Can you troll for pike on a snowboard?

It's been another lean few weeks, angling-wise, for me.  I haven't fished for over a month now, but not out of choice.  I've been a little short on time, the weather's not been great (not that I'm a fine weather fisherman - not in the slightest - but during one of the warmest worldwide Januaries on record, we had one of the coldest on record!), etc. and I've also just returned from a week snowboarding at Les Arcs in the French Alps.  Plenty of snow, plenty of raclette cheese, plenty of overpriced beer and this year no injuries!  Unlike last years trip which left me with a permanently dislocated clavicle (collar bone) on my left shoulder, which (still) looks like this:

I also saw one of the best skiing/snowboarding shirts I've ever seen, which simply said on the front "Snow, Sex and Tartiflette"!

Back to fishing, I've been sent a few tackle bits & bobs to review, so expect to see those appearing on the website soon, and possibly on here too.  I've also just received a Korum latex spoon net, which on first impressions is absolutely brilliant for everything from bream, tench & carp fishing, right through to a roving net for barbel, pike & zander.  I can't believe how many leagues ahead of the pack the latex range of nets by Korum are!  It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago too, so I'm now the proud owner of a pair of the new Shimano 2500FA front-drag baitrunner reels, which I'm planning to use for fishing the lift method for tench & carp, and probably for the odd bit of close-range leger & feeder work come spring...

I'm hoping to get at least 3 full-day sessions in before the end of the river season in 6 weeks time.  I've been invited on a guided perch fishing trip on the River Kennet, with the goal of a fish over 3lb in weight.  I've never fished the Kennet, and it has great big perch pedigree, so it will be an honour to have a go for them.  Conditions permitting, this should happen in early March, so I'm really looking forward to (hopefully) finishing the season in style with a few Southern perch!

I see Robson Green's back for another series of lessons in what not to do to fish (if you have a humane bone in your body).  Great.  Although there's a part of me that's happy just to a fishing programme on a prime-time terrestrial slot.  According to a story I read in Anglers Mail a few weeks ago, the full-length versions of Jeremy Wade's River Monsters will be shown early this year on an ITV channel (the shows featured on ITV1 in late 2009 were condensed down from about 45 minutes to 30 minutes) and also Catching The Impossible (which I also got episodes 4-6 DVD for my birthday) should finally get a TV airing early this year.  So maybe there's a Robson Green knock-on effect which has opened the door for some "proper" fishing programmes featuring commited, talented anglers and (in the case of "...Impossible") directed by one of the finest in his field.

I happened upon a couple of fish-related stories on the BBC news website, which may be of interest to anyone who's into fish as much as I am.  The first is the discovery of how and why fish may have evolved gills (sorry creationists!), the second is some evidence to the intelligence of the humble stickleback!

Light shed on fish gill mystery
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8454592.stm

'Genius' claim for sticklebacks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8104759.stm

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010 everyone.  Let's hope that this year's a productive one, whatever we're fishing for.

As I write, the snow is falling and we already have at least 4 inches piled up outside that has fallen today on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border.  This really has been an exceptional cold snap and while short cold spells can mean good fishing for some species, prolonged cold weather such as this tends to slow down pretty much everything that swims.  With all of the snow falling into our rivers and lakes and the continued cold temperatures (with many parts of the UK struggling to break above 0 C, even in daytime!) the water temperature will be extremely low and lower than most species require to enable them to feed and digest what they eat.  When we eventually do get a thaw, be prepared to head out and fish as you could be in for a red letter day.  There will be some very hungry pike, chub, roach, grayling and perch out there just waiting for a warm spell to trigger a feeding frenzy.  Location will be paramount to a good day's sport, but get this right and these species will be crawling up your line to get to your bait box! 

I ventured out into the cold for a couple of slow sessions just before new year.  First I fished for grayling; I started out trotting but bites were not forthcoming.  A switch to a crumb feeder did eventually bring me 5 or 6 bites, which resulted in two grayling landed - both around the pound mark - and a couple of fish lost on the way to the net.  Matt who I was fishing with also managed a good grayling and a couple of trout, but got smashed by something very powerful - possibly a barbel or a huge trout - on a big lump of bread flake.

