Look Back at 2016

Good morning all, first things first I have a massive thank you to say to all of you for your continued support throughout this year whilst I got this blog up and running, I would also like to thank any of you who gave me feedback and helped shaped my writing style into something I hope you all enjoy! 2016 has been a great year for me, I have made some great friends, bettered myself in most aspects of my fishing, tried a whole lot of new things, which is something that will continue throughout next year and I joined what is in my opinion the best lure fishing group in the scene!

So moving on to a look back over the year, 2016 for me started the same way the previous year ended, plenty of Carp trips with my best mate Mark Tiller, in fact we were on the back this time last year seeing in the new year. We had plenty of fish between us even though it was absolutely freezing and the session seen both of us land a 15lb fish as our biggest for the trip, fitting to start the year on even terms where Carp were concerned!

I then turned my attentions to specimen fishing as I had decided as something new for the year I was going to set myself as many new personal bests as possible! This led to me spending a whole lot of time on the bank with my boy having some much needed father son fishing sessions, after all they children are the future of our sport! First target for us was chosen by my son and we set off in search of a Roach, not knowing anything about the species at the time we headed to a local lake where we know fish of 2lb to have been caught in the not so distant past.

This turned out to be somewhat of a success seeing as we caught a few, the biggest being this one at 15.5oz. (Yes the point 5 makes all the difference!) As you can see I was very proud of myself and also could not be happier at how good a picture my 6 year old managed to take!

Shortly after this session, in fact I there is a strong possibility it was the next day Kieran and I headed out to catch him his first Carp at his request which is obviously something I could not turn down.

The day went very well for us and I left the lake a very proud dad! other than me casting for him Kieran managed to do everything else himself, I was on hand to talk him through things and to net the fish but he set the hook and played the fish like a pro! This fish was 6lb or just over but he also managed one of 8lb on the nose. (This one though is the picture he chose for this post.)

By now Jenny, Kieran and I were looking forward to our newest team member to arrive.

For a little while for obvious reasons fishing was put on hold, I mean not completely of course, as soon as I got the opportunity I was gone and back on the bank!

Kieran's next choice of species was the Dace unfortunately thought the river season was now closed and for a short amount of time me and him didn't fish together as everything I did was on very short notice, this was up until I found a group on Twitter called the Lure Nuts and I became obsessed with something a whole lot different to anything I have ever tried before!

I was now 'hooked' on predator fishing and lure fishing in general, however due to the rivers being closed I headed to the local reservoir almost everyday for around 2 weeks, some times just walking around looking at the water, spotting fish (or trying to) or just simply talking to other anglers. It took nearly the entire fortnight to finally land a fish from here but when I did the excitement was something I just could not contain! I called Jen and asked her to bring Kieran down to me as I felt I had sussed it and was sure I could catch another for him to see once he was there.

Thankfully this turned out to be the case and not long after them arriving Jen was taking a picture of the 2 of us holding a awesome little jack.

For about 3 months after this I could not even imagine myself fishing anywhere else or for any other species, this also led to fishing for them in different ways. Another friend of mine Dan Locke and I headed down there together this time Carp rods in hand and a bag full of dead baits, of course I took my lure rod with me I mean why wouldn't you! The aim of this session for Dan was to catch his first Pike and for me was to see if there was anything bigger down in the depths that would take a dead bait instead of a lure.

So as you can see this turned out to be correct and I was soon hooked into the above crocodile! This fish gave me the best scrap I have ever had from a fish and really did earn my respect for the rest of its species. This was it, I was now officially a predator angler, in my mind lure fishing, with the odd bait session thrown in, was what I was doing for the rest of the year, possibly my life!

The obsession for lure fishing then moved to other species having seen a load of pictures of awesome looking Perch on all the Lure Nuts pages, I had no choice in my mind but turn my attention to them, this coincided well with the opening days of the river season and didn't take me long to get out fishing for them.

The first attempt seen me land this little fin perfect Perch, although I was super happy I could not help but hope this was not going to be the biggest one I would ever catch, A few more trips later and now a blogger for a great clothing company called 'Fin and Tide' I was amongst the fish again. By now though I have spent a lot more time fishing the reservoir and practicing different retrieves and things I was a lot more confident in what I was doing.

This led to me catching my best lure caught Perch to date not huge and I didn't weigh it but I don't think it was far off a lb, not a specimen but I'm very happy with how well I am progressing!

