A Fisherman's Tale where I get to share with you my passion for fishing through tales of my adventures chasing the big one.
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
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
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
Thats right it is back the BLAC Q1 2015 qualifier will be held on the famous Gloucester canal at the end of January 2015. I have a feeling this qualifier will test even the best anglers especially if there is icy conditions. I am looking forward to fishing in this first qualifier of 2015 as one of the four I have entered into for 2015. Believe it or not this will be my first outing on the Gloucester canal and looking forward too it. Let the preparations begin and good luck to all the competitors I look forward to seeing all the competitors.
For the full event details and how to enter please contact the official BLAC team through their website here
Its almost here and boy am I looking forward to UK Lure fishing in 2015. I have set myself a few challenges for the new year but again my focus is going to be on improving how I fish competitively and the three main areas for me will be preparation, preparation and more preparation.
So why is it all about the preparation for UK Lure fishing in 2015 for me, well as much as It helps to have the fishing gods on your side when going in to a competitive event the more questions you have answered like, what lures work, what techniques work, where the hot spots are and what the likely weather conditions will be. Having a good idea on the answers to these questions will help put you in a competitive position. Another thing about preparation is the planning as I like most of you probably find we have less and less time to do the things we love I need to be able to plan fishing into my calendar so that I can maximise my effectiveness with the time that I do have. I will tell you more about my preparation for competitive fishing in the next few posts and get back to where I see UK lure fishing in 2015 going.
So in 2014 I have read countless articles on how Lure fishing is now the fastest growing part of angling in the UK and that DropShot fishing is really taking off in the UK and contributing to this growth and I have to say I agree with most of them. Not only do I agree with them but I see these trends continuing I see more being said about how easy it is to get out for a couple of hours before, after work or at your lunch break with a light spinning rod and a small box of lures on the local canal. I expect to see more on other methods like wacky, mojo, texas and carolina rigging. I expect to see more fisheries open their doors to lure anglers and tackle manufacturers invest more in the UK market. It really is an exciting time to be a lure angler who likes competitive angling with the second year of the British Lure Angling Championship promising to be even bigger and better with more events and a street fishing league being announced earlier today. This tournament will form a big part of my focus for UK lure fishing in 2015 and am pleased to confirm that I have signed up to 4 events including the great Chew valley which are listen in my events calendar here. You can find more out about the BLAC by visiting their website by clicking here. If you like fishing competitively this is the competition to be involved in Julian Chidgey sure does know how to put together a tournament. I wonder if anyone will be able to clinch the current champ Stephen Colett’s Crown, who really had an impressive 2014 picking up awards all over Europe as well as becoming the first British Lure Angling Champion, the man deserves a good amount of respect for these achievements alone not looking further back at all his other successes.
If all the articles in the usual publications were not enough to convince you look at the brand new FREE to view publication the LURE magazine available on all your devices free of charge yes I wrote that again free of charge! Where in this day and age do you get free information? I cant think of any. Not only is it free but the content is beautifully put together with a real modern feel to it as well as being interactive allowing you to buy your favourite tackle from links straight out of the magazine online. If you have not already seen it download a copy for your iPhone,iPad, andorid or PC the details for this can be found at their Facebook site by clicking here.
In terms of the fish we target well I cant imagine we are far off seeing a new record for Perch with several 5lb fish being landed this year in various locations across the country. We may even see a Pike record tumble with one particular fish edging closer and close over the last two years. I think that the prized Zander is a way of from breaking any local records from what I read but will be interesting to see what happens who knows I may be lucky enough to have one of these record predators grace my lure in 2015.
I am no market expert so don’t take my word for it and to all my fishing family, friends and foe alike I wish you all the very best for your UK lure fishing in 2015 may your fishing lines stay tight and may your personal best records fall in 2015.
If you enjoyed reading this why not leave a comment below or follow me on Facebook here to keep up to date with my posts in 2015
Yes, thats a wrap on my lure fishing year 2014 and It has been a really exciting year for me as I had endeavoured to improve my skills as a competitive lure angler. If you read my post on UK Lure fishing in 2014 I mentioned that I had entered myself into trying to qualify for the Team England Lure Squad as well as qualification for the final of the British Lure Angling Championships by Fox rage.
These two tournaments were my big areas of focus this year and sitting here thinking about it I did not do too badly with those goals. Whilst I did not perform to the standard I expect of myself I have taken away from those experiences a few valuable lessons in competitive lure angling.
