Normally in December, I start my zander campaign on the tidal rivers, but, this year it’s just not happened, it’s been floods, high rivers, more floods. So I’ve not bothered.

The Severn, as I write this, has been 3 metres above normal for the last two weeks, and there is more rain forecast, which will put it out again over the Christmas period.

The Trent is on the verge of flooding as well, with several “crocodiles” pushing down, when I looked at Newark. So the River zedding will have to be put on hold again until it fines down.

I did manage a short trip to the Wye while in-between floods, when it should have fished, but it didn’t.

Speaking to the head warden at Grafham, they had decided to keep the boats on for an extra two weeks, so that’s where I decided to head.

Again it was horrible and foggy, and the boats didn’t go out very early as they have to wait for the fog to clear first, understandably, but most of the guys in the car park waiting to go out had more accurate GPS units than an American warship… and eventually we went out.

Again I’d decided to use deads, it’s just a bit of a change for me, as for the last few years I’ve been a “lure only” angler, and I find exciting doing something different from everyone else.

So, after a delayed start, I’d anchored up and put a couple of baits out by a feature on the north shore. I didn’t have to wait long before one of the floats stood up, indicating something had picked up my bait-box herring.

I wound down and quickly pumped a bewildered looking zander to the surface, it was covered in leeches, and I think I must have landed the bait right on its head for it to pick it up. At around 7lb it was your typical Grafham fish.

I put it back, and cast back out, after about an hour another fish- this time around 9lbs, things were getting better. Then I lost one, and had another take at the same time -which was a fish around 11lb. It was strange, these fish were clearly leeched up and couldn’t have been moving far, but they had all gobbed the bait right down. I was expecting some more, but that was it. Was it just a short feeding spell, or was it just luck that I dropped baits right on their heads? Who knows, it was time to go, so I put a load of chop in, to fish over it the next day.

The next day, the same scenario, cold with fog, fishing in the same area, resulted in El Blanko. They are strange fish these stillwater zander. Again I put a load of chop in when I packed up. Hopefully I could get back again before it shuts.

I did manage to get back, this time in the company of Ed Matthews, again we both decided to fish deads, and the plan was to try the pre-baited spots first, then, if nothing happened, hit some of my GPS spots where I had caught big zander from in the past.

That’s exactly what we did- we stayed for 2hrs in the first spot where I’d had the zander from previously, without a sniff. So we upped anchor and moved.

Travelling time on big waters like this eats up your fishing time, so you can’t just roam around at random, you need to know where to head to, that’s where the GPS comes into play, it’s like having permanent markers out on the water, that you can go to.

It was whilst passing one of these spots that I noticed a big ball of fish on the finder. By this ball there were three single large fish, possibly zander, that were near them. That was enough for us, Ed threw in his H-block marker right on top of the fish, and I anchored the boat so we could both fish towards the marker.

We didn’t have to wait long, I was sorting my second rod out when the first one was away, and the float was doing its dance towards the boat, I wound down and hit it and soon had a nice zander in the net, I quickly unhooked it and put it back, estimating it around 12lbs, not a bad start. It may seem a bit blasé about estimating them like this, but this is Grafham, a 12lber is a nice fish, it’s not a great fish, and it’s important to get them back as quick as possible if they come from deep water.

As I was sorting the rod out, Ed was away, with a trout that tangled all his rig up, his other rod then was away with a zander of around 6lbs. Interestingly both Ed’s and my zander were both heavily leeched up again, would these fish be tempted on jigs, or would they have just lain there on the bottom?

After a quick photo of Ed’s fish I cast back out, and turned around to watch Ed playing another brown trout, I don’t know why he kept picking them up and I wasn’t being bothered by them? Could it have been I was using frozen baits, and he was using fresh ones from the fish counter?

So, laughing at the trout tangling another rig, I looked around and saw my float bob once, then settle, it was a bit strange, could something have run into my line down deep? I decided to check, and as I picked the rod up it did it again, so I wound down and hit into an obviously bigger fish. As it thumped around under the boat, I thought it may have been a pike as a few had been caught in the deepwater, and when it came up, indeed it was, a lovely golden Grafham pike, that, at just over 20lb, made my day.