Another thing I started this year was some LRF or light rock fishing, this came about when I was out crabbing with the family one day and the water where we were was super shallow and you could see everything that was going on, not only did we see a lot of crabs roaming around our bacon but also a lot of small fish. LRF was something I came across online that day when I googled 'sea mini species and how to catch them', The next thing I did was type LRF into my twitter search bar and followed a lot of people, I then proceeded to stalk they're pictures until I found anything that remotely resembled what I thought I had seen in the water. Once I had done this I then asked questions on how the anglers had caught the fish and put together a plan to catch one myself.

About 3 weeks went by and I strategically asked the family if they would like to go for another crabbing session but also said I needed to stop in the local tackle shop on the way. I managed to get my light lure rod in the car without the other half seeing it. Once back to the same spot as before and having stopped in to pick up a packet of Isome worm I set up a drop shot rig about 6" off the bottom a 3g weight and a size 18 hook with a tiny 10mm piece of worm, this seen me hook one with in about 5 minutes.

This was the only fish I caught this trip as I then spent some time editing the pictures so the fish was as big and as clear as possible and sending it to a friend who has been a massive help with everything to do with this style of fishing over the last few months John Wheeler. He identified this fish as a common Blenny, I once again found myself becoming obsessed with another style of lure fishing.

After about 3 trips down to Poole Quay I found more and more little areas I wanted to fish and also seen a lot of other fish cruising around I set myself a target to catch 10 different species by the end of the year.

Unfortunately I only managed 9 but as I was only learning this year I still feel this is some what of a accomplishment, while we are on the subject of things I accomplished this year I am now a member of the Lure Nuts group and could not be happier!

So moving on, in between all this lure fishing I had been doing something I could not have foreseen this year! Mr Mark Tiller had given me a call and asked me if I fancied some match fishing, this as a lot of you may know from previous years is something I used to do a lot but have not done in quite some time! However this one trip out match fishing soon turned into a few practise sessions and has led to me joining a monthly league next year so I hope you enjoy reading match reviews as there will be one on here a month at least next year!

Unfortunately I have not had much to report fishing wise lately as I have been in a bit of a slump where catching fish is concerned so along with Mark have decided this last month or so to get out and try as many new things as possible, one of those for me was bait fishing in the sea using extremely foreign feeling rods like beach casters and surf rods. However I did really enjoy it and will be doing a whole lot more of this fishing next year as well so once again I hope you enjoy sea fishing as there will be a lot of it on here!

Once again guys thanks for reading and for showing your support this year I hope I can continue to write about things you find interesting over next year and I really do hope you all manage to learn a thing or two from these posts as well! Have a great new year and see you in 2017!

Having Some Fun!!

Hey everyone, as you all may know from my Twitter feed, Facebook page or the lack of content on my Instagram I have recently been stuck in a bit of a slump where my fishing is concerned. This I think is down to two main factors, I have been so tiered lately due to night shifts so when I do get out fishing my concentration levels are not very high, and also I feel looking back at the last few months I have put a lot of pointless pressure on myself to catch!

As I said in the post previous to this one I have decided to remedy this by simply trying new things and try to put a bit more fun back into what I am doing. Continuing on from that posts theme I popped out for a hour or so last weekend trying to catch a fish on Ragworm, this as you will know from the last post if you read it is a style of fishing I have never done before except for these last few trips.

This time though to make it a bit more fun I took my son along with me, not only that to make it a much more enjoyable time we added a third generation of Carter man to the trip and we invited Grandad (my Dad) along with us as well.

(sorry for poor picture quality.)

My Dad set himself up a lure rod and had a few chucks with that, I set Kieran (my boy) up with my LRF rod, knowing there is always a few small checkers about somewhere near the edge I set him up a drop shot rig and put the tail of a live worm on it for him. I myself went with a 3 hook flapper rig all baited with a single whole worm. Luckily it did not take long at all for us to be into the first fish and I could not have been happier hearing my son shout to me Daddy I got one! Amazingly with all the years of fishing experience around him with my Dad being a very good sea angler himself and my knowledge of where the Bass should be it was my boy who had the first one, I could not have been more proud of him in this moment as he managed to feel the bite, hook the fish and have it waving around in front of him before I got to there to help!

