Another trip to the Wraysbury Lakes complex

It's been three weeks since I posted a report covering my fishing trip to Wraysbury Lake. When the opportunity arose for another trip I grabbed it, quite eager to try my luck at catching another large Pike, perhaps even the elusive Perch. I say that the Perch are elusive, though it's probably more down to the fact that bar a couple of tiddlers that I'd caught previously, I'd not actually seen a Perch of note in the flesh so to speak.

The plan had been to meet up with Ian Harris and David Morris to fish both days over the weekend. The weather forecast wasn't exactly favourable, though the margins are generally quite heavily wooded so there's  generally always shelter to be found. I was already fairly organised, or was it more a case that I'd not really unpacked from my previous trip?

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It was also an opportunity to test out my new LiFePo4 (lithium iron phosphate) battery, a whopping 23ah that I deemed necessary to power my Lowrance HDS9 Carbon combo FF/GPS unit. Though my HDS7 Gen 3 was also killing off my 12ah SLA battery in any session over 6 hours. These big display units are actually very nice to own, though there is one big cost.... current draw!. However, I'll look more at batteries in a later article.

The alarm went off at 0600 and by 0745 I'd hit the road having already loaded the kayak and consumed a large coffee. It's an hours drive to the Wraysbury complex for me, quite a pleasurable one at that time of the morning. It was a different lake to what I'd previously fished and it certainly looked interesting, what with numerous islands and a few backwaters, there was plenty to fish or just to explore!. I'm not sure what time we launched, probably by 0900, though how I'd love to slip into the water there at 0630.

I'd had a look on the Insight Genesis webpage to check if the lake had been previously mapped. Sadly there was nothing, so I planned to map as much as the lake as reasonably possibly during the session. I had actually hoped to utilise Navionic's SonarChart Live, though it transpired that my Navionics Gold card didn't offer that facility. I do have a more up to date card in the post, however, using this feature will have to wait until at least my next trip. Creating your own charts on the go?, that has to be a good thing... watch this space.

I do like fishing alone at times, just enjoying a venue, the time of the morning, etc. Once launched I headed around the corner into quite a large bay. I trolled the margins a couple of times and then covered the remainder of the bay casting methodically. Third cast saw me hook up into a fish!. It was a 'jack' pike of 3-4 lbs, no complaints as it meant that at least I wasn't going to blank!

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I did try to get a decent photograph of my first fish of the day, though it didn't want to wait about...

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I caught three fish in quick succession, all a very similar size. All were taken on a Fox Rage Pro shad mated to both 10g and 15g jig heads. I find the 15g ideals for trolling in depths of up to 5m with the 10g ok for casting, perhaps even a 7g would work just as well. Though they are quite prone to damage and the two I had with me became somewhat unusable within a couple of hours.

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I'm sponsored by Lowrance so I'm somewhat spoilt when it comes to electronics. This day I had the latest HDS9 Carbon fitted. It has a 9" screen and this enables me to split the screen into three sections with ease. As I was mapping the lake I chose to have a map overview displayed along with Broadband sonar and StructureScan . As much as I didn't have a usable chart loaded, it enabled me to see what areas of the lake I'd covered. Helpful both in mapping and ensuring that I'd potentially covered all fish holding areas (note the left section of the display below).

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What there is as this venue is an abundance of wildlife, I spend probably too much time listening to the variety of bird calls and try to locate the various species in the tree tops. Am I a closet 'twitcher' ?.. perhaps. Though I did enjoy watching a pair of Red Kites for almost an hour, very graceful birds.
I left the bay and headed along a narrow stretch of water. I was regularly getting brief hits to my lure, the number of failed hook-ups was numerous to say the least. Small Perch or Pike no doubt, both frustrating and entertaining at the same time.

The fish kept on coming, though they were generally quite small in size, feisty though!. Like most anglers I do at times lose a little too much tackle. I can go weeks without losing something, then lose 7-8 lures in a session!. It's always nice to get a little payback, so when I spotted a lure in a nearly tree I couldn't let it remain there.

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I have to admit that today did not result in many notable photographs. I caught a nice double figure Pike and it gave quite a memorable fight. It was eventually netted and quickly unhooked, ready for its photo call...  it had other ideas (again!).

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So I can catch fish, just not photograph them apparently. It seems that it's safer to photograph them in the net first... here's a Pike in the net :)

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The fish just kept on coming, here's another one...

