2012, The Year in Review

Well I'm still sitting tight while the last of the rain and wind crosses the country, it's due to abate quite soon so I'll be out fishing later this week unless this cold I have gets any worse. Time though to look back at the year and see how we got on. All in all it was a very satisfying year with new waters fished, plenty of big fish caught and a few really good catches.

First Quarter
The period from January to the end of March produced some really good fishing for both Denis and I with a total of fourteen twenty pounders between us along with a large number of double figure fish. Quite apart from the numbers of fish, they were of a really good size with a 25, a 26, two 27s and a 28 pounder featuring in our catches. There were some big catches too, with several 100lb+ bags of fish and regular multiple catches. Maybe the most remarkable catch was taken on a day when I continually dropped into swims that Denis had just vacated and pulled out a pike. Poor Denis was getting more and more frustrated as I pulled out a nine, a nineteen, a twenty three, a twenty six and a twenty seven, which had a two-tone head, while he remained fishless. He made up for it all on the last cast of the day though with a twenty seven of his own.

The pike all came from two venues, one of which I had never had a twenty from before, and came on a mixture of baits and lures, although lures accounted for the majority of fish with soft plastics in particular doing the business.

Second Quarter
This was entirely devoted to tench fishing and we decided to start our tench campaign early, kicking it off in April. This was a mistake, largely because we had one of the wettest, coldest Springs for many years. We went through the usual routine of early morning starts day after day but it was really hard work with few bites and fish that were smaller than we had hoped. The fishing improved as the year rolled on and the temperatures rose but no double figure tench came our way and indeed I only had one fish over nine pounds with Denis taking none. I did have one excellent catch of tench, fifteen of them in all with four over eight pounds on a day when they fed well but that was a real exception.

Inevitably some bream turned up during our tench campaign including some doubles, though none of them were huge. Denis had the biggest one at 12lbs 9oz, a pb for him.

There were some really good things that happened during the tench campaign mind. I was delighted to catch some tench from a completely different area of the lake - I'll be fishing there a lot more next year. Time too to look at new baits and different methods I think. Lobworms will feature much more in my tench fishing in 2013.

Third Quarter


I hardly fished at all from July through to September. A long trip to America to visit Sarah, my eldest daughter along with all the preperation for the trip meant there was little time left to wet a line. I didn't miss the fishing, July and August are rubbish for fishing - at least they are for the kind of fishing I do.

I started piking early this year. The summer had been a cold wet one and water temperatures weren't high so I targeted a trout water and a river. The trout water was a real disappointment with few decent fish getting caught by anyone - I'll have to put that one down to experience. The river turned up a few fish but as per the rest of the year, heavy rain and high levels had a major impact.

Fourth Quarter
This period started well and I picked up four 20lb+ pike with the biggest going 24lb 8oz along with plenty of double figure fish. Denis and I have tried quite a few new places to fish and some of them turned up the goods with some nice pike, mostly on lures although the biggest came to a herring.

Denis had our final twenty pounder of 2012 with this fine 22lb 3oz fish which took a perch pattern replicant, I don't know what he'll do when he loses that lure!

Late November the rains started and it seems they haven't stopped now for over a month. The rivers have been out of order and I've not been tempted to get the boat out and do some Lakes fishing due to the wind and the things I've needed done in the house.

That's all due to come to an end it seems in a few days and I'm like a coiled spring ready to hit those banks

Happy New Year everyone, let's hope the fishing's as good in 2013.