We decided to turn it into a bit of a fun match with the thinking that if Kieran managed one with in 10 minutes there must be a few fish around, Dad decided to cut the lure off and pinch a hook and lead out my box and tie himself up a quick 1 hook flapper rig, I will add though I had to bait it for him due to my Mum (camera women) yelling to him "your not touching those smelly things and driving the car!"

Not long after we all got baits back in the water and I started getting a few strange pulls on my rod tip which I didn't need to be a expert to know what that was!

Ok so not quite the start I was looking for but at least it was alive and came to the bait! However I did get a bite almost instantly after my next baits hitting the water, this time it was undoubtedly a fish as my rod tip was going mad.

Unfortunately though as far as the mini match was concerned it didn't count as I had foul hooked this one, much to the delight of Kieran and Dad, by this point though it was time for my parents to make a move back home but the match was still between 3 people as my better half and her brother had came down to join us so Dad left Nigel his rod to use.

With there being a change to the competitions roster we decided a change in spot was also in order, this proved to be very good for me as after maybe my 3rd cast (due once again to a few more crabs) I had the fish of the session and managed to tie things up with a 6 year old! Oh the sweet feeling!!

Ok so it wasn't going to set the tabloids alight and certainly wasn't breaking any records but I had done it! I managed a fish from the sea on worm on only my second time of asking. Sadly though due to pay and display parking on every square inch of land Poole borough council can squeeze in this also marked the end of our day.

Thanks once again for reading and showing your support! I really do hope you enjoyed reading and I look forward to writing the next post.

Trying New Things.

The last few months for me have very much been about trying to fit in fishing as and when I can, I am still having the same problems with finding time around work hours and sleeping to get and catch some fish. The other problem I have been faced with lately is I have fallen into a bit of a slump where catching fish is concerned!

I went out Pike fishing last weekend and for the first time in my short time fishing for the species I blanked whist fishing with dead baits on the local reservoir, I also managed to blank at the waterworks lure fishing which is usually where we stop to save a blank.

With this being the case I have decided to spend the rest of this year trying as many new styles of fishing as possible, I set myself a new goal for the end of the year and that is to catch myself 3 new species of fish, weather that be salt or fresh water.

That brings me nicely onto last nights fishing trip with a good friend of mine Mark Tiller, when I mentioned to Mark I wanted to try these new styles of fishing and one of them being sea fishing he was kind enough to offer to teach me a few things.

We decided to go out Flounder fishing down at Shore Road, Sandbanks which is about a 10 minute drive from both of our homes, Mark was working in the day time so I headed down to the local tackle shop to pick up our ragworm, also bought myself what I thought were the correct rigs for the session and a few gripper leads. I also picked up a rig winder box the other day and that is now home to what small amount of tackle for sea fishing I own.

High tide was just after 11.30pm so we decided to fish it on the way up and for a hour or so after. I was very surprised how quick and easy it was to get my 2 rods set up and cast out, I was using some old gear that has been lying around at my place for years, to be honest I have no idea where any of it came from but with it being December I was unable to head out and buy new gear.

I had a 11ft Bass rod with a 4000 size reel and a 15lb braid mainline and a 12ft beach caster with a 7500 reel loaded with 30lb mono mainline and a 50lb shock leader. I also had a very old tripod my old boss gave me while clearing out the company truck when he left nearly 2 years ago now.

For someone like myself who is normally a complete tart it was a hard night looking at this set up, however as I said I'm only trying these styles of fishing so there is no point in spending loads when there is a chance I'm not going to enjoy it, also with Christmas only a few weeks away my other half would have blown a gasket if I did spend anything more than what I did!

As I said before I had bought some ready tied rigs for this trip, this was for a few reasons one was that time was not really on my side where learning to tie my own was concerned the other was again for not spending to much money on bits and pieces when the rigs were only £1.50 each.

I went for a 3 hook rig, 2 up and 1 down, this for me gave me the best chance of catching something if the Flounder weren't on the feed. Which is what proved to be the case, I had what I thought was a few bites but didn't manage to land anything, Mark though managed 2 of the smallest Bass I think I have ever seen but none the less it saved a blank for him.

1 thing that is for sure I will be heading out on a lot more sessions like this so I hope you have enjoyed reading about some sea fishing as there will be a lot more coming! I will also be out doing a lot of river fishing over the coming weeks, searching for a specimen Dace on the float and feeder fishing with the hope if landing my first ever Barbel.

Thanks again for reading see you next time.