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I'm often asked about using Side Scan sonar (Lowrance StructureScan), is it worth it?. Well traditional broadband sonar, even down imaging, covers only a small area of the water beneath the kayak. Yes, the deeper the water the greater the coverage, though in reality that area is still very small. Being able to look 15-25 metres either side of the kayak with ease?, well that's somewhat priceless. It's possible to pass directly over a featureless bottom whilst being totally ignorant to both fish and structure that may exist either side of the kayak. Look at the screenshot below:

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The traditional broadband sonar (top right) is showing a rather featureless bottom, increasing in depth over time. Though look at the StructureScan directly below. To the left are several raised areas of terrain though to the right it's somewhat bland. Well how does this help?, turning around and heading back a few metres off to the left will put you onto potentially fish holding structure. I cant see any fish on that particular screen shot though it doesn't mean that there are none there. I used this method many times throughout the day and it provided me with hook-ups on several occasions.

How do fish appear on the StructureScan?. Well that depends on various factors including fish size, water depth as well as there's position relative to the sonar (i.e beneath or off to one side). Below are a couple of images of what I'm talking about. The first picture below shows a shoal of Carp pretty much directly beneath the kayak. They are clearly visible to the left of the display on the Broadband sonar as large 'fish arches'.

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Though on the StructureScan display to the right (above) they are clearly visible towards the bottom of the water column (even Carp shaped!) as well as some shadows off to the right created by fish. Shadows?, sonar like light will create shadows due to being unable to pass through an object. It's not terribly clear on the image above, though how about this image below?

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There are clearly two fish (white marks) about 9 metres to the left of the kayak, now several metres behind the kayak. As they are off the bottom they are casting a 'sonar shadow' immediately to their left and can therefore be confirmed as fish. This shadow can be used to provide an idea of the depth of the fish. Also, note the methodical mapping track. Parallel tracks to ensure total coverage. It also helps to cover all possible fish holding areas to a good degree.

I actually targeted those fish above by tapping on the display on the HDS9 Carbon and selecting the 'GOTO' option. I was steered directly back towards these fish as can be seen below to the left of the screen. Out of interest you can also see another large fish on the broadband sonar below (top right) lying hard on the bottom at around 4 metres, seen whilst navigating back towards the two fish I highlighted on the StructureScan... fish everywhere!

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That fish above that's lying hard against the bottom was most likely a Pike. With the water temperature so cold these fish are lying deep in the water, a clue being the leeches that are attached to pectoral fins of the fish that are caught during the colder months, this can be seen below.

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These end up littering the kayak after a few fish, it's become pastime to locate them and ditch them overboard during those quieter moments.

With my two fox lures destroyed it was time to try out my new collection of Westin lures.
I'd previously had some great success with the Westin Shad Teez (below), not doubt very effective due to its famous rolling action. Sadly my only 'Crazy Deal' colour Shad Teez had been chewed up beyond recognition so I decided to try another Westin lure from my box.

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Out of the box came my one and only Hypo Teez, well in this particular colour scheme (below).

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I mainly trolled this lure and it was smashed in the first 10 seconds!, trust me, that builds your confidence in a lure VERY quickly!. It took many Pike during the session and it showed very little wear considering the abuse it took. It doesn't possess the rolling action of the Shad Teez, though the paddle tail creates very effective movement. I'll certainly be adding several to my collection, though I'll also use them with 7-10g jig heads for casting purposes, especially into shallower water.

As mentioned, the Hypo Teez was killing the Pike out in the lake (not literally!). Below is what became a common occurrence... an 'inhaled' Hypo Teez. At times unhooking required forceps. Note the lure clip!!!!. I'd had problems with the clip on the previous fish. False economy for sure. Next time a lure clip shows signs of damage it gets changed. Last thing you want to do is lose a great fish or leave your lure in the mouth of a fish.. best avoided wherever possible.

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The hunt for Pike continued and there was no shortage of them. I stopped keeping count at fifteen, though I caught a few after that as well. Despite the sheer number of fish my best had topped out at around double figures. However, the was eventually to change as I hooked up into the 'beast'.

This fish stayed deep for some time before I managed to lift it off the bottom and bring it up towards the kayak. It still had plenty of life remaining  even then, stripping line from the reel as it so wished.

Point to note - Two days earlier I'd taken deliver of a new XL Savage Gear folding landing net. It seemed huge compared to my Bass Pro scoop net which is 50cm long so I made the decision to leave it at home.

