BOBCO Open Tackle Day

BOBCO Open Tackle Day

Bass Fishing Cyprus

In February 2015 I had the chance to go out for a days Bass Fishing Cyprus.

Going back to the start of January 2015 my wife and I decided to book a weeks holiday to Cyprus in mid February. Unknown to me at the time Cyprus has a really great network of reservoirs constructed   in order to combat the harsh dry seasons that they have. These reservoirs over the years have been stocked with a good number of fresh water species of fish including my favourite species the large mouth bass. Which I had no idea about until about two weeks before the holiday when I googled fishing in Cyprus to pick up a link  directing me to Cyprus Freshwater Angling Association where I found out they had bass in their waters and to be able to fish I would only need to take some kit out with me and purchase an annual licence on arrival. I was set to go Bass Fishing Cyprus. I am sure most fishermen can relate to the feeling of excitement  I had, its that feeling you get when you are a kid and christmas is the next day. Well thats how it is for me anyway.

The day we arrived we had some really promising weather with high sun and the temperature in the early twenties, I remember thinking if the weather kept up like that I would really be able to smash them out the park. Well when I woke up on day 2 of our trip after enjoying my first day of holiday I was greeted with thunder storms and a cold front dropping the temperature down to the low teens. In my experience cold fronts are a fisherman’s worst nightmare as when these role in the fish bit roles out. I investigated the extended weather forecast and the cold front was due to hang around for 3-4 days with the temperature gradually building back up to the twenties. Not leaving me with much time I decided to go out fishing on the Thursday.

When Thursday morning came I was up at the crack of dawn drinking a cup of coffee overlooking the ocean and the hotel swimming pool waiting for my wife to wake up so we could have our breakfast and hit the road straight away. Kouris Reservoir was our destination about  30-35 minute drive from our hotel, this is the largest and oldest of the reservoirs on Cyprus and has the best head of Bass I understand. Our hire car a little Suzuki Jimmy 4×4 was already packed with the three rods and tackle I had taken with me to target these Bass.

It seemed like we were only on the road for five minutes when we arrived at the Kouris reservoir dam wall, where we stopped to take a couple pictures of the scenery and admire another elderly motorist take a leasuerly drive past us with their huge dog on a leash running next to the car for some exercise. Honestly this dog looked as though it was enjoying itself running along side the car and the owner smiling at us as we stared in shock. Before we had left for Kouris I had researched a few spots where I thought the fish were likely to be and headed for a spot where two rivers feed into the reservoir. This turned out to be a great decision as with in my first couple of casts I had a very light take on my rattle trap but could not connect. The Rattle Trap is a great lure for searching out bass in cold water it is a lipless crank bait with a rattle that can be fished as deep or as shallow as you want.

After about 10 minutes of focusing on this area I decided to move closer to the mouth of the small river where the water colour was a little dirtier from the rain water feeding the rivers and where there was a bit more structure in the way of dead trees, old reed beds, and slightly shallower water. I did also swap the Rattle trap up to a Strike King KVD spinnerbait in Chartreuse and BOOM with in 4 casts I had my first fish on a lovely 2lb 2oz fish.  I was over the moon high fiving my wife and acting like Mike Iaconelli when he lands a fish ( Mike is one of my favourite anglers I follow from the very popular Elite BASS series in America) he is well known for his fits of celebration when he lands a tournament BASS the man is just very very passionate about fishing as am I.

I moved slightly down to an area that looked promising and after pointing out to my wife where I thought the bass would be I made 2 casts and hooked into my second fish another 2lber after releasing this fish I made another cast and caught the biggest fish of the day a beautiful 3lb 2oz fish in the exact same spot. I thought I was onto something catching two fish in as many casts unfortunately the wind had really picked up and the water was not as calm as it was when I first started out. This wind made it hard to control my casts and fish the spinnerbait as effectively.

I swapped over to a BOOYAH Jig with a big bite trailer so that I could swim as well as bottom hop the bait. I also moved over to an arm of the reservoir I thought would be sheltered from the wind with was not the case the wind was blowing even harder. I made two casts fishing the steep drop offs where I found the biggest rip raps and BOOM fish on. That was 4 fish with in the space of only a couple of hours. On a body of water I had not fished before and for a species of fish I had not fished for in a very long time I would have been doing very well in any tournament. With those 4 fish I decided to call it a day and take my wife back to the hotel for a spot of lunch.

What fantastic memories I have from bass fishing Cyprus, if you are going to visit Cypress I would recommend getting in touch with the guys at the Cypress Freshwater Angling Association on their Facebook page they were great with telling me where I could arrange my fishing license and best waters to try. A big thank you to my wife for spending that day with me even though I know you would have preferred doing something else you really are a one in a million.

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Bass Fishing Cyprus

BLAC Q1 2015 Gloucester Canal Report

Well it has been a few weeks since the BLAC Q1 2015 Gloucester Canal round has been and I have had ample time to think about the days events and how I performed.

