Monthly Report May 2017
Although it’s been a busy month
in the office, actually getting out and catching a few fish has been somewhat
lacking. In all I’ve only fished for myself five times, most being eel sessions
on new venues to see if eels are present. Every session has produced runs, even
if it was just one but actually contacting with any of them has been
frustrating. The first lake that I was tipped off about only produced three
small eels in five after dark assaults starting last October so this has been
knocked on the head. The other two trips both produced just one run which is
more off the water I like, as being up all night with anything less than four
pound is hard work, but when just the odd run comes it usually means big fish.
Shame nether were converted but that’s eel fishing.
Guiding has also taken a back
seat, mainly because I haven’t been very proactive but this will all change
soon as I have a number of days already booked for barbel fishing on the river
Wye and 
Features are taking up much of my
time as I seem to plan a day’s fishing and then a day writing them up which has
to change. So instead of spending two days to complete each, I’m going to do my
best to get up early, fish for six hours then return home and write it up,
perhaps with maybe just a quick proof read over a cup of coffee the following morning.
I’m also going to be on the lookout for anglers catching on different methods
that want to star in features, so if you have
a few tricks up your sleeve, or maybe a fishery or tackle shop that
knows someone that’s taking a venue apart then get in touch and email me at duncancharman@me.com I’m also going to
be trying to get out every week and fish a new venue that is featured within my
‘Where to Fish’ column so if you feel you have a venue, club or day ticket that
is worthy of a visit and a review then once again I want to hear from you.
Lastly it seems that some clubs
have reacted to my call for complimentary permits so I can promote their
waters. Twyford and District Angling Society and CALPAC have been the most
recent and you will soon be seeing them mentioned on a far more regular basis
within my Anglers Mail write up’s. In fact only last week I was out on one of
Twyford’s water teaming up with my old pal Sam Meeuwissen doing a three page
Catch More feature with him, not bad publicity for the club! Twyford have also
had a Tactical Briefing done on St Patrick’s Stream plus at least four mentions
on their venues or showing their club details and all for, yes the price of a
complimentary permit and yes, I will continue to promote their waters as best
as I can throughout the coming year along with all the other clubs that
understand what scratching each other’s back mean.
The memories of that monstrous
carp from Lac Serreire seem a million miles away but I will be returning as we
have just managed to book the last couple of weeks remaining in 2019 and 2020, it’s
that popular!
The images of my brother here and the carp at the top are fish caught in May during features but held back until they were published. This is something that I will do each month as unless you buy the Anglers Mail you will never get to see some of the fantastic fish caught each month.
Day to Day events.
02/05/17 – 05/05/17 –
Basically a no-fishing week to enable myself to get back into the grove,
relax and look forward to my next target, a big eel. I did manage to get an
article done for the Nash website on our French trip, take a look at www.nashtackle.co.uk under the Knowhow
tab for the article. I also had my weekly Anglers Mail ‘Where to Fish’ column
to do so certainly not an unproductive week.
06/05/17 – Spent
the day doing a shop day for Nash at Tackle Up in fleet.
08/05/17 – One of
those days in which lots of odds and sods get sorted, one being to get the
tackle sorted for an eel session later in the week, a customer guiding session
for cats, get the tackle shed in some sort of organised state and make calls to
organise features etc.
10/05/17 – Spent
most of the day working for Anglers Mail and Twyford and District Fishing Club
producing future Tactical Briefings before spending a couple of hours into
darkness for eels at a southern lake. Just one eel of 2lb to report from six
runs in which one was lost and four were missed!
11/05/17 – Spent
the morning drawing up venue maps for AM before sorting the catfish tackle out
and starting my weekly ‘where to fish’ column.