One of my favourite species in both looks and fighting spirit departments, a grayling of just over a pound

The following day I fished the Trent for pike, and with the snow melt going in the river was very coloured and rose by almost a foot while I was there!  These were some of the worst conditions for river pike fishing, but I did manage one fish and had a few dropped runs which I'm pretty sure were chub, as I didn't connect with them and my deadbaits came back in sucked rather than chewed! 

This low double was my only reward on a tough day.  As you can see by the water on the lense, it was a damp old day!

I also found the complete skeleton and remnants of fur of a large, canine-toothed mammal.  I've brought the skull back to clean and identify but I'm 99% sure it's either an otter or a mink.  I've seen mink on the Trent before and whilst they're tremendous creatures to watch, I'm uneasy about this alien (very agile, adept, versatile & efficient - both in the water and on land) predator rampaging in the wild in this country, so I'm hoping it's not one.  If it's an otter on the other hand, I'll be quite impressed; I've never seen a wild one in the UK and whilst I know they're hardly an angler's best friend, I for one am in favour of their re-introduction and I'd love to see one up close.  They're one of our natural freshwater predators and whilst we may not like them eating "our" fish, they belong in our waterways just as much as kingfishers, pike and perch do.  If it wasn't for human persecution, protecting trout and salmon stocks, they'd still be abundant in the wild anyway.  I think the fact that they've been virtually extinct for a few generations, means that it's now quite a shock when we witness a large dead fish killed by an otter because it's not something we're used to.  I think this has caused a bit of a panic amongst some anglers and fishery owners but I seriously do not think that a rise in otter numbers will lead to any drastic decline in average or largest fish sizes nationwide.  Izaac Walton didn't seem to struggle and back then otters would have been a common sight in most of the country's waterways!  Being mainly a predator angler myself, I have explained on multiple occasions to other anglers the importance of the natural predator vs. prey balance, especially when condemning the short-sighted "anglers" who feel the need to kill/cull pike.  Well, suprise surprise, although they're furry rather than scaly, otters are also part of Britain's natural predator/prey balance!  I can think of one well known angler who has previously stressed the importance of predators, yet has also condemned the re-introduction of otters!  Cormorants (another can o' worms completely!) are a slightly different story because they now feed and breed much further inland than they naturally should, BUT it's still our fault as humans, for we have removed all their food from the seas surrounding us, so they have a simple choice:  Die on the British coast or adapt and find food elsewhere.  It's a natural survival instinct and much as I dislike the things (I've personally had cormorants completely wipe-out a lake more than once and have had to take extraordinary measures to prevent future gluttonous attacks), I can't knock 'em for their ability to thrive in adversity!

I did brave the cold waters of the river Derwent on Boxing Day to enter the annual raft race, which was even more of a laugh than last year although I'm glad we only found out about the dead body after we'd finished!  Here's our monstrosity of a raft in action, I'm in the fetching red cowboy hat!

Merry Christmas Everyone! (Rage Against The Machine Christmas No.1? Incredible!!!)

Best wishes to everyone for the festive period.  Here's to bulging landing nets for the New Year!

With the snow-melt predicted over the next couple of days it's seriously going to cool the waters down, making most species difficult to catch.  I'm hoping to fit in a grayling session and a chub session, but if it gets ever so slightly milder and the rivers don't colour up too much I might contemplate a pike session.  It's over a month now since I wet a line and I'm getting very itchy to do so!  I'll be paying close attention to the weather forecasts and EA rivercall messages to help me decide what I should target when.  ...Although I'll probably still get it wrong!

Before I can fit in any fishing, I'll be potentially risking life & limb for no good reason other than for a laugh, by entering the MATLOCK RAFT RACE on the River Derwent!  Had I thought about it earlier, I could have got sponspored for charity but as it stands I'm doing it for no-one's benefit, not even my own!  With the snow melting into the river it'll be a wee bit chilly on the extremeties, to put it politely.

