It’s a bit of a social media trend to look back over the last year and then post your highlights. Whilst this isn’t exactly that, I did enjoy flicking back through my photos and the blogs this year and reflecting on the fishing. On balance it was a pretty good year. Every month there was some interesting variety and a bit of success. The boys joined me several times throughout the year and catching anything with them is a joy. They are a useful reminder to keep it fun and simple. I tried a few things I haven’t done for years and as is often the case, I didn’t get round to a few more things I said I was going to do but never did.
I joined a club lake at the start of the year, lakes I haven’t fished for many years. There’s lots of variety in the waters and it gave me the chance to target some Pike and some Tench and I had hoped a few Carp too. I only had a couple of Pike fishing sessions but enjoyed a little bit of success. Rule changes at the club mean you can only fish for the Pike with one, single, barbless hook. It meant I couldn’t present the baits the way I used to so had to get a bit creative to ensure good bait presentation, efficient hooking and safe casting. The experiments did work but with refinement I’m sure they can be improved. It is Pike season now so I should be out there having a go and trying a bit more than I did last year. What fishing the lakes in winter did show me was that they had become a lot more popular with Carp anglers. The lake has been stocked since I last fished so there are a lot more fish to go for these days. As a result, now on a cold, snotty winter’s day, it was common to see several anglers bivvied up. I have no problem with this. But I did instantly miss “the good old days” when you had the place to yourself and you could fish and move several times during the day without upsetting anyone. It was this same lake I had hoped to do some Tench fishing on during the spring but seeing how busy it was, there was no way I was going to be able to pre-bait a spot and expect to get back on it easily. The same was true of any stalking I had hoped I would do through the summer months on there. Carp fishing is very popular, things move on and I have to get used to that.
During the winter and into the spring I enjoyed a bit of fly fishing. I started on a typical stocked Rainbow Trout water where there’s lots of fish to go for. I enjoyed some good fun on here and my casting improved a little bit, but not much. However the fun on here really whet my appetite to have a go for the Brown Trout on Fowey Moor when the season started. It’s a big old bit of water and my fly casting on there can really feel like p#ssing in the wind. But, I knew from very limited experience that the margins were good enough to catch fish. I think I had three trips up there. I caught on two occasions and blanked the third. That last trip I fished the dry fly throughout the trip and though I had a couple of rises, I never connected. By that last trip the weather was warming up and the Carp population was showing itself. There must be tens of thousands in there! But enough of them. The trout fishing was really lovely. A big water, barely a soul in sight and a chance to do something different and learn. The casting did improve but there were still spells when it all feel apart and tailing loops and spaghetti leaders came back to haunt me. I’m really looking forward to doing some more of this in 2026.
As the clocks changed and the weather warmed up, the fishing lessons kicked in again. These were as fun as they always are. Lots of familiar faces and several new ones came along in 2025 including one lovely gentleman and his family, all three generations of them proving that there are no age limits in fishing. That was a particularly lovely session. Waterside fishery continued to be a excellent host venue and we caught the usual mix of species that keeps it interesting. I did on a couple of occasions when I visited the lake for personal fishing trips bump into anglers who had been on fishing lessons with me. This is absolutely my favourite experience. When they’ve taken what they’ve learned and have the confidence to go it alone and start their fishing adventures for themselves. I do question whether I should do things differently in the lessons, or offer anything different but the equation I’ve come to works well and people share lovely feedback so as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke…
Summer was supposed to be the time I went Gilt Head Bream fishing, it always is, I say it every year. We’ll, we have one go this year, and we didn’t catch one. But we did find access so some great ground. We will certainly be heading back there in the year ahead. I’m doubling down on this one, more Gilt Head fishing in 2026!
The Mullet fishing was poor. I fished several sessions without even seeing a fish. Marks that in years gone by where good, just didn’t produce this year. I don’t know if it was just a case of wrong place and time or if numbers were generally lower. A bit of time in my walking boots exploring new ground and a couple of dips with my snorkel, did point me in the direction of some really exciting fish though so, yet again, more targets for 2026.
