Starting March with a bang!

A good start!

Well, the end of the official 2013 fishing season is almost upon us! And I feel rotten about the whole thing....I can't believe we've had such a bloody awful few months of high water making the majority of rivers totally unfishable and now we have to wait another 3 months before we can again enjoy the true pleasures of wild fishing again!

Joel and I have both been chomping on the bit for a few weeks now to get back on the wonderful river Wye.

11lb 4oz snapper

We decided this weekend we'd try a bit of trotting on a small river called the Trothy. Now, it's only 6-8 feet wide in places and for most only 3-4 feet deep in high water conditions. This didn't put us off though as the main river Wye was yet again sitting at around 3m and lapping the bank again.

Joel had hardly ever float fished a river and certainly never with a center pin reel. I gave him an hour long master class and within an hour of trying it himself, he looked like a true master of the fine art!

13lb 3oz end to the season!

I opted to fish a little further upstream and try the feeder in the deeper water. We spent 3 hours flogging a dead horse. The fish just weren't there or really weren't interested.

The owner of the beat told us that there had been a major amount of mink on the beat throughout the season and that the EA had spent some time there doing drainage and also a collection of mink to lower the quantities. Whether this had any effect on the angling we won't know for the moment but I'm sure time will tell.

Around 12pm we decided it just wasn't going to happen for us on the Trothy, so we hit the Wye with our Pike gear in an attempt to bag a final nice snapper each before the season end....Joel and I found a nice back eddy with some surrounding heavy tree encroachment and opted to place a couple of rods each into the boils. Joel went for an oiled up Herring dead bait and I fished half a Mackerel, both on a leger rig.

Awesome 17lb 4oz PB River Wye Pike for Joel Biddle!

Joels was first to go and he struck into a hard pulling fish which almost immediately shook the hooks out. Joel rebaited his rig and flicked the rod back into place. It was then my turn to bag a small jack pike around 7lbs. As I was returning the Jack, Joels rod ripped off again and he hastily netted a stunning PB Pike of 17lb 4oz! A wonderful winter coloured river chunk that took a liking to his prototype oil glugged Herring hookbait and prototype snap tackle.

As time passed so did a few more fish! Joels rod sat strangely quiet but I was to follow on with some great sport, bagging 2 more stunning low doubles of 11lb 4oz and then a lovely 13lb 3oz pike to finish the session off. Hopefully I'll get the chance to get back out again this week as I still have visions of a big Perch whilst the weather is still fairly cool out there!