Nearly that time of the year again

I've been trying not to think too much about not being able to fish the rivers, and to help me I've been having a search around new waters. Hoping to find a few fish and even catch a few, and guess what, I have done just that. I've eyed up some nice spots on the river too along the way which look very tempting when the time comes. Fathers day it is, and my fishing day is already booked up as my treat.

Biggest of recent perch

Among the spawning bream, shoals of silvers rising to take the new hatches and a couple of huge carp I've spotted plenty of fish. I know where a couple of rather large pike live now that I didn't know before and I know that if I want to catch them I need to be a little more stealthy than I was when I met the first one. Plodding along a canal bank I was stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of a large pike, at least a twenty. As I slowly sank to my knees, hoping and praying it hadn't seen me I saw her do the same. Slowly sinking to the depths out of sight. Of course I went back to the spot later and a few more days after but didn't see her, though she'll be there for another day. The second one, which was pushing twenty came following my lure in as I stood at the canal side half watching my lure half watching everything else around me. Again I reminded myself that I need to be a little less conspicuous at this location. Silly me, but that's what happens when you relax a little and let your guard down.








I wasn't really chasing pike though, just a bit of perch fun and also just an excuse to get out and fish. I've also seen some very nice looking perch on my travels, tempting a couple but being left wanting by a few more. The crystal clear water doesn't help sometimes, both because the predators can often switch off when it's like this and also because you can see the big fish ignoring your lure. Even worse can be crystal clear water and bright sunshine. A good example of this was on one occasion fishing a bit of canal I bagged a few pike and some nice perch in a short two hour session. So I planned a longer effort the next day and when I got there it was nice and overcast, plenty of cloud cover. Within no time I had a few pike follows, a couple of missed hits, a few small perch and one about a pound and a half. It was all looking promising but within half an hour the cloud cover had gone and the red hot sun was blazing down. Yes you guessed it, the fish turned off and I never saw a thing after that. It just shows you what part luck plays sometimes.



Here's a selection of photos taken on some of my recent outings.

 I wasn't the only one on the look out for the best fishing spots.

One of the many carp spotted in the canals. This one was probably a mid double but I did see a couple that dwarfed this one.

Some of the pike came in like a good little fishy.

Some decided they weren't playing ball.

 I discovered that perch like 20cm real eels.

 I was very glad this perch was just a tiddler or this could have been a not so nice experience.

A few of these every now and again makes it all worth while.