Pike can be funny creatures, most years they can be described as creatures of habit, in that they do the same or similar things each year, for example migration, feeding habits or periods. Then one year they do something really different seemingly to catch you out.

I’d not fished as much as I would like to this season for various reasons, but to hopefully make up for that I’d booked a week off at the back end of the season as it’s usually a reasonable time for me anyway. However, what I didn’t expect was for there to be an amalgamation of snow and rain to hit the day before I was due out.

Usually if this happens on a big lake you will have a bit of leeway before the effects of it impact the water, usually about a day or so unless it is really severe, so I wasn’t that worried about the first couple of days I had booked off. The issue was after the deluge, it was predicted to get cold, really cold, – 5 cold. Would this impact the fishing? Usually, I would say no, but with the combination of cold water going in, and surface cooling it could well do. But hay ho – you pick your time off and have to make do.

On the first day I turned up at the crack of dawn, and looked out over the water which had come up about 2 feet but was still quite clear. The ground was frozen solid and the hoarfrost clung to the trees. It was thankfully quite still with a gentle 5 – 7 mph wind.
I was quickly loaded up and out to an area that sometimes holds fish at this time of year and more or less straight away saw one on the sounder. I had bought both bait rods and lures because you never know and sometimes it’s nice to sit in the bottom of the boat with a couple of baits out when it’s cold.
Having seen one I quickly set my lure rod up and gave it a couple of casts, it’s not fun fishing like this when the cold water burns your hands, but it is effective if they are in a feeding mood.

This one, however, wasn’t, so it wasn’t long before I repositioned and moved slightly further along and saw another pike in a similar area. This one took straight away, which was a relief and felt really heavy.

After a slow but dogged fight I scooped up the first fist of the day, a really chunky 27lber. I think I had only been fishing for around 15 mins, so I was quite happy. After a couple of Photos and retying my trace. I was off along the same feature looking for something else.

An hour or so later and with cold hands I was getting a bit disheartened as I hadn’t seen anything else. Maybe I had just caught the back end of a feeding spell? Or maybe I had just been lucky? I was ready for 2nd breakfast and a cup of tea anyway, so I went back to where I had seen the first fish (which was no longer there by the way) and wacked a couple of deadbaits out. The rational being that that there could be other fish in the area that were tight on the bottom so its difficult to see them.

I was just pouring my tea when the clicker on the multiplier gave a couple of clicks, I looked up to see my float bolt upright and then skidding to the side as something pulled it along. Quickly picking up the rod I wound down as fast as possible and was straight into another good fish.
This one was shorter than the first, but twice as fat! It came to the boat with the smelt hanging out of its mouth looking for all intents and purpose like it was sticking its tongue out at me.

It rolled once, flicked its tail out of the water and then powered off under the boat, luckily, I was quick enough to manoeuvre the rod around the rear of the boat and catch up with it, and it wasn’t long before I had another good fish in the net. This one went just over 25lb a real fat fish that had obviously been on the feed.

For some reason, I was feeling a bit warmer now, even though there was still hoarfrost on the boat seats. I quickly rebaited and went back to my now cold cup of tea. It was obvious after the two fish that they were clearly in a feeding mood. After another hour sitting on my hands, I was debating if I was doing the right thing sitting it out with baits? My reasoning was that if they fish were feeding and moving around, yes, they might come up the scent trail to the bait, but would I cover more active fish with lures?

Usually if I’m in two minds about something, I like to think it’s because subconsciously something is telling me to try something else because I have caught in a similar way before. Who knows? I’m not a psychologist. I did however swap back to lures.

I covered roughly the same area where I had previously been bait fishing, simply because I thought that the scent from the deadbait may have pulled a fish in, but the action of the lure may induce an inactive fish to snap at it.

A few casts later and I had a lovely coloured 22lber in the boat! Which turned out to be the last fish of the day, but not a bad days fishing under any circumstances.

The next day, the water had come up another 6 inches with the snow met, and it was freezing cold, and foggy. The wind, what little there was of it was also freezing as it was drifting over frozen ground.
To be honest if I hadn’t had caught fish the day before I think I would have turned back, but I had a rough idea of where I hoped the fish were and I motored over to the spot I had fished the day before.

Again, I started on lures, hoping that I was right about the early morning feeding period, but after covering the area well for the first hour I was getting a bit uneasy. I hadn’t seen much on the finder either. This isn’t always a sign that there are no fish there however, they could just be really close to bottom, or they could turn up at some other point in the day as they run along the ridge.

My gut was this area was a transient area anyway and fish move through it rather than it being a holding spot for them. The trick is knowing where they are moving from and too. Judging by yesterday’s results they were moving shallower, which didn’t make sense to me. The fish on the deadbait ran to shallow water, and the last one was on a shallow area or the ridge. There were other boats out fishing deeper along the same feature and I didn’t see them get much.

So, I tired shallower. It didn’t do me much good though as other than a dropped run which I think was a trout I didn’t get anything else all day. A complete contrast to the day before and an example of the need to be there when they are feeding.

The following day started out nice, cold but nice. This time I decided to look around for some fish, but the sounder was showing a desert, no pike, no bait fish, nothing. I covered quite a lot of water but didn’t see a single “something” that would have made me look closer.

With nothing obvious seen, I decided to move to try an area where I had had fish before at this time of year and put some baits out and see if I could intercept any fish that might be moving around. A couple of hours later I had a half hated take on a rod baited with a bluey, which I convinced myself must have been a trout, then on winding down I quite expertly pulled the hooks out of a good fish! Bugger. The bait was really chewed up as well, so it was certainly a pike!

The wind was expected to pick up around mid-day and did it! It must have been blowing 20mph! and where I was, I was right in the teeth of it. I never find it any good when it is really windy. Yes, you can hold out using spot-lock, but your engine is whining all the time and the boat is banging up and down in the waves, making a lot of noise which I don’t think the pike like anyway.
On top of this your baits get dragged around, and its generally uncomfortable slamming around on the boat. I managed to hold out for an hour then moved off to somewhere more sheltered. Needless to say I didn’t have any more action, so it was another blank for me.

