Farewell My Inflatable Buddy.

 

 After 10 years of "near" perfect service, run ragged, rode upon by a few hairy arsed men holding rods aloft my trusty fishing boat finally gave up as a rogue overwintering rat had a part of my right gunwhale for dinner.

 It took me 96 miles of driving and organise a couple days of angling for Rudd with my mate Chris to realise the hole that was there. Chris had himself made the journey over to the fens to sample some of the angling I and a few others have experienced over the last decade. Here are a few captures that have crossed the walls of my boat, it had done well. 

A pic from a couple years back.

PB Zander for me

A good upper double pike

Brian with a sparkling esox

Ditto

Brother Rich with a 13lb 3oz Zed!

PB Rudd last summer, 3lb 0oz

Hundreds of beauties like this.

No pomp and circumstance, to the tip!

Oh HELLO! Bigger, more spacious, my new boat!

Picks of the Decade.

 Choosing candidates for this is pretty tough, so a few of these may not strike you as being particularly big for the species but in terms of its size relative to where it was caught it. Some of these places would surprise many anglers as to where the fish came from. Over the years I have been extremely lucky as to what I have managed to slip the net under, others have required the utmost skill and patience, often pushing me to the limit.

 Here are just a handful of fish from the 2010's and yes there are so many that some catches that mean a lot to me won't make this but I have to draw the line somewhere. Most of these are actually personal bests too.

This bream was my first double figure fish off a canal, since then I have been lucky enough to do it again, special fish and very special waters that certainly make you work for the rewards, a truly special fish for its environment.

Almost an entire days trotting culminated in coming away with one grayling, that one grayling weighed 2lb 11oz and still the fight gives me nightmares. The fear a big grayling puts in you when they turn broadside and power off downstream is quite something, you struggle to find words to describe it.

The river Cam is home to some special fish, this is one of them, March 13th, bitterly cold and bare footed holding one of the most awesome wild carp I'm ever likely to catch, 27lb 12oz, caught on rudd gear in the boat. Quite a fight indeed, Brian deserved a knighthood for getting that in a 22'' drennan landing net.

Having witnessed a 13lb 3oz zed to the boat the day before I had a burning desire to get back out. Less than 24 hours later I was posing with this incredible looking fish, again in the boat and with all light gone the take was so powerful the rod jolted to simply let me know it was time.

Not a personal best but my best lure caught pike off the mighty Wye, a Rapala X-Rap minnow was the savour to what was fairly tough fishing. A couple of shows just off some sunken trees indicated where the lure had to go, ten minutes later and a few casts she was in the net.

One of the best looking barbel I have ever caught, a comfortable double that fought so hard I had to rest afterwards. Just twenty feet wide and 2-3ft deep hardly seems the sort of place one would target barbel but it certainly doesn't bother them.

Two years on Newdigate with the sole purpose of catching one of the two big golden orfe had finally come to an end. 6lb 12oz of a brilliant looking fish, shame they fight so poorly but it can be forgiven. Ten trips after starting and a faithful buoyant maggot on the method feeder was the orfe' downfall.

Opening day on a sun swept Stour gave up a couple of its gems, this chub being the largest at 6lb 8ozs, there was a time I'd had two six pound chub ever, fishing the Avon/Stour that figure soon crept up quite nicely.

Canal rudd very rarely get up above 4oz and often are the bane of a surface anglers session, however this corker at 2lb 5oz certainly put a smile on my face, perfect in every way, just one day hope to follow that up with a 3lber from a canal, that would be something to rival any capture during a season. Especially off the somerset levels.

Enton....does that place need an introduction? such an awesome place but not as easy as anglers make out, many hours I spent on there in search of crucians and managed just a couple, my best here at 3lb 8oz, during all that time I didn't lose a single fish.

Possibly the shock of the decade, the river will remain nameless as I hope to one day cross paths with this incredible common once again. On my MARKIV split can rod and pin, freelined bread it really was the best way I could hope to catch such a carp, no name, wild and at 28lb 3oz she is my biggest common and river personal best, quite a fish. I still dream of that fight in my head at night after seeing the photos again.

