A dose of hand foot and mouth for my daughter in March, courtesy of the nursery. Passed on to me too! Little did we know about the virus that was to shape the remainder of the year.
The Covid-19 lockdown came shortly after the river season closed. One last short session on the 14th was a blank. A disappointing end.
A belated catch up of what has been a disjointed year. Just pictures mainly, to fill the gaps. More month by month posts coming soon.
I was still on parental leave in January, with a 9 month old that was about to start nursery. Rivers frequently flooded and frustrating. Fishing was limited.
A bit of a barren year on the blog post front, which largely mirrors my angling year.
Life took on a different meaning for me in April, following the birth of my daughter. Despite having the usual best of angling intentions and a good handful of club / syndicate tickets, the fish rarely got a look in during 2019.
I've been limited to snatching short sessions whenever the going at home has been good. A far cry from being able to throw myself into decent length sessions pretty much every week. I'm not complaining though - family wellbeing is now the priority - but I've sure missed my regular dose of piscatorial therapy.
That said, what a miserable run of wet weather we've had in the last quarter of the year. All too frequently my short sessions have coincided with the rivers being badly our of sorts. I've even resorted to the odd stillwater, which had little impact on my success.
A run of 7 blanks stretching back almost 3 months was endured at the peak of my misfortune and only ended with my final session of the year.
Amongst the limited offerings I've had, there were occasional highlights with a couple of pb's.
A completely unexpected specimen canal silver bream that was actually my first post baby capture in May. It went 2lb 8oz and the sheer scale of it didn't really hit me until I started discussing it with others afterwards. I just wish I'd taken some better shots of it now.
The other highlight was finally breaking into double figures with an Anker bream of 10lb 2oz, taken on stick float and centrepin in June. Again I didn't do it justice with the self takes and a mat shot will have to do.
2020 will hopefully see me hitting the bank a little more often again and I'll duly follow with a few more blog posts.
I'll summarise the month with a 4-3-2-1 countdown:
4 sessions - all pretty short. A case of grabbing what I could when the opportunity arose.
3 blanks - two chasing chub, one after predators. Let's move on swiftly.
2 venues - both on the Anker.
1 bite - but a personal best!
After years of figuring that I'd eventually drop lucky with a Warwickshire Avon five pound chub, my pb was refusing to budge above 4lb 5oz. I'd pushed it close with an Anker fish earlier in the season and much bigger fish (in the 6-7lb range) are in residence.
I didn't strike gold with a 6, or even silver with a 5. I had to settle for a close third with a clean well fed fish of 4lb 12oz. I'd like to say it was down to a perfectly executed plan, but it would be stretching the truth a little.
I'd fed my three preferred swims with liquidised bread, but I then fancied a quick look at one of the deeper downstream pegs before putting a bait into them. I offloaded my gear at the end peg, but when I tried to settle in, I wasn't happy. It was a lethal mudfest at the business end. I didn't want to risk a ducking.
I moved to a different peg further upstream that I hadn't fed. I cast two big pieces of flake across the river, more in hope than anything. I was amazed to get a quick tap on the right hand rod and more surprised when the tip pulled steadily around. That was the only bite of the session - and from a peg I could easily have overlooked. The baited pegs were barren.
The season's end draws ever closer. Soberingly, I'm probably down to just a handful of opportunities left. Let's hope the weather doesn't curtail it further. While I have plenty to do at home in preparation of a new arrival, I'd rather not be confined to enforced decorating duties.
Finally, it was nice to bump into Lee from This Angling Life (ex blogger / now Facebook). during one of the sessions. I never knew we were members of the same club! Looks like he had a nice perch of 2lb 11oz (amongst other fish) while I was slumbering. Nice one Lee!
December seems to have flown by and for once, I managed to grab my fair share of sessions. Returns have been bizarrely consistent, albeit somewhat sparse too.
No blanks (always welcome!), but I frequently can't seem to negotiate my way past small pike, or a count of one! Indeed, it was only in the last of the six sessions where I hit the heady heights of two pike (also losing a third at the net).
