, the flyfishing at Rutland and Grafham has been nothing short of awesome. Some locals I've spoken to are saying it's some of, if not THE best fishing they've experienced since both reservoirs opened, from boats and the bank - and after having fished the two venues a few times this past month, I couldn't agree more.

The methods that have worked for me have been a couple of boobies on a Di7 line, with a cormorant in the middle, or a team of buzzers on a midge tip, or fishing the bung on a floating line.

On our few trips to Grafham this month we've caught plenty of hard fighting fish, including a nice Brownie of 5lb 7oz. On one trip, fishing from the bank along the bowl of the dam, we landed 25 rainbows up to 4lb 3oz in just a few hours, caught on boobies and buzzers fished at long range, as it was a very bright day and the fish were deep.

Also, by accident, whilst practising for matches I've caught three Zander - one from Grafham and two from Rutland - one of which took a small buzzer!! My Dad also caught one on a damsel last week. I'm really looking forward to the predator flyfishing in the next few weeks there.

After fishing my first bank match of the year on Grafham about two weeks ago, the very next day I fished Rutland from a boat. I was practising for the following day's Lexus Individual Championships fish-off with Gary Owen, the captain of the 'Seighford Sharks', who was also practising, but for the Teams match, the day after the Individuals match.

Rutland has fished it's socks off since it re-opened three weeks ago and it didn't take long to catch my first fish - a 5lb'er! We both had another 7 each before returning to the harbour. I caught mine on buzzers fished on a midge tip. The important thing was that we'd located the areas where the fish were holding. Two days later, the Seighford Sharks won the Lexus Team fish off at the places we fished!

In the individual match I was fishing, things didn't go quite as I'd hoped. At the briefing, my boat partner, who had won matches at Rutland before, thought it would be a good idea to head to an area where he'd caught some very big fish in the past, but they weren't there in numbers. Rutland is a massive reservoir and I'd never fished that area before - it was a bit of a risk, but we both caught - I was unlucky though, as the 4 fish I had were all stockies, plus I lost a 5th fish at the last minute. My four were only enough to earn me 12th place out of 24. He, on the other hand, had 5 very good fish - one of them was the biggest of the match weighing 4lb 11oz and earned him a well deserved wildcard place through to the final at Chew in September.

A few days later, the England Youth Flyfishing Team held a training weekend, followed by a match on the Sunday, again at Rutland. I started the practice day fishing a midge tip and buzzers, which worked really well for most of the day, until it became incredibly gusty in the afternoon, so I switched to a Di3 and fished the washing line. Our team had found fish in a few different areas across the lake - I caught 10 whilst exploring the south arm and parts of the main basin. The first fish I hooked was huge, but unfortunately, came off which I think may have been over 6lbs! Not long after, I had one from the same area that was 5+! After a discussion of tactics and locations at The Chequers pub later on that day with my team, we were all very confident we knew where to go and how to fish on match day.

Before we knew it, it was Sunday morning and all the teams were preparing to head off out in to a very rough Rutland. My boat partner was Julian Hubbard, part of the Rio Masters team we were competing against, a top competition angler. One of their team mates couldn't turn up though as he was ill, so with just 20 minutes notice, my Dad was asked to join the Rio team! We split the tackle up between us, as he'd left most of his gear at home, and both ended up 5 minutes late heading out of the harbour after the hooter had blown. Julian and I headed off to Old Hall Flats, where we'd both found a lot of fish the day before.

On my third cast I had a double hookup on the hang! Although I lost one of them, on the same drift I also landed another two. The fish wanted the flies virtually static - the only retrieve seemed to be a slow figure-of-eight - the slower the better! Many of my fish came on the hang too.

I was joint fastest with Rob Edmunds in the Rio Team, to bag up. The match had started at 10am, and we'd finished by 11.15am. My fish were tiny though, compared to Rob's weighing 30lb 9oz with time bonus! My 8 with time bonus weighed only 25lb 1oz, but still a lovely bag of fish.

