Tough Conditions & Proud Perch

This winter just seems to be Storm after Storm so far doesn't it? With so much rainfall I have to admit, for myself at the least, the fishing has been pathetically bad. But others have been catching so let's not focus on the negatives.
My Half-Brother Olly was raised by a true Sea Fisherman of a father, so therefore his experience is of Bass, Wrasse and Pollock. His Coarse Fishing exploits have been very limited so it was absolutely typical that his first ever Perch (and first fish of the Challenge) was a lovely fish well over a pound!

I blanked of course on our short lure trip down to my favourite Perch spot. He demanded to be included into the Challenge after that and how could I refuse? I think there will be many species caught by him this year. 

Phil also caught his first fish of the year, a little reservoir Jack Pike. 

Not the giant he was after but always incredibly welcome when the going is tough. 

So at the end of January it's fine margins with three leaders on one species each. Leaving only myself and Will on Nil Fish. 

It's worth saying at this point that I am currently going through the longest succession of blanks in my recent memory. Something that has both infuriated and humbled me in equal measure. I think we all can take fishing for granted sometimes and it's only in the tough spots we appreciate the sheer joy of landing a fish. It's something I won't forget quickly that's for sure!

Finally to the weather. We all on the Challenge have a soft spot for lure fishing and can be very stubborn with it. With the weather being like it has been there have been times when a different method would have likely succeeded. It's all a learning curve and hopefully this relentless wind and rain will ease off a bit in the coming weeks. I'm not holding my breath though, it's an El Nino year after all. 

Happy fishing and thanks for reading.

First Fish Of The Challenge

Congratulations to Robbie who has taken the lead in the Challenge with a fantastic Eel weighing in a 4lb 10oz caught on home ground at Bake Lakes in Cornwall. Rumours of large eels that take lures inspired him to give it a go and a slow jigged rubber shad did the trick just bouncing off the bottom. In Bake Lakes it seems the Eels have taken up the predator niche and are making good use of the plentiful small fish in the lakes. It's amazing the surprises commercial fisheries can throw up sometimes.
Robbie 1 - rest of the team - nil

January Blues

Lets just say that so far January hasn't been great.

With the deaths of David Bowie & Alan Rickman, coupled with bizarre ever changing weather & the financial pinch you feel after Christmas, it has been a poor start to 2016 for me & that's without getting to the Fishing Challenge I have set myself & my friends!
I have only had a chance to have two full days fishing as I write this on the 20th January, both of those being either disappointing or straight up awful! I think its important I detail everything good and not so good on this fishing blog/diary though, half the addiction of fishing is fighting through those awful days when you should have stayed in bed, on the half chance the fish you have been dreaming of makes it appearance. So without further adieu...

My plan was to fish on the 7th January with my girlfriend Ellie (Im blessed with a girlfriend who mostly understands and endures my love for fishing), there is a small lake near Plymouth that holds Pike (my first target species) to around 10lb & I intended to use my new Shakespeare LRF Agility Rod & Reel I received at Christmas to catch some Jacks on light lures, I imagined it would be fantastic sport & a fish to tick off the Challenge. The weather had other ideas though. Due to torrential rain the normally crystal clear lake had been transformed into a muddy soup. Lure fishing would be a serious challenge but not impossible - forever the optimist! But then just after we had set up, icy rain poured down on us coupled with strong freezing winds. After the downpour had passed the wind swept my Fox Mini Fry lure into the nearest tree on my first cast! I turned around to look at a truly frozen Ellie & realised this had quickly turned from a nice day out into something more likely to make us ill than provide fish. We packed up & left as the heavens opened again.
My good friend Robbie Spencer is part of the Fishing Challenge & is one of the people who runs Bake Lakes near Liskeard in Cornwall. He had told me he was draining one of his stock ponds to transfer fish into the new Specimen Lake & I had had to have a look at some of the fish that are going into this fantastic new venture. Luckily Ellie agreed to go with me on the promise of keeping the heating on full blast in the car, something I was all too happy to provide! Thawed out, we got down there to see numerous double figure fish going into their new home, it was truly fascinating to see them weighed, photographed & swim away into the depths. I cant wait to fish it when it opens.