Having literally stepped off a plane from Asia just six hours earlier this immaculate double figure barbel took a fancy to a trotted piece of meat, one of the prettiest specimens I've been lucky enough to catch, just over a foot of water, a tiny bush just hiding the front half, first cast...easy.

A snow carp? my only one of the 2010's and what a fight, 2.8lb bottom, 15ft float rod and pin, chub were the intended target. A double figure carp though certainly wasn't quaffed at.

Two hours and possibly six miles of marching the towpaths put me in touching distance of achieving an incredible feat, that being catching a cut carp. Over the last few years I devoted some considerable time to targeting canal carp with varying success. Carp however do not come better looking than that fish above, 19lb 9oz and possibly a lot older than I. 

My personal best carp and a fish known as the "ghostie leather", 35lb 8oz and on bream gear including 6lb line was not just the envy of myself, a few onlookers clearly appreciated its capture and after a couple of photos she went back like a trooper. Names and fish aren't my kind of thing, but this lake I'll make an exception to as it holds some iconic carp, this being one of them.

My first twenty pound pike (21lb 9oz) and thee prettiest I have caught, from a river too made this catch so much more impressive, I shook like a crapping dog for ages after I had landed her too, I was physically terrified! But not long after realised just how fantastic it was, simply superb.

Possibly the craziest catch from anywhere in 2010's, roach x bream hybrids are very rare throughout london and this was the first I'd caught since the late 1990's. Whilst stalking carp on a really cold morning I noticed a flash of silver under my feet as I walked along the towpath and realised this awesome/freaky creature was feeding on the weed clinging to the canal wall, a nice flake of bread soon captured its attention and forever opened my mind to the real possibilities these canals can produce. 5lb 1oz.

The last decade bore witness to some fantastic years after roach. My personal best of 2lb 15oz remained comfortably out in front but was joined by an additional 7 fish over the two pound barrier, all from Thames tributaries fishing a range of tactics. My favourite species and its not hard to see why.

My one and only dace of the decade that surpassed the 1lb barrier and fish that was immense, the images of this fish do not do it justice and have always found big dace difficult to convey in shots, however, at 8 drams over the pound mark I had numerous fish one winter over 14ozs, since then they have disappeared almost entirely.

When it comes to looks this towpath mirror has it all, black as your hat, a little battered as you'd expect a big wild carp to be, but also represented a personal best mirror off the canals at the time. 25lb 4oz and what was even better is I got to share the moment with my dad who was taken aback by its sheer size and the fight? of course it was of biblical proportions as it always is. Escape is the only plan.

I saved possibly the best barbel I'm ever likely to catch to last. First ever visit to the H.Avon and I decided to settle in the top swim on the pipes. Half an hour before dusk I popped out my 18mm pellet tipped with a grain of buoyant corn and just hoped for the best. As the light faded over the fields my tip slammed round and was locked into battle with a big fish but with no headtorch I couldn't tell what I had or how big it was. My mate Stuart made his way upstream to assist me with the weighing and photos. Having finally landed her she was resting in the net and could only make out a portion of the body, still not fully appreciating what I had just caught.

Once Stu had arrived with me I lifted the net out the river and then it hit me at what I'd just caught, she was a truly Hampshire Avon giant at 14lb 6oz and is still my personal best. The feeling of seeing that fish for the first time and holding her still plays back in my memories museum. 

What a first fish to catch off the most iconic of our rivers. Luck and skill in perfect balance and the reward was much greater than I could ever have hoped for.

 What are your favourite memories from the last decade of angling? feel free to pop a comment in the box. I am intrigued to hear your stories.

Winter Predator Fishing Recap.

 I must confess that before this season started my predator fishing exploits were a little on the light side to tell the truth as I have mentioned in the past. Now being a father I find time to go fishing at all is rather difficult and having ramped up the amount of work I am also taking on, partially to offset what the better half isn't earning and that as we are entering the final throws of buying a house I have found much of my spare time is devoted at home.

