Lee Swords Fishing

The river season is over, again and once  again as is usual I find that I feel a bit short changed, I do think the Closed Season has some merit, just as toilet paper has merit, especially after a Lamb Handi from Butlers Balti ( I was warned) but I do think we could have another month on the river. This last winter was far more productive than the one previous, that was a hard winter, a new area to fish and adverse conditions from start to finish. I admit, I really was beginning to lose the will to live in parts, I caught so few fish it was utterly depressing, this last winter however has seen me catch fish on the majority of my outings, nothing super massive but a few five pound chub have made it worthwhile with plenty of two’s, three’s and fours to keep the rod tip active and the landing net damp.

After my shit September, I am just happy to have a damp net and a bendy rod, everything else is a bonus….anyway, I think I will go through the last season and post up some fish that have really made me happy but I will not start in June I will start in March, I am an all year angler so I will do an all year review….

MARCH 2016

A trip to Spain with Tony Rocca and Ian Hobkirk was the highlight of the Closed Season, no, Actually the trip to SPain was the highlight of my fishing year.

In life there are few things that can compare to spending time with mates and having a bit of fun, yes, we bagged some brilliant fish between us but more importantly we had a good time.

I saw things that I had never seen before, I saw wildlife unlike anything I have ever imagined, I saw eagles and vultures and all manner of other creatures bothed feathered and furred.

The rivers and lakes were full of otters, otter shit was everywhere I looked but they were also full of fish, big fish small fish and even a shed load of crayfish….

I have always said the key to success is having a lot of fish in a river and for that the river has to be pure, if the river can support a lot of fish and has good recruitment everything else will simply fall into place.

That is what is wrong with British rivers for the most part, poor quality and poor recruitment.

 

APRIL

April saw me at Roxholme  with Hobby, we both like our fly fishing, Hobby is a far better fly fisherman than myself, which means I get to learn something. I try to take away one bit of new  wisdom every time I fish, if an angler tries to do this they will always improve, they will never stagnate nor will they ever struggle to catch something or other, even if that means switch hitting and changing targets or simply staying in bed because your inner wisdom tells you not to bother.

The old adage does say ” You have to be in it to win it” but when you run the maths through your head and the conclusion is that you have a 1 in 100 chance of actually catching something other than a cold it is better to abandon routine and try something else.

Fly fishing is always my something else.

 

 

May

May is a wonderful month, everything is so vibrant, it also means my dad is out of hibernation and ready for some midweek sessions . We spent a few afternoons at Alderfen, I wanted to catch one of Daves carp and did so, unfortunately it was probably one of Alderfen’s smaller carp but it was a beautiful linear leather mirror ( I think) , I love fishing Alderfen, it is maturing very well unfortunately for me the remote controlled boats arial fell off…bollocks!

Oh well…

I had better get on ebay and buy myself another!

 June

 

Game on and the season commences, I love June, everything is awesome and right with the world. All my butterflies are out on the field, the flowers are in full swing the Bumble and solitary bees are buzzing away and everything is bloody frigging awesome!

I cannot fail in June, whatever I have a go at is a success, chub, barbel, trout, I am just absolutely on fire!!

This last June however the stakes were even higher, the odds even more precarious as we were in the middle of the Brexit bollocks!

And I was in it up to my bollocks!

Social media was in total meltdown, the news was so bias as to be ridiculous, the four Riders of the Apocalypse were imminent arrivals and all Hell was following shortly behind them!

It was a frenetic time, everyone and anyone had an opinion, most opinions from the establishment were based around the end of the world and a shit storm of frogs pretty much everyone outside and below Scotland  London thought “fuck you”

In life there is nothing more satisfying for the working class and I do mean working class not a bunch of lazy cunts sat at home drinking White lightening than having the chance to genuinely say “fuck you” to the establishment, of course I took my chance and said “Fuck you” with wild abandon, I wrote letter to national and local newspapers, I lobbied as hard as I could and I even involved my daughter in the construction of a banner we hung from a walkway over the busiest road in Sheffield that stayed in situ till after the referendum vote took place.

We won our freedom from the EU.

I lost a few friends.

Such is life.

July

I do not do many sessions anymore, I do mostly day trips, I do not have the time for overnighters, they are rare these days.

But when I do have the chance to stay out for twentyfour hours I can generally guarantee that I will be able to conjure something up…I had that chance in July, my one and only overnight session of the season!!

Boom …7lb on the nose and I am in the Drennans again!

The Drennan Cup is the top contest open to the Specimen Angler, the Korum Cup runs it a close second but for me the Drennan is the one that matters most.

Not that I would rule myself out of ever entering the Korum Cup, far from it, in fact I will make it my mission next season to get myself a Korum Weekly Winners package.

Winning is awesome!

