Winter/Spring /Summer 2025

Introduction

If you're here for the first time, welcome. Based in Lincolnshire on the east coast I'm Phil. This is blog entry 102 so if you want to know what my friends and I have been catching both locally and a bit further afield then feel free to have look back at previous posts. Mainly coarse fishing with a smattering of fly and sea activities. 

River Bain 

Our friend Dave Owen has been making the not inconsiderable journey over to Lincolnshire from his midlands home for a number of years in search of one of the river Bain's elusive big roach. At a loose end (the golf course was probably closed) he phoned me the night before saying he was coming over for another try. Sadly I was too busy at work to join him. 

Prospects for a few bites were reasonable as Nick had been catching a few in the weeks prior to Dave's visit. Sure enough while I was knee deep in concrete somewhere the phone went, it was Dave- "I've only gone and done it", he exclaimed. A roach of exactly 2lb caught on the float from the venue he'd tried so many times previously.........

I was very pleased for Dave, Nick was incandescent with rage*. Nick only lives around the corner and had been trying for nearly as long as Dave, more determinedly in the last couple of seasons. He visited many times after Dave's trip, thrashing the water to a foam. He probably caught most of the others in the stretch but this particular fish avoided him. Worse than that all the local still waters froze over and hungry cormorants descended onto the river. It was either eaten or in hiding. There'll be others, maybe, I reassured him.

*mildly perturbed

Winter 2025

I fished the river Witham many many times in the winter, mainly with Nick on his boat. We caught an inordinate amount of pike, nearly all below 15lb. We also caught a lot of perch. Again nothing massive. On one particular day Nick and another friend had over 50 pike between them. Unbelievable sport but honestly, it got a bit predictable. I did have a few nostagic visits to the Great Eau with much the same results. Lots of fish but nothing spectacular. 

I needed a break from the local stuff so travelled over to the middle Trent. again with Nick. After a reasonable walk to the river he put me in the right area for barbel and wandered off to float fish for chub. As I expected he'd sold me a dud, never had a touch. As the day passed I decided to have a wander and moved into another peg of my own choice. I proved to be both good and bad. I caught three barbel fairly quickly including two doubles but the bank was horrific and I spent most of the evening scrambling about in the mud.

10lb 4oz

11lb 6oz

A week or so later I returned to the Trent, this time on a bit I had a ticket for. I arrived to find a few other anglers fishing and tried to garner as much information as possible. Everyone was super friendly and there didn't really seem to be any favoured areas, a chance could come anywhere. I settled right in the middle of the length and fished trusty source boilies combined with mesh bags of finely crumbled offerings. It was cold and I was just fishing for a bite. 

The light had long faded and I still hadn't had any indications, not even a chub rattle. A family of Otters passed through and decided to have a party in the margin to my left. Noisy buggers I thought as I slowly packed away and they chattered away to each other. I always feel like I should justify my favourable stance on Otters whenever I mention them but lets face it, you're just here to look at the fish so there's not much point in going into it. 

With my furry friends still nearby and most of my gear in the car my rod hooped over and the baitrunner started to sing its happy song. After a typically spirited fight I netted my biggest barbel of my short campaign........

12lb 10oz

Next up was now annual trip to the middle Trent again with our friend Alfie Naylor. There has been a fair amount of furore with boat anglers on the non tidal river but rest assured we had all the correct permissions in place. 

We tried all our usual spots to no avail. The whole area seemed lifeless which was a bit disconcerting. We plugged away though and eventually found a few fish. Alfie was first off the mark with a few modest perch. The river bed was weed free and solid, ideal for trds. I'm always a little too impatient when fishing neds and sometimes too keen to impart some action. On the occasion I did actually leave it static for a while after casting, as soon as I moved it something grabbed it. It fought well and in the net it looked enormous. Regulars will understand I'm not unfamiliar with big perch but this was something else. I weighed it three times because i simply couldn't believe it wasn't heavier. It was only when I quickly measured it that it may have had the girth but was lacking in length to be really big. Impressive looking creature nonetheless.....

Could have told you anything but it was 3lb 3oz

Remember earlier when I said Nick and I had struggled to find any big pike on the Witham? We did apart from this one Nick caught towards the end of the season......

