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.

Esthwaite Grand Slam – 30/31st May 2015

Fancy a weekend away fishing one of the most scenic freshwater venues in the United Kingdom?, why not go and participate in the Esthwaite Grand Slam on the 30/31st May.

The event has attracted sponsorship from Lowrance with several great prizes up for grabs. All competitors will receive a detailed chart of Esthwaite Water, a Lowrance buff and a fish measure to help them get underway.

It provides the opportunity to fish for two days chasing Pike, Perch and Trout and when you’re not fishing you can chill out on the FREE lakeside campsite. Seriously, it doesn’t get much better. The general format for the competition will include catching three predatory species from the lake, Trout, Perch and Pike which must be photographed and measured. The winner of the grand slam will be the longest combined length of all the target species. Fishery rules of fly, spin and worm will apply.

This will be a superb opportunity for kayak anglers to fish this prolific venue and meet other like minded kayak anglers from around the country.

Detailed mapping is available from Lowrance through their Insight Genesis mapping and can be downloaded for free from the Insight page. Just sign up for free and go to the Social Mapping area and locate the relevant map. You should find something very close to the map below. It’s not fully complete, though it get added to by Insight Genesis users and will grow in size and detail over time.

Also, those competitors who have a suitable Lowrance electronics unit can be issued with a pre-loaded mapping card for the duration of the competition.

See you there!

World Predator Classic 2014 (Netherlands)

It’s a while since I’ve fished, weeks in fact!. I’m leaving the Navy after twenty two years which is in itself a massive change, then there’s job hunting and interviews. Just to add to the pile, we’re moving house, hence fishing has very much taken a back seat.

However, the inaugural World Predator Classic was organised to take place on June 20th, 21st and 22nd. The World Predator Classic being located in and around the historic town of Hellevoetsluis with the vast 11,663 hectare water of Haringvliet being used for the competition. Oh, and it’s a lure fishing competition, well I did say that I was going to lure fish more!

I have to admit that I wasn’t too organised for this trip, in fact I didn’t even look at my gear until the day that I was due to depart, not advisable!. The journey was over 300 miles, travelling via ferry from Dover to Dunkerque, through the night, arriving at Daniel’s house very early in the morning!. The last few miles were driven later that morning, arriving at a campsite that had been booked up for the weekend. Originally I’d planned on doing things on the cheap, sleeping in a tent for the weekend. However, the Dutch guys booked a holiday home and kindly included me in their plans. To be honest, it worked out extremely well, great company as well as a decent bed to sleep in after a long day afloat.

I joined the guys for an evening meal and enjoyed some exceptionally tasty spare ribs, probably the best I’ve ever had. A few drinks and a good social afterwards, what a great start to the weekend competition!

 

With a slightly baggy head, competition day one commenced with a coffee and very little else. Fortunately I’d packed a carrier bag full of biscuits and other such healthy food to get the sugar levels raised as required.

The most popular Hobie fishing kayak in Europe is the Outback. There’s very good reasons for this, it’s super stable, easy to rig and deceptively quick for such a wide kayak. However, they say that a picture speaks a thousand words, well the photo below shows the vehicles parked outside the house., and that wasn’t all of them!

Once all the guys were organised, we drove down to Hellevoetsluis as a group where I met up with David Morris and Ian Harris of Team Hobie GB. It’s always good to see a large group of like-minded folk in one area, as well as having the chance to look over the kayaks to check out the various rigging solutions. I’d decided to keep it simple for this competition. Previously I’ve taken boxes of lures and I’ve learned to my cost that it’s all too easy to chop and change lures to the point that it detracts from the actual fishing. For this trip I packed two boxes of lures with perhaps 8-10 lures to choose from. I rigged three rods, one for vertical jigging, one for spinning and one for drop shot, though the latter never saw any action.

Hobie kayaks dominated the kayak fishing line-up, though there were a handful of paddle kayaks. There was a total of thirty eight competitors, coming from England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Finland, USA and more.

This was a huge water, quite daunting to be honest. There was two potential areas that I decided to fish, the shallows around the edges of the designated fishing zone, or the shallows and drop offs of the main waterways. The WPC also included a boat event, in fact it was the by far the bigger part of the competition and as you’d expect the boat fishing zone was extremely large. At a glance the kayak zone seems quite small, though trust me, it was big enough for a six hour competition.