With my other team-mates, Kieran and Ashley both bagging up early too, I thought we might be in with a shout of winning. But Julian had bagged by 1.30pm and a lot of others in the Rio Team did too in the last hour, including my Dad - and it was his team, the Rio Masters, that won, which he will not stop trying to wind me up about! My team came 2nd.

A few months ago, Dominic Garnett, a top angling writer for numerous publications, asked if he could use a couple of my pictures in a book he was writing at the time, called 'Flyfishing for Coarse Fish'. A couple of days ago, I received the book and it looks fantastic. It's about the type of fishing both my Dad and I love - catching different species of fish on the fly, other than trout. It's something we've been doing for quite a while now, and my Dad has caught over 130 different species now on the fly, from tiny Bitterling to Sailfish, so the book is right up our street!

The front cover looks great too - I've only read parts so far, but I'm really looking forward to reading the rest. I would highly recommend it to any angler interested in catching species other than trout on the fly. It would make a great present to any angler, as I don't think many fishermen realise how effective the method can be, and what great fun can be had doing it. It's on sale from May 10th, so I've put a link to anyone interested here.

Hopefully, the weather conditions will begin to change soon as we've had a lot of windy weather, which has made fishing quite awkward at times, especially from a boat. I'm looking forward to fishing a few different places in the next month for trout and other predators on the fly, maybe even Carp if it warms up enough - so let's hope May's forecast will be a lot better!

Another Season Over!

Well, that's another season which has flown by and sadly come to an end. Looking back though, I had many great times and experiences, like fishing with Keith Arthur for Tightlines, plus also fishing for my country with the England Youth Flyfishing Team last July on the Lake of Menteith. I've also managed to catch some lovely fish, a couple of which were new PB's, so I can say I've been pretty lucky!


One of our aims before the end of the season was to try and catch a big Barbel. My Dad had lost a good one a few years back and we weren't sure if it was still around but wanted to give it a try anyway. We knew roughly where it hung out if it was still there, but because we'd been doing so many other types of fishing throughout the season we just hadn't got around to it. So on the eve of my Dad's 50th birthday, off we went for a late afternoon trip and to stay an hour into the dark.

After about three hours in the same swim without a bite, I decided to move to another spot before it got dark. As I wandered downstream I heard an almighty yell from my Dad further up the bank. It sounded like he'd hooked in to a very good fish. As I rushed back I could see it had rooted him in to some snags on the other side of the bank, but after keeping some steady side strain, he managed to steer it free. However, the fight wasn't over and it motored on a long run downstream. After a while of knocking knees, the fish tired and I finally scooped up his prize catch - all 14lb 9oz of it, which had fallen to a couple of lobworms! What a present for my Dad's 50th!


Another present that my mum and I had organised with Keith Arthur as a surprise for my Dad, was a trip to Sky Sports studios to watch the making of the 'Tightlines' TV show. It was a great experience, going to the new studio (on the same day Sky Sports F1 HD launched) and watching Keith and his guest, John Horsey, film that week's show just before it aired in the evening. We were even on Sky Sports News for a moment in the background, walking across to the Tightlines studio! It's like a spaceship in there with hundreds of TV screens, computers, lights and cameras - it's amazing what goes on behind the scenes of Tightlines with Mick (the producer) and his fantastic team. Keith, John and Mick are some of the friendliest people I've met in fishing, and it was great to meet them again. Thanks for a brilliant day Keith!


On the last couple of trips before the end of the season, we continued quivertipping different areas of the river, and although Dad's Barbel, previously mentioned, was the only one we caught, we did manage to bank a few more Chub on breadflake plus a couple of Carp to 14lb 2oz.

This isn't normally the sort of fishing we do towards the end of the season, as I love jigging and drop-shotting for Perch at this time of year, but we'd taken advantage of the conditions better suited for chub and barbel, although we did slip in one last outing before March 15th for Perch. They didn't really seem to want to play ball, but we were kept busy with plenty of small jack Pike instead, which are still fun on lures. It took me a good couple of hours before I hooked the first Perch, which unfortunately, I lost and was pretty sure it was a good one. My Dad and I both left the area for a little while, returning later where, on his first cast, Dad hooked, and this time landed, what we think may have been the same Perch that I'd lost earlier. It was a fish of 3lb 5oz which I hooked first on a drop shotted split tail shad, but this time took a jigged shad.