 Most of my predator angling this winter has been focused on the rivers in the south of England. As my miniature campaign approached the hallway mark (around late December) I caught my third twenty pound river pike of my life and first of the season, the efforts for hard work were being rewarded and now we find ourselves in March I have ceased Pike fishing. Mainly owing to the fact most Pike down here spawn around mid-Feb onwards I don't want to be targeting knackered specimens when they should be left to recoup after their exertions.

 So to the recap now.

 I managed a total of 10 trips out, 9 on a river somewhere and the other on a ticket stillwater, where for the most part I was successful on all those adventures bar one. In those nine visits to flowing water I managed a total of seventeen fish with eight over the ten-pound mark and one over the magical twenty pound barrier. For me I couldn't have asked for much more.

 Then on to the Zander where I embarked on three trips, one a blank effort on the boat, the other two trips were a blazing success as I landed no fewer than 3 personal bests in 28 hours or so, I was chuffed like you wouldn't believe. One of those three was also over the magical ten pound mark which to begin with was a pipe dream. Awesome fun too.

 It has been a winter worthy of remembering and even if my two Perch exploits both ended in failure I still thoroughly enjoyed them as I continue to seek another three-pound plus specimen. Not as easy as some make out I tell you! I will continue to try, starting from tomorrow if I shake this stomach bug!

 These, the best of each species this winter.

A tidal Thames double. 11lbs 9ozs.

A Lea system twenty. 20lbs 8ozs.

 Let's hope for more next Winter, it was great fun.

Zander Hunt: Waking The Sleeping Dogs.

 Driving home after packing the boat down after another successful trip afloat I couldn't help but think that what had just happened was a messy blur and that my brother for all his moaning came away with a huge fish like that. Never mind, I was very happy for him. That however lit a fire under me and I was in the mood to get straight back out....work however had other ideas, a full schedule of clients I saw no gap where I could get out, the issue is taking the boat out needs time and that wasn't looking likely. As always though I am happy to graft and as each client was satisfied and I'd earned my crust, by midday I was finishing up with my last!

 There was no loitering around, I shot straight home and got the little bits of gear I'd packed away the night before and hot footed it out the door and back on the road, with no time to waste I picked Brian up on the way and with empty roads at my mercy the Zander hunt was back on. It had been just 23 hours since I set my new personal best twice. Typically I would be happy for months afterwards, the simple fact Richard had caught that beast the previous night my competitive side crept through and my focus was attempting to trump him. I was on the hunt. It had been a while since I felt so invigorated to catch fish, I guess that's why I fished quite well as a kid as we used to push each other to succeed in many aspects of childhood.

 Conditions were identical as the previous day and a big tide was expected again, just the recipe I hoped for. Why I was hoping for this I'm not entirely sure but I feel that some of the logic behind it that has bounded around my head may well ring true to a certain extent. The bigger tides obviously seem to move bait fish from their normal haunts and into the more unknown territories where predators lye in wait for an easy meal. Now, having been fairly successful earlier in the previous day I hoped for something similar. So having got close to the mark where I had my two (7.13 & 9.01) a bait was popped down and as we both got comfortable my float bobbed and sailed away, before I could hit it the float came back up and on close inspection a couple of puncture holes were present. A Zander for sure!

 I knew we were in the right place, we had to keep going and not long after I had another dropped take...was I going to rue those dropped runs? It certainly seemed so as after ten minutes and three dropped fish the activity stopped just like the day before and our floats lay lifeless..then, out of nothing, Brian's float danced on the surface momentarily before plunging under the surface, when he put a firm strike in his rod it bent double and we knew a big fish was on the other end, within twenty seconds she came up to the surface and rolled, showing off her massive silvery flanks, as she did that a massive boil came up on the surface and she was gone, I looked to Brian and the look on his face  said it all, it was a big fish! I saw most of it and I knew it was a double.....

