Friday 30 September 2016

Summer Fishing 2016


The end of September already? That was quick! A funny start to the season, the weather was all over the place, the stag beetles didn't fly and the fish hadn't spawned - I saw pike spawning in late June, three months late! Here's a quick recap of the summer season before I swap my cap for a woolly hat...


June: Opening day was a blank - not the way to start a season, but the next day I stalked out a new PB bream from a clear chalk stream. I then resulted to a few local barbel fishing sessions, although I'm not really targeting them this season. The highlight was a new local river PB roach, 1lb 4½oz, cracking fish but still room for improvement.


July: I struggled to find feeding fish but a trip to The Wye turned things around. Catching chub, barbel and perch. It was great fishing with my Dad, brother and an old mate from school. It was great to see Roger and Steve land a barbel, and even better to see Paulos bag his first ever barbel and add a PB chub!


August: The plan was to crack on with the Specimen Challenge and my targets were crucians and rudd - but work had other ideas, I struggled to find time on the bank and when I did conditions were against me. I managed the target species but not the target weights - next year (I'm going to extend the challenge).


September: More time on the bank and more fish in the net. I stalked out a double figure river bream, at 10lb 9oz my target was cracked. An old warrior of a barbel, at 9lb 14oz I really didn't care about those two extra ounces. A new PB chub at 5lb 14oz, bigger to come I hope. And rounded off the month with some trotting for dace, great fun.

Winter is coming: I'm hoping to start my predator campaign with a pike session or two next week, and a six pound chub is at the forefront of my mind. And who knows, perhaps a shark or two...

1 comment:

  1. So far I've caught 16 species of fish (and a crab). No easy target bleak but probably still a summer record.

    Barbel, bream, carp, chub, crucian, dace, eel, grayling, gudgeon, perch, pike, roach, rudd, tench, trout, minnow + mitten crab.

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