How was your Season?

[steve2]

Using today for the season closing date how was your fishing year. A bit old school.
I went a few times up to July caught some nice Tench to 6lbs and a few mixed bags. I haven’t been since for various reasons. I have now given up all my club memberships and now trying to find what appears to be the impossible, water that isn’t heavily stocked with carp and where I can still use a keepnet.
Have a good 2020-21 season.

 

[sylvanillo]

That's right, it is time to have a thought on our season.

The season for me has been heavily impacted by different factors, all new and utterly unexpected:
1/ health
2/ brexit (my micro business grew up 130% the second year in UK, then 340% outside UK for 3 years, and then crashed 6 months ago)
3/ relocation
4/ floodings
5/ a well known virus I'm sure you're aware is quite a concern...........

This year I have to conclude I'm a happy angler.
Fishing has been part of my physical therapy and worked wonderful.

Thanks to FM I've discovered a different world.

Thanks to FM I've caught my first barbel and bream.

Thanks to FM I've partly understood feeder fishing, I've discovered coarse fishing, even float.

All this opens sort of unlimited fishing.
Tench would be one of my next tries, it may be a bit difficult for now but let's see. Perhaps carp!!

 

[108831]

A mixed season with some good fish,good catches,plus poor ones,some health issues,a typical season I suppose,lol.

 

[no-one in particular]

Same here, different things had an unwanted impact on my fishing however, one or two spells that were good, some nice rudd on a newly discovered day ticket river for one. Still, was nothing to shout about and sea fishing was a bit of a disaster but then it has been for more than one season. Hope to get going again in the spring/summer and maybe trying a bit harder.

 

[Mark Wintle]

After a good spring I was just getting into my stride in the summer when my wife broke her ankle in two places so no fishing for three weeks and some restrictions after that, and when my hemp and tares fishing was at its height the early arrival of the rains stopped much of my river fishing from late September. It wasn't until late autumn that I really got on the river again and post Christmas my roach fishing was good right until the end, and I had more Stour roach than I ever had in a season. Conversely I had but one decent chub all season, no tench of any size, no barbel or grayling (the waters we have for grayling don't open until November and were across the fields most of the winter). I enjoyed my stillwater fishing and hope to do more videoing later in the year.

 

[Aknib]

I'm glad you asked the question as it's made me think and look at things a bit differently.

On the face of it I would say unremarkable but thinking about things further I've discovered and enjoyed immensely a new local water which is quite picturesque in the form of an old village dam and has been very kind to me with mixed silvers catches including some lovely pristine Roach and even some clonking netter Dace with an un-weighed but obvious pb ( 10oz?) and in the depths of Winter, despite the shallowness...



I've also joined some estate lakes that have given me some monsterous Ide, something I've never encountered before at this size including this one just this afternoon and prior to Kev turning up and providing some excellent company for an hour or two...



I ventured into the dark world of making slider Avons and then went on to catch a new pb (for float caught) Barbel of 13lb+ on one of them...




The quantity of big Perch has been a noticeable absence but that's mainly down to the fact that I've fished much less due to work, that isn't as bad as it sounds as I enjoy my work so much although I do plan to get out far more in the coming season.

I'm struggling to recall a Zander session which is unusual and I'd have to go back a couple of Winters to recall a once regular Pike session (although I've still caught plenty on worm!) and as ever, a big eel eludes me despite the occasional attempt.

Maybe not so unremarkable after all

 

[tigger]

Err, pretty naff.

 

[S-Kippy]

As I alluded to on the hdygo thread, a great spring/summer followed by a rubbish autumn/winter. Found some great local tench fishing upping my pb to 8-12 and caught big crucian virtually every time I tried to. My best session being 23 with 14 of those over 3lb and a best of 3-12. I hate autumn and hardly fished at all.....then the wind and rain set in and I’ve hardly had a fish since

I’m not sorry to see the end of this season and I’m looking forward to another crack at those tench and crucian as soon as it warms up a bit....and this friggin wind stops blowing.

But first a few trite.

 

[john step]

The perch big and small have all but disappeared in my local waters. Shades of the 70s? The silvers have been wiped out by the black death in some local waters.
The winter piking in the Witham was not worth bothering with due to flooding. I know carp are not everyones favourite on here but they have been a godsend to me.
roll on the Spring.

 

[seth49]

Quite good really, bit of a learning curve at first with it being a new fishery, but a lot more carp and tench and this was reflected in our catches after a few months, our last fishery that we’ve fished for the last five years just went downhill fast, not just us but a lot more members have decided not to rejoin this year.

If your paying £170.00 a year you expect a lot more, the banks were very muddy, and the pegs were overgrown and in a poor state, me and mick did a lot of work last winter, but he never carried it on like he promised, so we joined a local club that only charged £20.00 pound a year, pegs are all good and the paths are all stoned and dry.

We had over three hundred carp between us here, plus I had some nice tench as well, so a no brainier have rejoined this year plus another local club, total cost of £80.00 in total, so plenty to go at now for a lot less money. Happy days.

 

[nottskev]

Patchy, but still had plenty of enjoyable fishing. The season started with floods, so I spent the first few weeks fishing stillwaters, with lots of tench, but hardly any crucians. All small to medium, but on light float gear it doesn't get much better.

Once the river settled down, there was some great barbel and chub fishing. You had to be there very early or late, though, to catch well, and this was the first year I bought repellants and even armoured clothing to keep the mozzies off. The river was up and down all summer, so float rods and leger rods got a workout. I've always been sorry that just as I came down here the chub seemed to leave, so I was chuffed to find one place where you can catch more good chub in a morning than I sometimes see in a season.