 Luck plays a massive part in angling and it was certainly missing there. That was it for well over an hour before anything else happened, a half hearted tug on my float was all that broke up the endless wandering of the float in the flow. We constantly changed the depths that our baits were working at and hoped it would change our fortunes and induce a run or two. Alas, there was no such luck and I was beginning to see the writing on the wall. With such perfect conditions I honestly thought we would have done better.

 Dusk rapidly came and went with only one little bob of the float and Brian had a couple of enquiries before he packed his rod away, the light levels were gone and I could only make out a tiny silhouette of my float, twenty minutes after dark had settled in I could just make out the float vanish from sight and a powerful jolt shot through the rod, whatever it was I struck into it and held on for dear life. Within seconds a powerful surging run sent me into a nervous wreck, I had no idea what I'd hooked and in the dark it was daunting. No torch on board didn't help but that didn't stop Brian from getting ready with the net. About thirty feet from the boat a massive boil opened out on the surface, like something from a horror film! I was trembling with a combination of excitement and fear.

 Seeing the fish roll on the top I was certain it was a Zander, the surging runs Pike make didn't materialise, it could only mean one species. Knowing that, I prayed the treble stayed in place and that I would get the chance to see what I was playing. Three minutes roughly of being in contact with this fish it was finally on its way to the boat, Brian did his best to miss the fish with the net but somehow we coaxed her in! The treble came out in the net!!! How lucky was that?!

 Owing to it being so dark and peering into the net as she along us I couldn't get a decent gauge on it, so whilst I soaked up the glory of a last gasp catch myself and Brian wondered whether it was worth continuing and thought it would but having only just see my float go under it was going to be difficult to continue so with that we folded down the rods and went ashore. Only then, we got a good look at the Zander did it dawn on me I had cracked the double figure barrier and boy, what a specimen it was too! When she came into the net I thought it was roughly the same size as my best from the day before, that thought was banished once I had seen all of her on the mat. The rest was a blur as I knelt posing with one of the most impressive creatures I've had the pleasure of catching!

A new personal best of 11.9.

 To celebrate we went to the pub and rose a couple to the river and its gift.

Zander Hunt: Leviathan Zed.

 Now, I do class my self as bit of an all-rounder, with that said there are a couple of species that I haven't given much time up for, Zander certainly fall within that category as I know exactly how many times I've targeted the species. On a river I have embarked on two trips catching one little fish around 2lb, on canals I have made five trips whilst banking again, just the one. Lake Zander is where I have had the lion share of success, over 6 trips I managed approximately 25 fish to 7lbs exactly. My reasons for not continuing with the lake Zander fishing was for two reasons, its an expensive hobby when you are paying £18 for a one-rod predator ticket for 4-5 hours fishing and also the fact a double was a pipe dream amongst the hungry schooleys.

 Fast forward roughly 3 years since I last made a fist of it and I found myself questioning why don't I target the Thames Zander once again, this time in a boat I'd have a lot more water to search and the chance of a fish or two would be greatly improved. To the drawing board it was then. Having not taken on the challenge properly of catching a Zander by design since my visits to the Surrey Hills I had some work to do.

 Knowing that they hunt the very same fish that the Pike do I toyed with the idea of scaling down, but in the end I resisted the temptation and actually upscaled my treble to a 2/0 as in previous experience I found that you never hooked Zander but more like gripped them, so with a bigger gape single treble I relied on the initial strike to hold firm. So with the heavy detail out of the way I got the boat together and invited my brother Richard to come and join me for a foray on the Thames. I love being afloat, just a great feeling being on the water and giving ourselves every opportunity at success.

 Having set the boat up we got into the first area where I knew a decent drop-off existed and dropped a bait down which trotted around perfectly for ten minutes or so before to my surprise the 20g float bobbed and slipped under, after winding down and making contact the tension went and whatever had picked up my bait was gone. This did fill me with lots of promise and didn't hesitate in getting my bait straight back down. Probably fifteen minutes passed with nothing doing so a quick cast to the other side of boat resulted almost immediately in the float bombing out of sight.