23lb 8oz

I was fortunate enough to land a spot on The Lincoln PACs talk schedule late in the season. In fact I volunteered myself when one of their speakers dropped out. That was entirely necessary because the lovely organiser Clive had never heard of me before. I was lucky enough to have a decent audience  though so thank you very much to everyone that attended. It really meant a lot to have the support and interest. Another of life's little achievements ticked off.....

Got a Tom Pedan drawing too, very cool. Check him out.

Close season

Some non anglers read this, I don't know why but am very grateful. Anyway this edition they get a double-whammy of boredom. The only thing more boring than fishing is hearing about someones ailments, in particular bad backs. I did mine properly, spinal board/back of an ambulance properly. Three discs decided to go on holiday. I couldn't sit down for a month. I still can't walk 100% six months on. 

After a month or so I went back to work on light duties and was keen to get back on the bank. Social media put a local venue I used to frequent back on my radar. Woodlands fishery in Spilsby had new owners and a bit of a revamp. Some new fish had been stocked, the biggest of which nudged nearly 30lb. Sounds crazy now but I couldn't fly fish and had no problem with strength, it was moving around I had trouble with. 

I could park either directly behind or a very short distance from some pegs I fancied so did a few sessions. After most of the new residents had been out on standard carp tactics they wised up a bit so it took a while for me to work it out. I used to fish matches there and always did well on method feeder tactics so elected to use them which proved fruitful.....

23lb 10oz

19lb 2oz

19lb 8oz

22lb

I had plenty of smaller ones along the way but I really wanted to catch 'The Duke' the lakes biggest resident. Always out between 27-29lb and a few ounces. One evening I had a screaming take and after a short battle I had my target fish in the folds of the sling. Sods law dictated it was at a post spawning low weight. Satisfying anyway.........

24lb 4oz

 

Linear trip

In July I went to Linear fisheries, one of the most lauded carp venues in the country. I imagine they were very pleased to have me wandering about in a sea of khaki and camouflage.....

We had a three day lake exclusive on Manor farm so a draw would be made for pegs. I have to be honest, I wasn't looking forward to it. A couple of years before I really struggled and maybe got the wrong impression of the place. If you want to wave some kryptonite at my already limited angling ability put me on a weedy gravel pit. I'd hinged all my hopes on a good draw. Luckily I came out second. I chose peg 16, a historically good swim and most importantly the shortest walk. 

I knew what to do, it isn't rocket surgery. Find a clear spot, wang out some munga and put some rigs on the dancefloor. Easy. Ahem. After approximately one million casts with the marker lead I threw my rod at my exceptionally kind neighbour Martin who found probably the biggest clear spot in the lake after 5 minutes of not really trying. 

I made hard going of it while everyone else started catching all around the lake. I did manage a couple of tench on the first afternoon though which was nice.....

5lb

6lb 4oz

It wasn't until the next day that I decided to ditch the traditional carp tactics and stick to what I knew best and more importantly had most confidence in- method feeders. It transformed my fortunes or was maybe just coincidence, we'll never know......

21lb 2oz

16lb 8oz

17lb

26lb 6oz

The rest of the gang had also been doing well and on the last night James had moved into Martins swim who'd had to leave early the day before. James had two fish on the final morning while my alarms remained silent. I begrudgingly started to pack away my gear. 

Soon enough an angler appeared behind my swim, ready to take over at 10am. I'd got everything put away save for my rods, pod and net. James then called over just as I was about to wind in. His peg was right next to mine and he needed help with a fish. That killed another 10 minutes and I still had enough time to wind in without imposing on the following angler. I lifted my rods off the pods and placed them upside down. With the pod and alarms stowed my left hand rod tore off. 

Talk about last chance saloon.

30lb 12oz and new PB

The best of the rest....

Matt Lindsay 34lb 2oz

Martin Barnatt 34lb 2oz

Nick Coulthurst 37lb 7oz

Nick Coulthurst 32lb 11oz

Dave Owen 40lb 4oz

Dave Owen 35lb 4oz

Dai Gribble 30lb 2oz

Nate Green 29lb

James Hunt 24lb

Many more fish were caught and only one person didn't catch all weekend. The only thing that could have made it better if our friend David Frame could have made it. Maybe next year David.....