Unfortunately, that was the first and last Perch of the day as we packed up early, deciding to fish the last couple of hours for chub instead. We caught no chub but I did manage to catch a nice Common Carp of around 9lbs which was great fun on my quivertip rod.

That sort of rounds up our season - one I will look back on in the future as one of the most enjoyable I've had. I just hope next season will be just as memorable! Now I'm focusing on trout and practising for some matches, having already had a couple of good trips to Grafham - but that's for the next blog next month!

ADB Coaching Certificate and River Lea Chub

Back in November, I attended a two weekend course to try and gain a Level 1 ADB Coaching in Angling qualification, as I'm very interested in becoming a fishing guide or coach. I've just received a certificate in the post saying that I have passed, which was great news! Hopefully, in the next few months, if I can get some practice, I will try for the Level 2 qualification, but I know this will be a lot harder to achieve.

Just over a week ago I had my College half term, so I was able to fit in a bit more fishing than usual. However, because of the extremely cold weather, most of my local rivers were frozen over - only stretches that had a good flow were fishable. My intention was to fish for Perch, but because of the ice, that was out of the question. I didn't want the ice to stop me from going, so instead of jigging for Perch, my Dad and I decided to target Chub on parts of the Lea that hadn't frozen over.


It's always exciting quivertipping for Chub, so I was really looking forward to our new plan. The first few days of half term were unbelievably cold, so we fished short sessions, starting late in the afternoon and staying a couple of hours in to dark. Considering the sub-zero temperatures, we managed to catch a few nice fish, landing Chub up to 4lb 11oz, some nice Bream, to just over 5lbs, a Common Carp and a beautifully marked Brown Trout.

As the week progressed, it began to warm up and the ice eventually disappeared, so we were able to get back to what we'd originally planned at the beginning and lure fish for Perch. The water temperature was still extremely cold, but it didn't stop a few fish from feeding, and on one afternoon trip, managed to land 4 Perch and 2 Pike. The biggest Perch I caught was 3lb 1oz, caught on a curltail.


We decided on my last day of half term we would have another go at trying to catch a big chub, so the evening before, we thought we'd introduce a few free offerings of cheesepaste and bread. Afterwards we would then try and catch a big perch that I'd mentioned at the end of my last blog that my Dad had lost.

We got to the area for the last hour of light and it didn't take long to hook that perch, as I caught it on my first cast!!! We're pretty sure it was the same fish, as there aren't many big ones in that area. It was a cracking fish but didn't weigh as much as we thought it might have done - the scales read 3lb 3oz, but it did look quite a lot bigger when it was lying in the net. Sometimes they can be deceiving! However, it was still a great fish, so I wasn't moaning - but my Dad was, as I'd caught his fish! Sorry...


Returning to the areas that we'd prebaited was well worth the effort as I caught a new P.B Chub of 6lb 1oz; and what a great looking fish - it was immaculate.


Between us we also caught 3 more Chub to 4lb 11oz, plus a nice Brownie, all caught on quivertipped breadflake. We had another trip the following weekend to the same area, and I managed to catch 2 more nice Chub, weighing 5lb 7oz and 4lb 10oz. My Dad also caught one slightly smaller too, again all on bread.

A couple of days later, the weather looked perfect for some jigging - overcast and mild. But, although the conditions seemed perfect, the Perch didn't want to play ball, and we only managed to catch 2 of around 1lb 8oz each. We did catch 3 Pike though, and one particular fish that my Dad caught surprised us both. Normally, when we're jigging for Perch on the Lea, most of the Pike we catch are Jacks - sometimes, if we get lucky, maybe catch a scraper double. What we thought was a big Perch turned out to be a 17lb 13oz Pike - a fantastic fish, which had taken a small, jigged shad, and was also a P.B River Lea Pike for my Dad. That's why I'd always recommend using a trace, even when Perch fishing.


