Obviously stacey and I are still under house arrest along with the rest of the country. so no new fishing to report on yet. With this in mind I thought I would do a brief report on my fresh water fishing from last winter. Anybody who has fished with me and many who haven’t will know I am a fishing nut. I east sleep and breath fishing and am merely forced to work. If I could afford it I would fish every day and in every way and still couldn’t get enough. When I fist started charter fishing my fresh water fishing had to be sacrificed as I worked as hard as I could to keep the boat going. Its only been over the last few years that I have gradually allowed myself to get back into coarse fishing. That said I only get out when I’m not able to work so days are still limited. Therefore most of my coarse fishing ends up in the winter time. This suits me as waters are normally a bit quieter then and I will often mix and match pike fishing and feeder fishing. Despite fishing some very good waters and catching a lot of nice fish I had never caught a pike over the magical 20lbs mark. I have had plenty of mid to upper doubles and seen several 20’s on the bank but not on my line. Last winter I went fresh water fishing 13 times and 4 of those were for a short morning or afternoon session. That is the most I have fresh water fished in years and if you want the fish you must put the time in. I fished various waters from syndicate still waters to vast reservoirs and even the occasional river. If you happen to recognise any of the places in my pictures please keep it to your self.
The first trip I did was an afternoon in December. I didn’t start fishing until 13.30hrs and didn’t have great expectations. I ended up with 3 nice perch biggest around 2.8lbs and several pike to over 14lbs so it was a nice start.
The next three trips I did were over the Christmas period and some may have already seen my earlier report so bear with me but its worth a mention. I had 3 days in a row each with notable catches. The first day I managed to luck out a couple of nice carp on my feeder rod. The first over 14lbs and the second a shade under 29lbs. this was particularly fortunate as not only were they on my light feeder rod but with just a 3lb hook link and size 18 hook! The bigger fish was a new personal best carp for me so I was extra pleased.
The next day I was joined by my friend martin who had kindly offered his services as a camera man for the day as long as he could fish. He had things to do first thing but joined me by late morning. I had already seen a few small roach and bream but bites dried up and he didn’t have anything so we had a move around for the last couple of hours. This was worth while as martin had a couple of nice perch, one of around 2.8lbs being his new personnel best. We had a few other small pike and roach too but continued to move on back towards the cars. As the light faded I had another last cast and hooked into a much better fish. When I netted it I was sure it would make 20lbs however the scales had other ideas, she was a decent fish though and not far off at 19.6lbs.
I headed out the day after with dad firmly in tow. After hearing what I had caught the previous two days it was enough to get him fishing too. The day wasn’t busy although the fish were feeding still. We had a few small silver fish and the odd larger bream on the feeder rods. These were interspersed with occasional pike on our other rods (or missed bites and cursing in dads case). We both had pike snatch roach as we wound in and it was inevitable we would end up hooking one on a feeder rod sooner or later. Sure enough I did just that, at first I thought I had a decent bream until it woke up and lunged around the swim as only pike do. If a pike takes a hook that isn’t intended for it and therefore has mono rather than wire it is only luck that keeps it there. If your lucky the hook is in the scissors or the lip of the fish and away from those teeth. As luck would have it the fish was hooked just so and the rest was down to me to play it in once again on 3lb hook link and size 18 hook. As the fish was a decent one and after seeing it a couple of times my heart was in my mouth. I even asked dad to come and help me net it (he thought I was making a fuss about nothing). When playing pike I seem to underestimate there size on the first glimpse then they seem to grow as they get to the net. This one did just that and by the time she was in the net I could see she was a good double. We weighed her and she went 18.1lbs. not what I was fishing for but a welcome fish non the less and a lucky one too on that 3lb line!
The next couple of trips I had were an anti-climax of course but still catching fish when I could. The next notable fish I had was as storm Ciara came through. I had fished the day before on the boat as the wind was building. It was forecast to be dry until 10am then a band of heavy rain would hit with the worst of the wind. I thought I would have an early start and a couple of hours at a local lake. When I arrived I was surprised at how many lads had camped out all night through some awful weather. Several trees had come down around the lake and I thought I was keen being there let alone camping for the night. I couldn’t fish my intended swim but found one not far away that offered a little shelter from the wind. It was interesting casting my feeder out as where it landed depended on how strong the gust of wind was. I had small roach and rudd as fast as I could cast out but not much else. I had one cast with my pike rod which resulted in a tiny jack pike very quickly. By now it was getting on for 10 o’clock so didn’t bother casting again in case I had to run for cover. 10am came and went and the sky brightened up so I had one more cast with my pike rod. As before I was in almost straight away. This time it was a far better fish. When I netted it I was sure it would break the 20lb mark. I put the fish in my weigh sling/sack and went down the bank to find a friendly carp angler to take my picture as I didn’t have a camera. Two of the lads came back with me and I weighed it. I can’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed when she went 19.1lbs . still she was a nice fish and welcome on a naff day. I packed my gear up soon after thinking I would quit while I was ahead. As I finished and shut the car door an almighty down poor hit. Obviously my luck was in that day, I did feel sorry for the other lads who were packing up their bivvies’ though.