I still had a couple of days left that I needed to make the most of, but the weather was looking to get worse with overnight temperature heading to -5.

I was sent one of the new Westin W3 C&R Boat nets back in the May last year, unfortunately due to the type of fishing I was doing I missed out in giving it a good try until September this year, and I have had some very big fish in it so far so it’s been thoroughly tested.

The fist thing you notice about this net is its massive at 85 cm W x 95 cm L x 100 cm, the second thing you notice is that it can fold in half!

Folding nets are nothing new, but most of them are a bit wibbly wobbly when set up, which can be problematic. The Westin one, opens up and locks in place with two spring clip buttons, which helps keep its rigidity. Flip it over and so the weight of the net is resting on the joint and its very stable.

The mesh is “hook resistant” rubber coated, and obviously fish friendly, it is nice and wide so you can move the net around easily in the water. The depth is very generous, maybe too generous, but it does mean you can safely keep the fish in the net and hang it over the side of a boat with high freeboard.
I’ve not had any serious issues with this net, though I found it to be a bit “heavy” for want of a better word when I first used it. This was simply because I had too much mesh in the water. Hold the mesh by with the handle and you are fine.

Regarding being hook proof, its ok, I’ve not had much trouble with lures and relatively big hooks anyway. When bait fishing you will always have issues if you have a flying treble with any net. Bait trebles being smaller are a pain if they get tangled, and I have had a few instances of them piercing the rubber material. I’m not precious over hooks so I have simply cut them out with bolt croppers.

Some rubber nets can have a mesh that is too wide which in turn can damage the fins of the fish, but the Westin one is an ideal size and I haven’t noticed any fin damage after using the net on a good few fish now.

The handle also has a measurement engraved on it, if you’re into that type of thing?
The only thing I would change is the diameter of the handle, it seems a bit small, but that could just be because I have massive hands!

The best thing about the net however is obviously as its foldable it fists in the car better!

The one point I would make is that if you are fishing on your own, set the net up before you start to fish as doing it while playing a big pike can be frustrating.

The picture below shows a 25lb fish in the net, so as you can see its suitable for even the largest fish in the UK.

I have missed my pike fishing this year, which for various reasons outside of my control didn’t start until the last week in October! Usually, I would start on the lures before this, but alas, I couldn’t, did I miss out? I certainly felt so, but in reality, I don’t think I did miss too much, looking at the catches that have been out. It seems to have been another really poor September / October on most of the places I would usually fish at this time of year.

When I did manage to get out, I spent quite a bit of time, simply mooching about and looking for fish on the finder. This was quite depressing to be honest as I simply couldn’t find anything. Now from experience this doesn’t mean that there are no fish around. It could be that they are simply right on the bottom which makes them harder to discern on a traditional finder. Now if my assumption was correct and they were right on the bottom however it usually means that they are not in a feeding mood for one reason or another and you are going to have a hard time.

Another explanation is that they move away when they hear the boat coming. This is a possibility, and it only really happens in very clear water in my opinion. The way to check if this is the case is to drift a couple of areas and see if you can see some on the side imager. I did this and still didn’t see anything.
Being a bit out of touch with the water I was getting really twitchy, had the pike moved from where I thought they should be? Had there been that much pressure that they had been put off? This was also a feasible possibility, or were they still there and just tight to the bottom.

My gut instinct was that they were tight on the bottom, my rational was that if they weren’t I would have come across one at some point. I have seen pike behave like this before, and it is usually either pressure, the pike seeing too many lures across them, or its bout feeding behaviour and i.e. really full fish that make them go like this.

This feeding behaviour makes for very difficult fishing as with an over abundant food source a pike will only feed when it wants to, no matter how much we try and influence them with attractive lures or juicy deadbaits. It can just be a case of thrashing the water all day until they decide to turn on. Which in my experience is usually 10 mins before you are due to pack up!

One thing that I will always do in conditions like this is try and use something different to what everyone else has been casting. As the water was still warm, I fancied trying some jerk baits, as these are still quite a rare thing to see on most waters with soft plastics being the go-to for most lure anglers.

I like the Westin Swim, its easy to use and cast like a bomb, but really, they are intended to fish shallow water, yes you can catch fish shallow over deep water, but if they fish are tight to the bottom this is where you need to fish, and even the fast sink versions will take a long time to get down there if you are fishing over 30ft. You can weight them, and I have several that I have adapted for deep water work. So, I clipped one of these on, cast out and waited until it hit the bottom and tweaked it back to the boat, trying to keep it within a few feet of the bottom and about halfway back – whack I had my first decent pike of the year not only that, but I had the method sorted, this was going to be a good day…

Nope. That was the only pike I had for the next few hours! Its weird that it happens like that you think you have the method sorted and catch a fish straight away and then it slowly dawns on you that it’s not because of the method you are using at all! It was just a lucky cast or an un-lucky fish? Depending on which way you look at it. But you convince yourself that as you have caught one, it must be the way to go, so in effect I wasted a good few hours before I made the inevitable decision to move areas and look for some more fish.

This was easier said than done, as in most spots I didn’t see anything, and the couple of spots where I thought I saw “a something” when I went back over the spot they had disappeared. My gut was telling me that the pike were simply spread out and moving around, which means less targeted fishing and more blind casting. But if that is what you have to do, you have to do it, so I did.

This type of fishing is a bit hit or miss, and its more about grinding a fish out, but needs must. I often think that you must cover a couple of hundred fish each day without any reaction from them. Then for some reason they turn on, sometimes only for a few minutes, when they are more active and want a bit of a feed. On a tough day this usually happens at last knockings when the light levels change and bait fish become more active. If anyone’s says “I don’t mind a bit of casting, it can be very therapeutic, it doesn’t matter if you don’t catch” etc. I feel a bit sorry for them, its a means of catching fish, and every cast I want to catch a fish. That’s my weird mindset, but today I had done too much with little reward, bet at least I did put my new W6 Baitcasters though their paces while waiting for last knockings or “bite time” as I had re-labelled it in my head.