One overnight session, one 7lb chub ( along with a 6 and a big 5), imagine how awesome I would be if I could do the number of nights some of the lads do?

Each one of the bottles is a personal best…the best way to celebrate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 August

August is holiday month and back to Lanzarote it was!

This time I did not want to go for the numbers too much I was more after the size!

I wanted to get a parrot fish…I failed!

I did not feen toobad though because when out snorkelling for good fishing maks the numbers of parrot fish were well down from the previous year , when they were everywhere I swam,

This year it was bass, bass everywhere!

I enjoyed catching them on big squid baits but I have to say the number one bait I found out was the Boga fish.

A half one of these little buggers generally had the baitrunner engaged into something or other.

I landed my stingray on a half boga and I pulled for a break after seeing its grandmother on a half boga.

Boga are the dogs bollocks but even these tough little critters will get stripped off in twenty minutes or so, so a decent supply is needed.

Keep an eye ot on the tip of the rod as well because Octopus love boga as well and they don’t give much of an indication.

Down on the field everything is either fucking or getting fucked, I saw some ichneumon wasps doing thier thing, a bit gruesome but that is nature for you.

The shit storm that is the aftermath of the referendum is still raging on, the Remainiacs are in full meltdown, a giant star is now forecast to crash into the world as a result of the insane decision to leave the EU.

What hey don’t understand is that if the EU and London had ever given a single flying fuck about the working class people of Britain there would never have been a a need for a Brexit vote in the first place.

All we wanted was a fair share of the pie. We did not get a fair share of the pie so we smashed the fuck out of what pie they were enjoying.

Looks like they will need another pie. LOL.

Cunts.

 

 September

September and everything went to shit, my world almost ended.

I won’t bore you all with the details again , all I will say is don’t let a tree hit you on the head.

 

 

 

 

 

October

October and I am just about thinking I may be on the road to recovery, I took the time to plant some wild chicory plants down on the field and I hop that they will take hold and do a good job feeding the bees.

At the end of October I caught my first fish during a one hour excursion onto the Trent.

I was a happy man.

November

!November and the game is afoot once more! I am back to my Sunday sessions on the Trent with Martin and we are back into the chub straight away, I get a section best fish of 5lb 9oz and Martin pips it with a fish of 5lb 10oz.

We continue to hit fish all winter, nothing too massive but a steady stream of 4lb fish and the odd 5 keeps my tally to the Chub Study Group ticking over.

Steak over mince and bread flake in clear conditions and garlic cheese when the water had a bit of colour were the winning methods…happy days!!

December

December is here and the goose is getting fat, the chub are now really starting to plump up but work is cutting my sessions down, bastard Christmas!

Facebook is full of good fish and I am full of jealousy….I’m not really.

My brush with death has given me a bit of clarity on the things that matter in life, I do not need to bag a mega fish to be happy with my fishing any more, it’s over, the race is run.

I stopped match fishing when I wasn’t competitive anymore…I now fish for my own pleasure and not to show the world how good I am…I know how good I am .

LOL

January

 

January saw me out on the bank with my old school mate Dan Stewart Smith, I love fishing with Dan, he always seems to beat me with a good fish and he did so again bagging a nice brace of pike, nothing massive but good fish nonetheless.

February

 

 

February is a good month , it is the Chub Study Group AGM on the river Wye at Bredwardine and that is a trip I look forwards to greatly.

I always set my stall out to fish for pike on the first day with a sneaky go at the chub towards dusk and on the second day a more focussed blast at the chub, it is a chub fishing group after all but it would be rude not to have a go for the pike on what is I would say Britain’s top pike river.

Before We got to the Wye however Martin and Me had a warm up session on the Trent where I had a brace of chub that weighed almost exactly the same but were as chalk and cheese, one was obviously an older fish that had been a real bruiser a few years previous and the other an young up and coming fish with a lot of weight to still put on.

Anyway onto the Wye!!

The bogey was broken with the lamprey! I have never done well with Lamprey but it came good!

Plenty of fish were landed and I was a happy bunny all round, I love it when a plan comes together, I bloody love it, fishing is all about planning, success revolves around plans and preparation!

Failure to plan and prepare, is preparation in planning to fail!

The fish on the Wye are well built stocky fish that are not too far removed from trout fishery pike in that they hold a lot of weight for thier size, they must feed very well on the stocks of trout and chub with the odd grayling and salmon thrown in for good measure!

My good mate Nairny got himself the top prize from the Chub Study Group for a colossal fish I don’t think he will ever beat and one I am almost certain I will never beat.

But I will have a go.

 

 

 

And here we are….March!

And here we are in March, tomorrow I will get on a plane at Luton with Tony Rocca and Ian Hobkirk headed for Madrid from there we will drive south.

The message is a simple one

“We are coming for you Mr. Comizo”

Will we succeed?

You will have to wait and see!