12/05/17 – Spent
the day at a really well run day ticket venue, New Farm Fishery. The weather
forecast was for it to be overcast with showers and humid, great, however it
was far from this and come late morning after a brief shower it was mankini
weather. Sadly the cats weren’t playing ball, (which is often the case with
this species as its all or nothing) and apart from a couple of aborted pick-ups
on big lumps of meat we returned home empty handed, well not quite, as I bumped
in John Llewellyn who runs Big Carp/Cat Baits who kindly left me with a
selection of his samples which will be put to good use in the coming weeks.
Check out www.bigcarp.com. Graham the bailiff
at New Farm Fishery is a really great guy who runs a very friendly fishery and
will bend over backwards to make you visit one to remember, even if the fish
aren’t feeding, so if you are looking for somewhere new to visit then give this
one a go. It’s not an easy venue and the cats/carp don’t give themselves up
easily but there are some very special and big fish here with cats to over
80lb, including mandarin cats to over 40lb, carp to and some very big grass
carp. Parking is very close to the lakes and the swims are in most cases nice
and level so great for the less agile who’s looking for a whopper or two!
Thiers also a well stocked tackle shop and the fishery even offers home cooked
food delivered to your peg, now what more could you ask for? Check out www.newfarmfisheries.co.uk for
more information.
15/05/17 – Up
early again and on the road come 6am, this time heading to Weir Wood Reservoir
in East Sussex to team up with Rikki Cooper from Predator Pro to create a
feature for Anglers Mail demonstrating a devastating perch tactic. Even though
it rained all the time, I hardly noticed as it was a fascinating day out, in
great company and an office backdrop to die for. Did he catch perch, of cause he
did along with one very special fish. Keep an eye out for this feature coming
soon to the mail and if you fancy a great day out with a very knowledgeable
angler then its worth checking out www.predatorpro.co.uk
16/05/17 – Met my
dad at Badshot Lea Big Pond at 7am and headed to pegs 47 and 48 due to a nice
southerly wind. Straight away it was obvious that there were plenty of carp
around, probably due to a band of weed a couple of rod lengths out. Fishing helicopter
rigs at around 70 yards it didn’t take long for a bite which saw a 15lb mirror
landed followed by two more. The bream then moved in and at least a dozen came,
the best probably pushing 7lb along with another carp and a 4lb tench. 100lb
mixed catch in around five hours, all taken on maggot and a size 16 hook! Dad
struggled next door, mainly due to losing fish in the weed but managed a few
bream and the girlfriends Dad, Mick fishing opposite caught a personal best
tench weighing 7lb 9oz!
17/05/17 – The
rain has arrived so spent a full day writing the article on the Dropshot Hybrid
rig for Anglers Mail.
18/05/17 – 19/05/17
– It’s still raining, so after spending a few hours sorting the catfish tackle
headed back to Badshot Lea with mate Chris and customer John. Although
conditions looked great being overcast and damp other things needed to be taken
into account as with very few fish moving it was obvious it wasn’t going to be
easy. The temperature had dropped to a high of just 11 degrees, the wind had
also dropped and the A/P was on 1015mb. Another factor was that if the cats
were going to go on a feeding frenzy then they would have probably done this
the two days before when the temperature was higher, as was the wind and the
A/P much lower. Chris had the first run at 10.30pm which saw a 26lb 6oz cat
banked but apart from one screamer that I missed at midnight the session passed
without any further events. Speaking to a few anglers and hearing no other runs
during the night it seemed very little came out elsewhere.
20/05/17 – Spent
the day writing up my weekly Anglers Mail ‘Where to Fish’ column. Still not
repeated any venues but it’s going to happen soon as now running out of venues,
well apart from in Essex that I’m now beginning to think has more water than
land!
23/05/17 –
Arrived at BLBP to try and get a picture to show how well it’s fishing. Set up
in peg 47, slight wind from the S/W, temp up to 20 degrees and slowly clouding
over and with loads of carp spawning. First cast lost a carp from a hookpull in
the weeds, followed by two more before catching eight bream in just two hours.