This is always an exciting time, but also a limited amount of time, as you also need to get back before kicking off time. However, in those last 5 minutes I always think you have disproportionately caught a lot of good fish.

There is always a sense of appreciation around this time also there is a sense of stress with the clock ticking down, is it going to be a waste of time or maybe I can sneak one out? Well, it was looking grim, then last cast I had taken… and spectacularly missed it!
That last cast then turned into a couple more as there was obviously at least one fish around. Eventually I managed to get one to take again and it was a good one, pulling the boat around on the flat water.

I didn’t mess about with it and got it to the boat fairly quickly. It was a lovely long fish which was quickly unhooked, a couple of pics and it was back, and I was racing back so not to be told off. Sometimes I think it would be better just to go out for that last knocking period rather than waste all day chasing your tail. The problem is you never know.

This Summer / Autum has seen a bit of different fishing for me, I’ve been concentrating more on my sea fishing during the warmer months this year, simply because the river fishing has been so dire in my area that it’s not been worth going. I did have a couple of trips when the season started, but all I caught was a couple of very small zander which I had to work hard to catch! I’ve caught enough zander not to be too worried about scratching out 2lbers! So, I quickly knocked those trips on the head.

We have, at least, not had too much of heat wave this year, but low flow conditions always make it hard for zander, and your best chance is fishing late or early. However, the word on the street (or maybe that should be river) is that hardly anything has come out, so that reassuring, I think! Well, reassuring that it isn’t just me being pants, probably not that reassuring that not much has been coming out.
We all know the rivers are not as clean as they used to be, but was the Severn ever clean? Certainly, for a good few years now, there has been rafts of foam coming down in the flood water, which killed the fishing, no one seems to know where this comes from. You can imagine that the regular winter floods bring a lot of wash off into the river as well so was it ever really clean – clean? Maybe that why the zander did so well in the first place?

Sea Fishing;
So on to the sea fishing, the day after the start of the river season I was out on the Bristol Channel the water temperature was 19 degrees which I found quite surprising. I’d gone out for some Bass, but the bass fishing had been hit and miss all year. I have found that when the Channel goes clear as it sometimes does around the end of June, that the Bass fishing becomes really hard, which shouldn’t be the case when you think about it, clearer water means they can see your lure better – right? Certainly it must be better that the milky coffee colour it usually is.

What I think happens is, when its clear, the mackerel come further up the channel and the bass go out feeding on them, so they are not in the usual spots where you catch them on lures. Either way it had been hard, so I shifted my attention on catching some rays which are usually quite obliging. After a few of these I stated picking up some early running Smooth Hounds on the squid baits which was a good sign. Usually if you get an early run of hounds, the big Smooth Hounds are not that far behind.

I had been over to the Isle of Wight hunting the Stingrays again a couple of weeks earlier and had managed to get hold of some massive spider peeler crabs, for some reason they get a lot of them over there. These things were huge, the size of the palm of your hand, each one would make about six normal baits. I was excited to use them on the Channel, crabs work well for hounds, but so does prawn where I fish, often, with prawn and squid wrap often out fishing normal peelers.

Anyway, I had found a couple a spots which are usually good for the better stamp of hounds. The first one being a rocky outcrop in about 30 feet of water, this spot was usually good up until high water on medium tides then you can blow it off. I’d had double figure fish from here before and its weird that you nearly always got them just before the tide changed.

You would get a chance of a hound all the way up, but as soon as the anchor went slack and the boat started to move, if you got a bite then, it would most likely be a good one, and it would also be the last one from that spot before it went dead. Knowing this I saved the big spider peelers until 30 mins before high water, then baited up and lobbed them out.

I use simple 4/0 pennel rigs for them, you don’t need anything special just strong line as if you catch a few they can rub the mono I use 60lb Amnesia which stands up to it, but obviously you change it if is damaged. The main rigs are pully rigs with 8oz leads which will hold in most instances.

With both baits in I didn’t have to wait long as one rod was nearly pulled out of the boat as a good fish ploughed off with the bait, this is usual hound tactics they are not subtle when they pick the bait up. After a good hard fight, I got it in, it was a bit bigger than the usual stamp of fish certainly a double. But I didn’t have time to mess about with it as the other rod was quickly disappearing over the side, so I quickly grabbed it and played another respectable hound in.

As Tom Jones would say, “It’s not unusual” to catch two hounds at once, I’ve done it a few times now as they do swim around in packs of similar sizes.
Like most shark species, Smooth Hounds have the ability to invert their stomach. It is thought they do this so they can get rid of inedible items, shells, sharp bones etc. As I was unhooking one it did just that and coughed up its half-digested meal, in the bottom of the boat, all around the boat, and all over me!
What surprised me however was what it had been eating, there were little crabs, hermit crabs and a massive lobster claw! Phew did it stink, the joys of Smooth Hound fishing.

The next time I was out I tried the spider peelers again, and from the off I was catching hounds, so they clearly liked them, in the end I was fishing them with a wrap of squid, as they seem to be more “mushy” (technical term) then usual peelers, and I felt that adding the squid would help keep the scent in for longer, not that it really needed it as the fish hit them quite quickly if they were about. I had twelve that day, but nothing overly big, However, I felt that with the water being clear a big one should be on the cards as that is when I have had the larger ones before.

The following week the tides were right for another spot where I had had some doubles before so I thought I would give that a go, this spot was a bit deeper on the edge of a drop off in 50 feet of water. I like it here on smaller tides as you still have a good force of water going along the drop off. This time I was running short of spider peelers so I fished on rod on the old faithful of prawn and squid wrap. First cast I was into a good fish, on the prawn! After a bit of a tug of war, I managed to net it, it was a better fish, and I went to weigh it, but I had forgotten my scales! I did however find a measuring tape and it was 114cm which is somewhere between 13 and 14lbs. A reasonable fish, and the largest of the day.

