Mike Lyddon Articles
I had been trying to catch a 6lb+ chub, coming close on so many occasions. I think I have now had over 10 chub between 5lb 14oz and 5lb 15oz, but I could never get one with that extra magic ounce I needed. On this particular evening though, I finally cracked it, not once, but twice! Firstly, with an absolutely pristine chub of 6lb 4oz...
At first, I thought it was indeed a barbel, but after a heavy thumping battle in the flow, I saw the brassy flanks of a big chub surface. A couple more nervous minutes followed, before I managed to slide it over the drawstring into the net. Straight away I could see it was probably a '6'; a target I had been chasing for years.
I had previously held the lake record at the lake, with a mirror of 54lb captured a few years earlier, though that had recently been beaten by another carp of 57lb, so I was amazed and more than happy to see the needle spin round and stop at 57lb 8oz! I had taken my lake record back again.
I knew it was a double straight away, but it was only once I lifted it out that I saw just how wide and deep it was. It was easily the widest Tench I had ever seen. I couldn't believe it when the scales bounced round to 12lb 4oz. Only 3 weeks previously I’d had a fish of a lifetime with a 12lb 2oz tench, and amazingly I had broken that PB already, and from another completely different venue as well.
I recently had a trip to France with some of the guys from work and some mutual friends, for a friends 50th birthday. The venue in question was Napoleon Lakes, just south of Reims. At 9 acres in size, it’s an intimate venue and ideal for the group of six [...]
Every year for the last few years, myself and a bunch of mates take a trip (sometimes two) across the channel to Lake Serene in France. It’s a stunning little venue which is brilliantly run by the owners John and Mave. As usual we were booked to fish on Lake [...]
It’s been a while since I last went crucian fishing. In fact, looking back I realised that I hadn’t fished for them since last season, so I thought I would go for a quick 48 hours chasing them at my favourite local venue, Enton Lake (aka Johnsons on the Godalming AS ticket). I love [...]
Over the last few years, I have always got out and fished over the New Year period, and this year was to be no different. However, my original venue of choice, the River Severn, was a whopping 6.7 metres up at the time and consequently flooded right across all the neighbouring fields. A far [...]
So where do I start for my overview of the year. I suppose the best place would probably be at the start. It’s been a bit of a year of ups and downs for me. After fishing really hard the year before, I had planned to take things a bit easier this year and [...]
After what seemed like an eternity of catching nothing of note this summer, I finally managed to slip the net under something a bit special. I had been trying to break my old perch PB of 4lb 1oz for many years and although I’d managed to land a few big 3’s last year, I [...]
