Duncan’s monthly Blog – February
2014
The weathers crap, I feel crap, thank
god the fishing’s good!
Well this month
has followed on in the same format as January with the weather once
again doing its best to make most anglers hang up their rods up till
the spring, yet for myself I’ve luckily continued to dodge the
downpours and place the net under a few specimens. To be honest it’s
Friday the 28th February and for once I have to admit that
after arriving at a fishery, simply took one look at it, knew that I
wasn’t going to enjoy it and turned the car around. Just one look
at the water clarity instantly told me that a blank was inevitable. I
have to admit that this season I feel for the first time after
fishing the lake for probably thirty years I can now claim to be in
tune with it, well almost because next week it will almost certainly
bite me on the bum! With the clarity wrong and a wind from the north,
rain constantly falling and a temperature of just 4.5 degrees at 5pm,
sometimes you just have to do the sensible thing and with a chesty
cough that I cant shift finally threw in the towel!
The daily inputs
into the fishing diary continue to do its job, logging weather
conditions, venues visited, type of visit, duration of session and
off course fish caught and on what. Fifteen times I have found myself
next to the water and these have been split between, guiding (1),
features (1) and fishing for myself (13) along with two days spent
attending the Nash stand at The Big One at Farnborough. One of the
most rewarding parts of the show was when the Korum Consultant Team
arrived at the doors and all, well nearly all, came up to see how I
was doing. Thanks Chris, Dia, Ade and Adam it meant a lot to me.
Inside the show was busy as usual and as always the Nash stand was
ever so popular with the new Scope and Dwarf rods attracting loads of
attention as was the new Instant Action bait range (if you like
catching commons then get some Tandoori Spice boilies, you wont be
disappointed).
The guiding days
have taken a bit of punishment this month, basically because all but
one of the six days that were booked in had to be cancelled and
rescheduled either due to the weather or the customer going down with
man flu. The one occasion I did find myself helping an angler was on
one of February’s better days. My customer Chris has like me
drifted away for one reason and another from barbel and with the
rivers in flood needed an alternative. He suggested pike and with a
personal best of 12lb to beat created a difficult challenge. In short
he received seven runs, five were missed due to not setting the hooks
(it’s a learning curve), one weighed 9lb and the other was possibly
a new personal best. In short on unhooking the pike I noticed the
tail of a perch in the pikes throat and on pulling it regurgitated a
headless and gutless perch that in its prime must have weighed around
1lb 8oz along with two large crayfish claws! Placing these on the mat
I lifted the pike to take a reading of 11lb 15oz so quickly dropped
the remains of the perch and crayfish and took a new reading of 12lb
9oz. Whether he’s accepted this as a new p.b I don’t know but it
was a nice moment. Having all these cancellations rescheduled for
March/April along with feature material already booked in next month
is certainly going to be a busy one, lets just hope the weather
improves.
As for the feature
this was created for Anglers Mail, an Action Replay starring Chris
Currie. If you are a club carper then keep an eye out for this one as
it will teach you loads! Back in the office I looked at what writing
I had done and it seems I’m ahead of myself after completing a
number of European articles plus plenty of bits for Anglers Mail and
Coarse Angling Today.
As for my own
personal sessions these have mainly been campaign sessions targeting
the rudd at Frensham (results soon to be revealed) yet I have been
chucking a few boilies at carp and dropping a deadbait here and there
and out of these visits have only blanked once. One session was at
Broadwater Lake with my mate Chris. The fish were showing at
distance, yet Chris was dropping short due to using 15lb line. Using
10lb line I was able to reach the fish and had taken a couple of
early modest commons which have been becoming a bit of a joke of
late, so when I received my third run I said to Chris, ‘you take
that one, it will only be another little common’. I have to admit
to feeling a little cheated when I was clicking away with the camera
as he held up one of Broadwaters originals!
I was hoping to
have a go on the rivers and bag myself a barbel/chub or two but it’s
a sign of the times I'm afraid as on the one occasion I headed to
running water, a Tuesday afternoon, six cars were already in the car
park, so not for the first time this month turned the car around.
The barbel days on
the river Wye this September are proving as popular as ever and days
are fast running out so if you are interested then get in touch soon
otherwise you will be disappointed.
One thing I have
noticed this month is how quickly the nights are drawing out. The
tench have responded to the lengthening days and started to show and
the daytime temperature is on the increase. I wish I could
confidently say spring is just around the corner, yet if I do this
will only lead to more teeth marks on my arse I expect.
Although I’m not
wishing my life away I’m sort of looking forward to completing the
campaign sessions and get my teeth into something new. A few
exploratory perch trips are on the cards in March. Carp and catfish
will also feature and hopefully these trips will coincide with some
sunshine, dryer nights and I will be able to get the bed chair and
Groundhog shelter out and spend a few nights under the stars,
something that I’m missing like hell.
Images –
1. Early morning
action on Nash Scopes at Broadwater.
2. Top tip, don’t
let a friend take a bite on your rods!
3. This 9lber was
followed shortly with a personal best, I think!
4. If you want to
catch lots of commons, get on the Tandoori Spice!
5. Another 10lb
common!
6. Secrets
revealed.
7. If you like a
good read then theirs two books you need to buy, mine ‘Evolution of
an Angler’ and Chris Currie’s ‘Finding the time to Catch’ both
available from www.calmproductions.co.uk
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