The next day I went back to the same spot and made sure I had my scales with me! Again, I was using spider peeler on one rod and prawn on the other. Today the fishing was slower, but I still felt confident in getting something before the tide changed, and as usual just as the tide was slacking off, I was away to a good fish on the prawn again. This fish fought hard, even pulling the boat around as the tide had slackened. They are quite awkward to net when there is no tide. When there is tide you put the net at the back of them and slacken off and they fall into it, when there is no tide, you need to scoop them, which they don’t like! But soon I had it in the boat being weighed 15lb 2oz, the best of the season so far.

So, my conclusion was that the IOW spider peeler crabs worked well in the Bristol Channel, they certainly drew the attention of lots of fish, but the larger Smooth Hounds still preferred the old faithful Prawns!

Apologies for some reason I had written this Blog at the back end of the 2023 season, and not posted it. So here it is a (bit late).

Well, what an end to effectively my pike season, (I don’t fish for them after February), it has been a really hard season for me, well maybe not only for me as most places seem to be fishing very poorly during the “traditional” pike fishing season. I usually start in earnest in September when the reservoirs open for “predator” fishing.

Is September too early? Maybe? Well, “yes” certainly would be a more accurate answer if you look over the last few seasons at least, the water temperatures have been shocking high at this time of year. I have previously written about the effects of high-water temperature on pike link here –> Temperature-sensitivity-in-pike

If you believe in Global Warming or Climate Change as its now rebranded, it is predicted to get worse. So, let’s hope its flawed science and we start to get cooler summers and autumns again.

I fished twice in September, both pre-booked days, on the first day the water temperature was 21 degrees! Now you can catch pike in that temperature, do they survive? Some will, some won’t. I must admit feeling hypocritical here as the water temperature was above by “19-16″ rule, and really I shouldn’t have fished, but you don’t know the temperature until you get out and turn the finder on, and packing up, after taking time off work, traveling all that way and paying to fish is hard to do. I suppose I fall in to the trap of being Human (some say otherwise) and fished my first day without success.

Now not to get “Namby Panmby” as an angler you have to except some mortality of fish. I don’t think we go out with the intention of killing fish, but does every fish that swims off survive? I would like to think so. In reasonable water temperatures they most likely do, if you factor in good handling.
However, when the water temperatures are this high, it makes things more dangerous, pike simply don’t like the stress of being caught in warm water. Compound this by forty anglers so of whom are less then competent and potentially you can have a pike massacre on your hands.

As I have said before, anglers often kill their catch by kindness – but what does that mean? It means too much messing around with the fish! Anglers like to retain pike in the net “to give them a rest”, or hold them by the tail until they recover? Really, do they recover like this? Or, do they loose the ability to right themselves, gass-up, because they are at the water surface and eventually go belly up?
Worse are the anglers who play the fish for protracted periods of time on inadequate tackle, then let them flip around in the bottom of the boat as they don’t posses a mat or a sladle, then measure them holding them down on nice sandpapered anti-slip boat seats.

To be frank, not that anyone listens these days, but both issues can be mitigated by good fisheries management. Here is a simple two step solution to help prevent pike deaths – 1. Don’t open for pike fishing until the water is a sensible temperature, and 2. Regulate your anglers.

Anyway, rant over, the next day after counting five dead 20+ fish floating around I packed up and didn’t go back until it was a lot colder and a lot less people around.

Fishing is harder when the temperature is cold, not only are the fish less active and less likely to feed. The cold really gets to the angler as well, even me! – Sometimes. Its not the cold per-say when you’re in the boat, it’s the lack of movement that gets to me and I cramp up and get fidgety, especially when dead baiting and watching motionless floats for several days on the bounce! Which is my general experience of dead baiting at the back end of the season. The thing is, even though it is boring as hell, every now and then I get one, and often it was a decent fish, so maybe it was worth it.

With several of the bait company going under this summer, getting the best bait became a lot harder then usual. Like most of us I have a freezer full of bait most of the time, but towards the back end I’m using the dregs! Now you don’t want to be using the dregs, ever, let alone while you’re fishing for single runs on hard waters, your confidence needs to be high.

I have also learnt that sometimes a change of bait works, last year I was doing ok on Bluey and Smelts, this year herrings were the go-to bait, but I didn’t have many left over by the new year. A fortunate trip to one of my local shops for sea fishing supplies found a supply of weird half beak fish in their freezer. So, I picked up a couple of packets to try for Blonde Ray fishing in the spring as they were meant to be a killer bait for them.

Out on the boat, I was surprised when I looked into my cool bag, and instead of herring, I’d put packs of half beaks in by accident. This is what happens when you get up at 4am! As nothing else was working I hooked one on and wacked it out, to be honest I wasn’t really expecting that much. As I sat in the bottom of the boat, wrapped up like a giant sasquatch in the -2 degree sunshine – sulking that the smelt I had were not “smelty” enough, the herring were back home, and the blueys were “dry” and every other excuse I could muster for not catching a pike. The float with half beak on bobbed up and down in the water catching me by surprise.

I think the pike I caught was more surprised than I was as I wound down and stuck and simply wound in a heavy lump!

Pike don’t do much when its supper cold, and this one was as good as gold in the sladle and I quickly unhooked it. A nice mid twenty on a new bait, suddenly I wasn’t feeling as cold. I had some renewed enthusiasm to re-bait the rods and re-position them, however it didn’t do any good as that was the only take of the day.

The next day I went to a similar area, this time there were a couple of other boats about, and it was slightly warmer, I felt quite confident after the previous fish, but I also knew that you are fishing for that one run so it can be a long day. Inevitably at this time of year nearly every take happens at last knockings. You have a rush to get out, to get the spot you want, then have a boring wait in the boat, until about 30mins before you have to get in when you have a chance of something. Well that is my experience of fishing at this time of year.