Summer came and I went through the process of applying for a Catch and Release, Blue Fin Tuna License. I did this in 2024 but the application wasn’t successful. However, with a few more licenses supposedly being available this year, I tried again. And it was a success! From that point on everything became Tuna obsessed. Understandable but it cost me a bit of fishing for other species along the way and I became blinkered by the Tuna. The season got off to an unbelievable start. First trip out, early in the season, before the masses arrived, and within a couple hours of launching I was hooked up. All the planning and preparation had worked and I was getting towed around by a big fish. This was however the first time I’d hooked a Tuna whilst fishing solo. I got a bit excited and positioned the boat for the fight in a more “Hollywood” way than I should have done which allowed the fish to get slack in the line and as a result it threw the hook. The next opportunity came within an hour and this time with a much calmer approach, everything went to plan and I got the fish to the boat where it was measured, recovered and released successfully. It was such a good experience and I had the naivety (and arrogance) to think, “this is going to be easy”… And on the very next trip I was away again, another fish to the boat, an epic scrap and I was two for two! Then the weather changed. The wind blew and it blew and it blew. I would have been just about the smallest boat in the fleet this year. So when the charter fleet of big beautiful boats can’t go because it’s too rough, I haven’t got a chance in hell of going. The fish were further offshore than in previous years aswell so many of the charter fleet were running a long way to find fish. I needed the fish within 10 miles of the coast realistically. Even in perfect conditions I’m not steaming 20 miles offshore in a 16ft boat. There were small weather windows and there were more fish caught too but I also experienced the days I had heard about but (again arrogantly) didn’t believe. Days when you hear skippers and crew saying the fish are preoccupied on tiny whitebait and they won’t take anything bigger. This sounded bonkers to me. Surely a live mackerel lobbed in front of them wouldn’t be ignored. But on one trip I experienced exactly that. There were fish everywhere. There were also boats everywhere buzzing around on everything that looked like an emerging bust. And I could not get hooked up. I was fishing in a really small window. I’d finished work at 12pm and needed to be back on the slip at 7pm. That meant I had to get to the slip, launch, catch the live bait (often the hardest part), steam offshore, hook up, fight the fish and steam back in, all in seven hours. It very nearly worked but I just could not get hooked up. I didn’t fish very well as I was against the clock and made a couple of decisions that back fired, but you never know until you try. Lots of lessons learnt that day though. If I get the chance to do it again I absolutely will, but I’ll definitely do it a bit differently as a result of what I’ve learned in the 2025 season.
The autumn and early winter period wasn’t particularly successful. The Bass and Ray fishing for me was really poor. The weather was at times REALLY poor. And I, along with the rest of the country picked up these horrible bugs doing the rounds. Even as I write now I’m still coughing with everyone else in the house.
We did manage a couple of quick trips at the end of the year after my friend Mike had finished his season on the Tuna charter boats. We had a small window of fishing on the Pollack where he gave me a lesson on fishing the Manaccles. Lessons I hope to put to good use next year. We also went Grayling fishing for our Christmas fishing trip this year. The river was in good shape but the east wind, clear sunny skies and cold conditions made it difficult. We didn’t see a Grayling and we didn’t even see an OOS Trout. Technically I didn’t blank as I caught a Minnow but that one won’t be troubling the record books. That said, it was a most enjoyable trip that reminds you, it’s very often, really not about the fish.
Looking ahead to 2026, I’m really looking forward to getting the fly rods out again. I must make the most of the opportunity to catch some Pike. Gilt Heads have to be given some serious time. And then Bass. I really want to spend some time fishing for Bass with lures this year. I do a little bit every year but it’s always a bit tokenistic. I live in a part of the world where there are loads of opportunities so this year I’m going to devote some time to this and see what I can learn. There will of course be more mullet fishing. The hardest part with the last three is they are all found on the same ground. I can see me taking buckets of bread, lures, lug worms, and the whole tackle box of kit on some of these trips when any one of these three species could be caught. Put it like that, what a treat to look forward to!
Here’s to going fishing and occasionally catching fish in 2026. Good luck!