A week or so later as some more rubbish weather passed I fished a different lake with my friend Chris, it was his first time fresh water fishing and he did well with small carp. He had over a dozen to 4lbs or so and was very pleased despite some awful wind and rain. I had a wonder and caught a couple of pike before sheltering beneath the brolly in his swim and eventually giving up. Stacey and I headed out and had an hour or so at another lake the next day. I started fishing at 15.30 as the rain stopped and still managed a couple of pike before it was dark.
I would only manage a couple more trips as I was now becoming increasingly busy on the boat. Storm Dennis afforded me a days fishing. This time I headed out with Joe, it was a bit naff first thing so we had a leisurely start and didn’t arrive at out lake until 10am. The fish had waited for us though and we got off to a good start. We had plenty of roach and a few jack pike early on. Things went a bit quiet so with the lake more or less to our selves we had a move around. I managed to hang a set of gear up a tree and then the other set up there while trying to get it out. i ended up climbing a tree that over hung the lake by 10ft or so in order to remove both sets of gear (I hate seeing tackle hanging from trees). This is not advisable particularly in a raging gale unless you have a spare pair of pants. However Joe found it funny and I managed to avoid an early bath. It had cost us some time though. After all of this noise we moved on to our next swims where I had another jack pike and Joe had a nice perch of 2.4lb. bites were sparse now so we decided to head back to where we had started the day. This was a good move for me, I was into a fish straight away. As I released that I saw another splash further down in the margins. I cast towards it and had a take straight away, I could tell as soon as I lifted into it that it was a better fish. Joe came and netted it for me and it was a big female full of eggs. Surely this time it would break the 20lb mark? We put her on the scales and sure enough she went 22.12lbs a cracking fish and my first 20lber. As Joe walked back to his swim I noticed my other rod was going. We had pulled it to one side and lent it in a bush so we could net the last fish. The float was now under a tree in the margins and clearly had a fish on it. I struck the fish and discovered my line was caught around the bush. The fish steamed off and luckily pulled my line free of the bush. It was another decent fish, either Joe didn’t hear my cries for help or was fed up netting my fish for me but I managed to sort things out and get her on the bank. Joe came over and was surprised to see another cracking pike in the net. This one went 23.1lbs so my previous PB had lasted as long as it took to reel this fish in. two 20lb pike in one cast, what a way to break the 20lb mark. I had 8 pike that day so not a bad day by any bodies standards.
My last trip was in much nicer conditions and shortly before the virus put things on hold. My brother lee joined me this day. The lake we fished is normally empty but it was like a party that day with families and all sorts out. Its no surprise we aren’t allowed to go at the moment as we certainly couldn’t social distance effectively. As so many people were there we had little choice in the swims we fished. The first swims weren’t productive at all. We couldn’t even buy a bite. We had a move a while later after one of the friendly carp anglers advised us their were two nice swims next to him and he had seen the pike busting out there. We were soon building our swims up and getting bites. Lee was into the roach before me, they were still hard to come by but it was far better than where we moved from. It wasn’t long before he had his first pike. Just a jack but a while later he hooked a far better fish. I got called around to net it as he estimated it was a double figure fish. As it got closer it grew and by the time it was in the net I said it was a 20lber. We put her on the scales and she went 23.1lbs. looking at the markings (and not wanting to take anything away from him) I think it may have been the same fish I had a few weeks before. Once again a cracking fish in prime condition. We had a few more fish throughout the day. I had to move around to where carp anglers were moving out of before I found my own ‘honey hole’. I had 6 pike and six decent perch in the end. No monsters but the two biggest perch both went 2.8lbs.
There concludes my round up of this winters puddle chucking exploits from me. Some nice fish between 13 sessions and many of those were far from the nicest conditions. As I mentioned at the start I am an angling nut and climbing up the walls stuck at home right now. For my next few reports I will dig further back into my angling archives to find something to write about.
For now keep safe and get in touch if you want to talk about fishy stuff. you can find me on facebook on the essex sea fishing page on the essexseafishing.co.uk website or call me on 07956411528 cheer Scott Belbin skipper of Galloper west mersea