Fishing Diary: February 2020

Take no notice

If any younger anglers are here this time around or even those on a tight budget you may be interested in this little story. I'm only writing this because there's been some ridicule by people that should know better on social media aimed at the tackle some anglers use. I won't lie, it's mainly from lure fishermen. That said any single discipline and single species anglers tend to be the biggest tackle snobs.

I was fishing from my boat on the river Glen a couple of years ago. I had a Shakespeare LRF rod with me, perfectly usable, I think it cost me twenty-five quid. Anyway the fishing was rubbish so I decided to stop by the river Witham on the way home.

The crater swim is one I know quite well. A deep hole that I'd previously observed perch skirting around before descending into the depths, ready to strike at any passing prey. Strangely they seem to follow the same route every time. Most of the time they aren't present at all. On this particularly occasion I got lucky. I had six perch over three pounds including one of 3lb 15oz. I caught them all on my little Shakespeare rod and a Heath Robinson type float arrangement. I couldn't fish more than seven feet deep and casting into position was almost comical. If anyone had been watching they'd have sworn Woolworths was still open and I had been in for some fishing gear. The key was placing my bait where I knew the perch would pass. The hardware was largely irrelevant. In fact I never bettered that session in all the time I used a three hundred quid Shimano Poison Adrena.

Whatever tackle you use don't ever let anyone demean you for it. It says far more about them that it does of you.

Among Friends

Right, where are we? We're nearly ninety blog posts in so if you're a newbie I'm based in deepest Lincolnshire. Anything you read originates from me. The people you see and hear about have no editorial input. We frequently disagree. Their emotions towards me range from giving me a warm loving embrace to wanting to smash my face in. We're all kindred spirits here though, bonded by our frankly ridiculous obsession with fishing.

With Christmas over our friend Nate Green came all the way up from Kent to spend a couple of days with me and we had some serious fishing to do. The first morning I took him to the middle reaches of the river Bain to try and catch a big dace. A big ask as they are few and far between (I told him he'd get one first cast). As the saying goes you can lead a horse to water.......

Nate must have caught nearly every chub in the stretch that morning along with a couple of roach on trotted breadflake. Every time he hooked one Martin and I would try and convince him it was a massive dace. A tough sell when he was being dragged all over the river by a kamikaze chub.

In the afternoon we went downstream with the intention of catching a chub by design and hopefully one over five pounds. Sure enough it proved to be stupendously hard. Not until the light faded did Nate connect with anything. The first one, although a nice example wasn't quite what we hoped for.......

"You've got one last cast", I said to Nate as he crept down into another spot, one we'd tried previously to no avail. Martin had lost a decent feeling fish there though earlier in the day. I'd secretly fiddled with Nate's reel drag as he cast his cheese paste as near as he dared to an overhanging tree. Remarkably he hooked one straight away. After a brief tussle it was in the net. The light made it difficult to ascertain its size straight away. "Did you lock my drag up, I thought it was going to snap me?" Nate complained. "Just weigh it and stop crying," I replied. At a couple of ounces over five pounds it was very much mission accomplished.

The next day we were after perch. he'd come to the right place. I'm by far the best perch angler in my street, maybe even village. I'm not sure any of them actually fish seriously for Perch but even so I'm still probably the best, for sure.

We started very early and by first light we were afloat on a venue that has been kind to me in the past. Anything over three pounds was the goal. Fish were striking everywhere, the amount of predator activity was crazy. Fishing lures at first we caught absolutely loads of perch. Sadly no really big ones. We swapped over to worms and I did manage a fine example of 3lb 9oz. Just the luck of the draw. We both caught around forty or fifty perch each. A fine day that was difficult to be disappointed by.....

Inspired

After spending the afternoon chubbing with Nate I had the bit between my teeth and was keen to have a go myself. There's probably only a couple of sections of the Bain I haven't had five pounders from. The first one I tried gave me some great action with several spritely fish up to four pounds. I wasn't really confident the spots I was fishing would give me anything much bigger though so I went upstream a couple of fields.

I dropped into a likely looking area, one I'd never fished before and almost before I put my rod on the rest I was into a fish. At 4lb 6oz it was a lovely example and was landed with little fuss so I thought I might have another chance in the same spot. Turns out I did, two in fact.....

5lb 5oz

5lb 13oz

If all that sounds rather easy it was. However I needed another five pounder for a little competition I'm taking part in. Despite several efforts I couldn't muster one. There's one particular spot I've had probably ten or so indications in. They're Chub for sure but so exceptionally cautious for most of the time it's bordering on ridiculous. Before anyone emails me to tell me to fish bolt rigs, don't bother. I'd rather dangle my testicles in a bear trap.

