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!
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