Tag Archives: personal best

The 2021/22 season hasn’t been my best! I haven’t fished as much as I’d like or for the range of species I would have liked, and my results have generally been poor. Far more blanks than usual and a lost Derwent barbel, which still haunts me, that felt huge and snapped me off due to my own stupidity. The one redeeming feature of the season so far has been my relative success with a very unlikely species – one which has probably given me more blank hours than any other – the zander. For whatever reason I’ve been on a bit of a roll with them. As I’ve stated in the past, I love zander but it’s often a one-way relationship – they don’t reciprocate. When I target zander it’s in the hope of a bite. I don’t expect to catch one so it always gives me a boost when I do, even small ones. There are some exceptions, of course – for example: Predator Hat-trick and Zander Saves September – but my blank rate is usually quite high. I think I had only ever caught zander on consecutive sessions once, but I’ve now had a zander in four consecutive …

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With the rain this week I decided to make a rare trip to the Trent after barbel. I knew the river would be high with plenty of colour so I wanted to use the smelliest baits I had. I found half a pot of The Hook Bait Co. Big Squid boilies from 2016 in the garage. They still looked and smelled good as new, so into the bag they went! I only had 5 hours to fish and I knew location would be paramount. I had the stretch to myself, so I baited marginal spots in 3 swims. Four Spoppers of mixed pellets laced with Nimrod oil, garlic oil and hemp oil went into each swim. In these conditions I favour leads & PVA stockings over swim feeders, and I also used back leads to keep debris off the lines. For hook baits I opted for a Garlic Nimrod & The Big Squid combo – one of each on the hair. All was quiet in the first swim, but after an hour in the second swim I had a good take on my downstream rod. After a tough, but thankfully uneventful fight I managed to net the barbel at the …

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I got out fishing for the first time this year, yesterday, and obliterated my grayling PB twice in half an hour! I’d never been lucky enough to land a 2lb+ grayling before, but had fish of 2lb 2oz (photo with sunglasses) followed by a beautiful beast of 2lb 7oz! I was trotting maggots on a northern spate river when I managed to find a small group of large fish. My first grayling over 2lb – a PB for all of 30 minutes! Half an hour after landing my first 2lb+ grayling, I set myself a new PB with this beauty of 2lb 7oz! View my other personal best captures on my PB List page.

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Until around four years ago, my only real experience of perch was catching the occasional small fish on maggots or worms as a youngster. I’d never specifically targeted the species and a fish of over 2lb was something I could only dream about. Then one day’s pike fishing on a small drain changed all of this. I was wobbling a mackerel deadbait for pike, without success, when I noticed a group of perch following the bait in. I immediately grabbed my lure rod and caught a phenomenal number of perch from the swim, including a fish of 2lb 7oz. It was one of the most spectacular creatures I’d ever set eyes on, and it set me wondering what a 3lb perch must look like. Since then, perch have become one of my favourite species to target and I’ve had my eyes set on landing a perch over 3lbs; on bait, or preferably on a lure. My previous PB perch of 2lb 7oz I’m now quite experienced at catching perch on lures, and it’s surprising just what a range of lure styles they will take. I target perch on all sorts of venues, and lure style generally depends on whether I’m …

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Since starting serious pike fishing back in January 2000, most of my winter sessions have been devoted to this superb predator. Following a dire 2004 campaign, this season I have fared much better and caught many doubles from a variety of venues, on a diverse mix of methods and baits. An early-November piking trip started off like any other. A pre-dawn start saw myself and two mates load up the van and head off into Yorkshire in search of some specimens. We arrived at the venue to find the water gin-clear, with a few pike anglers already setting up. Not the ideal scenario for a successful day’s piking. Still, we loaded ourselves with tackle and headed as far as possible from the madding crowd, in the hope of finding some big pike seeking some peace and quiet. The weather had taken a noticeable chill overnight and I remember feeling the cold air in the back of my throat as we walked. I was the first to find a peg, as I spotted a shoal of roach and bream rolling on the surface, close to some extensive reed beds. I set up quickly and cast a paternostered bait towards the edge …

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A new personal best Since the start of the river season, I have focused mainly on barbel – trying to ‘up’ my personal best – and on my second session I managed a new PB with a barbel of 7lb 13oz – beating my old best by five ounces. Obviously I’m thrilled by this, but I’m still hoping for a double-figure barbel before the end of the season. A new personal best barbel for me, at 7lb 13oz Variety Most of my summer fishing sessions are restricted to weekdays after work, so when I got a day off, I decided it was time for a little variety and visit a new venue, noted for its tench stocks. Tackling up for tench I also took along my light spinning tackle and a barbel rod just in case I fancied a change later on. Arriving at the lake there was a large tent erected near the water, with recent campfires, disposable barbecues, a bow saw, a rubber mallet and loads of litter nearby. It literally looked as if someone had taken up residence. But there was no-one around! Very odd. Then when I looked into the crystal clear water, which was only …

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