Determination pays off

Staying on the supposedly Otter ravaged Bain our old friend Dave Owen and I arranged to meet up. Dave was still keen on catching a two pound river roach. I hedged my bets and decided to target everything. Worm on one rod, bread on the other. Sadly Dave struggled while I inadvertently had something of a bonanza. The spot I fished doesn't usually hold many roach but I had six over a pound and loads of smaller ones. Added to this I also had a small Bream and two big hybrids, an immaculate three pound chub and tens of perch to nearly three pounds.

Biggest went 1lb 6oz

2lb 13oz

He's not easily deturbed our Dave and despite the distance from home he was back the next week and had a beauty in the first half an hour.....

1lb 13oz

I spent most of the day after perch. These two were the pick....

To round things off on the Bain Dave fancied one more crack at the river so we arranged to meet up again the next week. I left him to it on the roach stretch while I wandered around upstream trying for chub. Typically I struggled to find any big ones although the sheer number of sub-four pound fish in the Bain right now is very impressive. Around mid morning I rang Dave. "How you getting on," I asked. "Er, just had a chub on my roach gear," replied Dave. How big you all ask? This big.......

6lb 4oz

An incredible fish for the river, it dulled the disappointment again on the roach front. They just weren't playing ball. Wanting to miss the traffic Dave departed while I headed to another section of the river in search of my third five of the month. A really tricky stretch that I more often than not blank on chub wise. As darkness descended I fished for an hour or so with nothing but a few indications for my efforts. The fifth spot I tried though produced a savage bite straight away. It nearly came clean out of the water initially, something the smaller ones tend to do. I bullied it all the way in thinking it was another modest example. I'm cringing now because it wasn't. Anything but.....

6lb 6oz

Big thanks to Paul for taking the photo. My second biggest chub ever. I immediately packed up and drove home grinning like an idiot.

Perch

Despite my best efforts I struggled to catch a three pound plus perch during January. I took Leo Heathcote out on the Witham where we had lots of fish, including some great looking Pike....

The perch were plentiful but no big ones

A day afloat on the Welland followed with Martin Barnatt. Much the same results, plenty of fish but no big ones.

I came close to my target on an old haunt of mine from the bank. It was a brilliant little session and I had eight fish in total, all over two pounds with this the pick of the bunch....

2lb 15oz, so close

It took a bit of ingenuity and a different venue to finally crack it. The wind was howling downstream that day. In a spot I can usually pin a worm down with two swan shot, took six to tighten up to so I could see any bites clearly. It worked and I quickly had a couple of nice fish. The third one was the best though....

3lb 7oz

To round off the month I had a long overdue boat fishing session on a local river with Benidorm Dave. We had plenty of pike with a few perch among them. Again nothing huge but still very enjoyable.

Angling Times

Sometimes catches by my friends are so exceptional I can't tell you about them straight away. So to see some remarkable captures by our friends Dave Owen and James Hunt check out the forthcoming editions of the Angling Times.

Tackle Talk

Anyone familiar with comedians Lee Mack's early material will realise I've stolen the premise of this little tale (he was talking about cockneys).....

Wandering around the local car boot sale looking for fishing tackle that nobody else in their right mind would buy early one morning I became aware of another tackle hunter. Every tackle vendor he saw he spoke to enthusiastically about stuff like munga, wraps and woodcarvings. He was sooo Carpy he was almost consumed by it. Head to toe in Navitas gear. Fine apparel I'm sure. Mack goes through this routine whereby the cockney man he encounters is almost crippled with cockneyness. So cockney it hurts. This particular gentleman was so Carpy his entire aura shouted Carp, at the top of its voice. Crippled with Carpiness. I had a little chuckle to myself, ironic really as I dress like a twat when fishing. I'm reasonably normal when not though.

Anyway, two things. The following week I was made to feel a little guilty for my previous judgement. The same fella, dressed the same as before was walking around again, this time with a little boy in tow. Also Carped up from head to toe. Incredibly cute. I wandered off, shamed by my prior thoughts.

The second is that Mrs Phil bought me some Navitas Lite boots for Christmas.....

Made from EVA these boots are incredibly light. More importantly though the material doesn't get as cold as normal wellies. Rubber boots feel cold to the touch when the outside temperature is low. Honestly, I really can't fault them. The liner isn't particularly luxurious but with a nice fluffy pair of socks I've yet to experience cold feet. They've kept my feet dry too. A no-nonsense product at a reasonable price. I've come unstuck in the past recommending items that don't stand the test of time. Bear this in mind, we'll revisit them in the future to make sure. Aim to pay around £35.

Photo's