I was busy setting the camera up while Ed was playing yet another trout, and we got some nice shots against the moody sky. About a ½ an hour after releasing the pike, Ed managed one more zander of around 9lbs, and that was it for the day. Boats had to be in a 15:30 , so it’s really a short day out on the water at this time of year. But we both went home happy. Then that was it for another year on Grafham.

To say the rest of December was a bit of a wash out was a bit of an understatement, torrential rain, and biblical proportion floods was more like it! I had planned to start my winter zander campaign on the tidal rivers, but unusually both the Severn and the Trent were flooded at the same time, and with more rain forecast it was likely to stay that way well into the New Year!

Press Articles this month include:

Extreme Range Pike fishing – Pike and Predators – Dec 2012

Pike Scene – Christmas Tips – Anglers Mail 18^th Dec 2012

Pop-ups – On Coarse – Greys Online Ezine- Dec 2012

November started off slowly with a week up in the Lake District. Now I love going up there, the scenery is great, the access to the lakes are great, the fishing … well it’s been good for me in the past- but in the last few years it’s been worse than Chew!
Why is this? I don’t know for sure, but I do know that last year out of the 5 doubles that I managed four of them had traces in them! I know a few other anglers that had found the same, surely this doesn’t bode well.
The good thing about going up to the Lake District for me is that if the weather is rubbish, like it is the majority of the time I go! It’s not a problem as I can sit in the cottage and catch up on my writing and photo editing!
This time I managed to get out for four days, it was lovely crisp cold weather, with snow on the hills, and everywhere I tried looked good, but, only catching four fish all below 10lbs was what I had to show for it! Maybe I’ll try again in the New Year.

On returning I had an email from my mate Alan Buckingham, he had a boat space for the opening day on Chew and the following Wednesday and did I want to join him?
I didn’t need asking twice and I had a boat booked on the Friday as well, so soon had my gear sorted and was flying down the M5 towards Chew.
Now, like everywhere at the moment, Chew hadn’t been fishing well, but I think there is always the chance of a biggie from there. I haven’t had one, though not for the lack of trying. The rain was terrible heading down, with floods and Chew Stoke had received a lot of it. Would it affect the fishing? Only time would tell.

Anyway, I met Alan in the car park and somehow, I don’t know how, we were the first boat out and had our pick of spots, so we headed to “Waynes World” if you don’t know where that is, I’m not telling you. If you do know where that it, it was crap anyway, so we moved several time, dunking all manner of bait box deadbaits, in every likely area, to no avail.
It was noticeable that not all the boats had gone out. Anglers are a fickle bunch and if the water’s not fishing some just don’t bother. I always look on the bright side, and think you only have to get one bite on Chew to change the face of pike fishing history!
Alan had a jack and a low double- from what I remember, I remember blanking all day!
As half of the boats had not gone out we thought we would be cheeky and asked if there were any cancellations for the next day, luckily we got one thanks to Gary Knowles. Now, if anglers like Knowlesy aren’t going, it looks bad.
Well Gary, you didn’t miss anything as I blanked again that day!

Wednesday came and went, and I blanked.

Thursday I was glad to get back to work.

Friday I was joined on the boat by Paul Garner, we both blanked.
To rub salt into the wound, we missed our breakfasts- normally at Chew it’s all very civilized, you can go into the café and order your food while you wait for the boats to be prepped and cleaned. Today, though, the boats were ready before the café even opened, causing two very hungry anglers to rush about in eagerness to get out, in hindsight we should have stayed in the warm, because being out early didn’t make any difference. Thanks to Leighton for pointing out that the boats were ready to go out.

Four days of blanks on Chew! Maybe I should pack this fishing lark in!

There have been lots of blanks on Chew lately, and in the last few years this was almost unheard of, on most days you could look around at some point and see some one catching a fish, which begs the question, what’s happened?

