As the blog was down for a few years I thought I'd do a little catchup review on some memorable sessions and fish caught in the time the blog was off....
There's obviously a huge amount of fishing been done in this time and far too many fish caught to discuss them all even in brief but I'll try my best to put together a nice piece about some of my favourite captures in that time frame and add some pictures and diagrams etc to best explain the action.
Mostly good mates though and none better than a truly lovely guy I met back in 2019 named Andy Loble.
Andy is a master of his crafts and like myself enjoys fishing for just about everything that swims.
His favourite species are numerous but when we met in '19 up in North West Wales he introduced me to Top fishing from his inflatable dinghy.
Well, in all honesty I was shitting my pants over the prospect of sitting in a 3.8M dinghy over 60 feet of rough sea!
Andy and I have been on numerous trips since in a couple of his ever changing boats and last year saw us venture back up to North Wales where we caught some wonderful Black Bream and I had 2 fantastic Top to just under 40lbs!
Just a few weeks later Andy came down to stay with me over night and I introduced him to the shore fishing for Smoothound in the Bristol Channel.
We had a short window of opportunity around tides and weather and despite neither being particularly great, we had an incredible session bagging 11 hounds.
I have done a few evenings on the same mark this year with other friends and also with my wife and daughter who have both caught double figure smoothies!
I look forward to many more sessions with Andy in the near future including a very long overdue Skate trip to Scotland! Watch this space!
This one particular evening it was rather busy with holiday makers and much to everyone's delight, I captured a rather chunky 21lb 8oz conger off the beach on my 15ft Tronixpro competition set up!
What a battle that was and gained me a round of applause from a very expectant crowd that gathered behind and even got in on a few of the pictures!
During that winter, good friend Chris Price and I ventured to the beautiful Llangorse Lake in Brecon for some Pike fishing. Llangorse is one of the largest natural lakes in Wales and certainly one of the prettiest!
We had about 5 or 6 trips up there over the course of the winter and bagged some wonderful fish up to 25lb 8oz which I caught back in November last year.
We have both had many fish over 20 pounds, in fact I think we have lost count of exactly how many to date!
Over the time I have also purchased a small 8 foot dinghy and a couple of 13 foot kayaks from which to fish from.
These have all been invaluable in gaining opportunities to fish otherwise inaccessible areas both inland and inshore at sea too.
I have caught smoothound, bream and many flat fish and rays on the kayaks and also used them and the dinghy to chase roach, mullet, bass and perch up the harbour in Christchurch.
One particular trip I had tons of perch, small pike, a bonus Bass and even a salmon all on light drop shotting and jigging gear about 2 miles up the River Stour!
In 2021 I had my first proper go at targeting the catfish in one of my club waters down south. After 3 blank trips I changed my tactical approach and even got some specific rods and reels for the job.
My first cat came on June the 14th and I bagged a 44lb fish which was my third biggest cat to date.
Many of these were stalked with freelining tactics.
My good mate Simon Potter joined me for a brief stint and he too managed some great fish including a new PB of 6lb 5ozs!
Brett Tizzard, a very old friend also joined in on the action catching his first decent chub of 5lb 9oz and his first ever river bream too.
The river Stour fished it's socks off that year and I also banked my first 7lb plus chub! In fact 3 one after another on 3 consecutive sessions. 7'3, 7'1 and a 7'2 just after.
Couldn't believe my luck as I'd been trying for thirty plus years to catch one that big! Amazing how sometimes it all just comes together all at once!
The catfishing then continued in earnest throughout the season and I managed about a dozen cats up to a magical 74lbs!
A fish that literally blew my mind. I've never seen a coarse fish take so much line from a reel at such a pace!
Incredible....I followed that fish up with numerous other 50 and 60lb cats and was lucky to again share the captures with great mates along the way too.
In amongst the carnage of the last few seasons has been many trips up the River Wye. Most have been very eventful including many double figure barbel, 5lb plus chub, great roach and perch and even a few guided days with old friends.
I hooked up with Mark Pearce last summer and 3 of his mates for a days guiding up at Hereford.
The lads had been struggling on another section and I agreed to take them to my favourite stretch.
Mark had yet to catch a Wye Barbel so it was up to me to put him on the money.
I think it was less than 3 minutes and he had his first barbel on weighing just over 8lbs...The day went well for him with quite a few more finding his net, all around the 8lb mark.
In May last year myself Chris Davies and Barry Jarvis went on a planned trip to Carp Hunters lake in France, near to Le Mans.
We had a great week with about 45 carp being captured which included PB's for both the lads.
Chris bagged a stunning fish of 37lb known as Orange Spot and Baz landed a 35lb fish known as Mel.
I had some chunky mirrors up to 29lb and caught the resident Sturgeon Nicola no less than three times in the week!
Chris and I ventured back to Nicks in mid July and it was ridiculously hot! Over 40C. The fishing was some of the hardest I've known to date and we had to stalk just about all the fish we caught. which came from shaded bushes and overhanging snags.
I think I had about 10 fish and Chris had a couple too. Most of the week was spent eating, drinking and just having a great laugh with Nick.
Our next French trip was to Bills Lake 2 in August and again it was extremely hot. The lake itself was nothing really to write home about.
A square hole in the ground with some tree around 3 margins and just 3 swims to fish. I ended up with the most fish at 19 to 37lbs and a new PB sturgeon that we all caught at 27lb 14oz.
I think Chris had 14. Barry had a sturgeon and a couple of carp too. The lake was itself a little uninspiring and to be honest I felt lacked any decent amenities.
All the fish fell to prawns presented on either straight lead tactics or on the float.
So there you have it! A very short rendition of the past few seasons packed into a few paragraphs. I hope it was readable and enjoyable? I'm heading off to the Perch spot again with Simon tomorrow morning so hopefully I'll have something to write about after that!
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