I was had been sat in one spot all day, which is quite unusual for me, I had caught one zander on a lure that I cast around the boat to warm myself up (it didn’t I just got wet hands). After checking my watch, thought I should start packing up, when the ratchet on the multiplier went off and the rod pulled around. I quickly grabbed the rod not needing to strike and was playing a big angry pike! This one was a lot longer than the one from yesterday but not as fat, and was quickly netted and photographed, another twenty so I couldn’t complain. It was then a rush to pack everything up and get back without getting told off.

I couldn’t get back until a few days later and the weather had really changed, everywhere was flooded, and it was hard to even get to the lake with the road closures. I was feeling beaten already, as I know that flood water can kill the fishing, The fact that it had been so cold as well, meant that any land run off would be freezing entering the lake, and to be honest, I was thinking that that was it until the end of season, as it seemed every river was also flooded. Surprisingly there were a few people already out when I got there, looking at where they were I felt a bit despondent. The three spots I fancied were already taken.

So I thought I would go an try somewhere completely different, so I motored over to a spot where I have had fish before this time of year, but its not a “good” spot, sometimes there is a fish there most of the time it’s as barren as everywhere else. Looking around I couldn’t see anything, and for some reason I couldn’t be bothered getting the bait rods out, so I chucked a lure out and turned the boat with the electric engine into the wind to slow the drift down. Looking down on at the sounder, I could see something to the right of the boat, was it a fish? I wasn’t sure, but I moved the boat a bit closer so I could cast near it, and bang I hooked a monster.

Well, this winter has been peculiar to say the least, it seems that the UK has been hit with storm after storm. This has had two major effects on my angling, first the winds which were often near gale force meant I couldn’t go out in my boat! Secondly, the rain that the storms brought flooded all the rivers!

Just how much water came down really socked me. One day I travelled over to a reservoir to fish. Leaving early in the morning I travelled up the motorway the Severn and Avon were all in the fields, but that’s not an unusual situation at this time of year. However, a couple of hours later, I then went over the Welland Valley and that was all in the fields as well, and that not something I have seen since I was a child! A bit further on, and the Trent – you couldn’t see where the river started and the banks ended – or maybe that should be the other way around? It seemed that water had fallen everywhere in just a couple of weeks. This is quite unusual as often, if one area of the country is flooded, after a bit of travel and you can find somewhere to go.

Zander Fishing;
I have managed one trip out this Autumn / Winter so far, this was in-between floods, I literally had a gap in the weather where the water was dropping at the location I wanted to fish. However, at the same time I had planned to be out, another storm front was predicted to drop a lot of water further up the system, potentially causing another flood! I thought I would chance a couple of hours and launched early in the morning, hopefully I would be getting a half day out before the plug of water from further up would come down and wipe the fishing out.

I am glad I made the effort as I was away on the first cast, and as I was putting this fish back the other rod was away, and it was like this for next couple of hours. I moved a few times, as the water started to speed up, in order to find some slack areas to fish. I caught from most of the usual areas, until the flood debris started to come down in earnest and it killed the fishing. What I found was strange is that the water was relatively clear, despite it being high, and all my fish came to dead baits bounced around in the flow.

In these conditions I would have expected lures too far out fish dead baits, but I couldn’t get a hit on the lures to save my life! Yet the fish would take a dead bait almost as soon as it went in. All I can think of is that the fish were really tight to the bottom and didn’t want to case anything, but if the bait bounced over to them, they took it. They were all really nice and fat as well which was a good sign for later in the season.

Pike Fishing;
I don’t really want to talk about it! I have had one of the worst seasons I have ever had so far! It took me until December to have my fist 20 of the season!
I think my lack of success has been twofold. Firstly, looking at it objectively everywhere I usually target has been fishing badly, maybe it’s just because the weather has been all over the place this year, I don’t know. Secondly, because everywhere has been fishing pants, I haven’t been as much as I would usually go. All I can hope for is that the weather settles down for the back end of the season, this is a time I usually do fairly well anyway so fingers crossed.

Sea Fishing;
One thing that I have really been intent on catching is a Bristol Channel Cod from my boat. Now a few years ago this target should not have been an issue as there was always a few around from November onwards, with a peak around early January. However, in the last two years their numbers have dwindled to such an extent that they are like unicorns!

There have been the odd one or two caught around the South Wales coast where I usually launch, but they have been just that, one or two. There have been several cod competitions run where not a single cod has been caught, so the situation is quite dire really. I will keep trudging on with the hope of picking one up in the spring.

At the moment when I have managed to get out, I have still been doing ok on the ray front, with a couple of big thornbacks, and the occasional big blonde ray which I don’t mind suffering! The last time I went out it was as if the whole sea was full of small Whiting! There were so many I was picking two a time up on my Pennel Rigs that were for rays! Eventually I twigged and rigged one up and wacked it out only for a good Thornback to take it almost straight away! Matching the hatch in a weird non-fly-fishing way.

Hopefully the weather will settle down in the next couple of months, and allow me to get out a bit more, I certainly need to get my Pike head back on to make up for the poor results so far.

The reason is simple, it’s been too hot! I went out on the first night of the season, as I usually do, highly expecting to catch a few zander as normally the first night is pretty good to be honest. However, I launched my boat, got everything ready and tidied up, then went out into the main river and turned the sounder on, the temperature showed 23 degrees! Now I know it had been hot for a few weeks previously, but it was nowhere near as bad as the previous year, yet the water temperature was sky high! I thought that the sounder or transducer was incorrect at first and turned it on and off, but it still read the same. I have never seen the river that temperature before, let alone in June!

On top of this there was very little flow in the river, which always makes it even harder, so I motored to narrower deeper section where there should be more water movement and had a few tentative casts, nothing. I could see some “blobs” on the bottom, but they weren’t moving at all, and to cut a long story short I Blanked. I gave up at 2am and settled in for the night. I think this was the first blank I can remember on the first day of the season, ever!

The next morning, I got up at first light, managed to pick up two little zeds on the way back to the slipway and I was off and away by 7am, and haven’t been back since! I have been waiting for some significant rainfall to up the levels a bit and cool it off, but we haven’t had enough to do that yet and we are officially in a “prolonged dry weather” period – Again!

