New Years blank

I couldn’t make it out on New Year’s Day, dog walks and a family meal took priority however I was on the bank on my first opportunity, the 2nd! For a change my closest river was looking good, a nice winter level carrying a slight colour and stable weather in the preceding days. I took a chance and headed to a difficult stretch, feast or famine!

A ball breaker of a stretch, long walks, steep banks, massive snags, no fish.....

When its fishing well this stretch is very rewarding, however when it’s bad I question if the stretch has been polluted as it seems lifeless. I knew what type of day it was going to be after dropping in on a banker peg! Anyway I worked hard, enjoyed the time on the bank but didn’t start the year with a bang!

Backend chub and pike

Amongst the perch sessions I’ve had the odd short pike session and a few flying visits to the river for a quick after work chub session. I landed pike on every session, mostly on rivers but I also had a first pike session on a large gravel pit, which produced two of the skinniest jacks I’ve seen. 

One of the gravel pit pike

Almost a double from my local river

The chub fishing was steady, with a good average size fish of 4lb + on most sessions, but it was often only a single fish landed, not too concerning as these sessions are very short, 2-3hrs maximum. My last session of the year was a bit better, two fish landed with one being 5.08lb and a new river best. I’ll be continuing to target the chub in this river throughout the winter, with the long term target of increasing this river best to over 6lb.

5lb 8oz with plenty of room to fill out, potentially a very big chub at the right time of year

The 5.08lb next to a low '4'

First cast on a flying visit after work 4.14, only bite of the session though.

2019 highlights 

I don’t have the time or motivation for a full year review, so I’ll just stick a few highlights up.

Barbel - 11lb 7oz

Chub - 5lb 8oz

Perch - 3lb 6oz

Tench - 5lb 2oz

Any other species were either not weighted or are not worth mentioning.

The overall highlight of my fishing year was the capture of a double figure barbel from a river I’ve been working hard on for a couple of seasons. At 11lb 3oz it equalled my then p.b and really did make my fishing year, doubles from this river are definitely few and far between and they seem to be getting rarer each season. 

The highlight of my angling year, despite catching larger barbel from the trent this capture definitely brought me the most pleasure. I'll be surprised if I ever catch a larger barbel from this river.