The fish surfaced and it was far bigger than I'd expected. I knew it was a decent fish, but no, this was a very big fish. I could see that it was very lightly hooked (in the cheek) so I didn't want to put excessive pressure onto it by bringing it next to the kayak to hand lift out. Despite knowing the net was too small I had a plan. Get its head into the net and somehow grab its tail and bring it aboard. Well that was the plan......

Below is a video of the result.

​​Yup, it was very painful. I did regret leaving that nice new big Savage Gear landing net at home... several dozen times in fact. That said, its handle is way too long and I don't want to have to pull out the handle each time, it needs modifying for kayak use.

Though that decision did cost me what was probably my biggest ever Pike.... what could have been.

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I wont lie, I was feeling rather glum for at least 10 minutes. A packet of Jaffa Cakes later and moral was mostly restored. Ok, I'm lying, I was gutted for several hours.

I continued to map and fish the lake. It proved to be fairly featureless in the deeper areas, bar the odd bank and depression here and there. Though I did pick up a large area of rough ground several metres off to one side (thank you StructureScan) so I cast a lure in that direction. After allowing it time to sink i started a slow retrieve. Literally 3-4 seconds into the retrieve it was smashed and it didn't feel particularly 'Pike-like' .... and it wasn't!.

It turned out to be a cracking Perch which slipped very nicely into my 50cm Bass Pro net!. I don't think it was my biggest Perch (currently 46cm), though as I didn't take a measuring board I'll never know.  It was back in the water within a minute, quickly unhooked, a flurry of photos before watching it plunge back down into the muddy depths.

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Catching that Perch certainly eased the pain of having lost that big Pike an hour earlier and it was a really great way to wrap up a cracking session afloat. Ok, I said that I'd stopped counting at 15 Pike, 18 was the final count, plus a nice big fat Perch!

The LiFePo4 23ah battery was still holding 60% of its charge after the 6+ hour session. That's well on target to it's expected 13-15 hour life that I'm expecting for the HDS9 Carbon FF/GPS or over 25 hours for the Elite 7 Ti. That's pretty awesome, I could use the Elite 7 Ti for a long weekend away on one charge. That said, a full charge only takes 4 hours, that's super quick by SLA standards.

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If you'd like the chance to kayak fish at the famous Wraysbury Lake complex why not come and join me and many other kayak anglers at the London International Kayak Fishing Festival. At £40 for the 3 day lure only predator competition, including camping, it's going to be a very special event.
Put the dates in your diary: June 9-11th 2017

Here's the promotional video below.

 

First competition of the year!

I keep rambling on about how I'm getting back to my saltwater roots this year, only to find myself floating around in the fresh stuff. Trust me, it will happen!. However, last weekend saw me back on.... ummmmmm, freshwater, hey ho.

The competition had been organised by my good friend Ian Harris in a location that must remain secret I'm afraid. I was told that it held predators in the shape of Pike and Perch, with the water holding some very large Perch, potential record size. Ok, I was hooked. It was also to be an invite only competition with many notable names appearing on the list. I'm still very much a learner with regards to freshwater angling, but I persevere.

I was out of bed by 0330 on the morning of the competition and parked outside the house of another good friend, David Morris, by 0500. Two hours later we'd arrived at the secret location!. The competition wasn't due to kick off until 0900 (earlier would have been nicer), though it provided a luxurious amount of time to rig the kayaks and to catch up with the multitude of kayak anglers that were milling about. Faces both old and new.

The launch was quick and uneventful with all anglers keen to get fishing.

I think that there was 29 kayaks afloat with almost half of those being Hobies. It's interesting to watch the Hobie brand grow here in the UK. It's been well established overseas for a long time. Though if I look back three years or so, there were only a handful of anglers fishing from Hobie kayaks here in the UK, that is changing very quickly now.

I'd decided to take three rigged rods to fish, trolling, spinning and dropshot. I'm still not a big fan of the latter method, though it's caught me fish in the past when all else has failed.

I have a couple of fish measures that I use, my favourite being the Hawk Trough as it's lightweight and easily stored. Though it's limited to fish of 75cm which is far from ideal when there's the chance of catching larger fish!. I decided to do a 'hack job' and extended the Hawg Trough by cutting a length of another I had spare. Drastic perhaps?, but it worked. I used some mitre glue for the join, with some re-enforcing plastic added to the rear for additional strength. Here's the result...

The centimetre and inch scales obviously don't align along a measure so I had to choose one or the other to use when extending the measure. I went with centimetres. I used a 'Dremel' tool to modify the numbering on the extended portion. It's not perfect, but it's very useable. It now measures up to 125cm accurately, though I've lost 1/2" (see the 29/30" mark), so the inches scale won't be used after 29", if at all.