 I waited roughly four or five seconds before hitting this one and straight away it felt like a better connection as a decent fish came up to the surface and rolled, thus showing her entire flank I knew I was connected to a Zander that was likely to be a new PB, with Zeds you can't dream until the net slips under the fish as they have an incredible knack at spitting the treble as they seem ready for the net. Thankfully for me the fight lasted only a couple of minutes and as soon as the fish lay in the net I knew I had struck it lucky.

 So having stopped shaking momentarily I weighed and got my brother to photograph my prize as I gleefully stared at the Zed. That didn't take long!

7lb 13oz! A new PB :)

 Not even half an hour afloat and a new personal best was in the bag! Well, that PB was always going to be threatened knowing what is living in the waters I am fishing, after releasing that fish and punching the air I got myself another bait and inched it out roughly where the last bite came from and before I could check the drag was set properly the float vanished from sight. I was in again and within seconds the fish rolled on the surface just like the first one did, at first glance I couldn't work out if she was larger or of similar size so I played the Zander carefully and after a couple of powerful runs she succumbed to me and inched over the rim of the net, as soon as she did and I released the tension the treble pinged into the air narrowly missing my face!

 My first real search for river Zander was beginning to pay big dividends, this was one even bigger. As I lifted her out the net and into the boat I got a true gauge on the fish and thought I may have my first double figure specimen for the species and another PB to boot. Knowing that Zander do have large frames and often not weighing what their sizes would have you believe she still achieved the dizzy height of 9lb 1oz! I was in dreamland!

The last PB lasted roughly 10 mins...9lb 1oz!

 I left home in the morning dreaming, by 1330 I was wide awake and experiencing that dream!

 By this point I was fishing immersed in euphoria, my float had barely stayed still for 15 minutes and the action didn't stop there as I had a further three takes in a manic half an hour which unfortunately all came off as I suspect the grip of the treble wasn't quite right and the Zander were able to slip away unmolested. Then as if a light had been switched off the feeding spell appeared to have stopped and we set off again in search of more activity. We certainly got that beginning hour of the trip spot on the money, right place, right time, strangely enough Richard didn't have a single bite....

 So as we both scooted around looking for more action we came across a grey seal in search of possibly the same prey but it, just like us wasn't particularly successful with finding the fish again. For around 2 hours we perused the weir pool and surrounding river to no avail, I tried moving the float up and down to hopefully come across feeding fish again. Dusk was rapidly setting in and I thought that if we were to catch another it would be the fifteen minutes either side of sunset and true to assumption Richards float went under which quickly came back up before he could strike, then mine went a minute later which I hooked into and I was locked into battle with what felt like a big fish and in the failing light I could see a large frame top in front of the boat and in an instant the float came hurtling across the surface and with a huge boil my fish was gone...

 I was gutted but I had no time to dwell on that as Richards float quickly vanished and he quickly took up the slack, as he put the pressure on the fish the rod hooped over and fooled us into believing he was actually playing a Pike and the initial lunge certainly suggested that but what surfaced perplexed us both! A mega Zander was thrashing around just 20 foot from the boat and I was shaking just watching Rich play the fish, this was without a doubt the biggest Zed I had ever seen! As dark began to settle in my brother smashed his personal best with this incredible specimen. The final seconds of the fight were a blur as we both remained absolutely calm (shitting it) before I shipped the edge of the net past the incoming animal. She was colossal and weighing in at 13lb 3oz it was just simply an incredible fish. Just to think he was complaining not an hour before that he hadn't had any takes and it was "doing his head in". Sometimes when your lucks in, it is IN!

Holy Sh*t! 

 I was possibly as happy as he was with that! But, that catch left me with a dilemma...that being he had caught a double figure Zed before me and out of my boat! I couldn't let sleeping dogs lye.

 Part Two coming......

Zander March.

 Zedvember was upon us once again and the bi-annual pilgrimage to the Coventry Canal was once again underway, a nice early start on a crisp late November morning bought many memories flooding back, memories of some very difficult sessions. Was this to be a case of deja vu? or a bucking of the trend? by 4pm we would have a better idea.