The year kicked off with the qualifiers for the Team England Lure Squad which I thought would have attracted a lot more anglers, the first qualifier was at Esthwaite where there was a total of 6 anglers meaning that we all automatically qualified for the final on the first day I lost a big fish which was my first lesson of the year always use trailer hooks on my spinnerbaits when fishing competitively. I had also entered for the Bewl qualifier where there was a few more anglers I think 12 in total where I finished in 6th place with 7 pike giving me double qualification for the final. The final was good fun taking place over a two day period I fished with a chap I went to school with who is now a big time Shimano team angler and who ended up making the team. I did not make the final squad and fair enough I did not have the focus for two days of fishing another lesson learnt. I supported the team as much as I could which you can see in my earlier posts on Support the team England Lure Squad and Support the Team England Lure Squad Update. I did also manage to send them a pack of assorted Quantum Specialist lures that they could use in France. They finished in 7th which is an improvement on 2013 and I am sure there will be goals to be better in 2015. Having now fished fairly regularly competitively I have noticed a few anglers that consistently do well in a competitive environment who I believe could easily give the Team England Lure Squad a run for their money. I really hope that when the trial dates are set for 2015 there will be a better response from anglers around the UK to want to make the national team. I will throw my name in the hat for these again as I really want to be able to compete at a national level and say we were able to whip everyone else.
A lot of my angling highlights came out of fishing the British Lure Angling Championships by Fox Rage. I really can’t speak highly enough about what Julian Chidgey and Fox have done for competitive Lure angling with this tournament. Which is going to go from strength to strength in 2015 and beyond. I fished in 4 of these events coming in mid table for most and then qualifying on the River Tone with a 6th place and had an awesome final coming in 15th out of 50+ anglers on the great Chew Valley Reservoir. Needless to say I am really looking forward to the British Lure Angling Championship 2015 I hope that there will be many more anglers that will get involved in the 2015 events, they really are very well organised you will meet anglers who share your passion and of course there is the competition to test yourself against other anglers.
To sum up my competitive fishing year It was very challenging at times I did not do as well as I thought I should have because of my competitive nature I want to win everything but understand that this is not realistic even the great KVD does not win all the time. Having said this I am content on now knowing where I stand and what I need to do to get better and start winning some of these competitions.
Finally I want to give thanks to all those that have supported me in my efforts in 2014 as all those close to me know how important fishing is to me to all my family and friends for their encouragement to Zebco and Quantum Specialist for their professional help and finally to my beautiful wife Justine your support and encouragement means the most to me. Thank you all thats a wrap on 2014.
I love lure fishing and all aspects of it but I especially love trying new things and recently I was able to try lure fishing from a Kayak for the first time thanks to Terry Wright. A man that is doing a lot of good for Kayak anglers across the nation.
We met up at a local reservoir where Terry ran through the safety aspects of kayaks and lure fishing from making sure people knew that we were out on the Kayaks to ensuring I had suitable life vests and flotation devices. We then set out onto the water with the idea that we would target the Perch and Pike in this crystal clear water.
I have to say I am very impressed with the craft I was on the the Jackson Kayak Cuda I am a 6 foot 3 inch 240 pound brute and not only was it a very stable platform to make casts from but it is so easy to paddle around in, it just cuts through the water with very little exertion from me even when the wind really picked up I still found it really easy paddling directly into the wind.
I really wanted to dropshot for perch but with the high winds it proved to be a lot easier for me to target Pike with slow retrieved Battleshads and replicants at depth. In the first hour or so I managed to land my first ever pike on a Kayak and I have to say even landing a pike on the Kayak was really easy because I was so close to the water I could safely remove my engulfed replicant whilst the pike was still in the water have a quick photo and the little jack was back on his way.
We carried on fishing for a couple more hours but the rain and wind really picked up which made life a little too difficult for us so we decided to pack up after around 5 hours on the water. One thing I would recommend when you go on a Kayak is ensure you have good waterproofing both for you and for your tackle I use the Quantum Specialist Bag which is totally waterproof and keeps all my gear phones, car keys and camera safe from the elements.
I was again impressed at how easy it was to transport and load the Kayaks on to the roof of Terry’s car. Not a bad day in my books a fish landed on a new water trying something new.
So kayak and lure fishing what do I think? I think its fun and I will be trying this out some more in the new year. A big thank you to Terry Wright for introducing me to Kayak angling your enthusiasm for promoting “Responsible access to appropriate water” is infectious and I left wanting to know more about it.
If you want to know more about Kayak angling visit the friendly kayak angling forum here
If you want to know more about the Kayak I was on you can by visiting the Jackson Kayak website here