In between fishing on the big river, I went out late in the evening a few times to a tiny local one. There's not much in it - the chub are definitely self-isolating - but catching odd ones on floating crust was fun. There was a thread about which fish wise up quicker. You can sometimes catch carp after carp on floating baits from the same spot. I've yet to get a second bite from a swim after catching a chub on one.

The floods were back in October, and I had some great fishing with roach and perch from backwaters on the big river, with a few outings to new places, both with a connection to our Mansfield correspondent. One involved sitting on top of a small weir, trotting a tiny float down a shallow stream and catching roach, dace, perch, chub and even a tench. The other involved a beautiful barely fished woodland pond where fishing wasn't easy, but if you happened to fish the right way at the right time gave bags of such unlikely bedfellows as bream, chub, ide and barbel.

By the time we got close to Christmas, I'd more or less given up fishing to concentrate on the mysterious respiratory problem that kept me indoors and baffled medical science. It's fashionable now, but I think I can say I was ahead of the curve.

I'm hoping to get out fishing again soon, but it's a funny time for getting out doing anything.

 

[rich66]

New club this year saw me catch the most carp I ever have, even without trying or even when trying not too! I’m not complaining it’s just been different.
In fact I think I’ve caught the most fish I ever have this year.
I’ve had tench & crucians in the summer nothing big but still lovely to catch.
I’ve learnt a lot from other FM members.

Only real blot on the landscape was a dose of Lymes from a double tick bite.


Roll on the spring, hopefully more tench and I’m going to see if I can catch more bream! Still not caught a barbel but as I fish mainly still waters and I don’t think they are in my local rivers it might be a while yet.

 

[nottskev]

Still not caught a barbel but as I fish mainly still waters and I don’t think they are in my local rivers it might be a while yet.

Leicester to Newark 45 mins on the A46.
Plenty of places in that area to try on a day ticket.
Treat yourself!

 

[rich66]

Leicester to Newark 45 mins on the A46.
Plenty of places in that area to try on a day ticket.
Treat yourself!

Sounds like a good idea

 

[flightliner]

A dry start on a stillwater saw my next outing to the Trent at was flooded. I had two 13+ Barbel in the first two casts.
That day seemed to be repeated whenever I had a change of specie be it Chub, roach, Tench Perch Bream etc it afterwards the results seemed to fall away to a point where I was scratching for a bite, something that well into the season I saw as a sign to change tack to start catching again!
I had a new club to enjoy too, one that gave me a chance of some big river roach , and tho I had some pretty good ones I kept being interrupted by some pretty hefty Barbel-- welcome when I'm fishing for them but not when I'm not!
Overall , looking back on the season it wasn't all ab o it the actual fish but who I fished with at times.
A few to mention were from Nottinghamshire,North east Derbyshire , Lincolnshire and my own bit of South Yorkshire.
Many thanks to all of you!

 

[Pete Shears]

It was going ok with tench from the local canal feeder reservoir and the odd roach to over 1lb, easy bream fishing at a Northants reservoir.
Switched to light lure/drop shotting on the Grand Union Canal from mid August catching perch over 1lb and fishing areas I had not been on for 50 years and meeting Aussies,Kiwis,Americans and Chinese enjoying narrowboat holidays. Started small river chubbing in October with a few to 3lb+ and brown trout to 2lb+ and on Remembrance Sunday morning - disaster - house fire, lost all the pike deadbaiting gear,spinning,dropshot and small river gear,waders,coats,chairs,brollies etc etc as well as household white goods etc,beds etc - £30k+ total.
Been in limbo since - Premier Inn then a rental property until June when hopefully we can move back home . . . .

 

[108831]

All the best with that Pete.

 

[nottskev]

It was going ok with tench from the local canal feeder reservoir and the odd roach to over 1lb, easy bream fishing at a Northants reservoir.
Switched to light lure/drop shotting on the Grand Union Canal from mid August catching perch over 1lb and fishing areas I had not been on for 50 years and meeting Aussies,Kiwis,Americans and Chinese enjoying narrowboat holidays. Started small river chubbing in October with a few to 3lb+ and brown trout to 2lb+ and on Remembrance Sunday morning - disaster - house fire, lost all the pike deadbaiting gear,spinning,dropshot and small river gear,waders,coats,chairs,brollies etc etc as well as household white goods etc,beds etc - £30k+ total.
Been in limbo since - Premier Inn then a rental property until June when hopefully we can move back home . . . .

What rotten luck! I'd noted the lack of reports about the upper Soar, and the bird life on the reservoir. Funny about the antipodeans - I was fishing for perch with dropshotted worms on the canal at Loughborough, and met some Australians on a boat who thought UK fishing looked great. Best of luck getting back into your home.

 

[rich66]

It was going ok with tench from the local canal feeder reservoir and the odd roach to over 1lb, easy bream fishing at a Northants reservoir.
Switched to light lure/drop shotting on the Grand Union Canal from mid August catching perch over 1lb and fishing areas I had not been on for 50 years and meeting Aussies,Kiwis,Americans and Chinese enjoying narrowboat holidays. Started small river chubbing in October with a few to 3lb+ and brown trout to 2lb+ and on Remembrance Sunday morning - disaster - house fire, lost all the pike deadbaiting gear,spinning,dropshot and small river gear,waders,coats,chairs,brollies etc etc as well as household white goods etc,beds etc - £30k+ total.
Been in limbo since - Premier Inn then a rental property until June when hopefully we can move back home . . . .

What rotten luck Pete, I hope no one was hurt everything else is just stuff compared to people.

 

[terry m]

A mixed year indeed. Great summer and autumn, but winter was rather average, primarily because of the floods. Nonetheless still really enjoyable and loving getting out on the bank for some quality solitary fishing time.