 A 3-hour drive up the M1 and M6 was fairly smooth and I couldn't wait to get on the bank. First of all Brian, Rikki and myself dropped into for a quick chat and a cup of tea with Sir Hatt before we went for a wander. The trips up here were to coincide with Jeff's birthday so we'd have a nag or a few hours and an excuse to go fishing, however it always seems to coincide with frosts and the Zander are usually hard to find much to our disappointment. First blood didn't take long though when a small blue job was nailed on the second cast, I lost whatever that was but on the next cast it got hammered again, this time I made no mistake, a pristine canal Esox made its way into the net.

Hungry canal Jack.

 I hoped that was a precursor to some excellent sport, a few hours later and I was still scratching around for another fish. A couple of small Perch slipped up but the Zeds were still very elusive until the very last knockings when I struck a decent hit on a little Perch pattern shad, not big but pleased to finally see one!

Eyes bigger than it's belly as the Zed wasn't a monster.

Not My Day....

 I looked forward to a days Piking afloat SS Rudd in search of....ermmmm...Pike, all was supposed to be smooth with no glitches as the last couple of trips have done, well that most certainly wasn't the case, a lack of live bait opportunities owing to the colder nights made catching liveys very hard, I could live with that, but when we left our first port of call and arrived at spot number two I had found that some piece of sh@t had hit the side of my car and obviously driven away without a care in the world, a nasty dent and scratched paint work above my rear drivers side wheel arch meant I was not in the best of moods, understandably so too.

 Well lets just say it got worse before it got marginally better, a hard morning afloat without a knock for myself or Brian got our brains wracked, couldn't decide on where to go in the pool and what depths to fish so I decided just to pick an average depth and stick with it. I stuck with a Dace for the best part of an hour before it finally stopped in its tracks and the float vanished, I wound down and was met with very little resistance, me thinking straight away it was a jack I played it normally to get it in fairly quickly, but the fish was cruising towards me and as the tension was taken up the weight on the end got heavier and heavier, what I initially thought was a small Pike turned out to be an upper double around the 17-18lb mark, in the gin clear water we both got a very good look at her, the only problem was my Dace was only being held in its jaws, the treble actually wasn't set, as she approached the boat maybe ten foot out she coughed my Dace and came hurtling out the water, with one almighty lunge the Pike was gone, in pure desperation the bait went straight back in the area I thought she was but not a peep from my livey.

Right moody evening was in store.

 Could it get worse? good question, much to my delight it did....(a strong air of sarcasm), one days dose of bad luck was already administered the angling gods decided to continue the punishment, after losing that Pike at exactly 1pm the action took a nose dive until the tide had nearly finished running off, then just a little before dark a flurry of activity came our way when my float went, Brian's also went, both of us didn't connect but shortly afterwards mine went again and the rod went, as the tension held a decent fish was playing out deep down, I could feel it wasn't a Pike immediately, so it could only be a Zander and it was one, a really big one of possibly double figures and as it came up to surface it shook its head and spat my little Chub live bait and I was distraught, my day had just got more shit as it progressed, I was having one of them days where I wished I'd stared at the TV and done fack all.

It took a lot to crack a smile, not a good day.

 A little bit later on in the evening my float did go one more time and like an express train too, certainly a Pike and wasn't a tiddler, weighing just under 7.8. Scant reward for the effort put in but it seems to be a re-occuring theme. The Thames is kicking my arse at the moment.

My 2015 Overview.

 It has been quite a year, as ever I simply enjoy getting on the bank but catching specimen fish of various species enhances my enjoyment, can't think of any other sport that I could enjoy more.

 January: The first month of the year was fairly quiet, plenty of Grayling were caught on the Test over a few trips along with some healthy sized Roach, although nothing large came out it was enjoyable.