Fenland Fisheries

After the Linear trip I didn't fish for 3 months. Life and work got in the way. I didn't miss much, the rivers were all out of sorts. Zero rainfall, crazy heatwaves and severe weed problems on most of Lincolnshires waterways. I did manage to secure a few swims on Fenland Fisheries Willow lake in late September though. I actually thought I had a lake exclusive but a lone angler had booked before me in the hope of his friends being able to join him. I didn't know much about the place before arriving but knew it held big cats and carp. YouTube didn't help, just endless hours of blokes talking to themselves in their bivvys. I'm not knocking it, different strokes for different folks and all that. 

Dai and I were first on the scene. The owners suggested a peg that had been producing. Now Dai is a touch older than me and a lot smaller so I'm sure we could have found a fairer way to decide who had that peg than guessing which hand he had a stone in. An arm wrestle? A proper wrestle? I've not been beaten at scrabble or backgammon for about 30 years, how about one of those? Anything but the stone in hand of a wily old operator. 

I lost.

As I wandered around looking for somewhere else to fish I couldn't work out why his peg would be more productive than others. The lake had a fairly uniform shape and depth. In hindsight I should have just gone in the next peg. I ended up in a sort of open corner not to far away. 

The first afternoon was uneventful as we both set about introducing a bit of bait. Early evening time Dai called across to say he was into a fish. I wound in and went over to help. It was obviously a cat because it was giving him the right old runaround, taking 30lb line at will. Eventually I expertly netted it for him and we set about the task of safely removing it for weighing and photos..... 

84lb 13oz

it was a brilliant start but strangely save for a few liners each that was the last of the action on the first night. The cats and carp were active, I could hear them. 

With the rest of the group arriving later that morning I decided to move. I wasn't feeling it where I was. I went to where I heard most activity the night before. As the others arrived we all set our stalls out. Mostly for cats with the chance of a carp or two in daylight. Leo, James, Nick and Oz all spread around the lake, someone should get one surely? It turned out to be Dai again who fluked a mid twenty carp. I'm not showing the picture, pub chucking a stringer doesn't count. 

Oh, go on then...

26lb 5oz

In my new spot I carefully measured out both rods and fed an area about 45 yards out. I was confident and eagerly told the others of the previous nights activity. As it went dark the lake was eerily quiet. I stayed up for as long as I was able but still nothing, no tail slaps, no crashing just silence.  Ultimately I fell asleep at around 1am.

At 5 in the morning I had a savage take, I exited my bivvy still in my sleeping bag and picked up the rod while still in it. I slowly worked my way out of it while quietly trying to wake James up in the next peg for some assistance. I worked, sort of, I ended up waking Nick up on the other side of the lake!

About 5 minites into the fight I looked down at my reel to see how much line I had gained on my unseen foe. None, probably lost some ground if anything. I kept the pressure on and eventually started to make an impression on it. It fought all the way the net. With it safely resting I went and kindly woke James up for some help.

62lb, that'll do.

Despite a chilly North Easterly wind the weather was rather good, especially behind Dai's peg and we enjoyed a couple of mid afternoon BBQ's......

On the last night I was super confident. I really hoped the others would get something too and with the amount of fish I'd heard on the first evening it didn't seem out of the question. Sure enough just after dark someone was calling for help. It was Dai again. After taking an unseemly amount of line on its first run whatever he was attached to decided to show him some mercy and begrudgingly came a bit closer to him bit by bit. With the fish safely netted Nick was on hand to help who also has a bad back. I was next closest so I was summoned too. It was worth it......

115lb 8oz

That proved to be the end of any action. A few blanks among us but we all vowed to return to even the scores. Well done Dai.

With the rest of the week off work I went to the Witham and Trent for a couple of short sessions. 

Witham 3lb 1oz

Tidal Trent 10lb 7oz

I've saved the best till last. When I was preparing for my PAC talk I tallied the amount of 3lb+ perch I had caught. It was 100 there or thereabouts, I may have missed 1 or 2. I have probably seen half that again when I've been fishing with other people, maybe more. The only 4lb perch I had seen was one caught by Carl Arcus some years ago at Pitsford. A couple of weeks ago I witnessed another, bang on 4lb and this time from the Witham....

Nick, 4lb

Till next time..........