Last month, Total Flyfisher kindly published another article, which I wrote about a great trip to Walthamstow Reservoirs flyfishing for Trout, so if anybody is interested in fishing the Stow, I've pasted it here:


Yesterday I was at the Carpin' On Show at the 5 Lakes resort near Maldon in Essex. There were lots of big names there in the fishing world and I spoke to a few such as Jerry Hammond and Les Webber MBE. I was with Shuttleworth College helping out on their stand and although I don't do a great deal of Carp fishing (and when I do it's normally on the fly), I found the show very interesting.


We haven't quite made up our minds what we'll be fishing for yet for the last couple of weeks of the season, but I'm going to try and make the most of it if I can!

Big Perch below Zero on Jigs and Drop Shots

Since the new year, fishing has been quite challenging - My Dad and I have only fished rivers and they've been very low and clear. Combined with hard frosts, and now snow, this makes for tricky fishing. Even though the bites have slowed up, it hasn't been impossible and we've still managed to entice some nice perch into taking our lures. We've caught a dozen or so over 3lb to 3lb 9oz, plus some good 2's. They've all fallen to jigging and drop-shotting soft plastics, plus a couple on crankbaits.



We've also had a few jacks plus a nice surprise Brown Trout of about 4lb from the River Lea, which fell to a curltail. In the last couple of weeks as well, an article was published in the Angling Times on 27/1/12, which I wrote about catching our 100th Perch over 3lb. I've pasted it below:


Every now and again fishing throws up some unexpected experiences - not long ago we were lure fishing the River Ivel, when my Dad cast a 2.5" shallow diving crankbait across the river - he twitched it back a couple of times when, from nowhere, a Kingfisher dived in after it! Luckily, it missed the lure by about an inch - my Dad's fished all his life and this was the first time he's had one actually go for his lure! Mind you, it did look realistic!



Another really strange thing that happened recently was whilst jigging the River Lea. We located a small shoal of Perch and began catching a couple. Whilst my Dad was unhooking one of about a pound and a half, he laid his rod on the bankside poking it out over the edge of the river and let the jig fall to the bottom, so that no passing dogs would be able to eat it. After unhooking and returning the fish he picked up his rod to make another cast, only to find another Perch on the end! This one was quite a bit bigger and weighed 2lb 12oz - it had eaten the shad as it was lying on the bottom, motionless.


For a change, we have also had a couple of afternoon/evenings out quivertipping for Chub. We've tried some spots not renowned for many, but looked 'Chubby'. So far, we've only managed to catch 4 - the biggest, my Dad caught, weighing 4lb 7oz caught on bread. He also lost a nice river Carp that afternoon, and all I caught was a Pike that took my bread as I reeled it back in!


Last Sunday, we decided to take a look at the River Lea to see if, and how much it had frozen over. Where it looked OK, we'd fish for the the last couple of hours and in to the dark. During the night, it had snowed heavily around the South East, covering the countryside with a thick white blanket. Driving was a bit dodgy, but we did manage to reach and check out some of our favourite Perch spots. Unfortunately though, we found that most of the Lea had well and truly frozen over.

After an hour or so we did find some fishable water - not an area that we find productive usually, but we thought we'd give it a go anyway, seeing as there wasn't anywhere else to fish! By this time the temperature was dropping like a stone - it began to get uncomfortably cold at around -6°C, the braid was freezing up in our guides, and an Easterly breeze made it feel like conditions you'd normally find in the Arctic. Even though the sun had set, because of the reflection of the full moon on the snow, it made it seem eerily light.

Almost ready to give up, my Dad hooked in to what he thought was a snag, so he started lifting it from the bottom. It wasn't moving, so he thought it was probably a branch... until he saw a huge stripey laying on the surface in front of him. Unfortunately, before he could grab the net, it shook it's head a couple of times, threw the jig, and disappeared. He was so annoyed with himself - as he thought it was a branch, he hadn't set the hook properly and reckoned it could have gone 4lbs. He was well and truly gutted.

Seconds later I also had a bite. Mine was nowhere near as big - a fish of about 2lb, but it was still nice to get a bite in sub zero temperatures. It was a big shame about my Dad's Perch, but we'll definitely be back for that one... watch this space!!