Photograph taken headed to GAS Harris Lake to see how Dad and Mick were getting
on. They had had the odd tench but things had gone quite so tweaked there
set-up and dad straight away started to catch crucians, all around 2lb. Unfortunately
my help didn’t get Mick’s alarms sounding
which was strange as he had fish moving in front of him. Back at home it was
time to get the eel rods sorted and head down to Chris for a few hours fishing.
Unfortunately the three hour into darkness session produced another small eel
so knowing that singling a big one out is going to be difficult and that we
probably have just as much chance on a couple of venues on our doorstep have
decided to kick this water in to touch.
24/05/17 – After
a lay in got on with getting my weekly ‘Where to Fish’ column sorted. One thing
that I’m really feeling good about is that loads of anglers, fisheries and just
general friends have commented on just how refreshing it is to read my column.
New fisheries and no repeats, oh, sorry as its come to a time when I am going
to have to start repeating a few fisheries, but only those that I am getting
feedback from that are fishing their socks off. Even Bill commented on how good
the column looked which is humbling as he certainly knows his waters and just
today I phoned John Riason to see how Gold Valley was fishing and he too
commented on my work as have a number of my angling customers who are always
looking to try out a new venue. I have to admit its not easy and very time
consuming but when I know its appreciated then it drives me on.
One thing I will mention is the club tickets that have been
sent to me as I think other angling clubs need to know why some are mentioned
more than others, or maybe why they are not mentioned at all. It’s not because
I don’t want to mention you but if you don’t come forward and reveal yourselves
then how can I promote your angling club and try and get a few more members
signed up. The clubs that send me tickets are – Farnham Angling Society, Godalming
Angling Society, Hartley Wintney Angling Society, Grayshott Angling Club, Bath
Road Piscatorial Society, Twyford & District Fishing Club and most recently
CALPAC. Having a complimentary permit allows me to access these fisheries, know
what’s going on and then promote them as best I can. Let’s be straight to the
point here, let’s look at a couple of local club to me, Farnborough and
District Angling Club and Oakhanger Angling Club, clubs that have made it
obvious that they don’t need any help. Have I any intensions of joining your
club at the moment, no! Why, because I just don’t have the time to fish your
waters, not because they aren’t good, because I just don’t have the time! So
knowing that your membership has been falling year after year (F&DAS) why
not send me a complimentary permit so I can promote your club and at least keep
you in the local angler’s eye, even better getting a few new members sent your
way? It’s not lost revenue its free promotion! Enough said.
Oh maybe not as I’m amazed why
clubs such as Reading, Thatcham and Newbury haven’t approached me knowing that
they are struggling to keep membership at a constant level. I have been
struggling for the last couple of years with venues in Berkshire to promote in Anglers
Mail so now’s the time to act if you want a bit more exposure.
25/05/17 – 26/05/17
- Come 2pm and on a baking hot day I
found myself on the way to Furnace Fisheries to team up with Dave Mutton to
create a Catch More feature on catching catfish up in the water. To be honest
all my cat fishing is carried out with bottom baits so it was an eye opener for
me to see just how effective this type of fishing is. If you too want to know
how to approach cats in a different way then keep buying your weekly copy of
the magazine and you will find out.
26/05/17 – After
a sleepless night due to Dave’s snoring I was amazed to still have enough
energy to write up the article.
29/05/17 – Bank
Holiday for most but not for me as spent the day writing an Anglers Mail ‘Where
to Fish ‘column for June 13th.
30/05/17 – On the
banks of GAS Richardson Lake come 7am and by midday had around 40lb of tench. I
was creating a two page ‘Where to Fish’ opener for the Anglers Mail which you
will be able to read in a few weeks time, well that’s if you buy the magazine?
Again another example of me promoting a club that looks after me!
31/05/17 – Spent
the day writing the words for yesterdays feature plus finishing my weekly
‘Where to fish’ column plus uploading a couple of other features.