Sessions were split between a small deep stillwater (2) and the Avon (4). The stillwater is still quite new to me and proved a useful option when the river briefly slipped over its banks to less than ideal levels.
Being quite urban, it's not my normal kind of venue, but as it contains the odd pike to 20lb+ and near double figure zander, it was worth suffering noise on the odd occasion I'd need it.
A bailiff popped by and gave me a tip off for a swim where a zander had shown earlier in the week. It was on my "to fish" list anyway, as it was on my route back and just looked fishy with lots of overhanging branches and deep water close in.
Blanking with half an hour to go, I suffered a hook pull on a jack and began to wonder if I'd be left fishless. Fairly quickly and to my relief, I put the blank to bed with a jack through.
With light levels dropping I decided to stay put and see the session out in the same swim - and I'm glad I did. With a small ripple present, I was struggling to see every twitch on the float in the ever fading light. I started to think I was imagining things, but I felt sure something was cagIly working my smelt hookbait over.
Then I got a decisive dip and clear movement of the float, followed by a fight that didn't feel pike-like. As suspected, it was a zander and it popped nicely into the net and instantly shed the hooks. Phew! Not a huge fish at 5lb 6oz, but respectable enough and my first from a stillwater. So, a pb of sorts I guess.
The return a few days later was a bit trickier and threw up one bite and one jack.
Now the Avon hasn't really been kind to me in predator terms for a couple of seasons now. As mentioned, I'm avoiding blanks this season, but largely with single jacks. It's just a case of plodding on though and hoping things drop right. Pike can be notoriously fickle creatures - seemingly stupidly easy some days, but rock hard on others and often with no obvious indication which way it's likely to play out.
The highlight of the December Avon sessions was the last one of the year. Nothing to do with extra fish, but for the entertaining demonstration by a real professional angler in the shape of a kingfisher.
It popped by several times and even plundered my swim!
Last fish of 2018
Christmas brought a few fishing related gifts - mostly bags to replace those that are now showing signs of wear. A special mention goes to a net handle that was a bit of a blind punt.
I love quirky or compact tackle and the Korum Opportunist 1.8m telescopic handle caught my eye online. I have all manner of net handles ranging up to 4m, but I wanted something compact and stronger than the normal offerings. The 1.8m version I already had was quite weak in its feel and only suited to small light pan netc,
This Korum version is a lot more sturdy and I've pleasantly been able to use it with a specimen triangular folding net with no issues so far (which is beyond what I expected of it). Obviously there are more suitable handles for use with such larger sized nets, but this little version is definitely a useful backup and can be left in a net bag permanently for when needed (it folds to less than 2ft). Or, it's a great tool for those opportunist family breaks where fishing kit space is limited (easily hidden in a suitcase!).
On that note, 2019 will more than likely see a reduction in my fishing, due to a new addition that's due to check in to our household in late April. Exciting times ahead though and I'm sure the rewards of parenthood will offset any lost bankside hours.
Another month drifts by and there was next to no fishing for me. DIY work has somewhat swallowed up most of the limited spare time I've had.
The good news is that I'm on track to finish the current phase of work this weekend, leaving me with a whole day to indulge myself. Weather permitting, I sense a rare dawn to dusk session is a shoe in.
November fishing activity won't take much summing up. Sessions, proper bites and fish were all equal at one each.
Tackling the Avon, I fished a deadbait rod (smelt), hoping I might sneak a zander. It remained biteless for the entire 4 hours. Luncheon meat was used on the other rod and although quiet, I did get one positive enquiry which yielded a small barbel of 5lb 7oz.
Being a bit of a statto by trade, I like to keep records to look back on. The barbel on the stretch in question are showing a downturn in size for me this year. Across the previous 3 seasons I had a pleasing running average of a shade over 9lb, but this season's fish average out to just over 7lb so far. The number of fish are similar though, so that remains encouraging.
Significant rain would be most welcome, as long as it doesn't wipe the river out over Christmas again. I'm hoping to make the most of an extended festive break this year.
