December 2013
Any month that sees a personal best
fish landed has to be classified as a red-letter month and December
has certainly made up for the two previous months being almost
non-starters.
Fortunately the first session really
got the month of in fine fettle and luckily I was treated to a days
fishing on the famous Testwood Fishery by a very generous customer of
mine. Our target was to catch the pinnacle of all our coarse river
species, a 2lb roach and although we never achieved this goal, we
came bloody close with myself taking five quality roach, all on the
stick and pin, with the best going 1lb 13oz. It wasn’t just roach
that showed, seven other species were taken including brown/sea
trout, grayling, roach/bream hybrids, bronze bream, chub and one
massive dace of 11oz that gave me a new personal best. For me the
most pleasing part of the session was that I stuck with the float
rod, stick float and centrepin all day and although come the end of
the day cramp was setting in it was the most rewarding session I’ve
had for a very long time.
Booking the pool doesn’t come cheap
at £150 but the cost can be divided up between a maximum of three
anglers so it is affordable and will probably see a once yearly
pilgrimage by myself and Alan to the venue.
Unfortunately the second trip of the
month bought me back to ground as although it wasn’t a blank it
felt like it as I headed to a day ticket venue with big roach on my
mind yet come the end of the day which saw my father and girlfriends
father fish as well, apart from two roach around a pound to Mick all
myself and dad had to show for our efforts were small frustrating
roach. Anyway, just like Old Bury Hill it’s another venue that can
be ticked of the list for the rest of the season.
Back in November myself and fishing
companion Chris had walked a stretch of the river Itchen and had
spotted a big grayling and with a free Sunday morning we headed south
full of anticipation. Before starting to fish I said that if we had
half a dozen fish each the session could be classified as a result.
Well in the second swim I settled I managed eighteen net fish mainly
grayling and trout with the odd salmon parr thrown in. Chris was
catching far less fish but seemed to have a knack of putting the net
under far bigger fish with the best grayling going a good pound and a
half plus. Just as we were rubbing our hands together thinking we had
uncovered a gold mine and jogger on the far bank stopped and informed
us that we were on a private, exclusive trout beat, ouch, that hurt.
Amazingly we had walked the stretch the previous week and with our
eyes concentrating on the water had both totally missed the private
fishing sign. Time to leave I think!
A trip to Hereford and the river Wye
although not producing our desired species, pike, did provide me with
a 50lb plus bag of chub. Not big fish, between 8oz and 2lb but
brilliant sport and again all taken on the float, this time the
waggler fished up in the water down the centre of the river.
A couple of guiding days saw fish
landed, the best fish being a 4lb 2oz chub taken from the Loddon in
far from ideal conditions. The perch didn’t want to play ball and
proved difficult on both flowing and still water.
I did try for barbel on a flooded river
Loddon, again without any success mainly due to the session being cut
short due to the river rising and knowing that a stream that I
struggled to get over on route to the river would most likely cut me
off if I didn’t make a premature retreat. To be honest with the
weather as it is, consistently mild and the rivers up in flood I’ve
forgotten about barbel as these conditions allow the fish to feed
when ever they want and trying to get any consistent results is
almost impossible. In fact I’ve just taken a picture of my back
garden, its Christmas Eve and the river Blackwater is within inches
of breaching my tackle shed. It’s the highest I have ever seen the
river, maybe I should cast out a barbel bait and leave my receiver in
the lounge!
Checking my diary inputs I’ve been
fortunate to get out on the bank on twelve occasions, these being
split between personal sessions (8), features (1) and guiding (3)
which again is a good split. These sessions total 67 hours, almost
six hours per session which is acceptable knowing that each day only
sees around eight hours of daylight.
On a more positive note I have been
fortunate to discover and catch a few specimen fish come the end of
the month, yet as its early days and with the Christmas holidays
stopping myself from getting out till the New Year I feel it best to
keep these quiet for now, but just lets say December has been very
kind! I may well get out and have pencilled in a session on Friday
27th as well as a customer promising to take me out sea
fishing on Monday 30th, yet with storms forecasted I’m
not holding my breath.
Have a great Christmas and New Year!
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