Anyway, back to the fishing. The competition started promptly at 0900 and I went directly to a small feature along one bank to cast a few lures. Now I'd been using 30lb on that particular reel the previous week, though I'd re-spooled with 20lb the night before. Not really thinking I cast out and looked in amazement as my lure flew effortlessly into the distance. By the time I 'hit the brakes' my lure was parked in a tree!. A superb start to the session. I actually had to exit the kayak to untangle the mess, say no more.

Despite the number of anglers on a small water, I was still able to troll in several areas. Within 45 minutes I'd landed my first fish, trolling a small Rapala diving lure running at around three metres. At just over 56cm I think it's the smallest Pike that I've ever caught!!, though as the competition was for overall length (max 3 Perch and 1 Pike) they all counted.

It's always good to catch quite early on, or to even just get a bite or two, as it boosts one's confidence no end. With no more fish coming to trolling over the next 30 minutes or so I decided to swap over to the dropshot.

I rigged up with a small reflective needle tail lure running about 12" above the weight. Due to the breeze I was using a weight of around 18g whilst drifting in 4-5m of water. Frustratingly, the bed of the lake was clearly soft mud, with the weight sinking into the mud almost immediately. A lighter weight was marginally better, though caused the line to lift far to much for my liking whilst drifting. I put up with the heavier weight, lifting it out of the mud ever few seconds. Far from ideal, but I persevered.

I actually didn't have to wait too long for a solid hit and hook up. It was clearly a Perch and it was soon visible a couple of metres beneath the water. As ever with Perch, I only risk a smile once it's slipped safely into the landing net. With the fish safely aboard it was simply a case of measuring and returning it. At just over 42cm it was a very respectable fish and from what I'd seen and heard around the lake I was fairly well placed at that time, though there were still several hours of the competition remaining.

Despite there being 7 hours of the competition remaining, that turned out to be my last fish of the day. Despite trying several different lures, trolling, spinning and dropshot, I didn't get some much as another bite!

There was the odd fish being caught around the lake, though it was slow. That said, the quality of some of the Perch that were being caught was simply outstanding!. Here's a couple of the larger specimens that were caught during the day.

This is Charles Halliday with a fish that was 49cm and weighed in at over 5lb!

Here's Dane Wood with another Perch of 5lb, these are really cracking fish!

I persevered at the fishing as I was aware that no one had more that two fish to submit by mid-afternoon. Though it was utterly dead and I was struggling to remain motivated. I did in fact doze off for 30 minutes when the sun came out and warmed my dry suit up a treat. I was still holding my drop shot rod just in case!

Despite the quality of some of the fish that were caught that day, I somehow managed to secure myself 5th place and walked away with a Hobie H-Crate. Bizarrely, if I could have picked a prize from the lineup, that's the one I'd have picked!, lucky me.

Of course it always nice to win a prize, though the main enjoyment has to go to the social side, meeting faces both old and new. Plus it was a new venue, that's something that I always find exciting. It's not all about the fishing, far from it.

Many thanks to Ian Harris for organising the day, it ran smoothly and it was certainly on par with some of the better competitions I've fished over the years.

Dutch Trip - you can't book the weather!

I'd been looking forward to this fishing trip to the Netherlands for some time. Though like any trip booked in advance you're always at the mercy of the weather. I've been bitten once or twice before and poor weather unfortunately featured rather heavily during the few days I was abroad. When a kayak fisherman talks about poor weather, it's almost guaranteed that they're referring to excessive wind. Cold, rain, snow and heat doesn't bother me at all, but fishing in strong winds removes the enjoyment factor for me. After all, we fish for the enjoyment right?

The target species for the week were the usual predators, Pike, Zander and Perch with a potential later in the week for some Trout fishing.

The first day was reasonable weather wise and I covered a large area on the drift, spinning as I went. Casting from deeper to shallow water, covering as much ground as possible before repositioning and repeating the action. It felt as though it was going to be a slow day, though I hooked into a fish quite early on which is always provides a good boost to morale. It was an exceptionally light bite that resulted into me hooking into a Zander. It was an average size, though it provided a very pleasing start to the day.

Was did prove most frustrating early on was finding that the internal battery on my HDS7 had discharged causing all my custom settings to be lost. I only had myself to blame, I'd not fished for way too long. That said, it's highlighted a good point that these modern units that permit such huge customisation do require operating ever month or two to ensure that the internal battery remains charged. Failing to do so will require the user to spend quite some time getting their unit back to their preferred settings, lesson learned!