I think it’s likely to be September before I’m back after them, so I needed something to do in the meantime. Lucky, last year I decided to bite the bullet and join a marina on the Bristol Channel to give me options should the same hot weather wipe out the summer river fishing again, and unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you look at it), it looks like it was the correct thing to do.

I like a bit of sea fishing, and I have done quite a lot in the past, mostly from the shore, but having a boat makes it a lot easier, if you can get out. The problem is my boat is quite small (for sea fishing), its ok during fine weather but if it kicks up a bit it you have be careful! What this means in practice is that that there are some conditions that I simply would be an idiot to go out in, and some wind directions that are a no go due to the amount of fetch it kicks up.

The Bristol Channel has been on fire for both rays and smooth hounds this year, and I’ve had good days seemingly every time I have been out! What has been noticeable is that the areas you get the most rays, aren’t necessarily the same areas you would get the hounds! And they are prevalent at different states of tide. This isn’t a bad thing really as it means I can anchor up for a couple of hours and fish for rays, while waiting for the tide to pull a bit harder and move to a hound area.

By far the best bait for the hounds is Peeler Crab, but this is expensive and often hard to get hold of. As an alternative I think the Prawn and Squid combo is nearly as good if there are lots of hounds around. Having very little left in the freezer I requested some from Baitbox with my last order, and they sent me some weird red coloured jumbo prawns, which were originally for salmon fishing. In the murky waters of the Bristol Channel, I don’t think that colour is that important anyway, so on my next trip out, I lashed some up and wanged them out. The fish loved them! Well, the rays liked them on their own, the hounds preferred them with a wrap of squid.

Fresh prawns used to be the go-to bait on the River Tamar when I used to fish for thornbacks down there, but in the Bristol Channel if I was fishing solely for them my bait of choice would be Launce, especially for the bigger Blond rays. The fact that I was picking rays up on bright red prawns did take me by surprise! There were even several double hook ups on them when tide was suitable for them to move around a bit.

The Smooth Hound run on the Bristol Channel has been terrific this year, they first started showing up in early June, and by mid-July it seems that they were more or less everywhere from Cardiff down. While out on the boat I saw quite a lot being caught from various beach marks which is a good sign, in fact there was one occasion where I think I was fishing too far out for them after watching a beach angler catch three in quick succession fishing maybe at maybe 80 yards!

The average size was also quite good at around 8 – 9lbs, and if they are in the area the fishing can be hectic. There were occasions where I was only fishing one rod, as having two on at once is a nightmare in a big tide. I like fishing for Smooth Hounds as they do scrap, especially if you get a double figure one on usual up-tide gear. In-fact I went through two rod tips on hounds this season, one wrapped me up in the net and put too much pressure on the tip and the other went ballistic at the side of the boat and I had the drag up too much in hindsight and the rod went with a catastrophic bang! I still landed it though!

I’ve also been and had a go for the Bass, which are usually caught on big smelly baits in the coloured waters of the Bristol Channel. This year, there have been a few times when the water hasn’t been churned up as much as usual and has been relatively clear for the Bristol Channel that is, and when it’s been like this, I’ve picked a few up on lures. Westin Sandy Andy in Robo-Cod colour has been the best catcher so far, I’ve got them in the 42g 15cm and 62g 17cm with the smaller one being the more constant catcher. Bass are strange in-that they seem a bit like perch when you see them on the sounder in the way they behave. All of a sudden, they are there, then the shoal moves quickly, and they are hard to find again. They also go up and down in the water column a lot as well, one shoal will come through right on the bottom, then the next will be 5 feet down.

Most of my Bass have been caught while spot locked over rough ground with a good tide flow at high tide, I like to cast out the side of the boat, let the lure sink and then tighten up and let the tide work the lure around on a tight line. Usually, you get a hit as it lifts off the bottom, or if you let a bit of line out so it sinks, it’s a bit like zander fishing in a strong current and quite a fun way to waste a couple of hours while you wait for the tide to turn.

I’ve also caught a few Jigging, again over rough ground using Sandy Andy. Due to the speed of the tide in the Bristol Channel I nearly always slow the drift down. I do this by putting the electric on heading lock against the flow and set it to counter the drift down to at last 1mph. This means that the lure will flow out the back of the boat as you work it, but it seems to work quite well. I haven’t caught any really large Bass on this method, but it means you can cover a lot of ground.

I have also picked up a few little Tope again, and I have heard of several being caught by shore anglers as well. However, the area I am fishing doesn’t really have a history of Tope being caught. Maybe next year I will put some bigger baits out and see if there are any bigger ones around, it could be interesting.

Hopefully by the time this goes up I will be back on the predators, but I am also looking forward to a bit of Cod fishing this winter if I can get out!

Conger Eels have a tough reputation, there are always stories about the 200lb monster that haunts a local wreck or someone who has had their hand / foot (insert body part here), bitten off by one. In truth, there can be very big eels on some wrecks, and they can be aggressive, but a bit like a pike they aren’t going to bite your hand off unless you are particularly stupid.

I confess that I haven’t done much wreck conger fishing, simply because there isn’t many where I usually fish on the Bristol Channel. I have done quite a bit of shore fishing for them in the past and spent quite a lot of time down on Devil’s Point in Plymouth trying to catch a monster from the shore which never materialised. I’ve caught them to over 20lbs from the shore at various locations, but in most areas a conger over 20lbs is not a common sight and you need to get a bit deeper to pick the bigger ones up.

In the boat on the Channel, in most cases you find the congers over broken ground, which means, areas where there are rocks and debris on the bottom, rather than the usual mud and sand you would fish over for Rays etc. However, as they like this type of ground, it doesn’t mean that you won’t catch them anywhere, as sometimes they just turn up, this is especially true on low water neap tides when I think they go on the hunt more and will follow a scent trail a long way.

This “hunting” behaviour is a key point in catching an outsized one on the channel as from my experience you will nearly always pick a better one up just as the tide changes if you can leave a bait out there long enough.

