A year of change

With just one fishing day left this year, and not much chance of me getting out I decided it was time to sum up my year, if only to convince myself I've done all right. The last couple of months have been a bit poor, particularly pike wise due to a combination off all sorts of things. But actually looking back over the year it's been a cracker.

It was kind of strange in some ways as I often felt I hadn't really had a proper crack at pike, but that's also a little strange when you consider the following. I actually had a far better year this year than any other year. I've caught more pike, more doubles and more twenties than any other season of fishing but still I don't really feel as though this year has been a proper piking year, weird.

Not really one for setting goals at the start of the year I only had a couple, one being to catch a double figure pike on my light outfit and I achieved that quite a few times including a sixteen. So what was the other goal for this year? Well simply it was to get out and discover some new places. I didn't expect I'd find some secret un-fished water, just un-fished by me. I've been a little limited in my places to fish over the last couple of years so this year I was to go out and have a look. No big name waters, no places people had put me on to just a simple get off my backside and check out all the local venues that might throw up a fish. A quick count tells me I fished at least twenty new places, a couple I went to with my fishing buddies but the rest I was out on my own trying to find out what secrets lay in wait. Bonus on top of all that, much of the water I fished were free fishing and some of it no one else seems to fish.

Now that I think about my results this year, that's the most pleasing thing about it all. That I've managed to get out to all these new places and still catch, and still have an even better year than last year. My usual spots have been pretty much neglected. At the back end of the last winter campaign I bagged a 25lb pike and then on the first day of the new season I netted her again and I think that spurred me on to go look around. Most of the fishing I have done has been armed with the ultra light gear and that has reflected in my results. Comparing with 2012 where I only caught around fifty perch, this year I've done over five hundred. Some tiddlers and a few lumps but again, what is most pleasing is that many of these fish, including a few lumps, came from unknown waters. I also managed to catch a few chub though i never really went out and gave them a good crack like I thought I might and I even caught a couple of beautiful tiny brown trout. Plus of course I still kept catching pike where ever I went.

So again there's no targets for next year. I'm still just in the sport for the fun of it. Some of that fun comes from catching a whacker,  some is from watching the hoards of tiny perch bullying my lures and loads of it is about having a laugh with some good mates. Speaking of mates, how can I forget some of the results we've had. Some absolute storming days out with Woody on the boat where we bagged stacks of fish and even a few days where Neil and Matt joined in  also for double boating fun and fish. Woody dropped me on a river twenty early on in the year on a day that will be remembered by me forever, it was a proper winter fishing day that had everything. We also had a few eventful days where we came close to death and also saved a life. I can also take great joy in sharing a special day with Neil as I took him to my peg and he bagged his first ever twenty, what a result. If all that continues next year then it'll be target achieved for my fishing because I'm in it for enjoyment and that's it.

Good luck to all my fellow anglers out there and I hope you have plenty of decent days fishing next year. To anyone out tomorrow, the best of luck but remember this, if you don't manage to bag that twenty or that 4lb perch, there's always next year to look forward to.

Tight lines.

That twenty five