After a short brief which included the issue of an official measuring board, a kayak inspection and a gift of the custom WPC Rapala, we were good to go.

Day one was sunny and a little blustery. This wind which came and went throughout the day seemed to keep the kayak fisherman close to shore. I headed further out into the chop to fish various drop offs, casting into the shallower water and retrieving over the drop off itself. I didn’t have to wait too long to get my first hit of the day, a respectable sized Perch of 38cm.

The maximum bag of fish per day was three Perch, three Zander and a single Pike. There were minimum fish sizes and the results were on aggregate length. It then went rather quiet and it was later morning before I managed my next fish, a small Pike of 65cm. There was a spell where the wind dropped off completely and I found myself engulfed by a plague of flies.. in my ears, nose and mouth. Yuk!, there was a moment when I almost packed up and headed back in, though fortunately the breeze returned and the flies disappeared with it.

A little later I caught another Pike of 64cm, though being smaller than the first it was released without so much as a photograph. Despite another 2-3 hits to my lures, that was the last fish of the day. It’d been difficult fishing, though as it turned out I’d done rather well all things considered. The wind had picked up and it was a bit of a wet ride pushing through the swell at speed as I returned to check in.

After checking in, we wandered into town to submit our results along with our camera memory cards. I’d managed to secure 4th place at the end of day one, very happy.

That evening was spent enjoying a social and a few drinks with the Dutch guys, a great end to day 1.

Day 2 started much the same as day 1. The plan was simple, get out there and catch some fish, hopefully a Zander as that would put me in a better position. With the obligatory bottle of coke and packets of biscuit packed, I headed off to the start line to await a blast from the horn… that’s me sat on the starting line!

World Predator Classic 2014

Day 2 saw the wind swing around as the day progressed and I found myself being pushed onto the shallow area that I was fishing far too quickly. I tried my drogue for a spell, though I wasn’t achieving the results that I wanted.

I ended up reversing the Mirage Drive in the foot well to enable me to pedal backwards. This proved to be highly effective as I was able to maintain my position with minimal effort. It only takes seconds to reverse the drive and re-position the pedals. Steering at high steep whilst in reverse is not recommended!

The Lowrance Elite 7 HDI was working hard all weekend. I’m really liking the unit and I find the multi-mode displays extremely useful. I’ve found myself using the broadband/down imaging/map combination is best for general use on a new area, switching over to map/broadband for general use. Also, being able to lay the DI next to the broadband for detailed work is extremely useful. You can overlay the broadband and DI, though I prefer to keep them separate at the moment. Fixing new waypoints requires two clicks of the ENTER button, simple and effective to use. It would be nice to be able to set the depth to permit the DI frequency to automatically swap over, rather than watching the bottom fade in deeper water and having to manually select 455Khz. A minor complaint, but something that I’d like to see in a future upgrade.

Not too much to say about Day 2, it was very slow due to a virtual complete lack of fish!. I managed to register a couple of hits to my lures and that was it. The fish just weren’t feeding, I don’t think that skill came into it that much over the weekend, just a case of being at the right spot at the right time. That said, I’d faired better than most over the two days and the final results saw me in 5th place. Dang, they spelt my name wrong!

Below is the top 10 line up. As I mentioned earlier, only 13 out of 38 anglers caught over the two days, it was tough fishing.

Congratulations to Sebastian Kummerer for taking the yellow jersey (1st place) and to my Dutch friend Daniel van der Post for taking a well earned 2nd place. David and Ian didn’t manage to bag any fish for Team GB, thought that’s very much a reflection on just how tough the fishing was out there.

The next big competition is the Hobie Fishing European Championship in September. Hopefully I’ll be making the journey along with the my Team members, it all depends on when I'm moving house.. watch this space!

Kayak Wars !

Kayak Wars is a year long tournament where you get points for catching as many of your local species (within a size limit). When a fish is caught it is measured and photographed for proof and submitted. The tournament is growing across the globe and is now to include Europe. The UK and Ireland are currently forming teams, France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands are also joining in the fun. Teams are normally comprised of 3-5 people, though the UK & Ireland have chosen to forms teams of three people to keep things more fair.

It’s also cool to see the submissions from around the world as well as competing within your region against other teams. The UK & Ireland participants are running a Facebook group (‘Kayak Wars UK & Ireland’) to keep abreast of the tournament.