The Season is Dead , long live the season 3#

14th March 2013

What a difference a day makes !Yesterdays success had boosted my confidence , so it was back to the river for another go , with Jeff and Dave for an end of season get together and the chance of a fish or two , maybe ....
I got there at the crack of dawn and was soon attached to an 8lb fish which i think I have caught before ( and so has Jeff ) as it has a distnictive yellow mark on its side.
I was then joined by Dave and a little later by Jeff , and by the 14lb 8 oz fish pictured above.
The day then went to Dave who proceeded to catch another three fish to 11lbs.
Jeff managed a tiny jack at the last knockings too.
Roll on the 16th !

The Season is dead, long live the season 2#

Wednesday 13th March 2013

Well i might have been mad going fishing on monday , but even i realised that tuesday was a non starter with about 4 inches of snow and people trapped in their cars overnight. I spent the day looking at fishing books and dvd's, and planning which clubs to join next year.

So what would wednesday bring weather wise. Well still cold but getting warmer, and the wind moving away from the east.

The day started well with a fish taking my deadbait and unfortunately dropping off . So I decided to move to an area where Jeff had previously had some luck .

On the subject of luck , well mine was about to go into overdrive !

 

She weighed 27lbs 4oz, and is my best Pike. Fantastic !

I celebrated with a pint of Harveys or two !

The Season is dead , long live the Season ! 1#

I always try and take a few days off at the end of the season . It has become a bit of a tradition , but the weather can always be a deciding factor . Well , what would this year bring ....

Monday 11th March 2013
 "When the wind is in the east , the fish bite least "
The weather forecast app on my phone warned of snow showers and a temperature of 0 but feeling like -7 in the strong east wind . I think it was spot on ! Crikey it was cold !
I remembered to bring storm poles with me and  without them the biting east wind would have wrecked the brolly.
Jeff joined me , and we sheltered in the lee of the brollies eating sausage rolls and drinking tea . The fishing was as you would expect a non event .

Cod and Chips anyone ?

 

 

12 lb Cod on a whole squid.
 

Jupiter's Moon

Well the weather forecast could not have been better for a fishing trip , with light winds and virtually a flat sea , with the prospect of some fog later. So how would the hypnotherapy work ?
Brilliant !
We motored out of the harbour and visted a mark a few miles off shore . Bites were immediate with Whiting , Pouting and Dogs virtually every drop down. Jeff managed a small Conger as well but no Cod so we upped the anchor and moved to another mark a bit further out in deeper water. again it was a fish a chuck with me getting a small conger plus the Doggies and Whiting. Then I managed to land my best ever Cod at 12lbs. What a result !
Thank to Margaret for the hypnosis and to Jeff for the trip out . When can I go again ?

Seasick Dave....a thing of the past ?

Well, my sea boat fishing was brought to an early end about 15 years ago when I discovered that the sea plus a fishing boat plus my  breakfast guarenteed a result ....the loss of one of the above ! Plus a great deal of misery on my part !
I used to run a sea fishing club at work .Our trips were very succesful and we made a regular excursion from Littlehampton on board the "Blue Badger" skippered by Mike Pratt  or from Brighton on the "Colinjoy" .Great fun ! We even went further a field to Deal, Langstone  and to Weymouth .
The old adage that "pride comes before a fall" springs to mind as I remember laughing at the poor sods in my party that felt seasick . Oh how I regret that now ! I fished  ( oh and laughed at sufferers of the malaise ) for about 10 years till the day out of Langstone when it happened to me. God I felt ill ! I wanted to die . Can anything be worse than that ...i doubt it ?
I then moved to various seasickness remedies :eat ginger biscuits and drink orange juice ( the polite version of this remedy is that ginger settles the stomach and orange provides vitamin C and sugar , the reality is it tastes the same going up as it did going down !)various tablets which were great in preventing seasickness but made me sleep for a solid two days after taking them ! I had to be taken home and collect the car the next day ! I even tried some bands worn round the wrist ,oh and various herbal remedies. They did not work as well as the best form of seasickness cure :don't go on the sea !
So I sold all my gear and refused to set foot on a sea fishing boat again.
Well nearly . I did go on a few trips , well you can't refuse top offers to go Bass fishing and Tope fishing can you ? I did catch but also felt dreadful enough to put me off going for a few years.
Well my good friend Jeff has a passion for all things boat shaped, his reasoning that each boat "is a compromise" has resulted in him owning a few boats ! Well the time has come to join him on "Jupiter's Moon "his newest addition to the fleet.
So I am off to a hypnotherapy session tomorrow and then its off to the deep blue ( or slightly off grey ) sea at the weekend to see what "Jupiter's Moon" is really like . Wish me luck !

No fishing for a while then....now where is that fishing DVD ?

I was hoping to be able to go fishing before Christmas , but the weather God has decided against it !
The river will take a while to gather itself from its sojourn to the fields and allow a worthwhile attempt at fishing . So its a return to the other forms of obtaining a fishing fix , buying fishing tackle, reading about fishing or watching a fishing DVD.
So Martin Bowler's new DVD, " Seeking shadows" has had an airing. Great photography and some excellent sequences especially the Blue shark footage. can I go fishing soon please ?
I plan to have few beach fishing trips in the early part of next year so I have been looking for a new beach reel. I have been recommended to look at the Akios range and they seem pretty good at first glance . Now where is that Sea Angling magazine .....