June

Finally some fishing. Opening day on the river saw a mixed bag of bits with a lone bream and a tiny pike.

Pubs still closed, but many things gradually reopening, including nurseries - got a huge chunk of my life back from that! I now have huge respect for those who look after children on a daily basis!

May

Lockdown continues. Weather still good. Still no fishing. A holiday cancelled. Lots of exercise with the little one, who was now starting to find her feet.

 

April

National lockdown. No Grand National. No fishing. Decent weather, but very little on offer.

Hectic times trying juggle childcare with my wife, while both of us working full time from home. Long days...

Baby's first steps emerged just shy of her first birthday.

 

 

March

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.

 

February

I'd returned to work in February and the reality of managing work and parental duties was a tougher task than I'd bargained for. 

Fishing was also limited by the conditions, but I did manage to sneak out my best ever Warwickshire Avon bream.

7lbs 4oz Warks Avon

 

January

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.

Add caption

Still Fishing - Just!

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.

Tight lines all.