Winter/Spring 2020

Lockdown

Well, I'm four weeks deep in to lockdown. The car, house and garden are pretty much immaculate. The dogs are now begging not to go out instead of the other way around. My bike has been stripped and in places, butchered in a drastic attempt to make it lighter and more pleasurable to ride. Note- this doesn't work, it's still torture. 

I've had a few messages asking how I'm coping with not being able to go fishing. The honest answer is- it hasn't bothered me one iota. There are two reasons for this. The first is I can remember the close season proper. I went to Thornton reservoir very occasionally to fly fish when I could afford to go but other than that I didn't fish at all, you couldn't. The second is that I'm not a key worker, the only practical thing I can do to help the situation is to stay at home. We dropped notes through our elderly neighbours doors offering to help and the like but other than that the directive is clear- stay at home.

We all cope differently, I've had my moments over the last few weeks. Staying at home is, by its very nature restrictive, both physically and mentally. Stamping your feet wont help. Public protestations about not being able to go fishing while thousands of people are dying is not just embarrassing, it's shameful. Try not to be that person. 

End of season

Just prior to lockdown I had the last three weeks of the season off from work. The final week in February was pretty horrendous weather wise but luckily the little river Bain was fishable in a couple of short windows. The only fish I had of note was this Chub...

5lb 3oz

While we're on the subject of the river Bain, our friend Dave Owen made a couple of visits with all his local rivers being out of sorts. He did remarkably well, some (me) would say aided by an extreme amount of flukery. First of all he needed a five pound plus Chub for a little competition we are taking part in. With the roach and perch not playing ball that day I packed up and took him to the middle reaches which has a few scrapers. I put him in a swim where I thought he would have a great opportunity to catch but the average size was small with only a slim chance of breaking his target, just a warm up really. He only went and landed a fish of 5lb 13oz on his first cast....

Golden Balls

A few days later he further compounded my astonishment by taking another five from a swim on the lower reaches where I'd never bettered four and a quarter. I told him to buy a lottery ticket on his way home.

5lb 7oz

He worried a few roach too, although conditions were never quite right for them to feed in earnest. He had a few fish to around a pound and a half.....

As for my exploits on the river, I had approximately one million perch and a few roach. Nothing massive, mostly returned without a photo. Roach to just under a pound and a half and perch to just under three pounds. Enjoyable fishing but not quite what the river has been capable of in recent years.

On my travels

A three day trip to see one of my brothers had been set months before. I couldn't move the date so I travelled down to Surrey knowing the Thames would be unfishable due to the intense storms we'd been subjected to. I arranged to meet our friend Nate Green on the first day, firstly at complex we had heard may contain some big perch. Or should I say 'have contained in the past'. I arrived first to be told very honestly by the bailiff that the complex hadn't thrown up any big perch for a couple of years. I rang Nate and we hastily switched venues to a place called Willinghurst fishery.

As mistakes go this ranks right up there. It was terrible. No facilities, no charm, no signs, no friendliness or advice from the bloke that genuinely asked for £19 (while keeping a straight face) for a two rod day ticket to fish the shittiest little puddle on site that the website suggested contained some massive perch. We didn't catch a single perch between us all day, some feat for two anglers that supposedly know what they're doing. Nate was determined to catch something so he dribbled a few maggots at his feet in the end and caught this sorry looking carp. Good luck to anyone who fishes there, if it were my only choice I'd take up bowls. Dreadful place.

The day after I had to myself and I spent it wandering the Chertsey Bourne, a tiny tributary of the Thames. Blimey that was tough going too. I had a few tentative knocks on cheese and was kicking myself because some of it looked very good for holding barbel and I should have taken some meat. Eventually though I did fool a small chub, maybe three pounds or so. On my way back I did have an hour on the Thames itself, bouncing a bit of cheese around a couple of slackish areas to no avail. Never mind I thought to myself, I was going to be ticking a box on my bucket list the very next day.

Dever Springs

Nestled alongside to the river Dever in Hampshire lies probably the most famous Trout Fishery in the country- Dever Springs. Screaming Reels aired on Channel 4 in 1993. From memory they did a feature on some giant Trout, pretty sure it was Dever Springs. Besides that it's been in hundreds of publications over the years, famed for massive trout grown on site. Remarkably, considering the distances involved seven of us met up that morning such was the allure of catching some huge spotties. Myself, Mike Lyddon, Dave Owen, Andy Lewis, Martin Barnatt, David Frame and James Hunt all expectantly paid our eighty quid (including breakfast). The business model is simple- the majority of stock is in the four to six pound range with the chance of fish much, much bigger, hence the astronomical price. As a one-off I could just about swallow it. Seems an awful lot now I've written it down though. 

We had an hour or so of fishing time before breakfast was served so we all headed around the two lakes to try our luck. I'm a fairly proficient fly angler although with a background of mainly reservoirs and lure fishing. Guess what wasn't working that day? Yep, lures. Former England Junior fly angler James Hunt was quick off the mark and Martin Barnatt also had some early success, sight fishing through Polaroids. After playing a fish for a considerable amount of time (I very nearly lost interest holding the net)  Martin upped his Rainbow PB to a very respectable 8lb 10oz......

After breakfast the fishing continued in much the same manner. Terrifically hard for me, Dave and David while the others caught sporadically. James and Martin had their limits as did Andy Lewis who also had the biggest of the day, a magnificent fish of 14lb 4oz.....