Here's Robbie with a beautiful fully scaled mirror that weighed in at 17lb & surely is gonna be a giant in years to come.

So it hadn't been a productive day fishing but I remained optimistic due to me & fellow Challengers Will Glassup & Phil Bassett (my Dad) going Pike fishing on Exeter Canal the following Sunday.
It turned out to be another interesting but frustrating day.
Our intentions were to fish Turf Locks first & work our way up to Lime Kilms with various Lures and see if any of us could get attached to one of Exeter's famous 20lb plus Fish (smaller fish also very welcome). We ran into trouble firstly due to the only road to the car park being completely flooded & impassable for Will's Vauxhall Astra. We decided to turn around and park near the Kilms entrance road. Walking down this road we found it again to be flooded but shallow enough to walk through with wellies - only Dad had been smart enough to wear wellingtons! Me and Will resigned to taking off our boots and socks and wading through the freezing floodwater barefoot.. Christ it was cold! Chilled to the bone we dried off and continued to the Canal. Upon reaching it it took me by surprise the sheer amount of Pike fishermen there, either fishing with static deadbaits or lure fishing like ourselves. We're quite used to being the odd ones Pike Fishing so this was surprise but also a challenge. How to fish better than everybody else? The word on the Canal was also that it was fishing poorly, a few Jacks were being caught but nothing substantial. me and my Dad tried many different lures and styles but it was in vain, I didnt see a single fish that day except for a jack pike being eaten by a greedy Cormorant! Will on the other hand had a more entertaining day, he managed to catch two rowing Skiffs, one being an 8 man which I believe is a specimen! He also lost a decent fish and had a truly colossal fish follow and miss his lure near the bank. Will is not one to over exaggerate and his description was of something in the Mid-Twenties, I was gutted for him as that would have been a fantastic start to 2016. Defeated we made the journey back down the A38.

The second full day fishing was the day it really went wrong for me.

My Autumn 11lb Lady I caught on my last visit to Tiverton Canal - I was hoping for similar results...

So to 'Tivvy' Canal, a water me and Robbie had serious confidence in as we set off in the early hours of Thursday Morning. The morning was warmer than expected & we felt optimistic. Speaking to the guy in Cullompton Tackle Shop it seemed we were making a mistake in not trying Exeter Canal again, it was fishing well apparently, not what I heard the Sunday before, typical! Still we went onto the spot that had given us success before and immediately saw signs of fish. The canal is very shallow and weedy even in winter, the Pike can be quite obvious at times if you know the signs - Swirls & scattering fish really give the predators away. we certainly saw swirls & a tiny Jack hit my Eel imitation lure very quickly. Unfortunately nothing else was interested, as we moved along spots we hadnt fished before we saw a couple of Pike to around 5lb but they were extremely spooky and not interested in our lures. On a positive note I will say we saw some fantastic examples of other species, Specimen Roach, 4lb plus Tench & a huge shoal of fry show how fantastically rich the Canal is. To come back with light float tackle in the summer would provide fantastic fishing I'm sure. The weather was not so fantastic though, we had everything from bright sunshine to sleet and biting winds. It was certainly off-putting & we fished many miles of the canal to no avail. We moved spots and drove a few miles down the road, I parked up & got the tackle out when disaster struck. I locked my keys in my car! I called every Auto-Locksmith in the area & the only company available involved parting with £150 & waiting 3 hours! Freezing cold we debated it and decided that smashing the rear side window was the cheapest efficient option - brilliant! So with a black bag for a window and dented pride we drove home defeated again. An expensive & frustrating day.

Lucky I am an optimist always and next up for me is a birthday present from Ellie, two days of fishing at Angler's Paradise in North Devon, one day on Valhalla - Their Pike Lake & a second on the various lakes they have that should really give me a chance to catch some different species...

Thank you for reading, I hope your January has been more successful than mine!