Despite the promising start, that turned out to be my only confirmed hookup for the day, though I missed a couple of hits during the session.

That evening saw the weather deteriorate considerably to a point that I didn't really fancy fishing. To fish in highly exposed waters in a steady 20mph+ wind, gusting to 35mph really doesn't excite me. Regardless of the fact that I'd driven several hours to fish this area in the Netherlands, there are days that are best spent relaxing, enjoying a beer and watching the world go by. The next couple of days were in my mind 'pub days'. Fortunately the family were only an hour away so I enjoyed some quality time with them whilst awaiting the bad weather to blow over.

The next trip was to fish a Perch venue, an early start saw me fishing before 0630. The water clarity was very good, with the bottom being easily visible over two metres. Though that does perhaps make fishing rather more difficult. The beauty of these trips is that many of these venues are new to me. I get as much pleasure out of enjoying the surroundings and wildlife as I do fishing. It's just a very pleasant experience.

I didn't have to wait long before my lure was hit hard in shallow water by an angry Perch. They're fun on light gear and I tend to lose more Perch than any other species, so it's always pleasing to watch them slip into the net!.

It was a nice sized fish, somewhere in the mid-40 centimetre range. It had engulfed the lure!. It was quickly unhooked and photographed before swimming away strongly. There's something about these striped fish that always makes me smile.

Despite a few rattles, the remainder of the morning was quite quiet. I lost what I guess was a nice sized Pike whilst trolling, losing it just a few seconds after hooking up. Such is fishing.

At times I just like to place the rods to one side and just drift, taking in my surroundings. There were many species of geese migrating, divers working the water with many noisy Coots scooting around in the margins. I occasionally see a flock of geese passing overhead in the UK in their classic 'V' formation, though at times you can witness a couple of dozen of these formations flying back to back and side to side, passing over these extensive areas of wetland. That's one beauty of the kayak, taking you to these place and permitting you views that most people will never get to witness.

I'm slowly upgrading my tackle this year and it began with the purchase of a pair of Shimano Symetre 2500 fixed spool reels. They're a mid-range reel and I secured a decent price by purchasing from France (http://www.pecheur.com). I cant justify spending crazy money on tackle, especially when freshwater isn't really my forte and I only freshwater fish a few times a year. That said it's a very well made reel, extremely smooth with superb line lay. I've currently go both loaded with 30lb Whiplash braid, though I'll going to re-spool one with 20lb as it'll be better suited for casting lighter lures.

I managed to hook into a small pike towards the end of the session. He may have been small, though he had no problem whatsover in taking the Rapala Deeptail Dancer lure that was running in about 4m of water. I didn't manage to hook into any of the larger Pike that the Netherlands is well known for, but still, it was another fish and that's never a bad thing.

The last day of fishing proved to be the best day. The venue was a small lake stocked with both Rainbow and Brown trout. It had apparently previously been saltwater, though had long ago been closed off, with the water was somewhat brackish. This threw up a surprise as the day progressed.

I trolled my way around this lake, roughly following the drop offs that were somewhat wild and erratic in their pattern. I don't mind trolling for an hour or so, though it can get rather boring rather quickly for me. Despite that, it did produce several fish for me, the first being a nice Brown trout taken on a crankbait running at around four feet.

One thing I do enjoy about trout is that they can get rather lively and provide some great sport. Half an hour later I found myself hooked up once again. Well at first I thought that I was perhaps catching the bottom, though a quick glance at the HDS7 showed that I was well clear with no weed in the water. But no, it was definitely a fish, though it appeared to be swimming along with the kayak?. The biggest surprise was when it came to the surface... a Flounder!. During it's saltwater days, this water held Flounder and some Herring and the Flounder had adapted easily to the change in salinity when the water was closed off to the sea. Apparently there are also still some Herring in the lake.

I took three Flounder in very quick succession, two being to a double hookup!. If I passed over the correct ground, shallow, flat, patchy weed, it was almost guaranteed that the Flounder would have a go at the lure. They were all caught on the same small crankbait lure as the Trout.

Despite the good fishing there's always the opportunity to enjoy the surroundings. The sun was up, the wind was light, it was warm!. I also found a shallow sheltered area where I tied off to a small buoy and just snoozed for 30 minutes, perfect!. Hey, I'm on holiday!