Getting a bait out in the tide long enough and keeping it “smelly” enough is a trick in its own right. Most of the time you must combat bait robbing dog fish and such like. Even big baits don’t last long in the channel. One bait that I used a lot down on Devils was Cuttlefish for this exact same reason. It’s a bit like Squid, but a lot tougher, we used it to prevent crabs pulling the bait apart, but on the channel it is a good way to keep the “Doggies” off.

Cuttle is good enough on its own, but for maximum attraction you can wrap Mackerel in in to give it a greater “fishy” scent trail. I don’t go overboard with the rigs, you don’t need wire for instance, most of my fishing is done with a simple 100lb nylon trace, down to 4/0 or 5/0 Big Mouth Xtra Hooks.

For Up-Tiding I always fish long pully rig for them, so that the bait is right down on the deck. Down-Tiding is probably easier, but I do like a spread of baits to create a good scent cone for them to home in on, which usually means fishing two Up-Tide and a Down-tide rod lobbed out the back. The Up-Tide rods will have the Cuttle on, and the Down-tide rod I fish with Mackerel, this is the one that the “Doggies” will pull apart and this will actually help by putting fish particulate in the tide. The Down-tide rod is quick and easy to rebait, so in essence its like a big swim-feeder for the Eels, who then move up the scent cone in the tide and will hopefully pick the Cuttlefish up.

Congers do scrap hard when you get them, but they don’t catch the tide as much as Rays do which is a good thing. The only time they can be a pain is when if they wrap up, then you end up pulling a ball of writhing muscle up against the tide! Netting them is fairly simple, you simply pull them alongside the boat where they stretch out in the tide and place the net at the back of their tail and then slacken off and they nearly always drop in.

The tricky part when it comes to Congers, is how to hold them for photos as they are quite simply – as slippery as an Eel! Most anglers will pick them up by the Gill holes and dangle them, I can’t say if this is good for the fish or not, but I assume it is not – so I prefer to pick them up as you would a normal Eel, i.e. length ways and support them. This is possible to do once they have calmed down a bit. If you haven’t caught them before a point to note, is they are really slimy though a lot like catfish are, and the slime will stick to you like bream glue so be aware of that and in most instances wear something old or something waterproof which you can wash it off easily.

What mainline to use for pike and predator fishing is always going to be a personal choice, but most anglers will now ultimately go for some form of braided line, simply, as it offers a lot more befits over monofilament or fluorocarbon for the predator angler.

The two main advantages of braid over mono are, firstly, the lack of stretch, hence better bite indication and hook setting. Secondly, the breaking strain for diameter is far higher, which means no more crack offs or leaving baited traces / lures in the water (mostly).

But what braid to use? What diameter? What breaking strain? What colour? The questions are endless, but let’s go through them;
What colour? As “The Rock” says – It doesn’t matter! Well maybe it does if you care. I’ve caught Pike, Perch and Zander on, let’s see, fluorescent Orange braid, Lime Green, Bright Red, Dark Green, Blue, White and even day-glow Pink! (don’t ask). My conclusion is that its down to personal choice, if your worried about the fish possibly seeing the braid near the bait or lure then use a short length of fluorocarbon before your wire trace. Honestly, I’m with the Rock on this one.

What breaking strain to use? – Well, what breaking strain you use has a direct relation to a) what you are fishing for and b) the diameter of the braid, so we will look at diameter first:
The diameter of the braid has three major implications for the angler to consider. Firstly, the greater the diameter (in most instances) the stronger the braid will be (i.e., breaking strain). Secondly, the greater the diameter the better the abrasion resistance it will have (though this can be subjective). Thirdly, the diameter of the braid will affect how the braid behaves or rather “cuts” through the water – the thicker it is the more prone it will be to drag, and you may need to use heavier leads to hold bottom, or weightier lures to keep them where you need them etc.

This should not always be thought of as a negative though as sometimes it can be useful – for example, a thicker braid, with more drag in the water, will effectively slow a sinking lure down giving it more “hang time” which can be very useful in certain situations. I can also mean a lighter lure will rise in the water column to a greater extent. Again, this might not be a negative thing depending on how you want to fish.
So, as you can see choosing the right braid is quite a complex thing, and it will vary depending on your fishing requirements and location. As a rough guide, I will go though what I use, obviously it will be Westin, but the diameters can be roughly interchangeable with other braids.

For pike bait fishing: I want a strong breaking strain, the diameter doesn’t want to be too thick or too thin as I want good abrasion resistance. Most of my bait fishing is done with floats so I want a floating braid that doesn’t cause too much drag.
For this I use the Westin W6 braid in 0.37 mm diameter, which is 37.2kg or 82lb breaking strain. This may seem a lot. However, remember that that breaking strain is linked to the diameter and it’s the diameter which gives the abrasion resistance I require for some of the rocky places I fish.

For Pike lure fishing I use the Westin W10 braid in 0.33 diameter which is 31.2kg or 69lb breaking strain. This is ideal for general lure casting with shads up to 8 inches and jig heads to around 35g. The reason I use the W10 braid is that it’s a slightly different weave with more fibres making it a smother braid – does this make a difference? Maybe, a smoother braid certainly makes less “noise” or rather vibration in the water, and I like that.

For Zander bait fishing in use the Westin W6 Braid in 0.33 mm diameter which is 24.9kg in breaking strain. I think this is good compromise in diameter and strength for fishing the rivers with a good flow. I can hold in most conditions with 2 – 3 oz leads and a bow of line with this braid so that ticks the boxes for me.

For Zander lure fishing I generally use the same as above on the rivers for casting lures as again it’s a compromise regarding diameter and abrasion resistance when fishing snaggy rivers and flow.
On sill waters, fishing from a boat, I would go a lot lighter, especially if fishing vertically, but that’s a lot more specialised and you need good balanced tackle to do it correctly.

Remember this is just a guide and you might have different requirements to me, but it’s a good to have a think about what you are using as mainline as in some situations it can help put more fish on the bank.