A few suggestions:
- A lot of the pike have died?
- A lot of pike have been removed?
- The same stock of pike is present, but they are full of trout (more have been stocked this year)
- Flood water has put them off?
- It’s the natural peak and trough of a trout water.

Either way it’s not been the same water it was last year. My concerns are that there seems to be a whole year group loss- in that only jacks or 20lb fish were being caught. Natural mortality doesn’t work like that.

Will I be back next year?
Of course (assuming I can get tickets- with the planned phone ticket booking fiasco)

As for Paul I think he had the best idea though at £70 for a boat its quite an expensive bed!

The next trip out was again with Paul, this time he had tricked me into going to Farmoor reservoir, I don’t know how he did it, and in the end I even recall it being my choice to go, but I must have been tricked or drugged or something.
Farmoor has a tremendous reputation in pike angling… none of it good though.
It’s a lovely picturesque place… well no, it’s just a concrete bowl in the middle of the Oxford countryside. It’s stuffed with pike .. so Thames Water will have you believe.! In reality, in the last two years of trials, only two pike have come out.. both to Paul!
Though in fairness to the place, one of those pike was 30+ and it has the potential of doing another big fish as we all know that lots of food (trout) and low stock density of pike produce big fish.
Anyway it couldn’t be any worse blanking there than blanking on Chew, so I set out at ridiculous o’clock to meet Paul at the gates for 8am. The next few hours were spent slowly drifting and casting various lures around the north shore, which is always a good starting point on any large water for pike, but nothing. We moved back up to the other end of the lake and there was a small area where loads of birds were working, and I could almost feel a fish coming on, as soon as I said this Paul struck into a fish that he was convinced was a trout until it tried to get under the boat. Eventually he managed to bully the rarest fish of all, a Farmoor pike, into the net. It wasn’t massive, around 14lb,but it really was a stunner.
Needless to say I blanked again, we covered a lot of water, casting lures all day, I just don’t think there are many pike in the place, either that or you need to be called Paul to catch one!
On returning to the jetty (we were late as usual), the warden nearly fainted when we told him we had caught one! He went on to say that no one had caught anything from there this year, and he thought we were pulling his leg!

After nearly losing the will to bother fishing, I decided to head back to Grafham to try for some zander, at least I can still catch them! I hope!
I had been keeping my ear to the ground and had a few whispers that a few decent fish had started to emerge to bait anglers, surprisingly!
This was good enough for me I had caught fish on there using baits before, but normally when it’s really cold, but it was worth ago, so I made my way down the A1 with a boot full of baitbox deadbaits.
I fished a spot where I had several fish on baits in the past, and nothing, it was dead.
The next day was much of the same, sitting around on a cold boat watching floats stay still. There was only one other boat out jigging, and I don’t think that they had much either.
The following day I left my deadbaits at home and came back with the Jigaboos, the idea in my head was to cover as much water as possible and hopefully find a feeding fish, it was a freezing cold day with lots of fog, so drifting was going to be slow, no need for a drogue here.
I decided to plough my jig along the bottom, it’s a good method that works well sometimes if the fish are just laying up- as it just drags in front of them and they need minimal effort to take it. So that’s what I did all day, set up long drifts and fished my jig static on the bottom, with just the action of the boat to drag it along. It worked, I had one hit that day that resulted in a very long 14lber, not a huge Grafham fish, but at least I’d stopped my dry spell, and I went home happy!

Press articles this month include:
Deadbait fishing for Zander – Pike and Predators Nov 2012.
Pike Scene – Jerkbaiting – Anglers Mail 6th Nov 2012
Predator Perfection – News article – Anglers Mail 27th Nov 2012
Pike Scene – Favourite Float Rigs – Anglers Mail 27th Nov 2012
On Coarse – Greys Online Magazine – Nov 2012

First port of call for October was a photo shoot for the Angler’s Mail, on a little lake that I have access to in the Fens, I was accompanied by possibly the best photographer in the fishing business, Roy Westwood. We were shooting for a feature on “How to catch your first pike,” and getting a few additional shots for future issues. The pike weren’t that forthcoming, but I did manage one low double that was suitable for some shots. With all the static shots done, just as we were about to call it a day, I had a violent take on a float- fished smelt, which turned out to be a cracking zander of just over 9lbs- quite a specimen from the water and my first on El Smelto!