For those that are not familiar with the term BLAC it stands for British Lure Angling Championship. This is a lure fishing tournament in its second year put together and hosted by Julian Chidgey of Fox Rage fishing with qualifiers from each event making it to the final where they get the opportunity to be crowned the British Lure Angling Champion. In my opinion it is the best lure fishing competition in the UK as is covers waters up and down the country giving access to waters such as Chew Valley that the average angler may not otherwise get access too. Not only is is great for the diversity of waters but it is great to meet new anglers and learn new fishing tips and techniques along the way, like I always say fishing is a life long learning lesson.

Back to BLAC Q1 2015 Gloucester Canal Report which has taken me a while to get to thanks to a busy work schedule. This qualifier was always going to be either a great event or a tough one unfortunately for most anglers it turned out to be the latter with the majority of anglers blanking on the day. Having said that there was a super pike caught by Matt Barnsley measuring in at 101cms which was the envy of any anglers in the vicinity including myself.

The day started as usual for me waking up at ‘stupid o’clock’ to get on the road for a 2hr journey to the Gloucester canal where Julian ran through the tournament and venue specific laws as well as health and safety before making the drawn for our partners. Having never fished this water before it was always going to be a challenge for me even though I had spent the previous three fishing occasions on my local canal getting as used to canal fishing as I could for this event. Which I thought was going to pay off early on as I landed what was the first fish of the BLAC Q1 2015 Gloucester Canal and the entire British Lure Angling Championship 2015. A small 31cm Zander on a dead slow jigged 8cm Battleshad in rainbow pattern. The reason I was fishing as slow as I could was because the water temperature was right down and on my practise days on my local canal all the fish I had caught were on slow moving baits including dropshot.

For a while I was the only man on the board but then a couple anglers started to catch fish, first a small Zander then the big Pike and then a few Zander and then some more Pike. I must add that all the fish caught were in the main area near the start and all within a 150 yard fishing stretch, needless to say my partner and I did not move much during the morning. By lunch time I really needed to land a couple fish and switched my gear right down opting for a dropshot rig and micro jigging 1inch shads. As soon as I switched down I started getting bites but could not connect I put this down to using hooks that were too large. Anyone that knows me and knows my angling style knows I prefer using bigger hooks for dropshoting and jigging than the regular angler because it just works for me. Well normally it works on this occasion it would have paid for me to have opted for the smaller hooks as I kept missing the bites. Had I landed all my bites I could have had at least 5 fish banked which would have been 2 more than the 1st place qualifier. If only….

I ended up not qualifying for the final which is disappointing for me but the day was great catching up with the familiar faces and making new friends  as well as taking the honour of landing the first fish of BLAC 2015 and not putting in a blank.

The next BLAC event I will be in will be on the river Thames details available on the events page or directly with the British Lure Angling Championship website. 

BLAC Q1 2015 Gloucester Canal Report

Saturday, 24 January 2015

Team England Lure Squad Needs You

Your Country Needs you…

The Team England Lure Squad are looking for a team to represent the nation at the 2015 World Championships both from that bank and on the boat.

I know that we have some really awesome lure anglers out there that would be able to do us proud  but we need you to step forward and get involved with the selection process.  The easiest way to do this is by contacting the Team England Lure Squad manager Mike Skipper through their website link below.

http://www.teamenglandluresquad.co.uk

For the last two years the angling trust has been able to put together teams for the boating world champs which restricts the field of selection. This year for the first time Team England Lure Squad are looking to send a team to the bank angling world champs to be held in Ireland and that means that anyone who enjoys lure angling competitively can get involved. If you are not the competitive type then please spread the word let all your angling buddies know that there is a fantastic opportunity for them to represent their country all they need to do is get in touch with Mike.

For me there is no higher sporting honour than representing your country at the sport you love.

So what are you waiting for……

Team England Lure Squad Needs You

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

BLAC Q9 2015 Fazeley Canal

One of the new editions to the tour is the Fazeley Canal for the BLAC Q9 2015. Having not fished this stretch of water personally I am looking forward to giving it a go. Having spoken to a couple of people I understand that this canal is good for perch and chub but fishes hard for any decent size pike. Good luck to all the competitors and I look forward to seeing you there.

For the full event details and how to enter please contact the BLAC team by visiting them here

BLAC Q9 2015 Fazeley Canal

BLAC Q7 2015 Chew Valley Reservoir

The British Lure Angling Championship would not be the same with out it, the BLAC Q7 2015 will be held on the great Chew Valley Reservoir. Home to the best population of double figure pike in the UK In my opinion and not doing to badly with the perch either. In both the days I fished Chew in 2014 there was big pike and perch being caught, I am really excited to be fishing this event again in 2015 as I like all the other competing anglers will get the opportunity to land some true monsters. Good luck to all the other competitors I look forward to seeing you there.

 

For the full event details and how to enter please contact the BLAC team at their website here

BLAC Q7 2015 Chew Valley Reservoir

BLAC Q3 2015 River Thames

My second major fishing competition of 2015 will be held on the river Thames  for the BLAC Q3 2015. I really enjoyed  fishing this event in 2014 where I did not do as well as I had hoped but look forward to conquering it this year.  The river Thames has had some huge perch out recently and does have the odd double figure pike. My prediction  for the BLAC Q3 2015 is that it will be won with a bag of perch as it was in 2014. Good luck to all the competitors I look forward to seeing you there.

For the full event details and how to enter please contact the BLAC team from their website here

BLAC Q3 2015 River Thames

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