Fishing in 2012

A salmon I photographed attempting to leap the falls when I visitied
Scotland in August

My fishing in 2012 was a mixed bag for sure. I didn't get to fish nearly as much as I would have liked due to work and personal commitments but I'm sure every angler in the land says that too! I concentrated mainly on freshwater angling this year, I got quite obsessed with going back to my roots and spent a lot of time practicing the art of feeder fishing and good old fashioned float fishing. It really was rather nice and relaxing, a touch nostalgic too.

A good deal of time was spent trying to avoid carp where possible and target the roach, rudd, tench, bream and perch that reside in the numerous rivers and lakes that are in close proximity to me. Exceptions were a trip to the incredible River Test in Hampshire and mullet fishing in the local estuaries and harbours whenever the conditions allowed.

In the late summer I also squeezed in a few sessions along the Brighton shingle to indulge in a spot of mackerel and bass fishing when the conditions were spot on. I only tend to fish with lures, fly or livebaits for these species. There were a couple of memorable sessions which terminated in the most wonderful mackerel barbecues which is what it's all about! Also a couple of nice bass were taken on livebaits after dark, very exciting stuff!

I'll start with the River Test trip as it was at the beginning of the year on a cold february day. My long time angling buddy Dave had managed to secure us a couple of day tickets at a reasonable price and with the chance of quality grayling, trout, dace, roach and chub it looked set to be a cracking trip. The main reason for making the trek down to Hampshire was to seek an encounter with the beautiful grayling, the lady of the stream. I had never caught one above a few ounces before and the Test was the place to do it! We travelled down with around 8 pints of red maggots between us and the plan was to spend the day trotting a float down the varied and beautiful swims available to us. It was a cracking day and we both caught grayling around the 2 to 3 lb mark as well as trout, dace, chub and a random skimmer bream. One of the trout I caught was an absolute beast and would have made a fly fisherman very happy in season.....but this one got lucky as I returned it. What a fish though.....my biggest trout to date by a long way. I'd guess the weight between 6 and 7 lbs, we didnt have any scales with us.

What a beautiful brownie....I was delighted with this one!

The stamp of grayling we encountered

So....onto the mullet fishing. Now, I adore fishing for these wary creatures, they are a real challenge. They keep you thinking and you have to work for the bites. By far my favourite method of catching them is to long-trot on the estuaries using liquidised bread as a feed and a pinch of flake on the hook. In the past this has landed me thick-lips, thin-lips, bass and the occasional roach and bream. I fish on the estuaries of the rivers local to me and I'm blessed to have 3 of them within a 30 minute drive. Namely the Rivers Cuckmere, Ouse and Adur.

During the warmer months when the weather settles a little the mullet can be found way upstream amongst the beautiful Sussex countryside and it is here that I most enjoy angling for them. It's so peaceful and quiet and there are rarely, if ever, any other anglers to compete with. Just how fishing should be. I enjoyed good success this year even managing to catch one of the rarer golden-grey mullet. There were no monsters caught but I rarely blanked and managed specimens up to around the 5 lb mark.

One day in particular stands out. I met a couple of fellow mullet nuts, James and Paul, down at Newhaven Marina in the morning and managed to sneak out a lovely fish of 3 to 4 lb's and then moved a couple of miles upstream to take my golden-grey mullet. This was then followed by a further move of 5 miles upstream to fish the ebbing tide until sunset where I caught and released 3 more beautiful fish amongst the stunning green Sussex countryside. It doesn't get much better than that!

Best mullet of the day some 7 miles inland....awesome fish!

Other highlights of the year were some cracking tench, roach, rudd and carp caught on simple float or feeder tactics. I joined a local angling club and fished at a few of their nicer waters when I could find the time. I had to wade through a lot of smaller specimens as is often the way with this type of angling but the below photos are some of the highlights. The real thrill of this type of angling for me is the light tackle element. It's great fishing with finesse and using appropriately balanced tackle, especially so when you hook up to a few lumpy fish.

A superb rudd that gave an icredible battle against the light tackle!

Best tench of the year from a beautiful, secluded pond

A bruiser of a carp that gave me the runaround for a good 15 minutes on
my roach fishing tackle in early spring!!

Another beautiful farm pond tench

Beautiful rudd

No complaints from me regarding the quality of fish for 2012, some real beauties there! 2013 starts with another trip to India so it will be full-power fishing for 6 weeks out there......I cannot wait! Beyond that I aim to continue fishing for the mullet and bass as often as possible when the weather warms up. My bass fishing has taken a bit of a back seat for the last few seasons so it will be good to get back on the horse. I also plan to spend more time lure fishing in 2013 both saltwater and fresh. Tackle developments have made leaps and bounds in this field in recent years and this discipline of our sport is really rather interesting these days.

TIGHT LINES!