The rest of October saw me back on Grafham, reports were that the fishing had been hard, with very little pike activity, the zander fishing had been good for numbers, but not for large fish, which I found a bit worrying, but it was still very early in the season and from experience the big zander don’t show until it starts to get really cold and they move back to their usual spots (which I have on my GPS!)

While the water is still warm I think they are a lot more spread out. Yes, a few big ones get caught, but you usually get plagued with little fish in the 7 – 9 lb bracket.

While this may be fun, it’s not what I go to Grafham for.

I also think that a lot of anglers on there actively hinder themselves in catching big zander by using Jigs that are too small, most of my 15lb+ fish have come on Jigs that are 6” or over. By using smaller lures, you probably get more hits, but are you really going to stir that big girl up?

Of course, using big lures doesn’t necessarily mean you will catch bigger fish, but I think the bigger profile stands out more, and thus can make a lethargic fish take interest.

Anyway, as reports were one or two hits on jigs each day, with the average size being 6lbs, I thought I would give the Zander angling a miss and try for some of the big perch that are also present in there. Drop-shotting is the way to catch these, it really is “the” method for perch, they love it, so much that I’d be quite confident to put it up against any other perch fishing method on the day.

I managed a few fish fishing on the shadow side of some artificial structure near the north shore, nothing massive, most were between 2lb and 3lbs, with the largest being 31/2lbs, but good fun on a light drop-shotting rod.

Another trip to Grafham later in the week saw a few decent zander to the boat, it was noticeable that, for whatever reason, the zander were migrating down towards the north tower at the end of the day, and it had become so predicable that you could find several boats jigging around there at last knockings, trying for them. On this day Nigel Savage was busily thrashing the water to a foam with his pike flies, trying to pick one up next to the tower – when I rocked up in the boat. I took great pleasure in catching three and losing two in the next five casts- right in front of him! Just over 9lbs was the largest fish, and then I got carried away and had to return to the jetty late, and was severely berated by the wardens much to Nigel’s amusement!

Chew was calling next, and I had a day afloat with Andrew Fletcher, reports again were that Chew was fishing poorly, with either jacks or blanks coming to most anglers. Yes, there were a good fish coming out each day, but these were very localised and generally coming from one area near Stratford’s.

The plan was to be the first boat out, head up to Stratfords, find the weed line and soak some deadbaits for the day. As it turns out, that was everyone else’s plan as well!

We didn’t blank, we had a stream of jacks to the boat, it got quite annoying in the end, every time the float twitches on Chew, so do I, as it could be a massive fish, and it’s a real disappointment when you crank a jack in.

The amount of jacks was very worrying in my eyes, as any pike angler knows, if you start catching a lot of jacks, it’s often a sign that the big fish have died off.

Only time will tell, let’s hope not!

Paul Gardner and I then had a couple of trips to Rutland. Sometimes Rutland can be a good water, but you really need to know the spots on there, and the fish can move around a lot, especially if they have been hooked a few times.

Replicants and Castaic lures were again the order of the day, with the brighter colours working the best, we had a fair few fish, but nothing spectacular, the largest around 15lbs, it was interesting that most fish were caught after we had anchored in the spot for a while. We were getting follows drifting and casting lures, but the fish just weren’t having it.

When you are anchored up, the lures are presented differently, normally slower and you can keep the lure down in the water, I think this is why anchoring worked that day, or it could have been that we bored them out by repeatedly casting over their heads!

Other than that I had couple of trips to the upper Wye, saw little result, more to get some photos for my column in the Mail than for the fishing. One thing I have learned about the Wye, and it goes for most spate rivers really, is that you really need to hit the river when it’s right. So it helps being local, but someday I’ll get a biggie out of there I’m sure.

Press articles this month include:

Catch your first pike – All Answers – Anglers Mail 30^th Oct 2012

Into to Jerk-baiting – On Coarse – Greys online Ezine -Oct 2012