Nobody blanked. By the end of the day I had one in the bag and lost a couple. The weather wasn't great after lunch which spoilt it a bit but we did pretty well all things considered. Two PB's and as a stand-alone trip it was a nice experience.

Lure Match

In early March we had to postpone Specimen hunting UK's annual lure match. It was due to be fished on the river Nene but we had to delay it a week due to river levels. The week after it still wasn't great so we switched to the river Glen. Because of the date change numbers weren't great but eight of us fished that day. The rules were fairly simple- overall length of fish caught with a 30cm qualifying length to avoid it being a wasp fest.

Phil Kenny was quick out of the blocks, catching a seventeen pound Pike in the first half an hour......

I soon caught him up though with a couple of smaller pike......

At lunchtime I was leading with four pike and a qualifying perch. Most were catching but mainly small perch. Just after lunch Jamie Potts latched in to a bigger one, just over the magical three pounds...

He also added a decent Pike in the afternoon.....

At the whislte I'd had over four metres with a total of three perch and five pike. Somehow Phil Kenny had just beaten me while Jamie rounded off the podium with a solid third. It was a great day though and brilliant lure venue. It was still carrying a bit of colour when we fished and was still very prolific.

SHUK Round Up

Last time around I mentioned two friends having a very special session. James Hunt and Dave Owen kept an eye on the weather forecast and noticed a forecasted pressure drop a couple of days away. Perfect for roach they thought.

Getting to their chosen venue early they set their stalls out by fishing helicopter rigs with maggots at medium range. The only feed they put in was through the feeders. Dave was first off the mark just after lunchtime, followed by James shortly after. A truly remarkable session. Told you he was lucky.....

James Hunt 3lb 5oz

Dave Owen 3lb 6oz

Other members captures

Bobby Brookes with a 2lb 12oz Trent Grayling

Martin with a 1lb 12oz Welland Roach

Martin with a 3lb 1oz Perch

Mike Lyddon had 2 PB's in a day from the Thames. This the first at 6lb 4oz

Alfie Naylor with a massive Trent barbel of 18lb 2ozs

Dai Gribble bringing everyone back down to earth with a 3lb 8oz roach

In the last few days of the season I travelled over to the Trent a couple of times. The intention was to try and catch some barbel but sadly it didn't go to plan. I'm keen to have another few goes next season though. All I had to show for my efforts were a few bream and this solitary chub....

Links

My email- shukphil@gmail.com

Our friend Ash Bradley is doing some very nice pencil commissions. He's very busy but look him up on Facebook and message him for any enquiries.

https://www.facebook.com/ash.bradley.3

Finally for all your jig head needs our friend James Aris can help you out

www.facebook.com/Custom-Jigheads-386801728461171/ 

Tackle Talk

Greys Prodigy Luggage

This a cautionary tale of why it's favourable to buy from a tackle shop than it is online. After a visit to the purveyor of second hand fishing tackle on Skegness indoor market I came across a rather splendid Greys Prodigy rod holdall. I was so impressed with it I not only bought it but also ordered a matching carryall, tackle box and tackle bag. The carryall was fine and the bag very nice too but the issue was the tackle box didn't fit in the bag. So, I ordered the On The Move bag, which did accommodate the tackle box but little else. Finally I ordered the Greys compact tackle box to solve the initial problem. Had I been in a tackle shop I would have known all this. Now I am left with a surplus box and bag that I have no use for. 

The Greys luggage really is very nice though. Highly recommended, just be careful when choosing items to ensure you get the right combination.

With the initial uncertainty of furloughed wages my outlook on tackle has actually changed somewhat. I approached the end of the season with plans of new rods and the like. The covid-19 pandemic has made me get off the gravy train and I no longer feel compelled by it. I've got more stuff than I could ever use, so I'll be making do this year. I feel as though I'm more likely to stick to a plan if I tell you about it. So, this year I'm not going to buy any more tackle online. My local shops are going to need all the income they can get when we finally get back to some sort of normality. So there you have it, in writing. I'd urge you to support your local retailers too.

Cars

With the lack of tackle to discuss let's look at fishing cars. My previous car to the one I have now was a Mondeo Titanuim X Estate 1.8tdci. Huge inside and quite plush. It was troublesome though. The majority of the toys broke at various intervals; headlights no longer tracked around corners; cd player refused to work; etc etc. The final straw was the cam chain snapping, despite Ford insisting they should last the lifetime of the car. They have both a chain and belt. Shame because despite its faults I really did like that car.

I've never thought much of Vauxhalls and kind of bought my current car on a whim. It was cheap and relatively local. It's an Astra SRi Estate 2.0 CDTi. Three years later I can report that it's been a brilliant car. Not as big as the Mondeo but I can still get everything I need in it, including my boat (obviously deflated) and kayak. Even though it had nearly 100k on the clock I've added 40k to that with no issues whatsoever. Nothing has broken and it is both faster (170ps) and more economical (nearly 50mpg) than the Mondeo. They can be prone to water pump problems so get that changed when buying one and you should be fine. There will be some horror stories out there but I can only speak as I find. It has been a great little fishing car.

Photo's

No collusion

Captain slow playing a Troot

The ever ebullient David Frame

These flies don't work

Lure Match

2nd place!

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

Winter 2020 part 1

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

Harriet makes her own fun

Meh, average

Only broke two rods this month

You're walking home

Cheese, cheese, cheese

Me, James Hunt, Martin, Dave and Nate.

Till next time