Anglers are some of the hardiest – or maddest people on this earth - fishing in all weathers, I remember one February day in the 1970’s sitting on Folkestone beach in Kent with my father and brother waiting the start of the European and all England beach championships in a blizzard along with nearly 2000 other anglers.
Storms Dudley and Eunice seem to have to have beaten us all, strong winds have forced Carp anglers to stay indoors and not risk their bivvy’s getting blown away and sea anglers not risking the wrath of the ferocious seas that we have seen.
Not one to waste time I have used this week to think about my fishing year ahead. The first job was to check through all my rods and reels and clean and service them where necessary.
I am fishing out of Brighton and Mevagissy this year and hope to catch a large Ling, a species I haven’t caught for many years. The Greater Weaver is a species that only grow to about a pound in weight and I will be trying to get to either Newquay or Padstow to try again.
Shark fishing is growing in popularity and has not really appealed to me, but with more charter boat skippers from different ports offering trips I think maybe this is the year to try.
Lewis Hodder runs an evening species league during the summer aboard his boat Pegasus out of Lyme Regis and a great fun event.
On the Freshwater scene, Tench are one of my favourite species and this year I intend to target them.Perch are a great small predator to catch and I have personal target of a 3lbs+ fish, locally Spring Ponds at Rocombe and the specimen lake at Newbarn angling centre are the places to try. Fly fishing is another love of mine and my personal best Rainbow Trout is 13 ½ lbs.
The year ahead looks exciting.
Please send any pictures and catch reports for our fish of the month competition, kindly sponsored by sidewinder lures and Newbarn Angling centre by email to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com
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