Finally a quick word about the Christmas Nunber 1.  Rage Against The Machine have genuinely been one of my top 3 bands of all time, for a good few years now.  I'm staggered, elated, impressed that they got the Christmas number 1.  I think it was blown out of proportion as usual by the media and Rage seem to be lapping up the attention, but at last this hugely influential, groundbreaking band get some mainstream media attention.  They've backed various campaigns themselves in the past against political prisoners, oppressive governments and other political issues so there's a certain amount of irony that it was an internet campaign that got them a number 1!  To those who say "the song isn't very Christmassy" (of which there are many, it seems), how on earth is a cheesy re-hash of a song Hannah Montana sang in a film released in the Spring, about her supposed struggle against the odds at all Christmassy?  And as for those who feel sorry for the X-factor winner; surely the ones you should feel sorry for are previous Cowell show winners who undeservedly had a number 1 then vanished into abstraction?  At least this guy is at the start of his career, he has the chance to get many future number ones; who knows, he might even start his own campaign to beat next year's X-factor winner to top spot!  Rage's music has been around for almost 2 decades and it still sounds fresh and dangerous; surely this is more deserved of a number one than someone who's "struggled" and "climbed" for 12 weeks to be given a schmaltzy song to cover which has been cherry-picked to get him a guaranteed Christmas number 1?!!! 
"Killing..." is not my favourite Rage song, but as a number 1?  Hell, I'll take it!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Angling Star Magazine - December 2009 Cover Shot

Guess who's on the cover of this month's "Angling Star"...!

Available in all good (mainly Northern!) newsagents now!

Robson Green digging himself an Extreme deep hole down under!

Anyone familiar with my website will likely know that I'm not the biggest fan of Robson Green's fishing show, "Extreme Fishing with Robson Green".  I do explain myself further on my website, but my main gripe with the show is the inhumanity and contempt he shows towards fish and other creatures (moorhens, to be precise!).  Anyway, I received an email a few weeks ago from an Australian writer, who maintains a blog called Sting In The Tail.  She had seen a couple of episodes with her husband and made a few comments about Robson's treatment of fish on her Twitter account.  A baffling but hilarious exchange ensued, with Robson posting several knee-jerk responses to her comments.  I was aghast when I read it, and as a result Mr Green has dropped further in my estimation.  Before I thought he was a pillock when given a fishing rod, but it seems he's just a full-time pillock!  The full dialogue is detailed Here - Robson Green vs Sheila in Twitter verbal battle.  I'd recommend you give it a read; it's both amusing and enlightening!

As for fishing at the moment, I have no sessions planned.  The last time I fished I was out on the Trent 3 weeks ago on a 7pm 'til 11.30pm after-work session.  I didn't blank, but the results weren't exactly sparkling. 

I'm hoping to get a full day session in before Christmas, but I'm struggling for days off at the moment, and this weekend I'm off to the "10 Years of ATP" music festival at Butlins in Minehead!  I went to the "Nightmare Before Christmas" festival there last December and it was unbelievably good. 

For anyone who hasn't heard of ATP before, their festivals are aimed at "proper" music fans and tend to have eclectic bills heavily laden with seminal artits who have never really hit the mainstream or had songs on the radio, but their influence on other artists or the music scene in general has been noteworthy.  There's also plenty of new talent on show and a few of my favourites I discovered during ATP last year are Tweak Bird, Monotonix and Vocal Sampling.  Another perk of ATP festivals to a 30-odd festival veteran such as myself is the accommodation.  After a long day's drinking and rocking out a bed, a radiator and a hot shower are very welcome!  Well, I am getting old you know...

Next blog I promise will be a bit more fishing-related!

Hello blogsville!

Hi, this is not a proper blog post - I intend to post one of those very soon - it's just a test to see how my profile's looking.

Once properly up and running this is going to be a blog about fishing in the UK and abroad, updated whenever I've got something to say in between writing my Fishing Articles.  If you like to fish for specimen Barbel, Pike, Perch, Zander, Chub, Roach, Rudd, Grayling and occasionally Carp, then head over to my website to check out some of my instructional articles & videos, then check back here soon for new blog posts.  Thanks for checking my stuff out!