After my stingray hunt last year, this year I had set myself a goal to catch a few different species Ray, of which there are several that reside in the Bristol channel, the most common are Thornbacks, Blond Rays are possibly the second most abundant during the right time of year. The other types are Spotted Rays, which are quite a small species, Undulate Rays and Small-Eyed Rays, the latter two are more elusive, certainly to me!

A couple of years ago we put the big boat in earlier than usual, which would have been around the first week in April and I remember catching a couple of big blonde rays on a small sandbank out in the channel. I find it amazing how you remember these things when you get your game face on. So as soon as April came around and the tides and the weather had settled enough to put my “little” boat out, I was off, zooming about trying to locate the GPS point where I had caught them before.

April is a known time on the Bristol channel for shore fishing at certain points for blonde rays, the theory is that they come in closer to the shore at this time for spawning? However, the documentation says they should spawn between February and August, so maybe? Or maybe it’s just a time that they concentrate on certain marks, I really don’t know. Though it does seem that if you want a big one April is the time of year to go.

By far the best bait for Blond Rays are Launce or Greater Sandeel, these however can be tough to get hold of sometimes, luckily, I had a few packs in the back of the freezer thanks to Baitbox. The other bait they really like is squid, unwashed squid is the best as it has a good scent trail which lasts longer in the water. Obviously, you can have the best of both worlds by using a combo of both, but sometimes there is a preference, so I always start with Launce on one and Squid on the other.

Once I found the spot I wanted I motored up-tide and lobbed the anchor out, where I was fishing wasn’t really that deep at round 35ft on a dropping tide, which might seem quite shallow to most ardent boat anglers, but that’s where I thought the fish were, and if not I could always move deeper as the tide ebbed away.
The speed of the tide in the Bristol Chanel can be a shock if you’re not used to it, and it can also be weird with funny tidal streams. Weird in that where you would expect it to be slow it is not and where you would think it would be fast it can be slow depending on the state of tide.

Trial and error have taught me what speed the tide need to be for ray fishing, and I work that out my stopping the boat near where I want to fish and seeing the “speed over ground” as I drift. Anything between 1 and 1.5 mph is about right, anything more than that and for some reason you just don’t catch them, you can catch other fish at this rate however, but not rays. To make matters stranger, the flow rate will change during the tide. What this means is that when you first anchor it can be perfect but within 20 mins it could be too fast – it is all one big learning curve for me.

Sometimes, however, I get it right and the first trip out to the old spot I managed a good Blonde on the first cast! Which was a great first trip. I also managed a couple of Thornies and a Spotted Ray. All of which were caught during the first hour and half of getting to the spot before the tide got too much for them, I think.

The second trip was much better, armed with squid and launce, I knew I needed to get to the spot a bit earlier to make the most of the medium tide before it got too fast. I like to Up-tide on the channel its simply the best way to present a bait and keep it tight on the bottom. I nearly always use a long pully rig again to keep the bait tight on the bottom where the rays feed. The rods I have been using might be a bit strange! Currently, I have been using a couple of Westin W3 Powershad in 3XH, the casting weight for these is up to 180g so that more than enough with a big lead and some squid on a gentle lob! They also have quite a sensitive tip, and so far, they have been ideal for what I need on the channel.
I couple these with a couple of ABU 6500s and 50lb braid and let out as much line as I need to hold the bottom in the tide.

I wacked the first one out one side of the boat with squid on a pennel rig, I always put one out with squid as it’s a great bait for Rays, and if there are some Cod about, it’s one of the best baits for them on the channel. The other rod was put the other side with a whole Launce, this one was cast into slightly deeper water just on the back of the sandbank. This is the one I expected to go as the Rays tend to lay at the back of the bank as the tide runs out. Fishing an area like this I like to put the bait in an area of different flow and the change of depth at the back of the bank will cause this.

True to form I was just sorting the mess in the boat out and the rod at the back of the back pulled over and then went slack as a big Ray made off with the bait! Blonde Rays are a funny fish to fight, sometimes they swim against the tide, which is brilliant, and it gets them to the boat quickly. Sometimes they tangle up and it really is like pulling a bin bag in against the tide which is a pain! Most of the time for some reason they come to the surface and flap along! That what this one did, and it was soon in the net, a good fish I think was around 15-16lbs, which was a good start.

I put the rod straight back out and 5 mins later I had another smaller one around 10lbs. Nothing on the squid rod at all so I swapped the bait over and fished both rods on whole Launce. Which turned out to be a stupid move, as almost as soon as I’d re-baited and cast it out, the first rod was off, and it was obviously a very good Ray. This one started by coming up to the surface then started being awkward as the tide caught it and brought it round the back of the boat. It was a good 20lber, and I eventually managed to net it as the tide increased making it a bit difficult, but I got it in the bottom of the boat just intime to catch the second rod before it disappeared into the deep with another big Ray hooked up on it.

Now there was a dilemma, I’d already got a big Blonde in net on the bottom of the boat, and now I had another similar sized one catching the tide at the back of the boat. What to do? You can’t get two in the net at the same time with the tide, and it was awkward getting the first one out of it while trying to hold the hooked one away from the tide at the back of the boat, but eventually I managed it and swiped the second one in as well! Interestingly one was a male and one was a female, both probably around the 20lb mark! Can’t be bad!

After a couple of photos, I flopped them back in and watched them splash off like they always do. I was chuffed. Time for a quite tea then an untangle of everything before re-baiting and casting out. However, I could tell the tide was getting a bit strong, I usually judge it by how fast debris and bubbles on the surface go past the boat. Unfortunately, I was proved right, and I didn’t get anything else. So, it was time for move to get out of the flow. I moved a little closer to the shore, where the headland would slow the tide a bit and as soon as I got settled, I stated getting a few bites again, this time however it was a mixture of Dogfish and small Thornback Rays. I think the Blonde Rays prefer it a bit further out but unfortunately the tide was too strong where they were, and I had to be back at the slipway 3 hrs after low water to get in safely. Alas that is the nature of sea fishing, which means you need to maximise the “feeding window” and next time I’m taking two nets!