I can’t believe that’s another whole month gone since my last blog! Where does the time go?

Well following on from last month’s blog, in which I raised doubt that I ‘d be able to get out for a last blast and hit my 100 pike winter target, in the end I did actually manage to squeeze in a days angling. If you remember I was stuck on 91 fish over the winter and just couldn’t nail that final 9. However, on the day in question after a lot of tinkering about trying to suss out what lure/weight/retrieve combo they wanted I finally found what they liked and started getting a few takes. Just like at the start of the pike season they seemed to have all grouped up again, and after a hectic few hours I managed to land 22, bringing my final total for the winter to 113 pike! Even though over the winter I didn’t catch anything big (the biggest only being 18lb) I was more than happy to break the 100 barrier so convincingly.

Moving on from the pike, it’s time to dig out the bream gear again and start chasing those lovely big brasems. Tactics wise there’s nothing to change from last year as I was more than happy with the size 8 Covert Wide Gape Talon Tip hook and 15lb Trickster combo, so I will be using that again this time as I have 100% confidence in it. Last year I managed to get them up to a whopping 17lb 10oz, which incidentally was a specimen for which I was honoured to be awarded the Martin Whitmore award from Coarse Angling Today for the biggest bream of the year! Hopefully, if all goes well I will be able to catch another beast and retain the title. Well hopefully anyway…

I also had a week in France a couple of weeks back to the lovely ‘Lake Serene’ for a bit of relaxation and carp fishing. Unfortunately I only managed a couple of low 20’s this time, but the other lads on the trip had fish up to 48lb 8oz, and it was just a lovely chilled out week. John and Mave (the owners) were yet again the perfect hosts, feeding us like Kings for the week and generally making sure everyone had a great time. Great food with great friends and great hosts and I can’t wait to get back out there again next year to hopefully get one of the bigger beasts that lurk within their waters.

The only other thing that happened over the month was that I had a birthday and got yet another year older, but the least said about that the better!

That more or less brings me up to date, fingers crossed by the time I write my April blog I will have caught some nice bream to tell you all about.

Until then though, tight lines!