The Trout continued to come, and despite a couple of misses I caught another two Browns. I also caught a beautifully coloured Rainbow Trout that gave a great account of itself, getting airborne at times. I missed the opportunity to photograph it on my lap as it decided to depart the kayak a few seconds earlier than planned!

I managed one last Flounder before I'd decided to call it a day.

After about 7 hours I'd had enough for the day, I'd managed to catch eight fish in total. None were monsters, but it was a really enjoyable session. It was my last fishing day of the trip and it was a good note to finish on.

This weekend sees me travel to a small lake at the Cotswold Water Park. This will probably be my last freshwater trip for 2-3 months as I really must concentrate of clocking up some serious hours on the salty stuff. My boy is really keen to fish with me this year so I expect that the Adventure Island will see a lot of use. I'm going to have to make a pair (or at least one) Haka. These are a wooden bench type of seat that permits a person to sit outboard of the main kayak hull on the AI. I'll post some pictures on here once I've knocked them together.

Hobie World Championships 2014 (part 4) – Comp day 2

The alarm clock sang out at 0500, let competition day 2 commence!. With breakfast out of the way and final rigging touches to the kayak completed, I soon sound myself afloat and manoeuvring into the start line….  deja vu?

Despite the lack of sizeable Perch on the previous day, the game plan seemed to have worked fairly well. Why change something when it’s not broken?. So I headed out again with Ian Harris and fished the same marks as yesterday. It had been clear talking to various competitors that many of the Pike that had been caught yesterday were caught quite early on, mine included. I was really hoping for an early Pike so I could concentrate on the Perch, perhaps even target the highly elusive Zander. None had been caught on Day 1.

I tried a few marks and couldn’t find a Pike, in fact I couldn’t even get a bite. I felt as though I was perhaps flogging a dead horse so I chose to move on to the mark that had produced Perch for me the day before. After trying a few more marks en-route, I was back in a familiar location casting a small crank bait.

Guess what?, no Perch, not even a few tentative nibbles. I was beginning to feel a little frustrated and allowed myself to drift into a small harbour area, further than I had previously. Bang!, I was hooked up to something rather lively.

Taking care not to rush the fish I edged it closer to the yak and was grinning from ear to ear when I netted a small, but much needed Pike!. I drifted alongside a wooden jetty where I untangled everything from the net and managed to get a couple of photos of the fish… must remember that tag!.

It wasn’t a monster at 76cm, but it was much needed!. I could have continued to try for a bigger Pike, but I made the decision to go for Perch, you never know, I much just hook up into a Pike again!.

So I commenced the hunt for Perch and it proved extremely frustrating. I tried a multitude of marks and despite missed a few hits I just couldn’t hook into a fish. I eventually did catch a couple of perch, both measuring in at 22cm!!. I could have screamed. I fished margins, drop offs, around structure, where were the big Perch?.

Perseverance finally paid off when I hooked into what felt like a better sized Perch. I was all ready to lift it into the kayak until it hit the surface. It was bigger than I’d thought, perhaps 40cm. I really didn’t want to lose the fish so I fumbled around with the the folding landing net, I just couldn’t get the thing to open up!. All the time I had a nice Perch swimming around the yak. Eventually after some cursing the net opened sufficiently for me to use it so I swung it over the side. I eased the fish towards the net and ‘twang’, it threw the hook!. One things almost guaranteed, I taught every non-English speaking person within 200m of me several new swear words!. I was absolutely gutted!.

I kept on trying, though I failed to register another bite for the remainder of the session. I headed back once again to the start line to check in. Confidence was quite low, I’d really struggled to find any fish, the Pike was ok, though a lot smaller than yesterdays fish and after hours of trying for Perch I lost the only good fish I’d seen to date.

My Team mate Ian had been fishing hard but lady luck was clearly eluding him.

After checking in and chatting to a few anglers to see how they’d got on, I headed back and got changed ready for the evening meal and the Day 2 results.

After another enjoyable meal at the clubhouse the Day 2 results were pinned to the board. Again, it’d been another day of tough fishing and my single fish had actually be a good result. I’d risen from 5th to 3rd place, I was quite amazed to be honest. Steve Lessard from the USA had increased his Day 1 first place lead and was potentially going to be impossible to reach if he caught on the final day, but I found myself only 6cm behind 2nd place. It really was all to play for!

 

Tomorrow was the going to be the third and final day, I needed fish to maintain my placing and I wanted them badly!. However, it was time for a few beers so we headed off to the local pub to enjoy a little much needed refreshment.

Part 5 sees me head into the final day of the Hobie Fishing World Championships.