What makes a session a red letter day?

[chub_on_the_block]

Due to some intense boredom on my part and with a good excuse not to work today i have been reading back through old fishing reports i have kept since the late 1970s. A couple of years back i went so far as to enter basic info - hours fished, venue, date and catch weight onto a spreadsheet. I have about 620 sessions recorded in this way.

Once in a spreadsheet i can sort by catch weight - i see i blanked 90 odd times, and to date my top weight is 62Ib 8oz (estimated) of Bream and Tench. Other notables include nearly 60Ib of Rudd in 5 hours and some memorable days at Witley Park catching 50Ib of Crucians. Best river session to date was a cuple of years back on Wye - almost 50Ib of barbel & chub. Carp baggin has featured lightly - I have only a few sessions where i have got stuck into carp in the 5-10Ib range as seems more often the rage these days. I had a near 50Ib bag from Broadwater Lake near Godalming in the early 80s, which was a water ahead of its time in that respect (a mate fishing 3 yards away had over 100Ib). As for F1s, i can count on one hand the number of times i have come across them (best about a 30Ib bag).

A red letter day could just as easily be a 10Ib bag of Roach on the stick, a brace of nice chub or tench, or even a single fish. It could be doing well in a hard winter league match with bits when all else failed.

I dont have an answer to my question, but i have tended to regard any session where i get 10Ib of fish out as a measure of success. I might need to land that third tench or chub rather than a brace to do it, so be it. In my reports the catch weight then gets written in red ink and thats always been my rule. I have achieved that mark about 100 times, which is probably OK for the waters i have generally fished - but maybe i have been missing something avoiding commercials?!

 

[mikench]

All things are relative but a nice day, a nice few fish( the first of a species being great), a flask of good black coffee, no mishaps, a result on a new bait or method, a good curry and bottle of wine on my return all make a very good day!

If the wife is in the mood and I can get rid of the fishy smell of goo, fish and bait then it becomes a red letter day!

Binka eat your heart out

 

[thecrow]

For me its good company and having the craic, although its nice to catch a few fish as well, thankfully I have had and continue to have lots of days like this.

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

on some water it would be the a fish a cast on other 2 decent roach fro ma river or 1 chub

or it could be getting carp feeding and nabbing a few

or getting one decent cast on the fly rod

 

[binka]

All to often for me it's simply been when that seemingly invincible door, which I seem to have been banging on for all eternity, just swings open and be it a bag of fish or a special particular one it just all seems like I've been making hard work of the previous attempts.

Fishing's a bit funny like that imo, every now and again you think you've cracked it only to be brought back down to earth fairly shorty afterwards with a whacking great thump!

 

[maurice walsh]

ive had 400lb+ bream days in the past and a 1 only 200lb + roach day, 100lb+ pike days, all well n good , but damned hard but very satisfying work, all worthy of the title"red letter days", but my last red letter day was a 5hr session with less than 10lb of roach, perch and dace (biggest fish of the day about 10oz) on a 4m whip in my home village , i had'nt fished there for a good while and the old neighbors stopping for a chat and a reminisce , bit of rare sun in the land of eternal wind n rain, pack of tabs and a more relaxed day on the river i cant remember, defo a red letter day! you dont need PB's or to break records or to fill 10 keepnets to have a cracking day to remember

 

[Keith M]

A red letter day for me is when absolutely everything goes right on the day; quality sized fish are literally climbing up my rod and even the weather conditions are absolutely perfect.

I've had a few days like that over the years and they are the days that stay in my memory for ever.

Keith

 

[Peter Jacobs]

A red letter day for me doesn't necessarily have to include actually catching fish to be memorable.

I remember some spectacular sunrises and sunsets, early morning frosts lighting up spiders webs in my swim, sighting a rarely seem bird or water fowl . . . really, all sorts of things.

On the catching side, I have had some memorable days grayling fishing both in the UK and in Norway; two tremendous days of roach fishing on the Hampshire Avon where I caught two 3 pound roach on successive late evenings; an unexpected huge pike in southern Sweden on my first real piking trip, and so many more besides.

One striking memory of feeling like it was a red letter day was in the lower Itchen when dry fly fishing and watching a brownie rising many times and yet despite all sorts of patterns offered I couldn't attract the fish at all.
I sat and made some coffee and looked all through my fly boxes and hit on a tiny flying ant pattern.
Second cast after my coffee, trout took and I played an over-wintered brownie to the net. A red letter day for me, definitely.

Although, as I said earlier, a red letter day for me doesn't have to include for catching fish as there are so many other "wonders" associated with this great sport.

 

[no-one in particular]

I think if I can still remember a particular day a year later, then it was a red letter day. It might be a particular fish or loads of em. Its those that stick in the mind forever that qualify. It covers all species come to think about it, bream, roach, chub, sea trout even a gudgeon; I remember the first one I caught in one river I had been fishing for years, still sticks in the mind. OK not a red letter day but the poor old gudgeon earned its place in my memory bank..

 

[Ray Daywalker Clarke]

I have had some great Red Letter days. As others have said, it's not always been to do with catching fish.

It's the company, the fishing, maybe a meal after and a few beers.

Been on some very funny fish ins, where the fishing hasn't been good but the company is great.

 

[maurice walsh]

have to agree with the above, how nice is it even if the fishing is not at its best but the company is(if there is company) and if the day allows a bite and a pint before home with a smile

 

[S-Kippy]

Been on some very funny fish ins, where the fishing hasn't been good but the company is great.

Second that. Take the Wye....up at 3-30 am, drove down with The Clarkster chatting & laughing all the way, fishing poor but a fantastic day out in great company. Red Letter ? Perhaps not but I wouldn't miss days like this for anything.

A true RL for me is when Plan A works...which it does sometimes even for me.

 

[tigger]

A red letter day for me is when absolutely everything goes right on the day; quality sized fish are literally climbing up my rod and even the weather conditions are absolutely perfect.

I've had a few days like that over the years and they are the days that stay in my memory for ever.

Keith

Snap, that's my idea of a red letter day also .

I've had a few "red letter days" myself and same as you those days are firmly embedded in my memory banks .

 

[Clodhopper]

Not snapping anything.

 

[binka]

Not snapping anything.

Amen to that, my fellow snapper

 

[dorsetandchub]

All to often for me it's simply been when that seemingly invincible door, which I seem to have been banging on for all eternity, just swings open and be it a bag of fish or a special particular one it just all seems like I've been making hard work of the previous attempts.

Fishing's a bit funny like that imo, every now and again you think you've cracked it only to be brought back down to earth fairly shorty afterwards with a whacking great thump!

Swings open? Falls off its hinges, more like

 

[benny samways]

Catching on socials in the cold.

 

[old school]

A red letter day for me is getting a biteSo you can imagine how happy i was the other week when i was using a old cane rod that i had repaired and a centrepin reel,when all of a sudden the rod bent round and the ratchet on the centrepin screamed,turned out to be a 15lb common ,first carp i had out of this pit in two seasons.Happy days