 February was spent doing pretty much the same, Grayling were high on the agenda and managed to crack the two-pound barrier twice with the best nudging 2.02, larger were seen but never tempted. Also wangled out a stunning wild river Linear Carp using the technique of stret-pegging. Plenty of other fish also fell during the colder days of the month but that monster Grayling did evade me. The Roach were also on form and I had a couple of very decent bags, one of these was edging towards 30lb.

Beautiful fish aren't they.

 March is always a strange month but things weren't too bad, again a few good Roach came to the net and I had a real red letter day on the Barbel front with a 7 fish haul topped by a 11.13 specimen. Plus I started my canal campaign which fast-forwarded it turned out to be very successful.

 April for me is always a month of transition, the river season is over and the other waters don't usually start producing until it begin's to warm up, but the month's stand out trip was a very short, quick fire spinning session in search of Perch and banked a new personal best weighing in at 3lb 6oz. The rest of the month was a combination between Gudgeon, Trout and Tench with some Crucian's chucked in for good measure.

Stunning creature.

 I do like May, one of my favourite month's as the temp' starts to improve and a lot of species come out of their winter slumps to feed with gusto, my canal fishing took an upward curve as I banished the disappointments of numerous difficult blanks by overcoming a stunning 25.03 Mirror Carp, accompanied by a 7.02 ancient looking canal Bream. A few other species were caught but the canal fish were the highlight of the month.

 On to June, I continued on the canals with more success, I was catching at a rate of a fish every two sessions, fish were hard to locate and even more difficult to catch, the opening couple of days I managed a bumper haul of Roach and Barbel on consecutive days, it was great fun but nothing massive again. My Bream campaign started but it didn't go off like I hoped and missed out on a double-figure fish by a fraction too. Also I had banked some lovely pristine Tench along with a new species to the list in the form of a 4.07 Golden Orfe.

 Usually in July my Mrs and I tend to go away on holiday so I don't get as much fishing in but still made a concerted effort to get on the bank, the Loddon proved to be a little tough but had Chub to 5.09 but the larger specimen's remained elusive, I smashed my PB Brown Trout with a 7.2 animal and I started to locate some great shoals of Dace by taking some to a shade over 14oz.

 August was fairly quiet as I didn't do much fishing but the stand-out trip was travelling to Somerset to track down canal Rudd with Russell Hilton, we were both successful and on the second day I topped my haul with a 2.01 specimen through much hard work and plenty of selective angling.

 September is another of my favourite month's as the days are still longish but the slight chill in the air gets certain species feeding better, namely the big Roach, only the one came in this month but it was a good omen. Double-figure Barbel and large Dace. I travelled around abit but whilst visiting the Stour and Avon fishing was tough.

Beautiful fish. Magical fish.

 October was always going to be interesting and it didn't fail me, the capture of a PB Roach/Bream Hybrid from the canal, some more very large Dace slowly approaching the pound mark, along with my second Roach over 2lb of the season.

 Now November, by this time I'm starting to realise winter should be settling in yet it wasn't even cold, at times I was still out in a t-shirt!, again I wasn't particularly successful on a few trips but when I did catch they were fantastic fish like this stunning Autumn Common of 23.09 from one of my local canals, plus another "fish of a lifetime", this clonking fish pulled the dial around to 2lb 10oz which is the largest Roach for quite a few years.

 Then December, where do I start. It has been quite a month, having been off work for a couple of weeks leading up to Christmas I stepped up my efforts on a couple of fronts by putting in some serious legwork and I certainly reaped the rewards, Chub to just under 6lb, beating my PB Zander four times to finish on 7lb flat with Brian Roberts, a lovely days trotting with Tom Aldous on the Itchen for Grayling and Roach, some big Dace on the Avon, catching my fourth 2lb Roach at 2.06, double-figure Barbel and last but not least, I realised one of my angling dreams as I successfully targeted a twenty-pound Pike and from a River too, at 21.07 I was and still am so made up, a truly wonderful experience and what a creature she was, I'd love another one just to prove it wasn't a fluke!

That's it from me, I hope you enjoyed your angling journey's in 2015 like I did.

Tight lines for the new year and be lucky, make those dreams, reality.